These are the thoughts that creep into our head while we run that offer excuses to stop or take it slow. These thoughts will also enter into our heads while we are lying in our warm beds that offer justification to skip or put off our run so we can stay just a bit longer under the covers. You have to be a strong person to overcome these thoughts, and press on. If you are like me , you have given into these thoughts on several occasions. At the time the thoughts can seem rational and a good reason to opt out, but you will soon realize that you have lost to your own mind in a game that it has just played with you.
As long as I remember I have had these thoughts when it came to training. In High School I never realized my potential as a runner because I never trained during the off season. After High School I stopped running, for 20 years ( I had always wanted to run but lacked the motivation) and when I returned to running two years ago,I would cut short my workouts because of these thoughts.
As I was putting together my schedule for training for the Buffalo Marathon I decided to chose a plan that would focus on speed. I would like to finish in under 3 hours and 40 minutes . The plan I chose only gave me one day off from working out a week as opposed to 3 in previous plans. I thought about this a lot, I asked a couple of friends who run marathons what they used and I got so many different answers, so i decided to create my own path and committed to this workout. The first couple weeks were tough, I was finding different excuses to skip workouts. I didn't really notice any changes in speed and was getting frustrated. Then I told myself that I would not skip a week , then it happened. My times started to improve dramatically without much effort at all.
Then last week I was on a 12 mile run when the thought hit my head again. I wanted to stop after 8. I was telling myself that I have had a couple really good weeks of training and I deserved to take a break. I almost gave in when this thought entered my head.
How many people would love to trade places with me at this moment? For whatever reason that they have that are preventing them from running , they would love to be me for a while. It made me think what an honor it is to be a runner. What a gift that has been given to me , a gift that I love and I wanted to cut the run short?
Not only do I love to do this...I GET to do this.
Once this though has entered my head , I am like a kid again. I find it easier to get my now 40 year old body out there and give my workouts everything that they deserve to have.
I am going to enjoy this for as long as I am physically able to!
