This morning, I ran 12 miles, so I’ll be rocking my “Post Long Run Hoodie” proudly.

But the reason those miles matter to me is because not too long ago, I was running in 1-minute increments.

After dealing with an injury during a training cycle that kept sneaking back up every time I increased my mileage, I hired a running coach to support me.

To my surprise, the first thing she did was program ‘runs’ that consisted of a one-minute jog followed by a 1.5-minute recovery, repeated a certain number of times. To go from running a half marathon mere weeks before to jogging in 1-minute spurts was defeating, to say the least.

I kept asking when I’d get back to really running. Could I go a little faster, push myself a little more? Could we speed this whole thing up just a bit? 🙏

“You have to trust the process” she kept reminding me, over and over.

For me, this process meant making time to put in the foundational work that would support me over the long term:  (1) Fueling and recovering properly and (2) doing regular strength training to support better running form – i.e. all the NOT glamorous, kind-of boring stuff that people who run don’t really like. (Give me the miles and the race medals 🎖️ but I can live without the weights 🏋‍♀️ thank you very much … Or so I thought.)

All this made me realize that I had been so busy pushing myself to just log the miles and get to the race that I hadn’t made time to nurture the basics.

But in how many areas of our lives is that true?

How often do we take on too much, stretch ourselves too thin, push ourselves so hard that we neglect the main building blocks we need to sustain us over the long term?

If you were to shift the focus, like I was forced to do, what would building foundational strength look like for you – at work or in life?

What should your non-negotiables be if you want to reach the next step in whatever you’re working toward, without getting burned out? What are those things you need to keep making time for, even if it doesn’t feel glamorous?

I still have to consciously choose to trust the process every day, which means sticking to those foundational building blocks (I will now take the weights, thank you 😜 ). But I’m now running those miles faster and stronger and actually enjoying those 2-hour long runs again, so maybe there’s something to this whole thing.

I guess I’ll have to keep showing up and find out.