Happy Wednesday,
Have you heard the idea that people overestimate what they can do in a year, and underestimate what they can do in five or ten years?
Just over three years ago I set out to run my first 50k (32 miles). It felt like a big reach-goal at the time. I was coming off a few years of focusing on climbing and a winter almost exclusively sport climbing. My cardiovascular capacity was as low as it probably ever has been. I started with a return to run progression of just one minute of running three times, over a year before I wanted to do this long run.
This year, I wanted to run 40 miles for my 40th birthday. It would be 5 miles longer than my longest run yet, and I wanted to do it in the mountains unsupported by a race event. I had my eye on the Teton Crest Trail in Wyoming.
Over the last few months, I haven’t been as consistent as I like to be about running. I have gotten all my long runs in, but as many of us know, life has a way of drifting midweek and it certainly has for me lately. I wish I could say that because I know what training safely looks like, I always do it right, but I get off track like even the best of us do.
I knew this might make it tougher to achieve my goal, but I figured there were a few options to bail if 40 miles felt like too much along the way. If I got over 25 miles I would have hit 40 kilometers, so I could still say I did 40 for 40. Mileage aside, it was more about spending the day outside in the mountains with a couple of friends than it was about proving something to myself or the world about my age and ability to keep pushing myself.
This was my mindset going into the day.
Long before we got to the fork in the trail where we would have to decide to do another big climb to hit 40 miles, or bail out Cascade Canyon, I had already made up my mind. I had decided that I wanted to be done sooner rather than later. That would make the run 33 miles and we would have time to soak in Jenny Lake, eat post run snacks, and still get back to the Climbers Ranch for a full dinner. That is the kind of day I want to have these days.
I could have felt disappointed with myself for not putting the training in the last few months to get to 40 miles more comfortably. I could have felt disappointed that I didn’t have the energy to push and get us to the last big climb earlier in the day.
What I feel instead is immense gratitude for the last few years of consistently showing up over the long haul for myself. It wasn’t the last few months where I wasn’t "as 'good' as I could have been" that were make or break for this day. It was running consistently enough for the last three years so that I could say, “heck, if nothing else a 30 mile day will feel totally doable.”
That ability to say that didn’t start 6 months before my 40th birthday when this idea first hatched. That started when I was 36 with
one minute runs three times. And if I’m being honest, it truly started years before that when I was building a base in the mountains with climbing.
There will be more weeks and months in the next few decades where I say, “I could have done more.” Those stretches of time will have true consequences for my ability to achieve my short term goals as they did this for me this week.
If I zoom out and think about where I’m going in the big picture though, I can keep moving forward knowing that I’m still building on a new skill and will continue to as long as I am enjoying it and showing up for it over time.
Where I see people get off course is waiting for the next season to be less busy. They say, I will start going to the gym next season when the weather turns or when the kids are out of the house or when I’m done with this work project. They say, "I will be better when x or y happens.”
As someone who helps people age, and is experiencing 40 for the first time myself, If I can say anything about staying active while you age it’s this; showing up a bit at a time is going to help you more than waiting for things to line up perfectly so you can get started on a lifetime goal.
Cheers,
Katy
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