Does anyone remember the story of The Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman? In it
he describes his relationship with his enigmatic teacher who in the book goes
by the name of Socrates. I have my own Socrates. Her name is Aracely--she is my running coach.
I've been working with Aracely on and off for three years at least. I sought
her out to learn Chi Running-- a technique I read about in a book of the same
name. I took up Chi Running at a time when I was learning about how we form our
realities through our thoughts. I decided my new reality was to be a long
distance runner. With the help of the book and 6 weeks of self training I ran
my first half marathon in just under 3 hours. I weighed close to 200 lbs (very
very heavy for me) but I only entertained thoughts of finishing--and I did!
It occurred to me that if I could run a half marathon with just what I
learned in the book I would do even better with someone to teach me the
technique in depth. I found Aracely's name and email address on the Chi Running
site and sent her a note. We made a date to meet at the Cupertino track a few
days later.
When I saw her across the field I waved to her. She waved back and motioned
for me to run towards her. She had a small video camera in her hand.
When I bounded up to her she showed me the screen. I couldn't believe what I looked like. I was all over the place--a bouncy, jiggly mess of disorganized movement. Although in my mind I
looked like a gazelle, the recorded image looked far different. I’m glad I didn’t
see that before I did the half marathon!
Over the next few weeks we worked on correcting my posture and my gait. I
told Aracely my plans. I had scheduled another half marathon a month later
followed by the San Francisco Marathon at the end of July. I don't remember
what she said but it was along the lines of saying I could run it on my will
but she was concerned that I wouldn't be conditioned enough---that I was at
risk of injury or over training. She said we should see how the training goes—because
I had a baseline from the half marathon I had just completed she felt a little
more optimistic about my chances.
Our work together started to pay off--my next half marathon had a 25 minute
improvement on the time! I felt I was on my way to the marathon--2.5 months
away. Aracely was still concerned about leaping to a full marathon less than 3
months away but put me on a schedule for week over week mileage.
Increasing the mileage after the half was more difficult than I anticipated
it would be. A couple weeks after my last half marathon, I went for an 18 mile training
run. I drove to Santa Cruz so I could do my mileage along West Cliff, running
from Natural Bridges to the top of the hill beyond the Board Walk and back
twice. I also was counting on a cool morning to make the long distance easier
on me.
The morning was cold and foggy. I felt uncomfortable—cold and a little achy.
I started at a slow jog expecting to warm up and fall into a rhythm after a
couple of miles. I was exerting myself but I wasn’t getting warm. Every step sent
shockwaves up my legs, jarring my body. At the half way point I stopped and
called Keri for support. I hurt and wanted to quit—I basically fell apart on
the phone. She just listened to me until I was done—by that time I had talked
myself into starting up again and ran the remaining mileage. I was going slow
but finally completed what I set out to do for the day. It took far longer than
I planned.
The next day on my schedule was hill training. I went to the local hill to
do some repeats. Despite the previous day’s difficulty I felt alright so I
stayed on schedule. Finishing the final hill, I felt something tighten up in my
inner thigh. The next morning I was limping--I pulled my groin.
With the marathon so close Aracely advised I pull back on my training and
pick a later event--shoot for end of summer and something with fewer hills than
SF. She said I needed to respect my body. I didn’t know what she meant by that.
No pain no gain, right?
I didn’t reschedule the marathon. Months passed and my training fell off. My
Mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Running fell to the bottom of the
priority pile.
Over a full year later, Mom had recovered. I felt the need to reclaim my
fitness. One of my coworkers shared with me that he was going all in with P90X.
I had seen the cheesy infomercial of flabby couch potatoes transforming into
rock hard gym gods the previous summer. I was skeptical but it’s a pretty
compelling story for someone who wants dramatic change NOW. Having someone I
know do it gave me permission to "bring it" (their catch phrase, not
mine). A few key strokes later, a set of DVDs was on its way to my door.
There was a whole lot of P90X I couldn't do—moves that required flexibility
or certain strength I didn’t have. Despite that I kept at it 6 days a week for
the full 90 days. I lost a few pounds and had some overall improvement
(especially in areas I was already strong). There were some things I could
barely do and by the end of the program I could still barely do them!
Feeling all puffed up I decided it was time to approach the marathon again.
However the challenge was only part of it. I had a different motivation this time.
Earlier that year my partner Keri had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
I really wanted to dedicate the marathon to her well being as well as to use it
to raise funds to help promote PD treatment and research.
I started a Fox Foundation fund raiser and started reaching out to friends
and collecting donations—I received so much support! The marathon needed to
work.
I called Aracely.
Aracely met me at Starbucks. She asked me why I ran away from my training. I
explained I had been dealing with my mother’s cancer and was overwhelmed with
the prospect of running a marathon, the training, the commitment—all of it. I
assured her I was ready to begin again. I assured her my endurance and strength
were in good shape and that I was doing the marathon as a fundraiser. She
handed me a written training program. We planned to meet every 2-3 weeks to check
my progress.
