Why I run

Why I run

Why do I run? I have been asked that question many times and have asked myself that question an equal number. There is no wrong answer I suppose. The answer is both simple and complex, but whether superficial or deep, the activity remains a deeply meaningful one. The passing of years and thousands of miles have added layers of nuance so that every run itself consists of equal parts selfless worship and self-indulging vanity. There are redeeming and repelling qualities to many of our habits I suspect. 

When I began to run, I ran because it elevated me and set me apart from others. I also ran to please and impress. Early influencers in my life told me that I had talent and that's really all it took. Running conferred status, and progress validated my belief in the assessments of others. Later in adolescence, but still early in my running, my reasons for running were chiefly social. I stayed in that phase for a while. It didn't matter so much then if I got better. We had fun and no one forced us to gaze inwardly so we didn't. The first taste of real, intrinsic motivation came senior year. Curiosity crept in and I wondered about where my limits might lie. I began to want more while my buddies did not. We drifted apart at practice. First they poked fun, then they got mad, then they shut the hell up. I still wasn't fully committed, but my road was narrowing. College running provided the perfect nursery for my growing internal drive. Running was still what it had always been; status, pleasure, validation and affirmation, but it slowly became something else - a creation in and of itself. An expression of who I am. Running to measure myself against others became less important and running became a way to both insulate and respond to a world that seemed more and more uncertain. 

Running has marked many occasions in my life. I ran on the morning I was married to calm the butterflies and contemplate the next phase of life. I ran on the day my children were born, filled with joy and wonder (and a little anxiety). I ran while mourning the loss of my Grandpa to cancer and a dear friend to suicide, full of grief and questions. Running offered no answers, but it was familiar and therapeutic nonetheless. 

I have connected with many amazing people through running. My best friend's dad, Larry Kallas was one of those early influencers who convinced me to try it out. He hardly ever missed a cross country meet and faithfully provided us with ice-cold Mountain Dew after we finished. In Pavlovian fashion, Mountain Dew remains a powerful motivator for me to this day. My own dad, Jon Krueger, probably planted the seed unintentionally. He had boxes of old trophies from his days as a champion swimmer tucked away in our basement. I used to take those out and visualize racing. He also competed in a few triathlons when I was very young and I recall being very curious about what it was all about. Dustin Weege was my nemesis in college. We raced the 1500 many times and he beat me every time, but no one ignited my competitive fire more than him. We are fellow coaches now, so I forgive him, but the taste of defeat is still bitter. Bill Petsch and Bryan McClusky were two dear friends I met while working at a running store and they were among the first to really open my eyes to the wider world of running. Bryan was my Boston training buddy, always ready to run and always willing to push the pace. Bill and I would discuss the deeper side of life while running, I so enjoyed those experiences! The New Richmond Running club (Jim, Jim, Joe, Jeff, Rick, etc) took me under their wings and got me back on my feet (literally and figuratively) with their collective wisdom and rock-solid good sense. Their pure enjoyment of running and communing together inspired me to reconnect with that side of my own running. Linda Keller was the first person I met who was just an absolute God-given talent to the world of distance running. Running with her was complete joy not only because of how effortlessly she ran, but how wonderfully naive she was to the process that other people had to go through to improve. She was just good. Chalmer Combellick was the most interesting person I have ever coached, and ours was more of a peer-to-peer relationship than a standard coach-athlete one. Our conversations while running would roam from running to history to politics to science and back to running - the pace picking up the whole way. Connecting with Chalmer through running was a formative experience for me as a coach but also gave me many treasured memories as a runner. My college coach, friend and mentor, Jeremy Karger-Gatzow, continues to challenge me, inspire me, correct me, and motivate me. He was the one who understood that to get me to improve he first had to fan the flames of my own curiosity. There are many others who have inspired me, challenged me and fed my desire to keep running. There are those too who I wish I could have ran a few more miles with before circumstance intervened. The older I get the more I remember to not let those opportunities pass me by! 

