What training feels like and why you should keep going

I wrote this on my blog, but I thought it might inspire and motivate newbies to keep at it during those first difficult weeks of training. Obviously this is based on my own experience as a lifelong athlete and other people might have different experiences, but I am imagining that if you have never done this, you might not realize what the end goal feels like. Without knowing how amazing fitness FEELS, it can be really hard to keep going. Knowing what fitness feels like really motivated me as I came back to running after a break due to my first injury (at age 43).

Athletic change can be very subtle as well as unquantifiable when you are training. For the first few weeks your whole body can feel constantly stiff and sore, almost and maybe even to the point of sickness. This period might last well over a month, depending on how hard you are training. In fact, it might take quite a long time to go away entirely, but it is gradually accompanied by, and then replaced by, a sense of higher energy & a springiness to your regular step throughout the day. That whole body soreness starts to localize itself into just muscular fatigue during and after a hard workout. Once you have achieved that, you've arrived at a very good base level of fitness. From here on out you have more control over your body and your training, and it will not feel like everything hurts or that everything is hard. It will start to feel refreshing to really push your body and the aftermath will be a positive exhaustion instead of a dull weariness.

As an experienced runner and swimmer (and sometime cyclist, cross country & telemark skier), I find that the main activity that puts my training into perspective and pushes me "to the next level" is a hard race. After I run/swim a hard race, I feel a kind of euphoria and a great sense of accomplishment that motivates my training further. I don't think everyone has this reaction and maybe this is why I have been a dedicated athlete my whole life (?), but you won't know if you will have this reaction until you try it!!!