3 lessons after my first Marathon!
After training for 800 kilometres spread over 69 hours and 75 runs, I completed my first marathon! And I am pretty happy with my 3hours 13min!
This story to share three reasons why running greatly enhanced my life.
1. Healthy habits
First one is not to be proven anymore. Doing sport is good for the health. Given that I am seated at least 8 hours a day, this was a must. I was able to run either during lunch time or at night. I am sad I did not started with morning runs earlier. It gives an amazing feeling of having accomplished something very early in your day.
But where it really proof its point is that I used to have bad smoking and drinking habits in the weekend. I quit smoking as soon as I started my training and drinking one month before the race. Two discoveries:
- Having this clear goal clearly helped me. In addition, I was able to directly see the improvements on my physical condition.
- There are plenty of stories on Medium about trying not to drink alcohol for a month, year,… and the benefits. By experience, I can tell it feels good to be fully in control of your brain for such a period of time.
2. Reaching the flow state
Lately, I read some books about ‘flow state’. Which can be defined as living in the moment, utterly absorbed in the present activity. Being passionate about what your are doing. Activities that allow you to reach such state should be challenging enough, have clear rules, be rewarding,… I encourage you to google it or to have a look at the book of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience) to fully grasp the idea.
When I started running, I was listening to music and carrying my phone. But at some point, I decided to stop and to be focused on my breathing and steps. I also started listening to my body, when was I feeling more energised and why. This can be perceived as some form of meditation. I was trying to reconcile what my mind and body where telling me, also greatly enhancing my attention.
3. Search for improvement and falling in love with your data
My training plan can be summarised by training almost 4 days a week for a period of 5 months. Activities were spread between tempo run, intervals and long runs with increasing speed and kilometres. My longest run was 30K. That’s a lot of data! Those can be used to get nice insights on how well you are progressing and keep track of what could be improved (aerobic training,…)
Onto the Next One
It gives an amazing feeling to close the race. But after some days, you start craving for your next challenge. I am looking forward to performing a marathon bellow 3 hours. I already subscribed to another Marathon in 5 months, who knows?
I am planning on making some adjustment in my training:
- To alternate more with non-running activities. Cycling sounds like a plan. Also to stretch more.
- I intent to switch to light feet running, I will try to share more on that one once I tried.
- I will challenge myself to run every morning for a month, see how it feels.
Cheers!
