Saturday, November 26, 2011

Hold Please

The final post of my series is coming, but there have been internet issues - look for the next post to drop Monday or Tuesday.

I hope Thanksgiving was good.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Man, I Don't Feel Like Doing This

Some days, you shouldn't run.  Maybe you turned your ankle and it's still a little suspect.  Or you have a bad cold and didn't sleep much the night before.  Or there's just no way to squeeze in a run around important events, like a family member's wedding or vacation travel.  And that's OK.

But then there are the runs we miss for no reason.  The "I don't feel like it" days.  The "I'll run extra the rest of the week" days.  The days when we talk ourselves out of running (the weather is supposed to be better tomorrow, I've got a bad headache, if I skip this one I could use the time to catch up on things around the house...).

So why don't we run?  We know we should, especially if there's a race coming up.  But then again, we all know that we should set aside money in savings, eat healthier, watch less TV, floss several times per day, etc.  We know the benefits, we know what happens if we don't do certain things.  So why aren't we all thing, fast, in perfect health with a bank account that will let us retire at 55?

I closed out the last post promising to talk about what's getting in our way.  Well it doesn't take a deep look to see that WE are getting in our way.  All of our lives are full of barriers, things that make it harder to do the stuff you want or need to do.

So what is keeping us from running consistently?  I think as a runner, active barriers are harder to identify because there are less things physically causing us to take a day off.  The weather is an active barrier - cold, rainy, or too hot, or whatever, the weather can push us towards skipping a workout.  But what else is there really?  It isn't as if someone is physically keeping us from walking out the door - you don't wake up tied to a chair with a sign in front of you that says, "Sorry, no run today".

Passive barriers (or at least the appearance of passive barriers in our minds) are plentiful.  It is very easy to come up with a million things that I don't have, but feel I need in order to accomplish certain things.  I'd love to write a book, but when I start thinking about it, the passive barriers pop up immediately - I don't have a good idea for a book, I don't have the time to write one, I don't know what to do after writing it.  These are things I don't have, but feel I need, to reach a goal.  And not one of them is legit.  No time to write a book?  I've found time to write 2 blog posts a week all year, I find time for certain TV shows every week, and it's not as if I spend all of my spare time keeping up with the housework. 

No, most of our passive barriers are the result of lies.  We all lie to ourselves, all the time.  Sometimes it's not your fault, you're being pushed into it unknowingly (do you eat enough vegetables?  Really?)  But most of the time, we lie out of convenience.  It is almost always easier to NOT do something, and then justify it, than it is to just suck it up and do it.

So what are you lying about?  What passive barriers are you letting keep you from your goals as a runner?  Here's where the cause and effect comes in.  The effect is skipping a run.  Think about the last one you skipped.  Now play the 5 Whys game:

I didn't run, why?
I was behind schedule that morning, why?
I slept an extra 20 minutes, why?
I stayed up late watching Netflix.  Notice, I didn't even need 5 of them this time!

Do this for a few missed runs, and look at the actions that eventually led to skipping the workout.  Most of this will seem obvious and easy to fix, right?  But then, if it was easy, wouldn't we all be slim, rich, Hollywood good looking and preparing for early retirement?


Next time, I'll talk about willpower (which doesn't exist), and how we can overcome barriers - not by hitting them head on, but by creating our own barriers against failure.


Since my most loyal follower Hugh Jass over at tin can treader is feeling some stress about upcoming events, I'll leave you with the most important link I've ever posted on here, James Altucher's blog.  Mr. Altucher is a genius.  Not you're run of the mill, lab coat and chalk board genius.  Not a Rubik's cube in 10 seconds genius.  James Altucher is a Steve Jobs type of genius, the only difference being that he is more concerned with his own personal happiness than changing the world.  If you follow even half of his ideas (which often sound half-baked at first glance), you should come away healthier, happier, and more successful than you've ever been.  Even if you don't (I'm still getting around to execution, perhaps I need to install some barriers to help out), just a quick read of a few of his posts will leave you feeling empowered, maybe even a little bit invincible.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Let's Do This!

Sometimes, you're invincible.  Occasionally, it's a hard workout, and hit or exceed all of your targets.  You may feel completely wiped afterward, but damn it, you DID SOMETHING out there today.  Sometimes, you're beating the odds, overcoming some unforeseen setback, succeeding in spite of circumstances.  More often than not though, it's some random time that you feel inspired.  Maybe it happens while you're driving, and you find yourself plotting and planning your upcoming training, proposing a crazy schedule that you'll never keep, but you feel so empowered that you don't recognize the insanity.

And then sometimes you're whipped.  It's hard enough to want to cook dinner at the end of the day, let alone run a 5 mile tempo run that you had planned.  Or you slept too little, or too much, or you just feel crappy for no explainable reason.  The complete antithesis of that insanely motivated, empowered you who believed that they could hop out of the car and run a marathon right then and there.

Motivation is such a fickle concept.  So psychological, so easy to understand if you're on the outside looking in, or in the future looking back, but it's like attempting a Rubik's cube blindfolded when you're in the moment and searching for it.

It's easy to be motivated on race day.  Even when you're not in the shape you want to be in, racing is fun.  It's the payoff, the reward for the training.  We've all skipped workouts for various reasons, but how many times have you ever skipped a race you were planning to run just because your motivation is a little off?  Not many.  Training motivation is the one that counts though, keeping yourself focused and working consistently towards your goal.  It sounds so easy, even to me as I sit here typing it.  So why do we skip workouts, why do we lose motivation?

