Yes, I know. Exhilarating, right? Before you stop reading, I promise that if you're a runner, you want and need to know about this sponge, as it is a major theory of running that has been preached to me for over a year and not ascertained until just this week.
But first, I will admit that this theory is not my own and is not from my own intrinsic thought. I must credit my coach, director of Marist College Cross Country and Track and Field Pete Colaizzo, who has been coaching at Marist for over 20 years. He is venerable in his own right and has brought this former awful runner who used to get winded from running warm-up laps for soccer games to become a 2:42 marathoner and decent overall running competitor. The dude knows his stuff. To read more about Marist Running, read his blog at http://runredfox.blogspot.com/
Now, for his theory of the Big Sponge. Pete likes to equate the human body, especially the legs, to a sponge. When a sponge takes in too much water, the sponge then becomes useless and lets out the water it cannot hold. When that sponge becomes fully saturated, it is entirely obsolete, really.
The same is for the body.
We runners train so hard to achieve our goals, to attain our own versions of perfection, to do so much. We do these long runs and heinous workouts that burn our lungs and quads alive to get there. We'll do whatever is necessary to get to that level because it means success or failure for us. Well, the workouts are like water; you can keep training as hard as you can, without resting properly, and your body will reap some benefits. Yet, without proper recovery and rest, our bodies cannot handle the workouts (the water, and the benefits from the speed) and we'll therefore break down. Maybe it's a stress fracture, or just burning out, but once we reach that limit of constant workouts and hard days without the proper amount of easy days to counterbalance it, our bodies will suffer.
Unfortunately, I found this out the hard way.
Yesterday was my first day back from running after my venture in the Boston Marathon last week. I took a full week off because I felt that after taking only three days off in my previous marathon that it would behoove me to take some more time to give the old legs a rest. When I went out for an easy six miles yesterday, I went out much harder than I should. How hard? Well, the first three minutes were about 6-minute pace. The last three? A pedestrian 7:30 pace. I didn't know it was possible to hit a wall after three miles. After the six miles, my legs were dead, my lungs scorched, my pride burned.
Now, I know I can't pick up right where I left off. I just ran 26.2 miles a week ago. The human body needs healing time. Time off is necessary, vital to my summer training so I don't get hurt for cross country season and can build back a solid base uninterrupted, so I don't burn out in late September. Workouts? Forget about it...at least until late May.
This may be the most difficult thing for any runner to learn, especially a hammering 21-year-old like myself. Every day (and my teammates will vouch for me on this) I'm one of the few who always push the pace. I'm annoying, and I'm sorry, but it's just me and how I run. Yet, after the disastrous run yesterday and how my legs still feel today after another 6 measly miles, I know to take it easy. My sponge is just about fully saturated at this point. It's time to ring it out.
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