Week 6 - Marathon Musings: The Power of Consistency
I love this photo from the 2024 Miami Half Marathon (my 12th consecutive year running this race!) because of the sign in the background that says, “Making it happen.” This is what consistency is all about: making it happen over and over again.
A definition of “consistency” I like is harmony of conduct or practice with profession (Merriam-Webster). I like this definition because it speaks to how actions (conduct or practice) need to work together (harmony) in order for you to do the thing you want to do (profession). You have to have a practice of doing small things (amongst all the things you do) that support you in doing the main big thing. It’s not about doing things perfectly, but about being in the practice of doing something that works with, not against, all you do in life.
When it comes to running, I often talk about the importance of consistency and showing up each day to do something that will help a person become the best athlete they can be. For me, it’s about what you can commit to doing day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month because training builds over time to create habits.
Consistency is a powerful element in helping a person go from “I run” to “I am a runner.”
Below are some questions that come up for me when I’m reassessing my relationship to running or working with new athletes to figure out what consistency looks like for them.
1. What does training need to look like for me to get in the needed/desired days of running?
Say you want to run 3 days a week, does it matter which 3 days it is? Perhaps consistency in this season of life looks like fitting them in wherever it makes sense and being flexible with those days changing from week to week. Maybe consistency looks like establishing Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday as running days. Consistency here has levels between number of days per week and specific days each week.
To fully answer this question, one must also reflect on the obstacles they might face as they work toward building a consistent movement practice. One must also be ok with taking a flexible approach to training because Life will get extra life-y at times.
2. What kind of training can I commit to given the demands of life right now and for the foreseeable future?
In my experience, it’s easy to be consistent with the practice of running when running makes sense with what I have going on in life. As the definition above states, it’s the harmony of actions across all areas of life that make the running-specific actions possible. The ugly truth is that balance is a myth and something always has to give.
As an example: for me to be consistent with running long every Saturday, I have to give up family time Friday night by going to bed early. For me, there is no balance because I don’t get that time back; I have to choose. Being consistent then becomes a practice of the mind learning how to be ok with not being able to do it all and, instead, figuring out how to do the things that matter the most with as little sacrifice as possible.
3. What else can I do to support my running that isn’t running?
Perhaps you can’t run the number of days you want to run; this is where expanding the definition of what it means to be a runner is important. To run injury-free and improve (whatever that means for you) over time, you must do more than run. Think strength training, mobility/stretch, and rest days. As a runner who only ran for a number of years, I know how hard this truth is to swallow.
Why is this important though? Because what happens if you do get injured and can’t run? The loss of running is a challenge, but even more so if all you ever did was run. This is where the “of conduct or practice” part of the definition comes to play: there are so many things you can do to support your running that don’t involve running. You can be consistent as a runner by doing the things that not only support your running, but also strengthen you as a runner.
An example: let’s suppose you ran 4 days a week, but an injury means you can’t run for 6 weeks as you recover from the injury. Instead of focusing on the loss of running, the injury creates an opportunity to focus on weaknesses in your running that would benefit from extra attention. Because you are already in the habit of running 4 days a week, switching gears to use that time to strength train and rehab the injury becomes easier…if you are up for the challenge! You might fall in love with other movement modalities during this time, which is always a perk, but the true gift of redirecting this time is that you will experience greater ease once you start working running back into the schedule.
Finding a rhythm to movement that allows for consistency is hard. Breaking the big goal down to its pieces and then breaking those pieces down to their elements is a practice in itself. I’ve gotten to the consistency that I have now because of years of showing up day after day until each day the question of “Will I do this?” became easier to answer with “Yes.”
Now I’m curious: please share what consistency means for you and how it has shown up in you on-the-run life in the comments.
Marathon History:
2014 Chicago Marathon
2015 Miami Marathon
2015 Berlin Marathon
2015 Chicago Marathon
2016 Chicago Marathon
2016 NYC Marathon
2017 Chicago Marathon
2018 Chicago Marathon
2021 Chicago Marathon
2023 London Marathon
2023 Marine Corps Marathon
Marathon Musings series:
11 weeks until Chicago. Week 6 of musings/coaching thoughts written and shared. Here’s to finding greater ease in consistency as I head into some big weeks of training!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing. <3