At this stage in life I suppose I run because I'm compelled to. Running has been such a consistent thread woven into the tapestry of my life that I don't know what things would be like without it. Running is part of who I am, I am a runner. I run to give expression to feelings that defy description. I run to connect and to be connected with. I run because I'm a fiercely motivated loner who enjoys striving to meet a standard. I run because it's a pretty trustworthy tool for identifying potential friends. I run because I enjoy feeling power and potential in my body and knowing my resolve is strong. I run because it impresses people and I'm vain enough to enjoy that. I run because I want to inspire my kids and the athletes I coach. I run to keep moving. I run because...

Comments from the team banquet

Someone close to me said that I need to start writing more, so I thought I would start publishing a few of the 'talks' I give to the team... This one is from our end of season banquet on 12/3/2019

When thinking about what I wanted to talk about at the banquet this year, I was having trouble coming up with any 'new' material. After all, for those of you who have been with me for four years, I've pretty much taught you everything I know (and maybe some stuff I was only guessing at, but hey I said it confidently :). And then I thought, 'you know what? Everyone in this room is WAY smarter than I was when I was in your place' so maybe I should just stay out of your way and let you carry on. But there was a part of me, probably that part of me that used to want to be a pastor, that just couldn't pass up a good opportunity to deliver a sermon. So there I was back to square one, just what the heck to talk about at the end of season banquet. And then it occurred to me that if I think of myself as an educator (which I do), and the cross country season is like a lesson (or a collection of many lessons), then maybe I should think like an educator and approach this from that standpoint. So coming from that perspective I decided to do what I thought an educator should do at the conclusion of a lesson and reiterate the main points. With that in mind here are 3 'takeaways' that I hope have been imparted to you either through explicit or implicit means throughout this season.

Know Thyself
Know who you are, accept who you are, love who you are. Too many of us waste time wishing we had the talents and skills of other people. Take time to get to know yourself, identify your strengths and weaknesses, accept your limitations and embrace your potential. Whoever you are, whatever you are, accept that and love yourself. Even if you're as goofy as Eddie and you cheer a little too loudly in team meetings. Just say, "I'm sorry this is too loud for you, but I'm not sorry I cheer loudly because that's who I am and that's what I do". Also realize that because you are human you DO have the capacity to change. If there is a habit, or mindset, or skill you wish you had, you can develop it! It may take time and effort, but with persistence you will succeed - just look at Ryan, he used to pretty much be a carnivore, but he's plant based now!!
Control
There is only so much you can control in this life. Figure out what it is you have control over, control that and don't stress about the rest. In a given situation you may not have control over what is happening to you, but you always have control over your mentality and perception. We have talked many times this season about being in control during your races. While its good to be aware of what other runners are doing, you can't control that. You can control what you're doing and what you're thinking, that's it. In a way that realization should be liberating, it frees you from the anxiety of trying to predict half of an outcome that you have no control over anyway. While everyone else is losing their cool, let's endeavor to keep ours. No matter how hard I try I may never control Ray's urge to talk over me, but I calm myself down with the realization that one day he'll be in front of a class and there is going to be this one kid who just won't shut up, then Ray will get his just desserts.
Beginnings and endings
The only truly important beginning and ending in life is your birth and your death. Each of those moments happen naturally so no need to get anxious there. Life is not about beginnings and endings, there will be many of each for all of you. Every run you take will begin and end, every season will begin and end, and so will your time as a college student. The key to enjoying life and living a successful life is to shift your focus from the beginning and endings to the journey itself. Stay in the moment. Savor the good ones and don't shy away from the challenging ones. When Benny agreed to be a guinea pig for the first trial of miles I am certain that he and Tyler were fixated on the endpoint. But at some point during that trial I think they both came to the realization that there was enjoyment to be found even in the midst of that bare, simplistic and exhausting experience. When you are totally immersed in a situation how you experience each and every moment changes. Its like your mind's eye opens wide and you begin to see sides of things that reveal the true beauty and distinctiveness of your circumstances. This opens the door to knowledge and understanding that go beyond what can simply be talked about, that which must be experienced to comprehend. Expand your definition of 'normality', take time to really experience each moment. Whether you fear a beginning or get anxious for an ending, realize that they are inevitable and exceedingly brief, teach yourself instead to focus on the journey.

