Change & Balance 🍃 | 2,000 YTD

Change is in the air and since the move up north, I haven’t fully gotten into my weekly rhythms. I’m giving myself patience, but as running is such a central part of my life and knowing just how important it is to embrace change as it unfolds, I’ve decided now is a good time to take a new approach to my training and weekly running goals

For the last 4 years, I’ve run an average of 6 times a week with 1 day of rest. I’ve run a pretty consistent 50-70 miles per week during that stretch, with at least one long run + on-&-off quality days. With this structure, I still took a “run-by-feel” perspective, that allowed me to adapt easily based on how the body felt. I never really felt like I was overtraining, because so much emphasis came back to how the body felt, how I recovered and how much enjoyment I got out of the process. 

All this makes entirely too much sense based on how much I ding dang love running. It’s one of the purest states of consciousness that I can consistently access, but sometimes I can’t shake the lingering thought of “am I overdoing this?” 

Because of course I am, right? Long distance, high-mileage endurance sports are a master class in “overdoing it.” But therein, as with anything we do, can we find balance. So while in the process of such a big life change, movement has it’s ways of shaking us up and showing us new perspectives. New ways of being… to begin again, ya know?

So for now, I’ll be going from running 6 days to 3 days a week, with 1 mid-week long run and 2 quality/trail/wildcard efforts on Monday and Friday, reaching a ballpark average of 40-50 miles a week. I’m also evoking a “run-together” clause that states that I’ll always run with anybody that ever wants to. Because running together is important and awesome.

But so is rest. So is quality time with the ones you love. So is reading and writing, music and meditation. So is eating healthy and getting enough sleep. So is drinking water and conscious breathing. 

When you go inside and ask yourself “what is balance?” “What does balance look like to me?” You know. We all know. And whether we achieve balance in our lives or not, you can’t keep it. We can glimpse it and enjoy it while it lasts. But it all comes back to doing our best, every day, every opportunity, every moment until our best becomes our natural state. And I hope that by running less, I can find a greater balance in life as a whole.

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Quick shout out to the 2,000 YTD milestone for 2024. The first year I attempted this, I fell 36 miles and one Lyme diagnosis short. So even though accomplishments are transient, the 2,000 YTD milestone became a symbol that meant that I was not only consistent in my running practice but I was also healthy. Health and wellness is at the heart of why we do what we do and that is always cause for celebration. I have celebrated this milestone every year since 2020 and 5 years later, I am happy to celebrate it again. 

I am so grateful to be able to run like I do. It’s important to honor that little thing inside of us that compels us to do hard things, that inspires us to move forward, to progress through little, seemingly insignificant acts of courage and fortitude. Until you look back and see how far you’ve come by simply putting one foot in front of the other. “Change” is the watchword of progress. Everything is progress.