It's all in my head

I read a blog on RW's website about Running Being a Mirror For Life. Hmmm, something to reflect on, here's what I saw ....

Now that I’m running again (four months now ... go us!) I've begun noticing new strengths in myself. It started with a game J and I play. We always run 8 intervals - when we’re struggling we play a game. Actually J invented it and since she told me about it I began incorporating it into my runs. It works. Here's how it goes ... When I start struggling, thinking I can’t go any further, let alone run 8 sets, I tell myself I only have to do six. That's doable. Then, once I get to six, I know I can do two more, taking them one at a time, telling myself I have ONE more in me. This has worked really well for me and has kept me going many a times.

On our last run, I was struggling by the third set - at the fourth, J said “We only have to do six” my reply was “when I say it I believe it, when you say it I know it’s a lie.” My reasoning: she told me a couple of weeks ago though she plays this game with herself, if she’s going to quit, it would be in the first three intervals, she will NEVER quit if she’s made it to six. I laughed and told her I appreciated her effort.

The truth behind my saying it -- I know quitting is a real possibility until I’ve made it through the sixth run. From there, I have found the strength to make myself do the last two. It’s interesting how this works. I'm seeing other shifts in my thinking as well, again thanks to something else J said.

As we were discussing how our running is changing, J told me about something she’d experienced the day she ran alone. She was taking a new path that proved to be more challenging than she’d anticipated. At one point, glancing at her watch, she saw she had two minutes left to run. Instead of the normal ‘oh my god, I’m gonna die’, she found herself thinking something to the effect of ‘only two minutes, I can do that’. Wow.

I had also found that if I had 30 second left to run I could keep going, whereas before, I’d quit with only 20 seconds to go. During our last run as I was gasping for breath, wondering how my legs had gotten so heavy, I glanced at my watch only to see there was 1 minute 41 seconds left to go -- I thought I was gonna die. Instead of quitting like I have in the past, I discovered what J had said was stuck in my head ... I CAN do this ... I am not going to quit.

I was able to convince myself to keep going and I finished the run; when it was over I was feeling rather proud of myself. J and I often joke that, a good run is one that’s over. In spite of the pride, I was glad it was over :)

For years I’ve heard that running is 90% mental; I’m watching this unfold during my own runs. My endurance has improved, which I expected -- what I hadn't considered was to see changes in my thought patterns.

So, if running is a mirror to life, I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Happy running.

a note: because J's baby was sick we decided against the 5k in the park. We're now looking at one in April.