Great post Devon. Such a great retrospective Training is only half the equation, as you so eloquently point out.
" I did everything right in training. But as I would come to find out on race day, as soon as the gun went off, was that I had done nothing right in my recovery."
The conundrum is of course, recovery is harder to measure, and oh so easy to delegate to our future self. Training? Stats. Miles. Splits. V02 max, lactate threshold. Rest? Your watch telling you that you've recovered? Not much to go on. Getting the rest, like getting the training, you can't fake it, or cram it in shorter period of time. The body knows. The body remembers.
If nothing else, a learning, without a doubt. Here's to your success, in baking and running (hopefully not at the same time).
Isn't it that everyone has to deal with this addiction to any sport/activity when being on the path of pursuing it? One doesn't know in the start that how it would turn into some kind of addiction but it turns out so for everyone, it is just that from some people it is for a shorter period of time but some people deal with it in a longer horizon of time.
Hard work school of thought has been pushed down our throats that one needs to keep working hard. One can't succeed if they don't work hard, there are n number of people working harder than you. All these kind of notions contradicts with the Work+Rest=Growth but then an individual starts to question Am I working hard enough? Can I succeed if behave like a soft person? There is no point in resting until I achieve a particular goal.
But one can't keep emptying the tank everyday, how one can keep the momentum rolling when sometimes there will be nothing left in the reservoir. Our bodies can crumble under immense pressure sometimes and sometimes it will thrive as well. As Bessel Van Der Kolk wrote in his book that The Body Keeps the Score.
Everyone learns this the hard way by pushing too hard in their sport/job or whatever field they are in. Then one understands the importance of rest & recovery. Even perfectionist traits don't let us sometimes go easy, it just wants to go All In every time we step out.
We as athletes are afraid while riding razors edge of training to reach our potential and not injure/harm ourselves during the process. And every thing that brings with injured athlete is barrage of thoughts and non movement is the last thing an athlete wants. But it is inevitable that an athlete has to go down this road of harming themselves once or number of times during the whole numbers of years they run. But it is we need to learn from that specific period.
Isn't trying harder like we got sand in our hands, we clinch it too tightly & it keeps falling off from our hands. Take anything too seriously doesn't do much good and it goes with trying harder & harder every time we do a specific work/activity. We have immersed in the world of optimization which has taken it to the level of over optimization. Now everything is done in excess and not in balance.
And isn't mileage just a by product of showing up with consistency to put in the work? Racking up miles is just one form of consistency. Eating enough food through out the whole day to fuel the body while training for any endurance activity needs consistency, sleep also needs consistency, strength & mobility work needs consistency and mental fitness also needs consistency. All these things need consistency and needs to be done in balanced manner, if one thing gets under done- then either the body crumbles or we will not be able to perform at our best level. If we take care of our bodies and listen to it, it will provide us with great performances but if we just keep banging the door w/o listening to it, somewhere down the road it will crumble and then we will think we were more focused on racking up miles which was just a small part of training.
There is one thing told that work harder than everybody else in the room but one doesn't tell it all boils down to mental component a lot as well, what kind of internal monologue goes b/w our ears is a great predictor of either limits or propels our progression, the amount of improvement we can do in any domain/walk of life.
You have got 2 decades of running experience, rarely people can say this. I just want to tell you that heck yeah DEVON YANKO IS THE BEST HUMAN SOUL OUT THERE.! <3 This is not to show empathy, it is because you are the best. You have dealt with autoimmune disease for the last couple of years, nobody can come closer to know how much pain one has to go through, all of the financial expenses that you bear with managing all of the things in life. A lot of stress adds up Devon and you still show up at races and still keep showing up in life. It is great to hear from your side that you have opened Silver Whisker. It is no easy job to do all of these things at peak performance, be proud of yourself. All the best for everything.! :)
Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for doing all you could in that moment. Thank you for being you.
It made my day to run a bit with you <3
Great post Devon. Such a great retrospective Training is only half the equation, as you so eloquently point out.