I'm going to classify missed workouts in two categories - life, and motivation loss.  Life happens, things sometimes truly get in the way of your running, and it can't always be anticipated and dealt with.  Things in this category aren't going to be discussed here - I have a pretty strict policy of trying not to let things that I have no control over bother me.  This series will focus solely on motivation, digging through the ins and outs of the human mind, discussing ways to tweak thought processes and hack your life so that loss of motivation doesn't result in skipped workouts.  Cool, huh?

Psychology is king here, and the main ideas that can help us understand and overcome a loss of focus are psychological barriers and cause and effect relationships. 

There are two kinds of barriers, mental road-blocks that can dictate what you do or don't do - active, and passive.  Active barriers are things that actually prevent an action - if you lock the candy bowl in a cabinet and put the key in a desk drawer, that is an active barrier to you eating candy, because the process of obtaining it makes the reward of candy worth less than the hassle of getting off the couch, getting a key from one room, opening a cabinet another room, and getting a treat.  Passive barriers prevent action through the absence of something - if there is no candy in the house, you cannot eat it.  One of my favorite non-running bloggers, Ramit Sethi, frequently discusses barriers in the context of personal finance, and I will link to his blog several times, as he is a freaking genius when it comes to understanding the motives behind actions.  Mr. Sethi's blog can be found here.

We can use cause and effect with this to work our way backwards to the source of our motivation loss, and how to prevent it.  Starting at the effect (missing a workout), you go backward dissecting the causes and identifying barriers that need to be overcome (as well as places where you can create barriers that help you).

And that's what the next post will be about, why we don't run.  What's getting in the way, preventing us from training and performing the way we want to.  Look for that post on Sunday or Monday.  Until then, stay warm, stay motivated, and when you can, stay invincible.


I've ran 4 of 5 days so far this week, which is pretty good.  I need to be consistent, since I don't have much time left before Thanksgiving.  Hopefully I'll get out of bed for a 10 mile run tomorrow morning.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Stand By...

Having some computer issues, should be resolved soon.  Until then, please stand by...

Monday, November 7, 2011

I Will Get Up and Run, I Will Get Up and Run...

So the past couple of weeks I've been pretty short on motivation for both running and blogging (anyone reading my blog has noticed this lately).  I sure do seem to have a lot of "good reasons" (read: excuses) for skipping runs and posting single-paragraph "updates".

So over the next 2 weeks (the week after that being Thanksgiving week, meaning I'll be in the woods hunting with no internet), I'm going to do an 3 part series on motivation.  The plan as of now is to talk a bit about the psychology of doing stuff (in case you haven't seen my resume lately, I'm also a self-proclaimed amateur psychologist), I'll talk about WHY, spend some time covering WHY NOT, and give some links to sites I find useful for each topic.  And along the way, I'm going to start applying the things I'm talking about to my own running to get it back on track (1.  I should have been doing this stuff anyway;  2.  Back on TRACK, get it?).

I've got 2 weeks to grab whatever conditioning I can before hunting season, the Thanksgiving 5 miler, and 2 weeks off for bridge inspections (official downtime before I start into winter mileage and spring scheduling).  I barely ran last week, but had a good tempo run this morning.  At least my lifting has been consistent for the past few weeks, and now that daylight savings time has ended I'll have better visibility for morning runs.

Tomorrow or Wednesday, expect the first installment of a series about motivation that will change your life! 

OK, too over the top?  I haven't even given the series a name yet...

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Come Here Often?

I've been too long since my last post.  But I've got good reason - I just didn't know exactly what I wanted to say.  I spent so much time and effort in the lead up to my PE Exam, and now that it is over and I've got my life back, I kind of got a little drunk off of the laziness.  Being able to relax and do nothing for the past 5 or 6 days has just been too good, and too easy.  No post race letdowns this year, but wouldn't you know it, I end up with a post-exam letdown.

I'm healthy again!  My cold has finally backed off, and I am ready to face the frigid November mornings of the WV mountains.  Somehow we missed the intermediate step, so I've been freezing while running this week.  We had a stretch of 50 degree mornings - PERFECT running weather.  Now in the morning when I lace up my shoes, it's 35 (or colder).  Not so perfect, but it would be a hell of a lot more manageable if I'd gotten a few weeks of 40 degree weather to help me ease into it.

So after a little down time for illness and academics, I'm easing back into mileage and lifting - and my body is not happy about it.  I went from a little sore on Monday night, to very sore on Wednesday morning, to walking a little odd today -  this is from two runs and two sessions of lifting.

I'll finish off this post with three recent revelations.

1.  I've missed out on a lot of good picture opportunities.  I'm going to start taking my camera with me more to help remedy this - my phone is the cheapest thing imaginable, it does not have a camera.  And now that the camera has fresh batteries, maybe I'll finally take some shots to add to the blog.

2.  When your legs are sore, move them often.  Stand shoulder width apart, and squat until your butt touches the ground.  Do this about every hour or so.  It will hurt, but it does prevent you from walking around looking like a goose with arthritis.  Be discreet about these squats, however, else you risk a coworker coming by and asking you why you look like you are pooping in the floor.

3.  New awesome must read blog!  Lauren Fleshman is the best female 5k runner in America right now, and she's prepping to run her first marathon in New York this weekend.  Her blog is great - she's witty, has an easy writing style, and is very knowledgeable about the things that go on in a runner's head while training and racing.  I highly suggest giving it a read (look at me, I'm a link!).


Also, I'm looking for suggestions for running-related sports-sciency topics to research and learn more about, then possibly turn into a post (or several posts). 

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