Trying to be patient

Last week on a local radio station, I heard an interview with former Braves pitching coach, Leo Mazzone. During the interview, he described his method for pitchers and keeping them healhy. Paraphrasing what he said, it basically went like this;throw a lot, but regulate the effort. I said that sounds a lot like the Hanson Method.

The Hanson Method calls for a lot of their runs to be what they call "easy" runs. The advanced program calls for runners to run six days a week and the mileage can look intimidating. It looks  difficult for any runner who who has not run that much in a week ever. Now, the easy runs are supposed to be one-to-two minutes slower than marathon pace for a variety of reasons. My running has been  pretty good this  year and running slower than my typical pace did not sound ideal. Putting  Leo  Mazzone's pitching philosophy and the Hanson method would require patience.

It is easy to see why the program(I am doing the advanced version if I did not mention that) requires so many easy runs/patience. My last few runs have been ones where I have had to exercise that patience and stick to the training program. Saturday, I had a long run ( at 8:05 pace) that ended up with me getting soaked. There were moments where I went slower than I wanted to, but I told myself, "stick to the plan" and  stay close to my pace. The rain on the second half of the 12-mile run sucked; there is no other way to say it. I could have sped up to get the run done, but what good would that have done for the long term goal?  This is probably something I would have done while training last year. On Monday, my first my mile went horrible.  I literally yelled out loud and got pretty upset.  Telling myself to stick to the plan helped me keep it together.

Five and a half weeks of training have passed  and the benefits are showing. I would love to run fast all the time, but there is a method to the madness. A couple of friends have asked me how I got faster; the answer is putting in the miles and being patient.  A lot of people want to be fast, but they do not want to put in the work. For some people, it comes naturally; for most, work needs to be put in. I think that is the best part of the Hanson method program; it requires both.

The moral of the story is that marathon training and running in general requires patience no matter what program you are using. As runners, we all have to remember that patience, hard work and sticking to the plan is a huge part of reaching your goal. Not every run will be perfect. Marathons are a different beast and we need to respect the distance.

I hope training for everyone who reads this is going great! How do you stay patient during the training season?