I was hoping to wait for another snow storm to make my post title seem that much more clever.  But we are in the middle (maybe end?) of a ridiculous streak of great winter weather here in Lincoln.  If I had the lifestyle for it, I could be running in shorts and tee many of the last few days.  Heck on Christmas I got my shirtless mile in.

On the bright side, the lack of snow is leading us into some of the best winter training that we have had in years.  Typically, running in Lincoln in the winter is not a big deal.  Mostly because all you are doing is base mileage which typically involves just going out for a run and very few formal workouts.  It is used to get ready for the upcoming Spring racing season, which around here means getting ready for the Lincoln Full or Half Marathons.

I have been talking recently about how I have changed my training a bit this winter as I get ready for the USATF National Cross Country Championships.  Going from formal/traditional intervals to fartlek/effort based training.  This was mostly planned to accommodate the weather and letting go of worrying about pace and just trying to focus on running faster and harder no matter what the pace should be.

So the second part of the “let it go” series is focusing on the mastermind behind this training plan.  I have coached with him for 8 of the 21 years he has been at it. I have learned a ton from him in that brief amount of time.  His name is Matt Musiel.

I like to think I know a lot about running.  I mean, I have been running for about 17 years.  I have coached for almost 10 years at some level.  I know how to get people in shape for everything from the 800m run to a marathon.  I can’t count the number of calendars I have written training plans on for friends and acquaintances. I have learned so much about my own running and workout progressions that are good for the various distance running events.  I would like to think I have it dialed in for me.

But sometimes, you just have to let go of your training. Let go of the ego that you know everything about training.  Let go of the comfort you have developed in your own training.  Let go of the same routine you have been doing week in and week out for the last few years.  Let someone else design your workouts.  Let them tell you what to do.  Let them plan out the kind of recovery you should do.  Letting go of planning workouts allows you as a runner to do a few things.

Primarily the stress is gone. All you do is check the calendar and go do the prescribed effort.  You don’t think about having to plan it all out.  The worse thing you have to do is fit in the workouts around your life.  But really, all you have to do is run.  Secondly (and maybe as important), you get to learn.  You get exposed to a different philosophy of running.  You get to see, and experience, some new types of training.  You have a whole new set of workouts to pull from for future training.  Finally, you get to form another relationship with someone.  Trusting a person to get you ready for a peak race is hard to.  We all know the work, time, effort that goes into to getting ready for a big event.  Letting someone guide you through that process can be difficult. But even if your race does not go as planned, the long term knowledge and the bond(s) that you might form are worth the risk.