This week’s blog was inspired in part by a cardboard box delivered to my place of work, I kid you not. The box came from a well known publisher and printed on the side of the box were the words I have used as the title for this week’s piece, “always learning”.
I have spent large parts of my working life in education establishments of various sorts and in various roles and I genuinely value the power of learning. Life has taught me though that learning doesn’t just happen in those formal educational settings, we are constantly surrounded by learning opportunities and filtering them and getting the most of them are really important for how we develop as people. I can learn as much from my children as I do from reading and likewise a casual conversation can really hit the spot and help me to tap into a whole new world of knowledge.
In terms of running I have learned so much this year and I feel like I have only really started to scratch the surface. Earlier in the year I posted a blog about running terminology and whilst some of it was tongue in cheek just getting your head around some of the jargon used in the sport is quite an effort in itself. Apart from a general awareness of what constituted healthy eating I was totally ignorant about proper fuelling, nutrition and hydration too, don’t get me wrong I am still no expert on the subject but just knowing what is out there and when it’s best to consume various things has given me greater energy and helped me to lose weight to the point where my body has now found a happy equilibrium between what is going in and what I am expending with exercise. An added bonus is that my skin feels and looks better and I am happier with my body now as I approach 40 than I have been at any point in my life.
My learning doesn’t stop there, I have developed my mental and physical stamina through a number of techniques, some simple, some more complex, my understanding of how to pace myself has also grown and the stats I get from my Garmin have helped me to learn about how my body performs and how best to harness that.
I’m not putting myself on a pedestal here as some sort of oracle though. I am more than willing to offer an opinion, share my limited experience and maybe help to plant a seed for others to grow and learn from but I know that I have so far yet to go. My technique is questionable and possibly linked to some of the niggles I suffer from. I know that I need to learn more about where my limits are and how I can safely push them without risking injury and I need to continue to work on pretty much every other aspect of my running as complacency will get me nowhere.
Thanks to everyone who has shared an opinion, some advice or some encouragement with me, I am truly grateful and with your help I have become more than I ever realised I could be.
A quick reminder that you can vote for me in the 2018 Running Awards, just click here to register and find Marathonbore in the blogs section, if you vote in 5 different categories you’ll receive a 10% discount with the top Online Running Retailer of 2017! Thank you.
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