Friends this season has been a whirlwind, and a very enjoyable one at that. I want to thank each and every one of you for being part of this team and for working together to make it such a positive and encouraging place to be. I enjoy working with you and I hope that this experience continues to enrich your life!

Tireless state

Tireless state - an enchantingly simple term used by Lydiard to describe the goal of the foundational base-building  phase of training.

Does achieving the fabled 'tireless state' mean that one is no longer tired or that in spite of overwhelming fatigue one can find the strength and will to carry on? This past year an a half I have had the opportunity to explore the meaning of this phrase. As a full-time head coach for cross country and assistant track coach (in-season 10 out of 12 months) I have also been completing a master's degree in education, co-operating a home daycare business with my wife and raising 4 children under the age of six, the youngest of which was born this past December. Needless to say the days have been full in ways that I did not think I could cope with before. However both me and my wife have adapted to this crazy workload and now it just seems normal. I think if the average person were plunked down in our life it would overwhelm them pretty quickly, but I trust that if, like us, they were introduced to it gradually over a few years they would adapt as we have. This season of life has led me to a new understanding of what a 'tireless state' is and how one achieves such a state.

There have been times throughout my younger years where I felt like I had achieved some sort of fitness level that enabled me to do pretty much whatever I wanted training-wise. I could do a moderate 16 mile run on Sunday and come back for a hard interval session two days later no problem. Although I felt tireless at times while running at this fitness level, I don't think this was truly a tireless state. You see at all times during this phase of life there was a finish line somewhere up ahead. There was always a race on the horizon and therefore somewhere I could set my sights on and steer toward when the going got hard. After those races there was always delicious rest and recovery. The weeks and months of training would build up to a peak and then...blissful relaxation. Sometimes the knowledge of how good that rest was going to feel was enough to pull me through a particularly grueling bout of training.

South African researcher Tim Noakes has outlined a theory of fatigue which he calls the 'Central Governor theory'. Its fascinating stuff. The basic idea is that, with the vast majority of people, fatigue is ultimately governed not so much by energy availability and the byproducts of anaerobic respiration, but by subliminal messages that are conveyed to the working muscles telling them to decrease output to avoid damaging physiological systems. One of the cornerstone examples Noakes gives for the presence of a Central Governor is the finish line of the Comrades Marathon in South Africa. The Comrades Marathon is a 55 mile race with a twelve hour time limit. Noakes reports that on any given year participants within sight of the finish as the clock approaches the cutoff will literally sprint in to beat the cutoff. Many of these participants are dead on their feet and are somehow given new life by the vision of the finish life and knowledge that they can make it. A tireless state, as I understand it now, implies that there is no finish line. There is no relief plug to pull and depressurize. Your only option is to adapt. I don't believe a tireless state means that fatigue is no longer felt or experienced, but that all options of relief have been excised from awareness. Initially, as all new parents are probably familiar with, this new experience brings sensations of desperation, giving way to begrudging acceptance, and, finally, realization that you are stronger than you gave yourself credit for. I would be lying if I said there weren't times during the last two years where I have physically felt the burden of responsibilities weighing down. Times where, on the verge of tears, I felt like to get out of my recliner would take superhuman effort that I did not possess. If I had been given the opportunity to tap out a take a load off, I am sure I would have. But there was no awareness of a finish line, no relief in sight and I knew I had no choice but to figure out a way forward, hard as it may have been. At all of these junctions I was able to compartmentalize, prioritize and inch forward. In these moments my tireless state was not some euphoric experience of feeling like I could handle anything, but an aching realization that there was only relief in adaptation.

As I said before I think everyone is capable of handling WAY more than they think they can. The trick is to not relieve the pressure. As a society that is very much built around the 'work hard, play hard' mentality, I think we focus too much on the light at the end of the tunnel. The problem with that mentality is that we are perpetually living for the easy times, always looking forward to a break. Breaks and relief are good, but recognize those times in your life when its necessary, even beneficial, to grind away and make a new tunnel without knowing how far you'll have to dig or when you'll see the light again.

