What I Tried This Week: Tackling Stress

One thing I find I often discount as a runner is the role that life stress plays in my training. Running often is my escape from the pressures of everyday life so it is very easy to fall into the trap of believing that the stress in a normal training cycle is different than the regular day to day stress that I experience.

Unfortunately, your body cannot tell the difference. When you’re experiencing large amounts of stress, it will continue to compound until your body can no longer process your stress properly. Your body is resilient but it can only handle so much stress before you stop making gains in your training.

The lower life stress you carry in training, the greater adaptation you will have to training. Managing stress is a key way to ensure you stay on track with your training programs.

In the past, it was unheard of for me to adjust workouts in the face of extra day-to-day stress. I was much more likely to train through difficult times instead of being sensitive to the extra strain my body was under. Not surprisingly, this sidelined me with two stress fractures and the need to reevaluate how I approached my training.

March has been unusually stressful and, surprisingly, my training has not suffered in the slightest because I have tried my best to stay mindful in balancing life and training. I’m putting the finishing touches on my training build for the Boston Marathon in April so I cannot afford to skip key workouts, but I have scaled back some cross-training and mileage, ensuring the workouts I  do are quality and all serve a purpose. Instead of running five or six days a week, I run three or four times a week, making sure I get a minimum of two quality speed sessions and a long run. I also tried to increase my sleep and moved some early morning workouts to later in the evening.

The result? I’m feeling strong in all of my workouts and managing to hit my target pace for all of my speed workouts. In a month where I could have really worn myself down, I’m feeling confident in my training and ready to take on a marathon in less than four weeks. It has been an enormous adjustment for me to recognize that less can be more when faced with extra life circumstances to maneuver, especially as I tend to be goal-focused. Resting feels like I am not doing anything.

The true test will be on the Boston course, but I feel ready to tackle it, stress-free!

You can find me on twitter @lacesandlattes and my personal blog.