Wanna Write? Train Like You Mean It
How I finished a half-marathon — and my first novel
The night before one of my 10k races, I hit the hot tub to try to calm my pre-race jitters.
In order to run alongside my friend at my first half-marathon, I needed to qualify in a timed 10k. The pressure was on.
So for motivation, I chose a Disney race.
(Pro Tip: If you’re ever needing serious motivation, a Disney race will do it. We’re talking gospel choir singing at the end.)
Since it was a race weekend, pretty much everybody there was running in the morning.
I was chatting with others about the race as we relaxed in the warm water, when one woman spoke up:
“I’m so excited. I’ve never run before, but I downloaded the run-walk method to my phone so I’ll see how it goes tomorrow. You can’t beat a Disney Half-Marathon, can you?”
What followed was silence, shocked looks, and the need for clarification.
“You’re running the half…without training?”
She was.
Now, even for people with a general level of fitness, running for the first time can be a painful experience.
Taking on 13.1 miles without any training beforehand is a recipe for a lot of hurt.
And what I learned onthat 10k has stuck with me. It’s informed how I set my goals, and how I reach them.
When “fake it til you make it” won’t work
Overconfidence can result in black toenails, sore muscles, and busted deadlines.
Anyone who has run a long-distance race knows it’s possible to finish without training, but it won’t be pretty.
Pushing yourself to such extremes leads to injury.
That’s why training programs exist.
But who wants to commit that kind of time? Running is hard.
Not only do you have to deal with the struggle of actually running for as long as you need to for your body to adjust to the mileage, it’s a huge time committment. If you’re slow, your long runs could take hours.
And don’t even get runners started on diet.
Begin a training program, and you’ll likely have to overhaul what you eat to keep up with those miles.
Even for somebody who doesn’t consider themselves a “serious” runner, some prep is necessary to enjoy the race and not regret it afterward.
You have to put in the time to see the results.
And writing is no different.
Commitment will get you through
As I ran the 10k the next morning, I couldn’t help but think of that woman.
With each footfall, I wondered if she was doing OK.
Did her run-walk program get her through the race? Or did she end up getting swept because she went out too hard and ran out of steam?
Mostly, I hoped she managed to avoid injury.
Throughout my race, I thought about how hard it would have been had I not trained. And when I crossed the finish line, the lesson was set in my brain forever.
If I really wanted something, consistency would get me there a lot more reliably than good intentions.
Back home, with my medal in hand, I considered my work-in-progress.
I’d started writing, and about 40,000 words into it I had realized I was writing a novel.
Since I hadn’t set out with any goal, other than to write down the movies playing in my head, I wrote in fits and bursts only when I felt like it.
But after that race, I knew that I needed to finish the manuscript. And to do it, I needed to make regular time for it, just like my race training.
Keep at it
Keep writing, even when it’s hard.
Keep writing, even when you don’t want to.
If you just keep writing, you will reach the end.
Pause to take a break, and you risk losing your momentum.
You can’t stop running for a couple of months and then pick up where you left off. Neither can you expect your writing muscles to stay strong if you take an extended break.
But with consistent practice, your writing will improve.
You’ll write faster, longer, and more efficiently over time, because you’ve been training yourself to do it.
And momentum is hard to beat.
Finishing is the goal…
…but being able to stand up afterward is even better.
Writers often set ourselves up with arbitrary deadlines before we consider what it would take to get there.
Just like running a half-marathon must be broken down into smaller mileage each week leading up to the race, a novel must be tackled in smaller chunks as often as you can.
Maybe you have some goal you set for yourself, like getting published before thirty-five. (Did you know many famous writers wrote their novels later in life? Check out this article by Yaritza Sencion and stop feeling like it’s too late.)
How much can you realistically write per day? Per week?
If your pace doesn’t match the deadline you’ve set, you’re headed for disappointment, burnout, and maybe even a repetitive injury.
That’s no different than showing up at a marathon starting line with no prior conditioning.
It will hurt. (Ask anyone suffering from carpal tunnel!)
Instead, focus on what you can realistically write per day/week/month, and shoot for doing that consistently.
The words will add up.
We train ourselves to write better.
I’m so grateful for meeting that runner when I did.
Only a few weeks earlier, as the training miles started adding up, I’d wondered if it would be so bad to skip a day.
Getting up to run for two hours on a Saturday was getting old.
What if slept in, just once, when I wasn’t feeling like running?
Yep, it’s tempting to give up.
Just thinking about the challenges that runner faced, though, gave me renewed commitment to my training.
I hope she had a good race, and I’m sure she probably had fun.
But being able to envision all the challenges I might have faced without training helped me regain my focus.
I wanted to finish strong, and not broken.
And eight months later, I typed “The End” on my first novel.
Carpal tunnel-free.