The energies of men

Lately I've been musing on the condition of human endurance and I have turned repeatedly to an essay written in the early 1900's by William James titled: "The Energies of Men". Below is an excerpt from the first paragraph of the essay.

EVERYONE knows what it is to start a

piece of work, either intellectual or mus-

cular, feeling stale — or oold, as an Adirondack

guide once put it to me. And everybody knows

what it is to " warm up" to his job. The process

of warming up gets particularly striking in the

phenomenon known as "second wind." On usual

occasions we make a practice of stopping an oc-

cupation as soon as we meet the first effective

layer (so to call it) of fatigue. We have then

walked, played, or worked " enough," so we de-

sist. That amount of fatigue is an efficacious ob-

struction on this side of which our usual life is

cast. But if an unusual necessity forces us to

press onward, a surprising thing occurs. The

fatigue gets worse up to a certain critical point,

when gradually or suddenly it passes away, and

we are fresher than before. We have evidently

tapped a level of new energy, masked until then

by the fatigue-obstacle usually obeyed. There

may be layer after layer of this experience. A

third and a fourth "wind" may supervene. Men-

tal activity shows the phenomenon as well as

physical, and in exceptional cases we may find,
beyond the very extremity of fatigue-distress,

amounts of ease and power that we never

dreamed ourselves to own, — sources of strength

habitually not taxed at all, because habitually we

never push through the obstruction, never pass

those early critical points.

James wrote this essay during a time in American history when living the 'strenuous life' was in vogue. Popularized by President Theodore Roosevelt among others, the strenuous life was a call to action, a mobilization of citizenry and a rebuke of sloth and apathy. I have shared this passage with the cross country team I coach several times because I find it so relevant to our 'post-modern' society. I use this essay not as a chastisement against laziness, but as a fundamental element of teaching self-belief. As endurance athletes much of the time spent practicing our sport is spent along a continuum of uncomfortable experience, ranging from mild to extreme. The brain has an innate tendency to alleviate pain and discomfort by removing or avoiding the source and it has many tools at it's disposal. Chief among these tools is our perception and belief of what is possible for us to accomplish. When we are undertaking easy tasks confidence in our ability to complete the task is high reinforcing our self-belief related to the activity. As the level of difficulty rises our confidence starts to waiver and eventually it is tested to the point of failure and our self-belief goes with it. Unsupported by self-belief our actual ability to succeed at the activity declines. For practitioners of endurance events self-belief becomes a relevant aspect of nearly every training session. The most successful endurance athletes find ways to quiet the protestations of the mind and calm the inner turbulence. As a coach I find no other element of training to be as tremendously beneficial as coaching self-belief. Athletes may struggle with lacking self-belief at any point in their careers and this often presents a major obstacle to progress in training and competing. Self-belief can be challenged or diminished by any number of things such as injury, lack of progress, stress, and fear. 
Building self-belief within a team is, by necessity, a constantly negotiated process. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to cultivating self-belief, some individuals require constant affirmation, others merely an occasional engagement of the eyes and a thumbs up. Also true is that certain situations call for entirely different methods: a normally stoic, self-contained athlete may require very close attention and lots of communication during a period of injury or personal stress. There are two tools that I use on a regular basis that seem to nurture self-belief among nearly all personalities: the giving of responsibility and the actualization of success. I'll avoid going on a rant about how older generations no longer have the patience or trust to give responsibility and teach, but I find that giving small responsibilities (such as making runners take charge of their own daily mileage vs. having it all written out for them) makes people much more accountable and engaged. Responsibilities can be added to, and subtracted or withheld from (always with proper communication)and this process, used in a mindful and timely way can lead to a transformation in a person's self-belief. The actualization of success is an idea that I use the guide the workouts I write and my arrangement of them on the schedule. The basic principle is that success is enjoyable and it helps develop self-belief. A workout regimen that is always just beyond the athlete's ability to succeed at it, or which requires absolute maximal effort to accomplish and sustain may have detrimental effects on their perception of what they can handle. Although science may provide framework for setting and arranging workouts, paces and recoveries, an approach that melds the science with the individual psychology of the athlete will always produce a better result. Adapting a workout to achieve success cultivates more positive self-image and the athlete will be more willing to push to a greater extent knowing that they handled the last workout well. This principle has the same effect on the larger team setting as well. A group that perceives its members are capable of meeting and exceeding expectations will form a unified team belief dynamic that fosters a strong work ethic and positive attitudes towards individual and group capabilities. 

