Feature Friday: Letting Your Training Marinate

You know I’m all about Carbs over here, so anytime I can relate training to something carbohydrate related- I’m all for it. It’s taken me so long to realize that training and fitness can ebb and flow. It’s funny how I often have to remind myself of that (especially among set-backs or when training starts up again and everything feels hard). Once I get into a routine with training and life and diet, I’m GREAT, but getting there takes so much patience.

It’s ok (and honestly HEALTHY) to go through different seasons of life and running- maybe taking a break is what you need or totally just doing a different activity for awhile (I certainly think that this Pandemic has taught us a whole lot about being patient). It’s the seasons of change and cut-backs that rejuvenate our minds and bodies and gives us the permission to dream big again. It’s all of the ingredients in our best homemade tomato sauce that we’re collecting and prepping.

Once we’ve got all of our ingredients ready to go (our training plan is set), we’re ready to start popping them into the pot. This is when we we’re adding a little bit at a time into our training. Maybe we sprinkle in some speedwork, a bit of a longer run, or a dash of tempo work. BUT we also can’t forget about the little things (I.e. our ‘seasonings’ if we’re sticking with the sauce reference)- like the importance of sleep/ nutrition/ stretching/strength training/foam rolling.

Then, we continue with our ingredients and let them simmer (marinate) for awhile. Nothing really new is added (maybe a bit of additional mileage), but we just continue on building a bit at a time. Our sauce (& fitness) will slowly come together, but it takes time (and a whole bunch of PATIENCE)! I continue to remind myself of this when I feel stuck or like I’m making no progress-> really good sauce takes time.

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-What ingredients are you adding now for a really good sauce later?