Slower, slower

Following my marathon training program is quite frustrating.

It’s not that it’s pushing me too hard.  Quite to the contrary -- it seems to me like I am not doing nearly enough.  After all, I’m running, first and foremost, because I want to RUN.  Proceeding as slowly as Coach Benson (the author of Heart Rate Training) is suggesting just feels too easy.  He warns about this a few times in the book.  As easy as it seems, he assures, I am building tissues that will, in its course, allow me to run 26.2 miles.  Still, it’s hard to have the discipline to do . . . so little.

Enter: Trust.

The reason to follow Coach Benson’s training program is that I have given myself over to trust in him.  He’s coached many people over many years, and he has earned his credibility.  Heart Rate Training has a near-perfect four-point-eight-out-of-five-star rating on Amazon.  The book is collaboration with Dr. Declan Connolly, an exercise physiologist who has published more than 300 articles in scientific journals and has served as a consultant to professional and Olympic teams.  So, while my body tells me it can handle much more, I must override my instinct to run faster, longer, and harder in the short-term with a long-term goal in mind.  I must trust those with more experience than me.

Surely, there is no great leap here to the religious life.  For me, certainly, the critical moment in my religious growth was when I decided to trust and obey scripture.  In my thirtieth year, I began to read scripture as I had not before.  I started in the most natural place to begin a serious read: in the beginning.  By the middle of Exodus, I was fully aware that G-d was speaking not just to a people remote in time & place from me; his words, his Word, was intended for me.  Many rules are stated & repeated, but none so frequently as “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” (or some variation thereupon).  It seemed unmistakable what G-d was asking of me: “Honor me by obeying me.  Hallow the day that I have hallowed.”  And I did.  I read and obeyed.

In retrospect, I remember it almost like a teenager who has been asked to “go steady.”  It was the most important decision of my life.  “Yes, L-rd -- I’ll go steady with you.”

The fruits of my trust have been manifold.  My life has been nothing but a series of rewards since that time.  Dare I say that I have had no difficulties since then?  In a very real sense, this has indeed been the case.  I have had moments of sorrow and fear, but I am never far from the joy of walking with G-d. 

Though, indeed, sometimes I have been tempted to run.  Sometimes I feel like I want to do so much more.  If walking with G-d is so great, wouldn’t it be even better to be a missionary or a pastor or something?  Walking is great; running must be better!

My running life can inform my religious life.  From my walk with G-d, I have learned that it is wise to trust an experienced coach.  From a running coach, I can learn that sometimes it is in my long-term interest -- in the very interest of developing speed -- that I take things a bit slower than theoretically possible.

On today’s marathon training schedule, one word: “Off.”