No Pain, More Fun!

I like to share this letter/email I recently received from my friend Alex Speed.– Dr. Mark

Thanks again for your visit here to Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, and for the clear voice you have raised on training and footwear for so many years.

In the spring of this year I did a short running clinic at my previous base. I was surprised at how much resistance I got from the exercise physiologist. When he saw the agenda I advertised he expressed great concern at what I planned to talk about, thinking that everyone was going to start running barefoot because I was giving the clinic.

I was originally encouraged to do the clinic by others who were interested in the tidbits I would share when they’d ask me questions. I planned the clinic with a focus on Lydiard principles with some considerations on footwear. Nevertheless, after the discussion with the exercise physiologist, I wanted to cancel it. He left me feeling beat down. He told me that what he was saying and the way he said it was better than what I was planning to say based on his 20 years of experience. I didn’t want the whole thing to turn negative as it seemed it was heading, and I realized that he probably felt that I was threatening his job as he was doing running shoe prescriptions on base. Thankfully one of the people who had signed up for my little clinic implored me not to cancel it, so I carried it through.

Afterward I felt grateful for having done so. Not only did the process of sharing those ideas invigorate me, but the response afterward was extremely positive and meant a lot to those in attendance.

The experience put into sharp relief my own gratitude for your efforts to spread what you have learned about running. I gained a greater appreciation for the resistance you must have had through the years. I can see why you are so diplomatic in your approach (an approach I have attempted to adopt as well since I first noticed it listening to your interviews on the Trail Runner Nation podcast, and which you employed here at Mountain Home).

I just want to say, thank you, so much, for adding your voice to the world of running.

Since that first monumental (for me) hour when I heard you speak at the Air Force marathon in 2011, I have read books you’ve recommended, listened to your podcasts, gone to a Newton/Lydiard-foundation week of education, and tried to keep myself abreast of information posted on your websites. In has resulted in a complete rebirth of my running and an added enjoyment in my training that has been priceless. In addition, I ran my fastest 10K in 12 years this past July in 37 minutes flat –barefoot (just for fun) – and loved it.

I have thought many times that if I had known what I know now back in high school and college my career would have been much more rewarding. As a habitual “horse” I was always pushing myself much harder than I should have, especially once the season started. I unknowingly sabotaged my running year after year. After that difficult experience before giving my own clinic, I realized I would probably still be doing the same thing if I had not been put on the scent of more intelligent and playful running when I heard you speak in 2011. I am thankful for the courage and persistence you have had to share your clinics, give interviews, maintain a website, a shoe store etc. among everything else you are doing.

I saw how easy it would have been for me to cancel my own little clinic and what that would have meant to one of the athletes in particular who acted like I had just handed her a pot of gold. Who knows how many years more that athlete would have had before she was put on to the same scent if have I had not given that clinic. It made me so grateful that you had disregarded any pressures you may have had to muffle your own voice.

I have thought many times that I wished you had your own book that I could read; that with as much as you had already written on NRC and prepared in your presentations, you had plenty of work from which to make a book. I am very pleased to hear that you are working on one. I can’t wait to see it!

The major lesson I would pass on to other runners and Airmen in particular preparing for the fitness test, would be to have faith in the process of building the aerobic system. Several weeks after my first marathon, I set out to begin the process of building my fat-burning system. I ran my first mile at my determined aerobic threshold in over 11 minutes. On the track at 19 years old I had run 14:57 for the 5k. Running 11 minute mile pace sounded atrociously slow to my experience and took a leap of faith to swallow. Over the course of several months however, my pace came down to 10 minutes, then 9 minutes, then 8 minutes etc, and in the course of 8 months of this easy, fat-burning running, my 1.5 mile time also improved from 9:24 to 8:48.

What was amazing to me was that my aerobic fat burning system was extremely undeveloped even after having trained for a marathon over the previous year. I found I had spent my running year career mostly burning sugar instead of fat. Switching to “butter burn” left me feeling like I could run forever, and at the same time got me faster at the shorter distances.

For those that think they have to work at max effort every training day, ascribing to the theory of “no pain, no gain”, I would submit there is a more effective and more enjoyable way: no pain – more fun! And at the end of the road, instead of a broken body and soured enthusiasm; there is a fit, unbroken body, and a spirit looking forward to the next horizon.