Begin to Run Again to Jump My Mental Hurdle

My body really wants to run, but my mind keeps say­ing, “uh, can you really do it?” I haven’t con­vinced myself yet that I can and I know that until I believe it, it won’t be pos­si­ble. Now, hav­ing said that, I really need to stop focus­ing on the 13.1 mile run. After 1 mile, I think “that would be 12.1 more miles to go.” After 2 miles “that would be 11.1 more miles to go.” I need to set smaller goals and for­get about the 13.1 miles. It is 18 weeks from this Sat­ur­day. I have time to work towards that. AND, as I was talk­ing to Fiona today I real­ized, I can walk 13.1 miles today. I know that I can do. It’s the run­ning part that is trip­ping me up. So, why am I freak­ing out?

For me, visu­al­iza­tion is HUGE. I need to see some­thing to under­stand it.  That is my focus this week. To do what I can to get my mind and body in sync and on track.

Goals to Jump Men­tal Hurdle

These are the steps I’m going to take this week.

1. Put my train­ing sched­ule on my cal­en­dar. See­ing it each day will make it real. It’ll be my appoint­ment and I’ll work every­thing else around it!

2. Run 2 — 20 minute runs dur­ing the week and 1 30 minute run on Sun­day. My goal is to do a 60 min long run in 3 weeks.

3. Put up some pic­tures of me run­ning. This will help me visu­al­ize myself as a run­ner and remem­ber who I’m active for.…ME!

4. Start using run­ning pod­casts dur­ing my runs to take my mind off the run. (Fiona sug­gested the Jog­Tunes Indie Pod­cast)

You will also no longer see the words, “train­ing for half marathon” on my weekly recaps. I’m going to rename my train­ing, ScrappinMichele’s Active Life Train­ing. I’m train­ing for life, not a half marathon.

I have decided to use my daughter’s dance time to run today. I usu­ally sit in the wait­ing area and chat, but today, I will run at least 20 min­utes. I’m going to go put my run­ning clothes on right now (at 1:45 pm) because that way I’ll have no excuses… I’ll be ready!

3 Weeks to a 60 Minute Run

Fiona and I worked out this 3 week run­ning train­ing plan to get me to a 60 min long week­end run.

Week 1

• 2 — 20 min easy runs
• 1– 30 min week­end run

Week 2

• 2 — 20 to 30 min runs
• 1 — 40 min week­end run

Week 3

• 2 — 20 to 30 min runs
• 1 — 60 min week­end run

Let’s Talk!

What men­tal hur­dles do you have when tack­ling a new fit­ness goal?

Tagged as: EA Sports, Fitness, geek, Half marathon, mental hurdles, Mind, run, running