All work and no play…
Balance is a feeling derived from being whole and complete; it’s a sense of harmony. It is essential to maintaining quality in life and work. –Joshua Osenga
There are 24 hours in a single day. That’s 1,440 minutes. Every person on Earth gets the exact same amount of time each and every day. The only exceptions are the day you are born and the day you die. How we spend each minute of our lives is entirely up to us. The secret to a long, healthy life is maintaining a proper balance in each area of our lives. We need a balance between work and play, sleeping and being awake, and exercise and recovery. We need to balance time and money. We need a balanced diet. Yes, BALANCE is the key!
The Grindstone
Work is called work for a reason. The NORMAL work day is 8 hours long, and a normal work week is 4 hours. This allows for 5 days a week to be split into three even segments of 8, allowing for work, leisure, and sleep. The weekend is for fun, recovery, worship, whatever we choose.
For a runner, the weekend is for official races! Races cost money, and we work so that we can provide the means to pay for the many things in life that we want or need, such as new running shoes, or the entry fee for next month’s half marathon. Work is a necessary evil, and we should be working not because we are forced to, but because we want the means to achieve our goals in life. Constantly working to barely pay the bills is a sign of an unbalanced budget, or a poorly paying job. Taking on addition work such as overtime or a second job cuts into either our leisure time, or sleep time and decreases our performance. Sometimes we have no choice. Right now at my day job, I’m working 12hr days 5 to 6 days a week, and getting very little sleep. I’ve noticed this having a negative impact on my running since I have no time for training runs, and little recovery periods after races. In this morning’s 10K, my pace had decreased by a whopping 24%! 17 minute miles are not normal for me, and I was very depressed. Unfortunately, I have no choice as the work situation is not going to improve until Autumn.
Rest and Recovery
IF you are in tip-top physical condition, recovery periods from intense periods of physical activity are greatly shortened. And if you’re also getting the proper amount of sleep each night, your body has the time it needs to repair the damage done by the stress and strain of daily life.
Three Squares?
The power that made the body has the power to heal the body. That only works when your body is getting the proper rest and recovery periods as well as a balanced diet. Many Americans have poor dietary habits, which is why two thirds of the population is overweight. The Standard American Diet advises 2,000 calories a day as a base. Runners have different caloric needs. We burn that many calories OR MORE in a single half-marathon. Food is FUEL! Three meals consisting of breakfast, lunch, and dinner doesn’t work for us, especially on race day. Smaller meals and snacks consisting of a balanced nutritional consistency work better for us. Every human being needs all seven essential nutrients, in the proper ratios for your body weight and activity level. These seven essential nutrients are: Water, Protein, Fats, Carbohydrates, Vitamins, Minerals, and dietary Fiber. Sorry to say, but chocolate, candy, cake, and ice cream are NOT essential nutrients.
So eat REAL food, (or sports food such as gel, running fuel, and recovery drinks meant for runners, NOT couch potatoes. )
Speaking of recovery drinks, be sure to drink those protein rich, amino filled drinks as soon as possible after a race, because your muscles become insulin resistant after about 45 minutes, and you lose the benefits . My go to recovery drink after a race is ReHab from CarboRocket.com! I swear by, and use all their products! If you decide to check out their products, us my special code TOTHEMAX and receive a 25% discount on your 1st order.
The Race is on!
Since I’m currently stuck with forced overtime for the next six months at my day job, I’m forced to use vacation days for races as well as rest and recovery days. It’s not a pretty solution, but it’s the only one I have. NOT RACING IS NOT AN OPTION! I am a runner and a runner runs! I’m trying to fit some training runs into my hectic schedule, but waking up tired and getting home exhausted has left those practice runs few and far between. For the most part, the only running I’m getting to do is on race day. I should be doing some sort of daily exercise and strength training, but as I stated at the beginning, There’s only 24 hours in a day, and I’m spending more than half of those hours at work. My morning exercise ritual has gone the way of the dodo as I hit the snooze alarm again and again for “just another ten minutes”. Unfortunately, this means that I’m losing the muscles I worked so hard to build last year. If you are not actively working to make yourself stronger, then you are actively working to make yourself weaker! There are no if, ands, or buts about it. In the end, we choose the things that are most important to us, I’m NOT a dull boy and I choose to run!
If you have additional running tips and tricks, please leave a comment. If you are local to me, you can find me at these upcoming races:
April 2021
Third Thirsty Thursday 5K Race Series – Race 1/7 April 15 @7:00 pm Reading PA
April Foolish 10 Hour Endurance Trail Run April 18 @ 9:00 am – 7:00 pm Elverson, PA 19520
Gettysburg Half-Marathon April 25 @8:10 am Gettysburg PA 17325
Be sure to check back in two weeks on April 25th for another article.
As always, I wish you success and happiness!
Instant Coffee Wisdom 