This post wound up being a little longer than originally intended but self-belief is one of those topics that I tend to wander into and have a hard time stopping the train. A lot of research into human endurance, intrinsic motivation, and positive mental habits circulates back to self-belief and that's why I think it is vitally important to be actively building it within sports teams and other venues. I welcome any and all comments!
-Tony

Toughness

Toughness

In an effort to revitalize my blog with new material I figured I would start writing down the once-a-week-or-so topics I cover with my distance team.

About a month ago Jess (Head track coach) asked me to talk to the team about toughness. We were heading to our indoor conference championship meet the following weekend and it seemed like a relevant topic to cover. Although Jess gave me ample time to prepare a talk on the subject of toughness I just couldn't seem to get the wheels turning. I've never thought of myself as a particularly tough person - I get woozy and disoriented when someone sticks a needle in me, I will admit to crying during the movie 'Marley and Me' when the dog dies, I tend to dislike pain and will almost always find a way to make something easier rather than 'tough it out'. Well I really wasn't getting anywhere with toughness so I figured I would just start looking up definitions, maybe that would spark something... here are a few that I found:

• The state of being strong enough to withstand adverse conditions or rough handling.
• The ability to deal with hardship or to cope in difficult situations.
• The ability to absorb energy without fracturing.
• To withstand great strain without tearing.

After reading these definitions I realized that maybe my pre-conceived idea of toughness wasn't completely accurate. Maybe I am actually tougher than I thought? I realized that I had been associating toughness with strength, which are in fact linked, but toughness exists outside of strength, including it and other qualities. To be tough mentally and physically simply means to resist breaking... to be strong enough. 

As a history major I have an inherent affinity for historical accounts and one subject I can't get enough of is survival stories. One of my all-time favorite survival stories is the story of Ernest Shackleton and the crew of the HMS Endurance. This story took place between 1914 and 1917 and involved an explorer (Shackleton) and his crew of hardy men. These men had machismo, they had moxie, they had strength and intelligence, they had immense financial means the strongest ship ever constructed and a well-planned mission. In short they had everything going for them and everything accounted for, and they got owned. Their ship became trapped in sea ice far away from land and after drifting with the ice pack for months the ship eventually was crushed and sank. This left Shackleton and his crew marooned on the ice with very little hope for survival. Their once strong position was taken away bit-by-bit until they were literally in the most hopeless situation imaginable. Even the outside world presumed they were dead. However it was in the midst of this depressing saga that Shackleton's greatest quality came to be known, he was one tough S.O.B. Shackleton simply refused to quit, and he refused to let his men quit. Time after time they came up against seemingly insurmountable obstacles and either Shackelton or a member of his crew managed to find a way around the problem. Their survival was daring and courageous and it took incredible toughness. They dragged their life-boats across ice-heaves and fissures for endless miles and then rowed them in the open ocean to make it to an island. Meanwhile they were surviving on the remains of their dogs and when that ran out they ate boot leather... they were truly desperate. They had no strength left and yet they refused to quit and be beaten. This to me is the essence of toughness - toughness is a frame of mind, toughness is strength when there is no hope, toughness is saying 'I may be beaten down but I will never be defeated'. 

Now we aren't surviving an Antarctic ordeal like Shackleton and his men, in a typical day we are not being pushed to the very brink of our human limits but we can still exhibit characteristics of toughness. Toughness is mindset, there is a toughness in victory as well as in defeat. As athletes how we react to success and failure reveals our toughness. 

In a toughness frame of mind victory is seen as a positive result but not the end of the road. What can be learned from that victory? Was there something along the way to that victory that can be improved next time? How can I ensure that this victory is repeatable? 

