Run Work Live:

By @runnerjmd | February 11, 2024

Happy Tuesday! Here is one running tip, one life hack and one quote to consider this week…

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Life hack

You've been taught that there are two kinds of people: alcoholics and those who don’t have a problem with alcohol.

But life is never that clear-cut.

I recently came across a podcast interview with Cheryl Strayed, where she shared how she had always considered herself a "moderate" drinker—about two glasses of wine a day. But at 54, she realized it was taking a toll on her mental and physical health.

So she came up with a simple rule: Drink alcohol as often as you eat birthday cake.

The fact that almost any alcohol hinders your digestion and makes you more impulsive should make anyone at least question how much they drink.

For the full picture, listen to this life changing episode on alcohol by Andrew Huberman​

Here are two insights from me for cutting back on alcohol:

1. A daily beer or glass of wine probably means "unwinding" to you. Unwinding is still important, so find something else to fill this need. Try kombucha, non alcoholic beer or simply 15 minutes of journaling or reading.
2. Alcohol has a numbing effect on your life, so cutting it is going to force you to face some discomforts you've been punting for a while. Brace yourself and take these on.

Listen to the Cheryl Strayed interview on We Can Do Hard Things

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Running tip

Pre-race anxiety can derail race day in more than one.

The fear is simple but brutal: If I try my best and fail, it means I’m not good enough as a human.

That’s some high-stakes pressure. And your nervous system has a solution: flight. Whether it’s uncontrollable butterflies, burning too much energy with nervous overactivity, overeating, having a few beers, or dealing with good old-fashioned pre-race insomnia—there are endless ways to self-sabotage. Whatever form it takes, you’re building yourself a pre-made excuse for coming up short.

So what do we do?

By now, you’re probably sick of hearing that you should stop caring about the results because "the journey matters more than the destination."

Let’s be real—if you’ve trained for 8 weeks, 4 months, or even years, of course you care. And if you give everything and fail, yeah, it sucks.

So what you really need is to get better at dealing with hard emotions.

You need to build confidence that you can handle the pain of losing. Then you won't fear it.

You do this by using other hard emotions in your life to build resilience. What you need to know is these emotions pass like a storm if you let them. They start, intensify, and pass with time.

And you need to REALLY know it. As in, now that you've read this, you aren't cured.

You need to live, breath, and pass hard emotions. Let go of shame for feeling them. Validate them. Get good at intervening quickly and figure out what tools and strategies work for you. Try taking deep breaths or going for a walk or anything that helps you reset without avoidance.

Once your resilience muscle is strong, you’ll have the confidence to handle whatever happens if you don’t hit your goal on race day. Like the awkward moment when someone asks how your race went, and you say it was fine but really you just want them to leave because they have no idea how worthless you feel.

The goal isn’t to avoid failure. It’s to know you can handle it.

And once you do, you’ll finally be free to truly give it your all on race day—win or lose.

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Quote

[Emotionally intelligent people] know that a feeling will not kill them. They have developed enough stamina and awareness to know that all things – even the worst – are transitory.

- Brianna Wiest, 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think​

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Wishing you a great week filled with great runs. Keep the momentum going! 🏃‍♀️💼🌟