Hey runner, I'm Marie, @drwhittfit. Never feel like all your hard work was all for nothing ever again. I coach strength training for runners, helping YOU identify your weaknesses and fix them with strength exercises designed for runners to help you build the exact strength you need to run your best, strongest, fastest, most injury-resilient race yet. Subscribe and come join the Running Fit Fam!
It’s supposed to be hard (that’s the point)
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If you’ve been hanging out with me on Instagram this week, you know I’m in Salt Lake City for our annual ski week ...which, yes, absolutely still relates to running. This is also my annual "get my butt handed to me by the mountain" week. Usually, I'm cool with this. Skiing is excellent cross training; a different, fun sport that gets me out of my comfort zone. So in preparation for this, I will literally train the entire year to not only become a better, stronger, (faster?) runner, but also to give myself a shot at "surviving" whatever the mountain throws at me. And woof...this year has not gone the way I anticipated. I've been sick on and off for the past 3 months (November, December, and January). So I haven't exactly been able to follow my own training plans as perfectly as I'd like. Which brings me to the first running lesson: Done is better than perfect. Unless you're a recovering perfectionist like myself, and then it feels like you might as well light the whole plan on fire. But what's been the most difficult these past few days as I've had to pace myself down the runs, ask myself repeatedly "am I safe to keep going?" and "should this be the last run of the day?"... is something we're pretty familiar with as runners, especially when you've "done all the things". The stretching. Mobility work. Strength training. Rehab exercises. It's been incredibly challenging to not feel betrayed by my own body after I've specifically trained it to handle this kind of intensity and endurance demands for the past 6 months at a minimum. And here I am, crippled by 3 months of being sick because I have a wonky sinus (surgery is happening to fix this, by the way. But more content-updates on that in the near future). Luckily, the Universe heard I was trying to throw a pity party and sent a little nudge... My husband and I were taken a re-fuel and warm up break in the lodge on our first day and I overheard a conversation a dad was having with his 5-6 year old son. Dad: "hey kiddo, you ready to go back out again?" Kid: "mumble mumble" Dad: "No? how come?" Kid: "because it's hard...." Dad: "That's the point." Well, damn. I didn't know I needed a dad-pep talk but apparently I did. Which brings me to running lesson No 2. It's supposed to be hard. Running. Strength Training. Cross Training. Even skiing after being sick for 3 months. Just because it's hard doesn't mean we've failed. And that's where I got caught up. I've been assuming that because this ski trip has been my hardest one yet in regards to the physical demands on my recovering body, that it's been my biggest failure yet. When in reality, I'm skiing better than I have in previous years. How many times do we do this on a run? Take one, isolated workout out of context, analyze it from 300 different perspectives, comparing it to a previous workout or how it "should" have gone... When in reality, you just did a workout you couldn't have done 2 years ago, and you did it on minimal, cruddy sleep on top of work or life stress, etc. So what if instead of viewing "hard" as a failure or something's missing or wrong, we celebrate the hard? Embracing it is still difficult for me, I'm not gonna lie. My inner 5-year-old apparently isn't ready for that step yet. But I can at least celebrate that I tried "the hard" even if I wasn't super successful. ***** If you've guessed by now that there's no new blog post this week, you are correct. I was hit with a double whammy plague of flu + sinus infection the 2 weeks leading up to ski week, so instead, I've opted to take you all along for the ride this ski week on Instagram. I'm doing several IG lives in (addition to posts and stories) and even if you miss them, they'll be saved on my IG account so you can go and rewatch them at your leisure. Everyone's favorite so far has been this past Sunday's live with my husband Alex where we nerd out on all things long-distance-endurance fueling. Because just like you can't run longer and faster without fueling, skiing without fuel will lead to the hardest, WORSE BONK OF YOUR LIFE. (ask me how I know lol). So enjoy the more behind-the-scenes, personal, "come travel and hang out with me" casual content this week, especially since the world is heavy right now. My goal is just to add back in some small rays of sunshine where I can. Next week we'll return to our regularly scheduled running program. But until then,... Dare to Train Differently, Marie Whitt, PT, DPT //@dr.whitt.fit P.S. I’m sharing more of this week in real time over on Instagram: behind-the-scenes ski days, fueling lessons, and the exact mobility + strength work I’m using to keep my ankles and calves happy. All of the IG Lives are saved if you miss them. Come hang out with me over there when you need a little reminder that “hard” doesn’t mean broken. Looking for MORE ways to work together?
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Dr. Marie Whitt / Strength Coach and Physical Therapist for Runners
Hey runner, I'm Marie, @drwhittfit. Never feel like all your hard work was all for nothing ever again. I coach strength training for runners, helping YOU identify your weaknesses and fix them with strength exercises designed for runners to help you build the exact strength you need to run your best, strongest, fastest, most injury-resilient race yet. Subscribe and come join the Running Fit Fam!
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