The Wall Street Journal has an informative article on running entitled Why Trainers Say, 'Slow Down.' It does a good job of punching a hole in the "more-is-better" mentality espoused by many in the marathon/distance running community. (Including, I should add, myself — once upon a time.)

From an unlearning perspective, however, I especially enjoyed this observation: 95% of all marathon starters finish the race. This little tidbit would seem to confirm the "more is better" approach, right?

Not so fast. It is a fact that nearly 25% of all people who sign up for a marathon fail to make it to the starting line. (Remember, unlearning requires us to also see what isn't there. And, in this case, we often don't see the people who don't make it to the starting line.) There are, of course, a variety of reasons for why people don't make it, but the largest is that many runners over-train and injure themselves.

It is easy to believe that if a little is good then "more" should be even better. This isn't always the case.

Interested in other unlearning-related running pieces? Try these two on for size:

Unlearning Barriers

A Small Step Down the Path of Unlearning