Change my attitude

When in training, it is SO EASY to fall into the trap of focusing first on what went wrong with each workout, on the negative parts of how your body is feeling. It's easy....and a surefire way to totally derail your goals.

I am trying to catch myself from falling into this trap on a daily basis right now. As you know from my last blog post, I am definitely struggling with the weather. It's hard to train right now. I'm still working through some physical discomforts from my last training cycle that are sometimes frustrating to me.

HOWEVER, here's what I'm going to do. For every single negative thing I feel before, during, or after a training session, I am going to think of and WRITE DOWN (I have an old school training journal for this cycle) a positive. Because there is ALWAYS a positive.

Heck, I'm using a whole lot of all caps just to get this point across to myself!

Yesterday, I ran my longest run since the Boston Marathon. 14 miles. FOURTEEN! That's a really big deal to me, especially considering I didn't start base building after my setback until June. But I had some struggles coming into the run. Last week, the weather really wore me down and I was finding it necessary to dial things way back into order to keep my heartrate in check and not overdo it. So, in order to make the run productive and to have a better attitude, I decided on doing a run/walk workout. Run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute. Not ideal, very slow, and I had a terrible time with my right calf muscle tightening up and cramping during the run...but here's where the positives come in:

1. I completed 14 miles without feeling overwhelmed.
2. I didn't feel hot until the last 2 miles, despite it being close to 80 degrees and very humid.
3. My heartrate stayed in the 120s until the last 3 miles, when the breeze died down and I actually started feeling the temp. And even then, it didn't leave Zone 2 until I hit some inclines in the last 1.5 miles.
4. I am not at all sore. Despite my calf having a lot of trouble, I didn't even notice it in the evening last night.
5. Knowing I have some tight muscles forces me to spend some time working on loosening those muscles today before my next workout tomorrow, and being forced to do recovery is never a bad thing.
6. I did a great job in hydrating and consuming electrolytes before and during the run and I think I have dialed in a good fueling strategy.

Our mind is so powerful. We have the ability to achieve our goals, but the wrong mindset and a focus on the wrong things can negate all the hard work we've put in.

If you're struggling with these negative thoughts and putting too much focus on them, I challenge you to write down a positive for every single workout, no matter how poorly you think it went. It really will make a big difference by the time you get to race day.