Rethinking "No Pain, No Gain"
"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard"
"Always be the hardest worker in the room"
"Your workout is my warmup"
"No pain, No gain"
If you've ever been involved in competitive sports, followed any fitness models on Instagram, or even just been in the same room with any high school athlete, you've probably heard a phrase similar to the ones above.
While they all have merit in their own right, is this always the right attitude to have?
I don't think so.
Runners, for whatever reason, seem to really love the idea of pain. Yes, running is hard. It always has been and always will always be hard. But this idea that harder = better is a problem for runners of today.
Let's go back a couple years to 2009. Here I am starting high school, starting a sport that's totally new to me. And I'll be honest with you. I was not very good. In our team time trial I was something like 63rd out of 65 runners on team. I wasn't exactly a kid you'd look at and say "Wow that's a talented runner right there!"
But I wanted to be better. I started pushing myself to run longer, faster and more frequently. And it worked. I became a fairly decent high school runner by my senior year, frequently finishing in the top 10 of local races. I wasn't exactly the best, but I held my own and I was proud of it.
Now college was a different story. The thing about collegiate running, is that now everyone is good. Once again, I was in the back of the pack. Panicked and frustrated, I did all I knew how to do. Work. I cranked up the intensity, and the volume. I ran further, I ran faster, and ran more frequently. But this time, it didn't work. Instead of getting stronger, I got tired. Instead of getting faster, I got injured. I took days, weeks, and months off, then I was back at square one.
This cycle repeated all throughout my college career. Each time I became even more desperate, feeling I was running out of time to run my best races. By the end of my college career, I was physically and mentally exhausted. My love for running had almost faded away completely.
Running for me used to be an escape. A way to get away from my problems. Now it was my problem.
Although it's been tough to admit, I've come to terms with the fact that my college career has been a bit of a letdown. But I've chosen to use that as a learning experience. I've realized now that the kind of work I tried to do wasn't sustainable. It left me feeling the same way over and over. But I finally learned from it.
Nowadays, I train and coach with a different philosophy. As I said earlier, running is still hard and it will always be hard. Like it or not, it's a difficult sport and there's always going to be challenging workouts and races. It's still "No Pain, No Gain"
But not in the traditional sense.
We're looking to minimize the pain and maximize the gain.
This means:
- Valuing the recovery just as much as the workload
- Being flexible with the training plan when needed
- Putting together consistent B+ workouts rather than inconsistent A+ workouts
- Recognizing the effect of outside stressors on training and adjusting accordingly
- Keeping a positive attitude in the face of adversity
- Keeping a balanced life outside of running
That doesn't mean we don't work. Trust me. When we punch that clock, we go to work.
But it's about work that sustainable. Work that is smart and calculated. Work that can be enjoyed.
Because at the end of the day, you gotta enjoy what you do.
Cause if you don't "No Pain, No Gain" turns into "Just Pain, No Gain"
- Coach Chris