" I did everything right in training. But as I would come to find out on race day, as soon as the gun went off, was that I had done nothing right in my recovery."
The conundrum is of course, recovery is harder to measure, and oh so easy to delegate to our future self. Training? Stats. Miles. Splits. V02 max, lactate threshold. Rest? Your watch telling you that you've recovered? Not much to go on. Getting the rest, like getting the training, you can't fake it, or cram it in shorter period of time. The body knows. The body remembers.
If nothing else, a learning, without a doubt. Here's to your success, in baking and running (hopefully not at the same time).
We really do need a Strava for recovery (Rehaba?). I’ve dug this same hole too many times, yet still can’t get myself to skip a workout to sleep. 🙈
Isn't it that everyone has to deal with this addiction to any sport/activity when being on the path of pursuing it? One doesn't know in the start that how it would turn into some kind of addiction but it turns out so for everyone, it is just that from some people it is for a shorter period of time but some people deal with it in a longer horizon of time.
Hard work school of thought has been pushed down our throats that one needs to keep working hard. One can't succeed if they don't work hard, there are n number of people working harder than you. All these kind of notions contradicts with the Work+Rest=Growth but then an individual starts to question Am I working hard enough? Can I succeed if behave like a soft person? There is no point in resting until I achieve a particular goal.
But one can't keep emptying the tank everyday, how one can keep the momentum rolling when sometimes there will be nothing left in the reservoir. Our bodies can crumble under immense pressure sometimes and sometimes it will thrive as well. As Bessel Van Der Kolk wrote in his book that The Body Keeps the Score.
Everyone learns this the hard way by pushing too hard in their sport/job or whatever field they are in. Then one understands the importance of rest & recovery. Even perfectionist traits don't let us sometimes go easy, it just wants to go All In every time we step out.
We as athletes are afraid while riding razors edge of training to reach our potential and not injure/harm ourselves during the process. And every thing that brings with injured athlete is barrage of thoughts and non movement is the last thing an athlete wants. But it is inevitable that an athlete has to go down this road of harming themselves once or number of times during the whole numbers of years they run. But it is we need to learn from that specific period.
Isn't trying harder like we got sand in our hands, we clinch it too tightly & it keeps falling off from our hands. Take anything too seriously doesn't do much good and it goes with trying harder & harder every time we do a specific work/activity. We have immersed in the world of optimization which has taken it to the level of over optimization. Now everything is done in excess and not in balance.
And isn't mileage just a by product of showing up with consistency to put in the work? Racking up miles is just one form of consistency. Eating enough food through out the whole day to fuel the body while training for any endurance activity needs consistency, sleep also needs consistency, strength & mobility work needs consistency and mental fitness also needs consistency. All these things need consistency and needs to be done in balanced manner, if one thing gets under done- then either the body crumbles or we will not be able to perform at our best level. If we take care of our bodies and listen to it, it will provide us with great performances but if we just keep banging the door w/o listening to it, somewhere down the road it will crumble and then we will think we were more focused on racking up miles which was just a small part of training.
There is one thing told that work harder than everybody else in the room but one doesn't tell it all boils down to mental component a lot as well, what kind of internal monologue goes b/w our ears is a great predictor of either limits or propels our progression, the amount of improvement we can do in any domain/walk of life.
You have got 2 decades of running experience, rarely people can say this. I just want to tell you that heck yeah DEVON YANKO IS THE BEST HUMAN SOUL OUT THERE.! <3 This is not to show empathy, it is because you are the best. You have dealt with autoimmune disease for the last couple of years, nobody can come closer to know how much pain one has to go through, all of the financial expenses that you bear with managing all of the things in life. A lot of stress adds up Devon and you still show up at races and still keep showing up in life. It is great to hear from your side that you have opened Silver Whisker. It is no easy job to do all of these things at peak performance, be proud of yourself. All the best for everything.! :)