TRIGGER WARNING:
Just kidding. But no, kinda maybe.
Here’s the deal. Exercise is a lot of things to a lot of different people. And for the most part, none of them are wrong. But what’s important is to be HONEST with yourself, and making sure that you’re using it for your intended purposes.
1. Exercise is a way to get fast. Being fast is “a thing.” It’s a thing that I think we inherently want from an evolutionary standpoint, but it’s also pretty socially cool, depending on your circles.
2. Exercise is also a coping strategy. A way to numb ourselves to any pain we are feeling. A way to exhaust our demons, so that we may, for a time, speak over them.
And the intersection of these two phenomena can be a problem.
You see, if you “need” to go out and pound yourself into the ground every day, you won’t get fast. Getting fast requires a varied and specific approach to training load. You need to get tired, and then you need to rest. If exercise is your only coping strategy, and your demons need to be pounded into submission daily, AND you want to get fast, you’re going to fight yourself A LOT. You’re going to hate every rest day (and probably not follow them), get irritated with easy days, and generally struggle mightily with the required variety of training intensities.
So what’s the solution? Well, first, if getting faster is really important to you, let me suggest other coping strategies. Therapy, journaling, meditation, playing with a pet, etc. There are LOTS of options that can take a little bit of the edge off of those voices in your head and help you need exercise less. Not all of them are for everyone, and most of them take time to get better at and won’t work as much as you want for a bit, but having more tools is ALWAYS a good thing!
Second, how about not worrying about being fast? You know what’s worse than demons? Feeling guilty about having them. Jesus, talk about “between a rock and a hard place.” If you are healthy, and need to exercise fairly hard every day to be your best self, fuck being fast, it’s SO MUCH less important than being a good person.
SO: How much do you use exercise as a coping mechanism? And how much do you want to be fast? At the extremes these are incompatible. Recognize that and proceed accordingly.
