17 December 2007
Build A Fire
Posted by Matt Stargardt under: Matt Stargardt .
I don’t know if this is recycled from some coach long ago or if it is an original thought, but have related this idea to many of my young cross country runners. Its one of the things that gets me out of the door on a cold 5:30 am run.
Building fitness is like building a campfire. It requires much attention and work to be successful. A good fire starts with kindling, small easy twigs and barks that ignite easily but burn quickly. Larger sticks follow until the fire can actually catch a large log on fire. If you fail to add fuel to the fire, it will go out. If you add fuel too quickly it also can go out. Fitness is built just like this. Each run is like adding another log to your “fire” of fitness. Do nothing and your fitness will fizzle out. Do too little and your fitness will never flourish. Trying to build fitness quickly by doing too many, too intense, or too long runs before your fitness can support them is a recipe for failure. Every run should have a purpose, and is another log on the fire. By the time you are fit (the fire’s rolling), there is never one “magic run” that did it, only consistent, attentive effort. Everyone’s ideal workload is relative to their current fitness. An Olympic athlete’s easiest week might crush me, while my average week might still send a sedentary peer to the E.R.
Build the Fire.
Matt
“The only thing that’s fair in a running race is the distance.” Unknown