SOMETIMES THE SIMPLEST ANSWER IS THE RIGHT ONE. I have spent many years trying to outthink my competitors and have always looked for the cutting edge. In Run: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel, Matt Fitzgerald has identified the scientific reasons for the obvious: We know our bodies best; we just need to know what our bodies are telling us.
There are many “industry standards” for the components needed to perform at our best, but sometimes applying those pieces to our training can be difficult. Too often we become dependent on literature and specific training models, and we forget common sense. Matt tries to bring us back to that common sense, encouraging us to listen to our bodies and use their signals to adapt our training programs to help us get the most out of them.
Those signals are not just vague, unimportant feelings that have no bearing on how we feel. They are valuable information about what is the best course of action. Matt brings together the most recent research explaining why we might be feeling a certain way at a specific time and what that feeling might be trying to tell us about our training.
Thinking back to my best races and my most consistent training blocks, I can honestly say that I have thrown out the book, so to speak. There were times when I was completely dependent upon measuring everything. I lived by a heart rate monitor. I measured every course I ran, and I never backed off when my body told me I was tired. As Matt acknowledges, all of those tools can be very useful, and at times they are essential to knowing exactly where you are in training. But when they take priority over what your body is telling you, injury and overtraining are just around the corner.
If I had always followed the signals my body was giving me the way Matt instructs, I believe I could have avoided most of the injuries and bouts of overtraining I have had in my career. The signs were obvious before I broke the 5,000 m American record and before I won a bronze medal at the World Half-Marathon Championships: I was listening to my body and following my intuition in training on a daily basis, and when I got to the start line, my confidence was unmatched.
The culture of distance running, especially in the United States, is one of “push through the pain” and “the harder you work, the better.” What Matt shows in this book is that there are reasons we feel the way we do, and those indicators can tell us if we are ready for a huge breakthrough or if we are on the cusp of breaking down. Highlighting the experiences of some of the best distance runners in the world, Matt shows what is possible for even the most modest runner. One of the greatest things about distance running is that you can learn the same lessons from your body and mind as can a sub-13-minute 5,000 m runner—you just have to pay attention!
Dathan Ritzenhein
Two-time Olympian,
World Championships medalist,
and U.S. record holder