I think my recent running sabbatical has created some confusion about my current workout pattern. Here’s a quick rundown of how I’m currently organizing my routine.
1) I’m now stretching just once per day (at night).
I stopped the morning stretch because I thought I was no longer benefiting. I also thought stretching in the morning was a poor use of my most valuable writing time. As long as I feel good with just one stretch per day, I’ll keep this pattern up for as long as possible.
2) I’ve started doing strength workouts around three times a week.
These happen on days when I don’t plan to run for more than three miles, don’t have a basketball game that night, or didn’t do a strength workout the prior day.
3) I’m definitely taking an annual running sabbatical starting this winter.
The other option is to pace myself better throughout the year but I think after thirty years the evidence is pretty clear – I cannot be trusted to pace myself. Since the prime running time in this area is from mid-April through mid-November, I would aim to take a break in the off months. For now, I’m thinking the break would start with a ‘swerve lane’ period of a month or so starting in mid-November when I slowly scale down the running while I bike more often. Then, I would swim hard for a couple of months in the winter. In the spring, I would do the 'swerve lane' in reverse by slowly ramping up the biking in preparation for a transition into running as the spring arrived.
So, where does all this leave me now in terms of running?
The key is to make sure no running decision violates the above framework – the logic is a little like ‘eat your vegetables before having dessert’. As long as I’m stretching daily, doing three strength workouts per week, and committing to the sabbatical, I should be OK to simply run as much as desired the rest of the time.
The approach strikes me as a great example of how a supportive framework should function. The key is to clearly define the criteria and make sure not to violate them for any reason. As long as I keep up those three specific behaviors, I should be able to simply roll out of bed, put on my sneakers, and run around until I’m tired and decide to go home.
Or to put it another way, this framework allows me to do what I need to do until I no longer need to do it. That’s always been my preferred way, whether I’m running or not, and I think the more I can apply that approach to the other things I do the better off I’ll be.
