Sitting here on a rainy Friday afternoon spinning some Miles Davis Quintet (circa 1956) on my Rega RP8 turntable while it pours rain outside. This is typical weather for Seattle in early March. I am also very much enjoying a day off after 8 straight days of full-on training including a medical procedure this morning that required fasting all of yesterday which was extra special given my average daily caloric intake is 2800 or so at this stage of marathon training.
As I reflect on reaching the halfway point preparing for this year's Boston Marathon (7 weeks from Monday) - I'm once again managing a marathon training cycle where a minor injury has become something a little worse and pulled me off of my 50-mile a week regimen the last 2 weeks. In January I made a classic mistake and tried to jump start my speed work loading up on two heavy 8,000 meter track workouts over the course of 4 days which also included a very hilly 14-mile run in between. Roll forward to mid-February and the tweak turned into a fairly painful repetitive-use running injury. Typical for me. As much as I've trained and experienced injury over my years of running hard, I still struggle with the desire to push the expectations of my body right to the edge -- and sometimes over -- resulting in exactly what I am now dealing with preparing for this year's Boston Marathon.
I guess the question one has to ask is how does one know when it's better to do one less vs. one more of something? I find that in the U.S. business culture -- especially in technology -- pushing harder and driving forward even in the face of issues with quality, disappointed customers, etc. is the bias. Get to market quicker -- even at the risk of reputational harm. It's worth the risk to gain faster feedback and cycle more quickly on product innovation so as to win "hearts and minds" faster. But when is it prudent to actually not do one more of something, not go as fast -- and do one less -- go a little slower -- figuratively take an extra slow lap around the track vs. sprinting to the finish?
There's obviously no business or marathon training formula that can answer this question for all situations; however, as someone with a strong bias to action -- it's clearly wise to error on the side of discretion from time-to-time to see what can be learned from exploring alternate paths and developing a deeper level of understanding before pushing forward. If anything, from a leadership perspective it will lead to higher decision quality at some future juncture when it is indeed appropriate to take a risk, go full throttle and manage the resulting turbulence to a positive outcome.
As I reflect on reaching the halfway point preparing for this year's Boston Marathon (7 weeks from Monday) - I'm once again managing a marathon training cycle where a minor injury has become something a little worse and pulled me off of my 50-mile a week regimen the last 2 weeks. In January I made a classic mistake and tried to jump start my speed work loading up on two heavy 8,000 meter track workouts over the course of 4 days which also included a very hilly 14-mile run in between. Roll forward to mid-February and the tweak turned into a fairly painful repetitive-use running injury. Typical for me. As much as I've trained and experienced injury over my years of running hard, I still struggle with the desire to push the expectations of my body right to the edge -- and sometimes over -- resulting in exactly what I am now dealing with preparing for this year's Boston Marathon.
I guess the question one has to ask is how does one know when it's better to do one less vs. one more of something? I find that in the U.S. business culture -- especially in technology -- pushing harder and driving forward even in the face of issues with quality, disappointed customers, etc. is the bias. Get to market quicker -- even at the risk of reputational harm. It's worth the risk to gain faster feedback and cycle more quickly on product innovation so as to win "hearts and minds" faster. But when is it prudent to actually not do one more of something, not go as fast -- and do one less -- go a little slower -- figuratively take an extra slow lap around the track vs. sprinting to the finish?
There's obviously no business or marathon training formula that can answer this question for all situations; however, as someone with a strong bias to action -- it's clearly wise to error on the side of discretion from time-to-time to see what can be learned from exploring alternate paths and developing a deeper level of understanding before pushing forward. If anything, from a leadership perspective it will lead to higher decision quality at some future juncture when it is indeed appropriate to take a risk, go full throttle and manage the resulting turbulence to a positive outcome.
For my own 2016 Boston Marathon training, my gut tells me that taking 14 days to focus on high-volume, low impact aerobic workouts in conjunction with a rigorous rehab and core workout routine is going to this time lead to a higher quality outcome at Boston than for the case I'd simply pushed through the pain and kept to my original training schedule. I won't know for sure until I make that final left hand turn from Hereford Street onto Boylston on April 18th at about 2:00 PM EDT -- but I am sure it will make for an excellent story when I post my race report. I know my Coach is happy with my discretion these last 2 weeks -- let's see what happens on race day.
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