Skip to main content

Limits are for losers

I have to admit that the Rotterdam marathon felt a bit disappointing after all the training I had put into it just to finish 6 seconds slower than the previous one. There were a lot of positives to take out of the experience but those nuggets only surfaced after the sulking had subsided. 

A week after the marathon I did the Great Ireland Run. It was supposed to be an easy-to-moderate run (I had planned to complete it in 55 mins) but on the day the competitive side of me won the argument and decided to give it socks and "see what happens". In my mind the worst case scenario was that i would have to stop and walk at some point or slow down considerably. Well, that didn't happen! What happened instead was that:

1) I didn't have to slow down at all
2) I didn't have to stop (in previous years I had had to stop and walk for a few minutes)
3) I came only 14 seconds short of my PB of 46:02

What I learnt that days is that all the training for Rotterdam had in fact, paid off in a slightly different way. Had I decided to set limits to myself on that day, I would've never found out how strong I could run.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The hidden benefits of sport for teenagers

Following up from my last post , I have been giving some thought to the topic of teenagers and sport. Having a teenager in the house has taught me a thing or two about the way in which us parents, create a work ethic that will help them later in life, and the struggles we go through in order to turn actions into habits. Be the example We're all familiar with the old saying "Do as I say, not as I do" and it makes sense in a convoluted way, but not to a teenager. Imagine we tell them to get off the phone/tablet/Playstation and go to bed early, but they see us staying up till midnight browsing Facebook in bed. It sounds hypocritical, right? To a teenager, this feeling is amplified tenfold. If, on the other hand, we get proper rest, if we are commited to training, to fueling properly and we can show the results consistently, there's a better chance of the message sticking in their minds. Responsibility is personal When my son was younger, we would always mak...

The journey towards the Dublin City Marathon

When I started this blog I has the idea to use it as a way to keep me honest in my training by forcing me to log every (or almost every) session including mileage and how the session went, and a lot of things have happened since my last post back in April: - I did my first night run on the trails, head lamp and all. - Went on holidays and tried to run an "easy 10k" in 30 degree heat and nearly died - Started exercising for 10 minutes every morning before work - Ran the Born to Run 10k series around Dublin (none of the races were actually 10k) - Ran the South Dublin 10k race in July - Started training for the Dublin City Marathon in October Sadly, writing hasn't been one of them. I fell into the trap of wanting to be read people other than myself and my imaginary friends and I realised that the most popular blogs have content and knowledge. I just have stories... and excuses.

Short term goals vs long term vision

Why did you start running? We all start running for a reason. For some people, the motivation is to lose weight, for some others the is to gain fitness to do other sports. There is of course the love of running as a sport in itself but I don't think I've ever met anyone who one day just laced up, went out and was converted. There's always something ahead in the distance that pulls you. That's the inital goal. The pits of short term goals Say you take up running in January to lose some weight after the excesses of December. You religiously get out 3 or 4 days a week to do 4 miles and after a couple of months you hit your weight target. Then what? The initial goal is achieved and there's no incentive to keep on running so, instead of 4 times a week, you now run twice a week. Instead of 4 miles you run 3, then 2... See the pattern? There has to be more than immediate objectives to keep you going. Otherwise, there are too many forks on the road, too many deci...