Ask someone how to become a better runner, and they'll say something like "Well, you need a good mix of easy runs, tempo runs, speedwork, and long runs." Ask someone how to "get jacked" and they'll say you need to "do a lot of heavy lifting, but also a lot of rest in between." Ask someone how to improve their diet, and they'll reply "Eat from all the food groups in moderation, including a variety of vegetables, fruits and grains, as well as choosing your animal products wisely." See the common theme? Balance is at the center of every healthy, enjoyable life.
Although many of us would like to think that there's no such thing as "too much of a good thing", there most certainly is. Too much training without rest leads to burnout and injuries, too much studying leads to coffee overconsumption and sporadic academic thoughts, too much partying...you get the idea. However, all the things I just mentioned belong somewhere in everyone's lifestyle, (yes, even the partying one) just how much of each depends on what it takes to balance the almighty teeter-totter of life. Sure, it's not realistic to have a parallel teeter-totter, (we found this out as kids on the playground) but we can't have the skinny kid vaulting off the top of it either. Imagine one side representing achievement, and the other side representing enjoyment. It's important to even out out efforts toward having fun and being dedicated to our goals in life.
It's important to work hard, but it's also important to relax and recover. It seems that there is no in-between in college-it's one extreme or the other. We all find ourselves a little off balance every now and then, both with life and with training. The great thing about life, though, is that every day is a new chance, another try, and another sunrise.
The Poem:
I run before the day's begun,
with pattering footsteps I chase the rising sun
finding something no one else has found
In a world that's quiet and on solid ground
every breath nourishes my beating heart,
pounding, pounding away in the solitude and dark
Smiling as my legs ache at the end,
It was an hour of my day that I could pretend
that time was one of my dearest friends.
No weight on my shoulders, no work to be done,
Besides this run before the rising sun.
