What if I told you I ran a marathon
Training the least amount possible?
Would this be a matter of
Efficiency or arrogance?
Years prior, there was much pride in how much I ran –
Miles per week, month,
How long my races were, etc, etc –
The sidewards, or direct brag of how great I needed to be seen as.
Or
How little I would run
Or how quickly I scrummed together some training runs
Before I ran a marathon –
Was also the brag in how I could ‘accomplish’ a great feat
With little preparation.
Back then,
There was much ego and arrogance slithering around those conversations.
And here we are – today – years later.
What if I were to tell you
That I was training for a marathon
Running one day a week?
Is there still a brag?
Does it still trigger the reader
To judge,
Compare?
Call me out as the asshole?
Didn’t this guy just get done quoting Yvon Chouinard about being an asshole and compromising the process?
Wasn’t there a whole thing about this in that book he wrote?
Hypocrite?
Or…
…Is running one day a week
Essential for me to honor and respect
My Process
In this moment?
Is this type of training
Congruent
With my process in this season?
The Process dynamic.
It flows,
Bends,
Ever-changing,
Adjusting to the various rhythms and
Time signatures of the universe.
If the Process were static,
Then there would only be
One Way.
A
Best Way.
A rigid path.
Bricks.
A wall,
A cemented path.
Reductive.
And my way
Would need to look like your way.
Anything less than identical replication
Would be a compromise to that product.
Clearly, the comparison game would thrive here –
Where each step of everyone’s training
Would have to look like everyone else’s –
Picturing endless rows of burgers wrapped in paper,
Corralled in stainless steel shelving.
The rigidity of that type of process
Would force massive compromise to other aspects of your life,
Family,
Home,
Health.
Not essential sacrifices of discipline,
But compromise the integrity of
Family,
Home,
Health.
Focus on training The Way
At the expense of
Family,
Home,
Health.
Static, blind servitude gets expensive.
All for the sake of ‘training the best way.’
But the Process is dynamic.
It flows.
Bends.
Contours.
Moves.
The Process is integrative-
Recognizing the Wholeness
Of it all.
The movement of the Process allows for
Balance.
To keep the balance,
Some things have to move.
Some things need more focus.
Some things need a little less.
But are all included,
Accounted for,
And honored.
There is far more to life than counting
How many miles
How many days
How many hours.
Training log servitude?
I have been there.
I have racked up the 100-mile training weeks.
I have racked up the 2-3 workouts a day.
I have run fast.
Far.
At times, for the celebration and congruency with it all.
At other times, at the expense of so much.
At those times,
We call it burnout.
Ive been a slave to the schedule.
Ive pained myself for the program.
Ive robbed myself much of the joy for the sake of the numbers.
Discipline is one thing.
Compromising life for the sake
Of counting is another.
The Process honors what each particular season
Of life requires,
And adapts to best fit the needs of it all,
Not just parts.
Change.
Creativity.
Generates wholeness.
That is why my path
May not look like your path.
Hell, my path today looks
Different than 6 months ago.
It looks different to best fit the needs and balance of this moment.
Running one day a week
Is not the braggadocios tenor
Of days past.
It is the humble rhythm of participation
That keeps me
Balanced,
Active,
Healthy.
By no means am I dropping top speeds,
But my goals aren’t your goals.
I am covering the milage.
Body balanced, mobile, loose.
Of course race-day looks different.
Of course finishing times look different.
But those results aren’t exactly the purpose or point necessarily.
I am after the flow.
The Process,
At its best,
Uncovers the freedom to be
The you
That you deserve,
Without
Compromise or
Conformity to
The expected norms
Of the group,
The click –
And those that need to judge you,
Exclude you,
Admonish you,
For the sake of building up their own ego,
Comfort their insecurities and anxieties
So they can feel good about their efforts –
To know that they are better than you –
As if the rules of high school still matter,
And popularity and the cool kids are
Where you want to be in the first place –
Then so be it.
I am in it for the long play.
© Dr Adam Fujita
