Retreat with Caution

What circumstances can suggest it’s time to retreat to a point of safer ground? One common one is injuries. We runners and athletes tend to overtrain and our bodies will give us signals by pain and inflammation when we need to make some adjustments or simply rest. On the roads, we retreat from any serious perceived threat: a speeding or swerving car, a dog charging us (sometimes with a loud bark accent), sirens signaling emergency vehicles on the road, and even runners/cyclists who may not see us coming due to a change in direction, lane change, or those pesky blind spots that we all have in the back corners of our vision.

By retreat, I am not talking about a full stop (although sometimes that may be the best thing to do with injuries and recovery from injuries). More often, a retreat is a pause. Take a moment or two to reflect on where you are. Are you on the path that will help you achieve your goals? Have you taken on too much? Sometimes we might race too frequently and our bodies don’t get a sufficient timespan to full recover and rebound to a point of full strength. Burnout can happen with runners/athletes too: sometimes we just need to take a break for a while. Take a rest day, rest days, or a week off. If we’re not sleeping well because our bodies are still recovering from runs/workouts, we have to make some changes. Designate more easy days. Alternate the easy and tough days a little more (we always seem to forget to add enough easy workouts).

Maybe the people working out with us are causing us to push ourselves too hard (or too little). If that is happening, it’s time to spend some time alone and finding a group with more common goals/objectives/abilities. Running groups should be supportive for all members, not just the favored few. It’s great to have friends who help push and motivate us as long as we are careful and don’t let it affect us making wise, rational decisions that are best for us and our individual circumstances.

We do face adversaries on the field of life. Sometimes our age can work against us a little bit. But I firmly maintain that age is just a number and we can act to make our bodies act optimally less than our years if we are smart about whole food nutrition, getting adequate sleep, hydrating with enough water, regular vigorous exercise and rest/recovery. At times, inflammation can spike, especially for those of us with inflammatory diseases like asthma for example. Adding anti-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory spices (turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger) as well as making sure we are getting enough Omega-3 fatty acids in our diet to ensure that inflammation is minimized. Eating the wrong inflammatory foods can cause inflammation to spike. And this can affect our performance, our sleep, and our health.

Competition is healthy for maintaining a healthy lifestyle as long as we don’t become obsessive about it. The danger with the obsession is it can lead to burnout and an imbalanced lifestyle where we end up neglecting other things that are important like maintaining healthy, fruitful relationships with friends and family.

In context, when should we retreat? Sometimes we have to skip races if we are injured or have not fully trained for a race. I had to skip an Omaha Marathon one year that my knees didn’t cooperate so I didn’t have the mileage. Other times, we might have to retreat and modify our race plans, opting for the shorter (safer) race. For example, I might choose the Lincoln Half-Marathon instead of the full if my legs don’t feel ready. On a marathon course, it’s a tough choice sometimes between the full and the half if the endorphins suggest run the full but our reason tells us to run the half for that day. Just because you opt for a shorter race one day doesn’t mean you can’t run the longer one another day/year.

It can be helpful at times to retreat slowly, like if a dog is coming after us (as long as it is no longer chasing quickly–or if a dog doesn’t see us and we are trying to get away). A sudden retreat can arouse the dog’s interest more. But if a dog is chasing you at high velocity, we usually have to pick up the pace to escape.

Don’t be afraid to retreat to the inner sanctuary to allow yourself to become as strong and healthy as you can be from the inside out. It’s okay to not be checking social media every moment of the day. Take some time to read inspiring books and listen to positive podcasts that can help. Deep within we find our strength. We have to go deep or we don’t really get to the essence of why we are here, what our special gifts are, and how we can optimize these in being healthy, strong, and positive.

As dog owners we do have to give these signals to our pets to keep them safe: Go! Go! Go! if we need to go fast. And whoa or STOP! if there is danger (usually a car, bike, ice, mud, another dog, etc.)

The Go-Go-Go mentality can become so strong within us the more we develop it that it makes it very difficult to stop, pause, retreat, and to even hesitate. But the ability to wisely and prudently retreat when it is in our best interest is just as important (if not more so if there is danger). Whether we go fast or go slow, we must remember to say: Whoa. And retreat. Safety is more important than going too far/fast and possibly getting injured. That said, chase your dreams to the fullest potential. Don’t hold back. But notice when it is wise to retreat, fall back, wait, pause, and hold. Those moments of retreat and pause can be very powerful and help us build to the next level, breaking through plateaus to reach our goals.