The Birthday Workout
Everyone has their own quirks and traditions. If you asked anyone, they would have an honest answer to give for how they like to spend their birthday. But not everyone will share that same honest answer. Because not everyone wants to know other people’s opinions of their ideal birthday plans.
If anyone asks me how I like to spend my birthday, I tend to answer with half truths more than anything. Because what I like most for my birthday is a quiet, ordinary day. Waking up early, pouring a hot cup of coffee and reading a chapter or two of a good book. Then it’s proceed with the day as usual. If it’s a work day, then I work. Although I do usually gift myself a lack of meetings if I can, and duck out early enough to start my run in daylight. A true gift on the shortest day of the year.
After my birthday run, I like dinner at home and maybe a Christmas movie. And ideally going to bed on the earlier side. I prefer my birthday without candles or presents. Just a day like most any other, with a few minutes of unspoken gratitude that I’ve gotten to be here for another year. That life keeps moving forward, and I get to be a part of it.
I like to spend my birthday honoring the little, ordinary moments. Not everyone gets that. Not everyone has to get that.
The half truth is that I always go for a run on my birthday, no matter the weather. Sometimes its a beautiful winter day. Other years its cold rain, icy sidewalks, or blowing blizzard-like snow. I think it’s perfect weather for it no matter what and always get out the door. The full truth is that my favorite run to celebrate my birthday is a track workout. The same track workout every year.
I picked up this particular track workout when I was in college. At that point of my running life I had already learned that most of my best days happened when they weren’t supposed to. On the days when your legs should be trashed from yesterday’s effort, or when the weather had coaches telling their athletes its not a day to expect fast times. Or on the days of the hardest workouts. And this workout is the hardest one we ever ran a few times each season.
All in, with warmup and cooldown, it takes you forty laps to get it done. The hard efforts on the workout counts for 22 of those laps, with only 6 laps of easy effort to break them up. In numbers, it’s 4-1-4-1-3-1-4-1-2-1-4-1-1. It’s the kind of workout where you live completely in the moment without being able to focus on anything else. It’s something to endure. But when you reach the last laps, it’s gone by fast. And all these years later, it’s still my favorite workout.
A few years ago, I decided that I didn’t have to be in fast running shape to run my favorite workout. While it was usually one of my best training days every season, I also had one time where my coach labeled my performance in it as the worst ever for the workout. So, I decided that it was time. I didn’t have to time my splits if I didn’t want to, and I can’t tell you if I did that first year back. But I walked away from the track tired and proud, and that was enough for me.
Some years I take my splits, some years I don’t. But my birthday gift to myself every year is always running this workout. And I intend to continue this tradition for as long as I’m able.
This past year was a little different. I was in a phase of life where listening to my body was so much more important than the date on the calendar. I knew I could still run on my birthday. I’d just need to run easy instead. My personal birthday celebration would simply be on a different day this year. The workout could wait a few days.
It waited ten days. For a day when my body felt ready to take on a challenge, and my calendar was clear. The perfect combination for this season of my life.
During the warmup, my nerves kicked in. This was a harder effort than I’d asked of my body for a while. How would it feel? Would I be able to complete the full workout? But I started anyway. Three laps in, I felt more comfortable than I expected. From there my confidence grew. I had decided in advance that I would not take my splits, but I glanced on every effort. I surprised myself with every lap.
On the last intervals my body was spent from the effort, like it always is during this workout. And I pushed on, like I always do. My splits were slower and my effort was slightly dialed back to match the season, but my heart was pounding all the same. The lactic acid still burned in my legs on the final laps. My body once again reminding me that it is amazingly capable of doing hard things.
Tired and satisfied, I walked off the track after all forty laps. With the same rush of feelings I get every year from my birthday workout. I walk away with the confidence that no matter what the next year brings, I’ll be strong enough to handle it. Which, to me, is the ultimate birthday gift.
