Chicken Little Soup wrote:
Here, here, I agree. Too many back out of races because things aren't perfect. A sore calf, I've known many pros that have run with worse, way worse.
Butler did it wrote:Being sore is not risking injury, it's call distance running. Is she expected to never have soreness anywhere? Go back to running 101 and get a clue.
Yes, I've known plenty of people who have raced with way worse. And they weren't world-beating athletes.
This is called "listening to your body." It's a basic principle, but obviously a hard one to follow in practice. I just thought more people at LRC would understand it in theory at least.
There's a difference between "I'm sore as hell and worn down from my hard-ass training" and "Something's not right here." Most runners - myself included - refuse to acknowledge that difference and/or fail to register it until it's too late. That's how you get injured. That's how you lose weeks or months of training.
For everyone talking about how this is all about money, I'm a little confused. I thought the 70s were the heyday of running, with more people interested in the sport and thus more money involved. Yet apparently people were "more hardcore" back then (and then ended their careers at 24 years of age).
Also, look at your own experience. It's not about money. I try to back off when something's not right, because I care about races later this season and next season. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll win a $50 gift card at a race one day. It's about the love of running and racing and a hatred of the months you've spent getting back up to speed after an injury.