Thursday, March 29, 2012

One year into the challenge.

One year ago I went out running, for the first time in a long time. It was about time to get active, to get fit, healthy and slim down a bit.

That wasn't the main reason to get up from the couch though.

No, the real reason was, that I had an idea planted in my mind. I was challenged by a friend to do something quite daunting. I was challenged to train myself fit for an eight day trans Alpine run. And I had eighteen months to accomplish it. I decided to "just do it".

One year into the project I have some perspective. I was hit by reality in the head a few times during the past year. First I broke my arm. Then I over trained. I did a death march on the trails and killed my left knee. It recovered though. Then I cracked my shin bones, running on hard surface in a pair of running shoes way past their retirement date. Time and rest healed them.

To put it short. Nothing went as planned.

I've learned a lot about running during the last year. And something about patience and perseverance as well. I've put in a lot of effort. I've ran 1.352 kilometers. I've skied 175 kilometers. I've biked 260 kilometers. I've swam 12 kilometers. I've rowed 26 kilometers. I've burned some 150.000 kilo calories. And I've seen all the progress made wiped out over and over again. That is a humbling experience.

So what are the lessons learned so far?

1. Stay injury free. You need consistence in training for consistent results.
2. Be sensible, don't over do it. It's important to be able to enjoy the training, after all that's 99 % of the experience. And if you over do it, you will have setbacks of some kind - be it injury or loss of motivation.
3. When you get slapped in the face by destiny, don't take it personally, don't make it an excuse to give up.
4. Never give up. Give it more time if needed. Be more graceful towards yourself if needed. But never give up. You'll never get there if you give up.

I'll keep it up. My second half marathon coming up in a month, Helsinki City Run 5th of May. This time I have no time goals, no fixed training schedules. My only ambition for this one is to enjoy the training and the experience. I'll get to the trans Alpine starting grid too, if providence agrees. Not in 2012. Maybe in 2014.