Children and distance running: the running dad's dilemma...

This one's for all you new dads and Mom's out there still struggling to find balance a midst that special kind of chaos that is parenthood. (It's important for me to state that I LOVE being a father and wouldn't trade it for a 2-hour marathon, this is simply a chronicle of my adaptations to the experience of being a father)

My son was born on Christmas morning in 2013. His birth came smack in the middle of probably the best training segment of my life. In the fall before he was born I ran the fastest marathon of my life, followed by the fastest road 5k of my life. Mixed in between were workouts that I could scarcely believe I was running, I felt immortal and it seemed like everything was finally falling into place. When our little guy came home with us we had the normal disruptions: lack of sleep, adjustments to daily life. However my wife really couldn't resume running for quite a while after he was born, so the only running schedule on the fridge was mine. And I benefited greatly. PR's in the mile,3k, 5k, 10k, and 10mile. It. Was. Awesome. Then things started to change...

I had just run a pretty significant PR in the 5k and was really excited for what summer was going to bring. As a coach I have the luxury of a 10-month contract which leaves my summers 'open'. I typically work some but not a full-time amount. With plenty of time to train and race I figured I was heading into the 'golden age'; PR's every weekend, race victories and endless good times... Many of you who have been through the early years of parenting are undoubtedly reading this with a knowing shake-of-the-head. What I was to soon to discover was that while the life changes in the first month or two of our infants life were relatively easy to absorb - as the child needed less and less sleep, it needed exponentially more attention. Coinciding with this development was my wife's return to work, meaning additional time commitment from me - picking our son up from the babysitter's, being in charge after work, putting him to bed, helping out more with daily household tasks so my wife could take advantage of nap-times, etc. By the time we moved into our first house that fall and stood at the foot of a mountain of home-improvement projects (which my DIY nature simply couldn't bear contracting for) I was in full running-despair. I had spent the summer riding the time-management roller-coaster and after watching my fitness slowly evaporate I had pretty much given up on it all-together. It was not a good feeling and I'll admit I was a little depressed about it. I spent more than a few hours wondering why couldn't I seem to maintain a groove the way I had earlier? Eventually it dawned on me: as a married man with no children I could easily follow the advice I always gave my athletes - to live like a clock. I got the same amount of sleep every night, woke up at the same time every day, ran at the same times, ate at the same times - in the same amounts, and just basically had a VERY predictable routine. Having a child changed everything, but not immediately. Initially things were still predictable. Then as Everett grew and, as I said, required more attention the daily routine subtly became less and less predictable. The energy demands varied drastically day-by-day and while previously I could count on a certain amount of time to full-recovery, there are no recovery guarantees now. Energy, mood, motivation - these all fluctuate much more now than they ever did prior to having children and it can be frustrating to feel like you're getting into a good rhythm again only to have life interrupt your climb back to the top.

So is it all over now? Is parenthood where fitness goals come to die? I'm happy to tell you that it is not. You may have to adjust to a less predictable daily schedule, and you may have to acclimate to getting less sleep, and eating when you can rather than having a regimented meal schedule - but if you learn how to work with your new schedule instead of trying to cling to the old regime you can still forge new fitness gains. One aspect of having children which most people complain about but that as distance runners we should appreciate is that kids push you to your limits and you can watch in real-time as those limits expand. I don't panic anymore if I get a less-than-ideal amount of sleep the day or week before a race. Whereas before having children I would devote months of training to very specific races, having children has randomized my racing schedule. I no longer plan for races months in advance, but take advantage of them as they come, sometimes making a morning-of decision to race. The results have been mixed, but I'm pretty sure I've been racing more often since having kids and that is something I love to do. A bonus effect of having children is that I've been able to watch the running spark reignite in my wife. Seeing the sacrifices she has been willing to make for our kids is totally inspiring. She never stopped loving running, but she hung up her running shoes during and immediately after her pregnancies and has picked right back up where she left off. She gives me hope that although the demands of life cause us to adapt and grow, that's one thing we as humans do very well.

