How many runners have heard this said while expressing our guilt before noshing a cupcake, slice of pizza, or a carton of French fries: “Yeah, but you run like, all the time.” It’s true that I have used that fact as a reason to indulge more than I should, and in some ways, running is a “get out of jail free” card. But—and at the risk of sounding like a total buzzkill—being a runner means that the value of good nutrition is a lot higher for us.
You wouldn’t drive a car across the country without getting a tune-up first, would you? Or getting one after you get to your destination? Running can be viewed in the same way: for all the destruction that you do on your muscles, bones, and nervous system, getting the proper nutrition through what you eat is part of what keeps you going.
If this has been you at some point, you might be surprised to learn that the likely reason you’re not getting where you want to go isn’t because you’re unmotivated or clueless about how to get there. It may just be that you didn’t go into it with a plan to get where you want to go and what to do next; a plan that included steps to get there, challenges to avoid the dreaded plateau, or a timeline of when you could take it to the next level. I’ve been that person, the one who crosses a finish line at a race wondering why I didn’t get the time I wanted when I thought I had put in enough work to make it happen. That’s called guesstimating, and I have learned that it doesn’t work well for reaching goals.