The Author Circa 2011 | Photo: Unknown
I have a some friends who work for banks. I’m not sure if it’s an FDIC requirement or what, but these banker friends of mine are required by their employers to take a contiguous two week ‘vacation’ each year. During these two weeks, they are not permitted to log into their work accounts. The thesis is that if any untoward/unauthorized activities were being carried out by such employee, these items would be discovered during the mandatory two-weeker. I have always found this interesting for a number of reasons. First of all, I think it would be amazing to take a two week vacation, period. But being able to do so without having to check my email a single time?!?! I digress.
I used to beat myself up a lot about skipping runs. The post from which I stole the above photo is a perfect example. Historically, when I wasn’t able to stick perfectly to my training plan, I would suffer from the feeling that all of my efforts had been in vain. This is an easy trap to fall into, especially in this grindy, “no-days-off” culture that we live in. My emaciated physical state was evidence that it was not even possible for my caloric intake (coming from a guy who enjoys taking down an entire pizza in one sitting) to keep up with the amount of miles I was logging. For me to pump the brakes, it would require being stricken with either injury or illness. Not a great way to live life. I have definitely made a lot of improvement in this area over the years. Being married to someone who is not afraid to let me know when she sees me getting out of balance is a massive help. But I still have work to do.
Anyone who has done a “sober October” or deleted a social media account for an extended period of time can tell you how eye-opening these types of personal resets can be. Often times these experiments yield benefits that are beyond those predicted/expected. So why is it so hard to apply this technique to something like running? I’m sure there is a psychological (and thanks to Strava, a sociological) explanation for this. Unpacking that mess is not really the intention of this story.
I’m here to share that it’s okay to take scheduled (or unscheduled) time away from things we enjoy/love the same way that we would do with a guilty pleasure. It is important to give ourselves permission to let our bodies and brains recover and reset from extended periods of intensive workouts. I was reminded of this fact recently, during a brutally long cold spell that seemed like it might never end. I don’t mind running in the cold, so much. But the amount of snow/ice on the ground was defeating. There is no type of shoe that would have made it safe to run in that nonsense. To make matters more complicated, and I had gained late entry to a half marathon in mid-March. So I was feeling a lot of pressure to keep my mileage up. I even did a couple of desperate workouts on the treadmill (I know)!
There came a day in the first week of February, where I was packing my gym bag before work, absolutely dreading the idea of another treadmill run and thought to myself “why do this to myself.” The whole point of running, for me, is because I actually enjoy it. Sure, the health benefits are also nice. But the main thing for me, is getting outside clearing my head, and getting my blood going. This is not to say that I have some sort of euphoric experience every single time I lace up the sneaks. There are ups and downs, like with anything. But I was at a point where I had really not enjoyed the past several runs, and was dreading the next one. So, I put my gym bag back in the closet and decided that I would take a break from running until I started to crave it again.
The Author Ripping Some Back Yard Laps on the Pow Board | Photo: B. Maschal Private Collection
Running on a regular basis takes up a lot of time. The summer is not so bad. But in the winter, just changing in and out of the proper gear can add 20 mins on each end of the actual workout. During my break from running I decided to use the time that I would have normally spent logging miles, to pursue some of my other hobbies, interests and projects. There is one project in particular that I made some really big moves on, and I pretty excited about what I was able to get accomplished/set in motion. Otherwise, it was pretty much business as usual. Meanwhile, winter did not appear to be letting up at all. So anytime I got a tinge of guilt, all I had to do was look out the window to be reminded why I was pausing.
Precisely 34 days following the beginning of my reset, I woke up to a sunny morning where the forecast was showing a high temp in the low 70s. I looked at my calendar for the day and it was looking relatively light. I felt a strong desire to take advantage of these conditions in a way that I could really enjoy, and threw my gym bag together on my way out the door. My legs were fresh, but had definitely de-conditioned a bit. I had a great run and really enjoyed being outside for an hour at lunchtime. Despite feeling sore the rest of the day, I was very content with having taken so much time off, as well as what I had accomplished during my break. I cancelled my race entry for this weekend. I’ll focus on enjoying the process of getting back into good enough shape to give racing the appropriate amount of effort.
As much as the banking industry gets wrong these days, the mandatory two-weeker is not one of them. Burnout is a real thing, and can happen to the best of us, even with things that are good for us. Sometimes we all need a self imposed, guilt free two-weeker to refresh and reset. I’m writing this for whoever else might need a reminder.