The first day of a new training plan is always full of excitement. You are excited about what the future holds over the next eighteen weeks and cannot wait to hit the road. New goals have been set, shoes bought, and the latest greatest hydration system that had a good review that you found on some running blog is now sitting in your room. As you lace up your shoes and get ready to head out on that first run for all the world to see, it seems like nothing could ever keep you from achieving greatness. For most of us, this feeling of conquering the world lasts a couple of miles and then we sink back into the reality that running still takes effort and we question why we got ourselves into this. Slowly but surely as the days go by we start to skip runs and take extra rest days, convincing ourselves that our bodies 'need' a day off. For most it is not our bodies that need the day off, but rather our minds and attitudes towards the activity. We get so burnt out by hitting the road day after day that we lose sight of the benefits and joy that running brings to our lives. This inevitably leads to us failing ourselves and never reaching that goal of setting a new PR at the end of the cycle. That feeling of failure soon carries over into the next cycle and you go into with doubt in your mind as to whether or not you will actually succeed this time. Eventually you all but give up the activity once it becomes nothing but a frustration from constant disappointment.
How do we fix this issue of burning out and failing to reach our goals on race day? There is not one simple fix for every person. A good start is trying to keep a positive attitude about running. We all know that the activity takes effort and that some days we will be sore and tired. No matter what training plan you subscribe to, that is not going to change. So, instead of dreading the days when your legs feel like they are made of cement and no matter how hard you try you walk like a young Forrest Gump in braces, view this as a sort of trophy of the hard work that you have put in. That muscle soreness is the result of you pushing yourself through wanting to quit on your last three intervals the day before. It is a sign that you went out, put the work in, and bettered yourself. Soreness should not be viewed as a punishment, but rather a reward for your hard work and dedication to your goal. Sure, when you stagger into work the next morning, barely able to make it to your desk, your coworkers may wonder what you did to yourself the night before, but hold your head high and bask in the glory of hard work. There is no need to explain to everyone that you are sore because you ran 6x800m intervals at a sub-6:00/mile pace with a 400m rest in-between. First-off, most likely your coworkers will not understand anything that you just said. Secondly, why do you need to justify your soreness to them by explaining how your body came to be in this state of stiffness?
You should run for yourself, no one else. If you start out on a training plan and you are doing it just to impress someone, or to try and look cool, you will most likely burn out in a couple of weeks and never pick it up again. Running is something that you have to do for yourself. You have to do it to burn off steam, make your body better, and make your mind better. It has to be something that you want to do and dedicate yourself to. Of course, if you are a weekend jogger then this does not pertain to you. This is for the folks that sign onto a training plan that will have them running 4+ days a week. You have to find your reason to run. You have to find that motivation that will be there in your darkest hour. That one thought that will keep you pushing through the 24 mile marker on your way to a Boston qualifier. To be a runner takes complete dedication. No skipping workouts, no putting runs off until tomorrow, no excuses for not pushing yourself as hard as you should have.
Once you master getting your mind right for running, then you can fully dedicate yourself and find out just haw good you can be. Take a while to think about fuels you when you hit the road. What makes you lace up your shoes everyday? If the answer is not for the joy of running, then you need to rethink how you view the activity.
