This is for those of you (and there are a lot of you) who are trying to do something beyond what you have ever done before….
Today is a critical day. Day 5. (depending on your time zone!)
This is the day the real temptations start gnawing away at you. Maybe today I just don’t go out? What will it really hurt? I have plenty of time to make it up!
Well, every day you notch a zero, it takes 5 extra miles added somewhere down the line. But that is not the real reason to push yourself out the door. The real reason is that taking a day off grows exponentially.
It is easier to take a day off now, than it will be later. And every day you take off makes the next one even easier. You don’t have that long string of days in a row you have “run” to maintain. The longer it goes, the more you have to think about breaking the string, until you start to feel compelled to keep it going. If you can find the will to get out every day until you reach Buckeye Hollow, you will have established a habit that will carry you long past the end of the race.
If this is new to your body, the miles can seem like they are more difficult than when you started. You have had time to get sore. Time to start getting the nagging stuff. Blisters, aching joints, sore feet…. This isn’t for those young people out there. When you are young, stuff just snaps back. We seasoned performers, there isnt a lot of snap left.
What you have to know, deep down, is that it will get easier. About the time you have decided that it is never going to get easier, it will start. Without you hardly noticing it, that minimum distance that used to be hard, really went by without much trouble. The long days that used to leave you collapsed on the couch no longer take you down. You find that you can start making the minimum days a little longer; that you can add some distance to your long days.
But none of that is happening yet. You have only opened the door of your potential a crack. To get what you want, you will have to pull on your gear and walk out into the pouring rain. You will have to put on your gear and go out when it is so hot that every step seems twice too hard. or in another hemisphere put on your gear and walk out into a cold wind that penetrates your clothes with icy fingers. You will have to face down a lot of obstacles to get what you want… a stroll up Buckeye Hollow.
But the dramatic obstacles are easy. When you face the rain, the heat, the cold, there is something prideful about it. There is some sense of strength and purpose in facing those.
There is nothing to brag about, in resisting the temptation to just take it easy and put off the miles until tomorrow. But that might be the biggest obstacle of all.
Here is the way I approach it. There are two things I have to know every day…. When will i “run”, and what will I eat for supper.
If I decide not to run, then I should not eat supper. Any reason strong enough to replace one should replace them both.
Now, what is your choice?
.
That is what i thought. See you out there.