Live from New York…
We’ve gotten some snow, and much more is supposed to come later tonight.
We got out of work at 2 today to go work from home, and I used the time everyone else was using to commute to go get in a quick run on the treadmill at the gym. I haven’t run since the half last weekend since I had a terrible sinus infection all week that went into my chest.
But I finally feel human again!
The week before I got sick, I’d been really busy at work and with some other stuff and didn’t put myself and my training first. I got my runs in but they kind of sucked. I was just ticking the boxes and rearranging the schedule Jess had put together for me.
Why was I paying her if I wasn’t really going to listen? Last week when I was sick, I contemplated abandoning my PR attempt and just running this race for fun. I’d had two weeks of sub-par training, I wouldn’t be able to PR.
But, I listened to those negative thoughts and told them to shut the hell up, I had work to do. Jess and I agreed at the outset of my training it might be hard to PR in March when I hadn’t been training hard for more than a year, and that Brooklyn might be a better time to try to PR.
I looked at my training plan and got nervous looking at the race date and my runs to date. And then I decided my only choice was to take things one day at a time, one run at a time.
So today, I went and I banged out 4 miles on the treadmill. I felt tight and sore and achy but I got them done and didn’t worry about what they meant for my race other than being one run closer.
*Edited to add: I read this AWESOME post from my girl Anne about her trip to Canyon Ranch. Towards the end, she talks about getting a body composition analysis and how your body fat percentage may be a little higher when endurance training than doing other types of training. I wish i had read this last year when I freaked out about my body fat analysis!
How have you changed your mindset while training for something?
I was injured the past few years and got surgery last year, so I had to dial back my training a ton. At first I would keep trying to work towards big goals, but after awhile I learned that listening to my body was what I needed to do. I’m glad that lesson stuck!
Great advice! Sometimes I look at training plans and feel overwhelmed! My goal right now is to get back to a place where I actually enjoy running. I haven’t for a long time, so I’m focusing on getting healthier (ie lose some weight), so that I can run more and hopefully get back to loving it!
I swear it’s harder to be easy on yourself than it is to actually train! Hang in there and take care of yourself. One day at a time!
It TOTALLY is! Which is why I’m trying to tell myself to just shut the eff up.
I think working toward a difficult goal – whether training for a race or working on a promotion, is exciting yet terrifying deep down. It’s easy for us to throw in the towel so we don’t end up disappointing ourselves and others if we don’t achieve it in the end. You’ll get there, putting in the effort is 95% of the battle!
Gf, I 1 million percent echo you here. One day at a time! And I’ve recently adopted a new ideology for my half training (my next one is also in March!), which is “running because I CAN.” Even if it sucks, even it is the worst run known to man, at least I am alive and pretty healthy and was able to get a couple miles… that’s more than a lot of people. Corny, I know, but it’s actually made half training SO much less stressful for me, because even though I love running, half training has traditionally become a Type A scheduling hell. 😉 {Fyi, I actually wrote a post on my blog on exactly this just last week!}
Progress is definitely the key has regards our fitness goals. One step at a time. Nobody is perfect, but i like the fact that you are on track : )