Experiment and Embrace The Uncomfortable (ETU): Distance Running, Academics: Management, Teaching, Research
Sarah Doenmez, M.Ed., Academic Dean, Dublin School
MOVE! is helping me redefine my sense of power over the course of my life and my future. As the Academic Dean of Dublin School, a small independent high school in southwestern N.H., I am familiar with setting goals, breaking them into steps, setting a time frame, and tracking performance; this process is the basis of faculty evaluation and the mentoring that is central to my work. In addition, as a teacher, I have always encouraged students to practice toward goals and to believe they could achieve anything they work for. Even the 10 years, 10,000 hours to excellence is something we discuss with students. And neuroplasticity, the central concept of MOVE!, is a fundamental tenet of my work.
What is new for me is experiencing two MOVE! principles – the value of experimentation and Embrace The Uncomfortable (ETU) – in both my work and in running. Last March, for example, I went on sabbatical. It was uncomfortable; I was adrift from my community and the daily routine which has always given my life momentum and meaning. What did I want to achieve with this uncomfortable gift of time?
My sabbatical included other ways of embracing the uncomfortable: searching out and volunteering at NGOs that work to rid the world of the poisons created by nuclear energy, showing up in strange offices and hoping to be taken seriously, including the UN Review Conference on the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, submitting writing to a couple of magazines for publication, and seriously facing the process of planning for a financial future that might include retirement. In these endeavors I met with more success than I had anticipated.
Surprises also came when applying the principles of experimentation and ETU to my running. Beginning last spring, I wanted to see whether I could improve my times in running. Having grown up in a community with Olympic skiers, I began running for fun by the age of 9. By 18, running became incorporated into my daily life as means of creating health and sanity as I faced adulthood, a practice that has carried me through even the hardest of times. I participated in some races, even marathons, but was never satisfied with my performance.
I joined MOVE! believing my body type limited my potential pace. When Cathy gave me shorter speed workouts and told me not to over-train, I was skeptical, but I embraced the uncomfortable and began timing myself over shorter runs. To my amazement, I saw times I considered respectable and even good. This was the experimentation.
I began to look forward to working harder and seeing if I could do better. My goal was to run a half marathon in a pace faster than 8:30 miles. I did that after only 4 months of MOVE! and only 2 of intense speed workouts. The bigger reward for me, though, has been the training itself, and moments when I saw 7:16 on the watch for a mile and even 5:55 one day on a sprint.
These experiences at work and in running have allowed me to truly believe and feel that I can make dreams – even ones that seem to contain insurmountable obstacles – reality. I am not yet adept at the MOVE! technique; I have not consciously employed it in all the realms of my life where it could bring results. I also do not feel I have consolidated my athletic gains or reached my potential. Cathy says I will be faster at 60 than I was at 50. Can I believe her? What can I dream next?
Sarah Doenmez, M.Ed., Academic Dean, Dublin School
MOVE! is helping me redefine my sense of power over the course of my life and my future. As the Academic Dean of Dublin School, a small independent high school in southwestern N.H., I am familiar with setting goals, breaking them into steps, setting a time frame, and tracking performance; this process is the basis of faculty evaluation and the mentoring that is central to my work. In addition, as a teacher, I have always encouraged students to practice toward goals and to believe they could achieve anything they work for. Even the 10 years, 10,000 hours to excellence is something we discuss with students. And neuroplasticity, the central concept of MOVE!, is a fundamental tenet of my work.
What is new for me is experiencing two MOVE! principles – the value of experimentation and Embrace The Uncomfortable (ETU) – in both my work and in running. Last March, for example, I went on sabbatical. It was uncomfortable; I was adrift from my community and the daily routine which has always given my life momentum and meaning. What did I want to achieve with this uncomfortable gift of time?
My sabbatical included other ways of embracing the uncomfortable: searching out and volunteering at NGOs that work to rid the world of the poisons created by nuclear energy, showing up in strange offices and hoping to be taken seriously, including the UN Review Conference on the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, submitting writing to a couple of magazines for publication, and seriously facing the process of planning for a financial future that might include retirement. In these endeavors I met with more success than I had anticipated.
Surprises also came when applying the principles of experimentation and ETU to my running. Beginning last spring, I wanted to see whether I could improve my times in running. Having grown up in a community with Olympic skiers, I began running for fun by the age of 9. By 18, running became incorporated into my daily life as means of creating health and sanity as I faced adulthood, a practice that has carried me through even the hardest of times. I participated in some races, even marathons, but was never satisfied with my performance.
I joined MOVE! believing my body type limited my potential pace. When Cathy gave me shorter speed workouts and told me not to over-train, I was skeptical, but I embraced the uncomfortable and began timing myself over shorter runs. To my amazement, I saw times I considered respectable and even good. This was the experimentation.
I began to look forward to working harder and seeing if I could do better. My goal was to run a half marathon in a pace faster than 8:30 miles. I did that after only 4 months of MOVE! and only 2 of intense speed workouts. The bigger reward for me, though, has been the training itself, and moments when I saw 7:16 on the watch for a mile and even 5:55 one day on a sprint.
These experiences at work and in running have allowed me to truly believe and feel that I can make dreams – even ones that seem to contain insurmountable obstacles – reality. I am not yet adept at the MOVE! technique; I have not consciously employed it in all the realms of my life where it could bring results. I also do not feel I have consolidated my athletic gains or reached my potential. Cathy says I will be faster at 60 than I was at 50. Can I believe her? What can I dream next?