Do what you say you’re going to do
I was excited to get home tonight and head out for the evening’s run for a number of reasons. First, after some morning showers, it turned out to be a gorgeous Spring day – sunshine and mid-50′s. Since Sunday is my long run day and Monday is my traditional day to recover, physically I’m usually in pretty good shape come Tuesday so I can do a tempo run and push myself. Lastly, since there was some construction by my normal weekday trail, I decided to run my favorite trail. It’s 3.2 miles long, so I set out to run it twice.
Physically, running can be a funny sport. Some days you feel terrible, then go out and have a great run. Other days you’re on top of the world, and fight just to keep going. Unfortunately tonight, the run quickly devolved into the second category. I greatly suspect my lunch (late and heavy on the pasta) was a prime culprit.
Good Cop, Bad Cop
It didn’t take long before I started thinking about only running one loop. It’s funny how it creeps up on you, isn’t it? Sure you’re struggling, but you came out with a goal regardless. Then out of the blue comes the first unbidden thought: “what would be so bad about just running one loop?” From there it’s like a good cop, bad cop scene where you literally argue with yourself; one side taking the position that there’s no shame in quitting if you don’t “have your stuff” (and you can always do extra in the coming days), the other side sticking to toughing it out and saving some self-esteem.
The issue, as we all know, is that history tells us that we don’t make up for it in the coming days. While we may struggle to get through the task we’ve set before ourselves from time to time and not complete it as quickly or as eloquently as we had hoped, the fact that we did complete it greatly helps balance out that minor disappointment.
So this back and forth in my mind went on for the better part of the first run, and I still didn’t know what I was going to do as I rounded the final turn and headed up the last hill toward the parking lot.
But I kept going
I’ll jump to the end of the story and tell you that I kept going and did my second loop. The satisfaction in doing what I said I was going to do absolutely made up for the crappy, sub-par run. And you know what? The second loop was far better than the first. Sometimes if you just stick with it long enough, things work themselves out.
So what trick did I employ to talk myself into running the second loop? What incentive did I use? What logical argument won out over the bad cop? Actually, I don’t really feel like I did anything, it all kind of took care of itself. What I can tell you is that it was really the opposite of all those questions I just asked:
I simply stopped trying to talk myself out of it.
That’s right – as I rounded that last corner and headed up the hill toward the trailhead, without even thinking of it I just kind of stopped trying to convince myself that I shouldn’t continue. I let the goal of running two loops settle back into my subconscious, and my active mind just re-occupied with random thoughts of the trail and the day. After that everything took care of itself. As I came up on the trailhead, I just kept running without thinking and continued on to my second loop.
Sure, it’s not always that simple, but…
…then again, maybe it is. We spend so much time and effort trying to look for ways to do what we say we are going to do, that sometimes I think we end up spending more effort than if we would just keep running in the first place. Plus, we all know what it feels like when we don’t do what we say we’re going to. It feels pretty crappy, right? But following through and staying true to our goals feels pretty awesome right? So even though my run tonight didn’t satisfy my evening goal I stayed true to my long term goal and I did what I said I was going to do. On balance, I’ll take that any night.
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Comments
I’m glad to hear you’re not only sticking with it Lauren, but that it’s getting better. And doesn’t it feel just good to stick to your promises?
Nice inspiration Dave. I have masses on my plate – just launched one business – in the process of getting funding for another…. it’s so tempting at times to harbor the thoughts about giving up, easing off, etc. But I won’t entertain them!
So good to read something that keeps my motivation buzzing.
SO relevant to what I am working on right now. We are upgrading our web site and there is a lot of content to write. Like your story of the run, I have good days and bad days with it and like your run if I just keep going it gets better.