Running is like a Rubik's Cube

An analogy for running... bear with me :)

It was last weekend, I was with my wife and son at the in-laws. MJ and her mom were going through bins upon bins of old kid's toys that had been in storage trying to select a few to bring home with us. They were having a grand time reminiscing over long-lost treasures, I was bored out of my skull. Then I noticed a couple Rubik's cubes lying in and among the piles of hot wheels and barbie dolls. I picked one up, went downstairs, and spent the better part of two hours fascinated with it. I had the thought more than once in those two hours; 'well I got one side, almost got two, but I can't seem to solve the whole thing, I'd better just give up and leave it for someone else'. But those damn things have a way of gnawing at you, just one more twist, just a couple more minutes, I KNOW I can solve this thing! Well I did eventually get distracted away from it, seems I could solve a side or two at a time, making me feel partially successful, but I would never get the whole puzzle solved (proof of my mediocre brain-power). When MJ did finally come downstairs to pull me away from the Rubik's cube, even though I'd contemplated giving up numerous times, it was still with regret and a feeling of incompleteness that I finally set it down and walked away.

Fast forward a couple of days... I was driving to some high school cross country section meets in and around the Twin Cities, and had plenty of time on my hands to think. Well what do you think popped into my melon but that dang Rubik's cube again! This time though I wasn't trying to solve it, I was merely ruminating on the simplicity and genius of this excellent puzzle. It really was a stroke of genius for Emo Rubik, a simple cube that can be manipulated over 43 quintillion different ways. It has reportedly sold over 350 million copies according to Wikipedia. After wondering over the simple brilliance I got to thinking about what in particular made the Rubik's cube such a fascinatingly addicting toy. Part of the allure must be the ease of use. It fits in one hand, can be rotated with ease, requires no other accessories, can be picked up and worked on for hours or minutes and you can resume playing with it where you left off. Another part is that even though it's technically a 'toy' it feels more like a brain exercise. Of course the possibility exists, however incredibly remote, that a person could get lucky and blindly arrange the sides correctly. The rest of us will study it, try to learn from it and hope through that process to gain mastery of it. Lastly the objective of the cube is simple, obvious, and tantalizingly close. Its quite easy to arrange one or two of the sides correctly. You get your hopes up. You think, 'in one or two more turns I'll have this thing solved!'. Then you make a move, try something else, and all of a sudden you are back where you started. The hope still exists though that if you are patient enough, and focused enough, that you will eventually obtain the ultimate solution.

As I was following this mental rabbit trail, being a runner, I naturally began to sense some parallels between the Rubik's cube and the running lifestyle. It slowly dawned on me that the Rubik's cube is the perfect analogy for running. Running is such a simple activity; we don't need facilities, padding, fancy gadgets, we just go out and run wherever we are, whatever time of day it is. The objectives are necessarily simple: lose weight, get faster, go from point A to point B. Even though for most of us running is a hobby, it has great benefits for our mental and physical health. We recognize these benefits and try to learn from the activity to maximize it's beneficial aspects in our lives. As we pour more and more thought and energy into running, we realize that running is an activity that can be at times incredibly rewarding, and incredibly frustrating. The emotions involved are often fleeting and subject to rapid change. It constantly gets your hopes up, offers you the rewards of goals achieved, and entices you to branch out and try new things. Yet just when you think you're on a winning track, just when you think you've finally got this running thing figured out, you realize that while you've been solving one piece of the puzzle you have been simultaneously unraveling another. However there is always a voice in your head that maintains that progress is being made. So you keep on keeping on, doggedly pursuing your objectives and gradually more and more blocks fall into place. It may be that you never fully solve the puzzle. You may meet great success in one area of running and be totally stymied in another. As the saying goes, 'its not the destination, but the journey that counts'.

I haven't yet solved the Rubik's cube, but you can bet the next time I'm at the in-laws I will find that thing and try to get two or maybe three sides complete. Likewise I'll keep on shifting and changing things with my running, hoping that block by block I'll eventually arrive at a greater level of success than I have yet achieved.