“We’re all just one decision away from a completely different life; not one dramatic decision, just one small choice to move forward instead of staying stuck. Each day, there is an opportunity to choose growth over comfort, hope over despair, and movement over stagnation. If growth happens in the space between “I can’t” and “I did,” we must choose to move, to try, to believe that change is possible.

When you push through discomfort, you learn that most of your limitations are self-imposed stories, not biological facts. So, refuse to accept your current limitations as permanent and do the hard thing daily, even if the only witness to your effort is yourself and the only reward is the knowledge that you didn’t quit when quitting would have been easier. Hard things show you the gap between what you thought was possible and what actually is possible when you refuse to quit.

Choose to move, because movement changes everything, and you are capable of more than you think.”

Andy Glaze, adapted from his memoir Smile, or You’re Doing it Wrong

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Life post-marathon: 

These past few weeks have been rejuvenating. I took some much needed time away from structured training and have slowly worked my way back into a more regular routine. My goal for the next few months is to refocus my efforts on strength and mobility to work out the kinks in my lower body. 

To keep my injury risk low, I’ve decided to pull back on my daily mileage. I’m still trying to maintain around 30 miles per week, so I’ve started to incorporate doubles. The goal is to find that sweet spot where I’m introducing just enough stimulus to make the weak spots grow stronger while still improving my aerobic fitness. 

The doubles will also get my body used to running at different times of the day. Seeing that I’m going to be running for an entire day over the course of my upcoming 100-mile race, this is going to be a vital part of my training. 

The doubles have opened my eyes to the complexity of eating for health and eating for performance. Unfortunately, it seems these two things don’t exactly go hand-in-hand, at least not in the way I’d like them to. I’m all about maximizing the nutrient density of all my meals, but it seems I might need to let go of this a bit in order to suffer less on my runs later in the day (fiber + running = the runs).

I’ve struggled with gut issues for years, which have significantly improved since moving to a whole foods, plant-based diet four years ago. But, my gut is still getting used to this new dietary pattern. As of now, it can tolerate a high-fiber diet, so long as most of the fiber is consumed after training. 

Though I’d love to maintain my current eating habits, it looks like I’ll have to adapt things a bit in order to maximize my afternoon training sessions. And so it goes on this journey to 100-miles. . . another day of training, another mystery to be solved, which I suppose is what makes it so fun.

I refuse to let my weak spots get in the way of my dreams. I’ve proven to myself time and time again that there’s so much beauty on the other side of suffering. So, I’ll continue to push through the discomfort; to do the hard thing. Because I know this body is capable of so much more than I think. The possibilities are endless, I just have to keep moving forward.