How do you define success for yourself as a runner?
Whatever success looks like for you, there are plenty of obstacles that are likely to get in your way at various points along your path.
Injury. Time management. Life in general.
But the biggest obstacle you’re likely to encounter along the way?
Is you. Read more
On the surface, long runs are pretty simple, right?
Run for a longer time than you usually do.
But in practice, long runs aren’t always as straightforward as they seem like they should be.
If you’re struggling with your long runs, I promise you’re not alone.
Here are some tips that may help make those long runs a little less daunting. Read more
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?
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.
There is nothing wrong with shooting for perfection when it come to your 2015 resolutions.
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?
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.
Last week’s long run was a disaster.
That’s 4:18:54 for 22 miles…
Since I was only 5 weeks out from the Blue Springs Marathon, I wanted to get in the longest run I’d be doing while preparing for my marathon. I decided to shoot for 22ish miles, depending on how I felt and how far my route (that I basically made up on the fly) ended up being. Because Lord knows if I made it back to the car at mile 21, there was no chance I’d end up making it to 21.1, let alone 22.