I CAN FEEL IT

I’m getting there. I still don’t have the urge to run yet, but it is coming. I can feel it. Just walking around the office, my legs feel great. I haven’t done anything for 4 days now. I’ll probably get my mountain bike out over the next day or two, more for fun than anything else.

Again, I’ve been reviewing Ron Daws’s “Running Your Best” to help plan my training. Since I don’t have anything to say about my own training right now, I thought over the next few days I’d throw out a bunch of excerpts from this book. These could be copyright violations, but I’ll take my chances. These first few quotes are from the Introduction and Chapter 1 (Getting Serious).

“It is surprising how runners underestimate their capabilities. They look at current performance and fail to realize that their limits could be far beyond anything they’ve envisioned.”

“Success is not guaranteed by thrashing yourself harder than others in training. Undirected grueling workouts more often bring frustration than anything else. Successful conditioning means knowing precisely when to work hard, when to rest, and how to match various kinds of training to your specific needs.”

As David Moorcroft says, “There’s not a lot you can do about your natural ability, but there’s a hell of a lot you can do about the way you apply it. I’ve finally produced the performance level of which I was capable…so I can retire happy. For I’ve always thought that the most important thing is to fulfill your potential…”

Daws talking about his high school and college years; “Most aggravatingly, I would run reasonably at the beginning of the season and then my races would begin to disintegrate.”

“After college I decided to give it my all because there was nothing to learn from half a commitment. I wanted to see how far I could go given the talent I had. Otherwise, I would always know that whatever I did accomplish, I could have done better.”

“Making a commitment to run comes down to how badly you want to explore your limits. It means honestly confronting your excuses. It means making time to train.”