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All Runners Need to Learn About Preventing Injuries

What is One Thing Many New Runners Overlook?

I love new runners.

Well, I love all runners, but there is something about the excitement that I usually see on the faces of new runners that gets me fired up. I love being able to share tips, tricks, and pertinent information with them. I love seeing the rapid progress that they are able to make, and I’m sometimes slightly envious that they are able to progress so rapidly while I feel like I have to push myself to the brink just to shave a few seconds off of my 5k time.

New runners are like little kids on Christmas morning, and I love that.

New Runners Can Be A Lot Like Kids on Christmas. But Too Much Excitement May Cause Them to Overlook One Important Thing.

Isn’t My Niece Adorable?

 

There is, however, one thing that new runners tend to avoid worrying about until it’s too late. Read more

New Years Resolutions, Success, Work

Are Marathoners Better at Keeping New Years Resolutions?

New Years Resolutions (or any big goals, for that matter) sound good for the first few days of the year. But, now that we are a couple of weeks into 2015, the burden associated with keeping our resolutions start to get real. By now, we are back at work, the kids are back in school, and the demands of “real life” are back with a vengeance and our resolutions become more and more difficult to maintain.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that many people are struggling to keep their New Years Resolutions by the second week of January. However, I’m still going strong on my resolutions for 2015, and I have no plans to start slacking in the foreseeable future.

Now, I don’t say this to brag. I’m struggling with a couple of my resolutions, but I have strategies in place to help me pick up the slack without sacrificing the momentum I’ve created on the goals that are going strong right now. Read more

Perfection is for Suckers

Now that we are a week into 2015, how are you doing with your running resolutions?

Are you still going strong? Are you barely hanging on? Have you already thrown in the towel?

While I am admittedly a fan of setting running resolutions/goals at the start of a new year, it is frustrating to me to see how many people shoot for the moon but then give up in just a few short weeks (if they even make it that long).

So, if I can ask again, how are you doing with your resolutions?

Perfection is Impossible

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Why do we struggle so much with keeping our resolutions? Do we bite off more than we can chew? Do we lack the fortitude to do what it takes to keep grinding away when the going gets tough? Do we tend to set token resolutions, the kind we have no intention of ever keeping anyway, so we don’t feel bad when we inevitably give up?

I don’t think so.

You know why I think we tend to give up on our resolutions? Because when we set a resolution, we demand perfection from ourselves. And once we fail once or twice, we simply say the hell with even trying and resign ourselves to starting over again next year.

News flash yall. Perfection is impossible. Whatever your resolution might be, there is no way that the road to achievement will be perfectly smooth. While you may feel like everything must go perfectly with your resolution in 2015 in order for it to be considered successful, in the real world that will never happen.

And if that’s your expectation, you seriously should give up right now.

Perfection is Elusive, but It’s Still a Good Goal

There is nothing wrong with shooting for perfection when it come to your 2015 resolutions.

Perfection, Target, Goal

I’ve set some lofty goals for this year, and I’m going to do everything that I can to achieve them. But I’m also fully aware that I could miss a day of posting, maybe take longer to read a book than I thought, or end up with an injury that prevents me from hitting my mileage goals.

And if any of those things happen, I will not consider myself a failure for coming up short on one of my goals.

I have a goal of creating 365 posts this year. If I end up with only 360, that’s still pretty damn good and I’d still consider that a very successful year. Sure, I’d prefer to be a perfect 365 for 365, but if I happen to miss a day, why would I give up? Why not just keep going?

The Only Way You Can Truly Fail is to Quit

So now that we are 7 days into 2015, how are you doing with your resolutions? If you’re still riding high, keep building the momentum and moving forward. But if you’re struggling, don’t give up. Just accept the fact that you ultimately won’t be perfect, but there is no reason you can’t continually strive for perfection.

If you keep striving for perfection and refuse to quit the times you fall short, there is no way you’ll be anything but successful 358 days from today.

Perfection is impossible, but damn good is well within your reach.

So keep pushing forward, and don’t ever give up.

How I’m Going to Take the (Virtual) Running World By Storm in 2015

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with New Years Resolutions for a number of years now.

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Calvin and Hobbes. Classic…

For most of my life, I really thought the idea of making resolutions was ridiculous. My thought had always been that deciding to do something positive for your life/health was too important to wait for a new year to begin. Also, there is a lot more pressure to keep your resolutions than there is to continue the good habits you decided to implement on a random day in April, July, October, or whenever else you decided to start.

So instead of waiting for a new year to get started, why not focus on bettering yourself every day? Read more

New Runners Should Hire a Coach

Should new runners hire a running coach?

To put it simply, yes.

New Runners, Running, Coach

“Doh! I should have worked with a coach!”

While it’s true to a point that running is nothing but putting one foot in front of the other a little faster than you do when you’re walking, there are a lot of things that can (and often do) go wrong for runners–both newbies and seasoned veterans alike. If new runners hire a coach, even for just a short period of time, they can avoid some of the missteps that may lead to burn out, dissatisfaction, or even worse–injury. Read more