I started almost where I left off—running three to four miles at a time. It
wasn’t long before I started having problems.
I had problems with my calves. I’ve never had much flexibility there but I
was feeling them every time I went out on a run. When I’d meet with Aracely I’d
say "I can't believe it...I’ve been working out…I was able to blah blah
blah..." and she didn't want to hear it. She said "you need to throw
that away...this is a new experience". I wasn't listening. All I knew was
that I had run a half marathon before and just did this P90X thing so everything
should be great, right?
I paid lip service to the plan Aracely worked up for me. I continued to have
calf issues.
I was signed up to do the Wharf to Wharf run as a checkpoint in my training.
Aracely agreed that Wharf to Wharf was OK as long as I was pain free the week
before the event. I wasn't pain free but I had done W2W several times before—I
thought it wouldn’t be a problem.
Long story short I tore my calf muscle after just 2 miles. Using my already
excellent thinking I ran the rest of the way in.
I won't go into great detail on how I spent the rest of the summer but the
next 8 weeks were about me trying to convince myself that I could make my
marathon even though I couldn't run a mile without pain. When I finally saw my
doctor she told me to STOP RUNNING until it was healed.
I wrote my Fox Foundation supporters to let them know my effort was on hold
until I could start training again. This was not how the story was
supposed to go.
I wanted to get back to training—I wasn’t finished. That spring I met with
Aracely again. Again she put me on a program--one mile no more than 3 times a
week. Additionally she prescribed a multitude of small exercises, series of
planks, squats and lunges to execute on every day. Our training at the track
was very slow. She had me trot a hundred while she watched—she admonished me to
keep my heels up, keep my toes relaxed, keep my abs engaged.
"You should be sweating from your abs" Our sessions always focused
on my abs--elongating my body so I felt like a giraffe. If I felt any kind of
stress in my calf she wanted me to stop.
Frequently her hand would dart up to brush away the furrow between my eyes. “Relax,
you are always thinking.”
Despite my lack of faith and half hearted behavior I made progress. At one
point during a workout I genuinely felt like I was floating. There was a
troubling stiffness in my left hip but otherwise I felt light and the running
was nearly effortless--like nothing I'd ever experienced. I started straying
from the program, doing a little more mileage than prescribed each session.
I planned to run Wharf to Wharf again—I didn’t tell Aracely. I had bought
the entry months earlier but kept it to myself.
On race day my emotions were a mess. Keri and I stayed over at our friends--
on the surface I was trying to keep it light but I was worried. Only part of me
was willing to look at running W2W as self sabotage. The larger part of me
needed to run it.
At the starting line I put on my headphones and tuned out the world. An hour
and 8 minutes later I crossed the finish line-- shaving 7 minutes off my best
time for the course. Victory.
Two weeks later my hip collapsed during a routine run.
I don’t know for sure if it failed because of W2W or because it was already
injured and finally gave out. Even before the W2W my hip gave me problems—I
kept training because I thought it was normal to feel pain. I didn’t treat it
as a signal to listen to my body and adjust what I was doing.
During our next meeting at the track Aracely didn’t criticize me—we talked
and she sent me home. We agreed to meet after I saw my doctor and a physical
therapist. Aracely said she had some “ideas”.
Now I meet Aracely at her studio twice a week--no running. She guides me
through everything we do and I don’t object. I have a program I do at home as
well—daily, non negotiable work.
During one of our recent sessions I asked her how she could stand the
boredom of what we were doing. She was shocked that I looked at it that way.
She told me she could see past where we are right now. She could see potential.
She also reminded me I wasn’t the worst student she had ever had.
On the whole this process has been a painful learning experience—not just
for my body.
My ego, my willfulness and my inability to accept my role as student have
made my progress go so very slowly. I sought out a trainer to help me achieve
my desire—to transform my body into that of a long distance runner. However, instead
of submitting to Aracely’s instruction and training I kept doing my own thing.
I guess it takes time to learn how to be a student—not just assimilating
information but working with a person to learn and grow. Also, “doing your own
thing” is such an American thing to do—we love it when people rely on
themselves and thumb their noses at authority (especially teachers). There isn’t
much American mythos around the student/teacher relationship except for when
the student breaks away. We have very little that celebrates patience and willingness.
A teacher is there to help when whatever talent exists has gone as far as it
can alone. For me that wasn’t very far. In many ways I’ve never given a teacher
a real chance to help me improve. If my body didn’t fail I don’t know if I
would ever have been willing to accept what Aracely has to offer. I’m just glad she didn’t give up on me.
I
It's quite remarkable the way you watch yourself. . . .
ReplyDeleteit is only recently that I felt it was alright to really receive advice and not explain it away. It is pretty amazing when you realize maybe you don't know all you think you did...
ReplyDelete