*The Debatewise Blog
What running has taught me - part 4
They call this the Monster Month. The task is to get more miles on legs and to hit target times. Which means longish runs on Wednesdays, very long runs on Sundays and fast runs on Tuesday and Thursday. I like Mondays mornings a lot these days.The running, not so much. The big improvements are behind me and the marathon a long way ahead. I’ve gone from being delighted I could keep going to being resentful I still have to. Given I’ve got more than 200 miles of running to do between now and the 26th April what I need is a new attitude.
I’ve tried pessimism before, thought I could protect myself from disappointment by keeping myself so permanently. Doesn’t work of ourse, a pessimist is no less disappointed when things don’t work out, but an optimist finds the silver lining in all clouds.
However, this approach doesn’t work when it comes to expectations. Expect something to be easy and you’re profoundly disappointed when it’s not. Moreover, the disappointment frequently gives way to a voice which moans about things being unfair, or unduly hard or, worse, tells you that you’ve failed somehow.
On the other hand, expect something to be hard and it turns out to be hard, well that’s just right, the natural order of things, the way they’re supposed to be. In fact, if they’re not hard either you feel great about your prowess or push a bit more until they become so. Win/win either way.
Before I started this someone told me that running was mostly psychological. This helped me go further the first time and the second time and just about every time since. My expectation was it would hurt, so I wasn’t surprised when it did, in fact I even started to like that it did. I flipped from seeing pain as proof things aren’t working to proof they are.
The opposite is also true. I always expect the smaller Saturday runs to be a piece of cake and then deeply resent being just as tired as on ones twice the length. Then there’s the paradox of being able to run a half-marathon faster than for the bus. Compare that with the
expectation-free Marley who seems to take all runs in his very graceful stride.
So what gets me through this? Clearly it will help to expect this period to be tough, to realise I’m at a plateau, to dig in and knuckle down and to try and be more like my dog.
Dave