The Toughest Endurance Workout Of Them All – Can You Do It?

Willbe expresses how it feels to have the FitOldDog chill out workout, once you accept the fact that your training is not always under your control. The before picture is not so pretty, so I left it out. Photo by Jess.

“We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.

We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.”

Tao te Ching by Lao-tzu, translation by S. Mitchell

Hi folks! Thanks for stopping by!

Most endurance athletes are pretty focused and goal oriented, but they tend to find that accepting the interrupted workout with good grace is a real challenge.

I was sitting on a doorstep fuming about my missed run, when I realized that just being present and enjoying the day with family is more important. This is where the recurring epiphany arrived in my brain this time; in a market on a lovely rainy day in Asheville, NC, USA.

I had a great run today, with a bunch of hill repeats, lasting 1:20 in the pouring rain. It was a blast, unlike yesterday, when I did the hardest workout of all: being prevented from doing a key planned workout, whilst controlling one’s childish response to such apparent setbacks!

Sometimes your expected training doesn’t happen because life happens instead. Every time this occurs, I become frustrated, irritated and act like a pain in the neck to my family, until I remember – it’s not that important!

Accepting the situation with a smile, enjoying the family, and moving the workouts around, as I did this weekend, is a tough but critical feature of happy endurance training. Athletes tend to be extremely, if not excessively, focused, and failing to train can be hard for them to accept. This is why injuries, and the patience needed for their complete repair, are so challenging.

Trixie, a Rottweiler, and the loveliest most gentle dog you ever met. Still miss her.

This time my workout was interrupted by a vicious attempted attack on our dog, Willbe, during a run, which led to a series of events that left the workout ruined. Willbe was unharmed, as some swift kicks aimed at the two aggressors, a Rottweiler and a mean, somewhat pointy-nosed hound, caused them to back off. Where is your pepper spray when you really need it? The attack was clearly directed at our dog, not us, making the situation not too hard to control, so all was fine. Except for the run! Oh! Yes! By the way, it’s in the training not the dog, and Rottweilers are inappropriately maligned in my opinion, so I included a picture of the most wonderful dog that ever entered my life, Trixie, to set the record straight – not a mean bone in her body, but what a growl!!! Scary!

The lady who sold us the perfect pickled cucumbers said, “You must have them with Eailey Mountain cheese,” and we did and she was right – the perfect combination.

A little while later, I was sitting out of the rain in a doorway in Asheville as the family was wandering around looking at food. I was thinking about how frustrated I was that I had yet to complete my daily run. Then it occurred to me that I was taking it all too seriously, AGAIN! I thought to myself, “Chill out, my friend,” as that old epiphany came to me for the nth time. Go with the flow, and make sure you get your run in early tomorrow morning, when everyone is asleep. Just enjoy being here and now! So I did, and my mood went from gloomy to happy in an instant. In fact, my run the next day was even better than expected – I really love my Hoka One Ones. And we got to eat some delicious cheese and pickles in the truck. All’s well that ends well!

This is the epiphany that keeps on repeating itself, every time my training is interrupted!

-k @FitOldDog