New Attitude

I have been listening to old episodes of the Running Times podcast and I recently heard one from October 2008. The guest on the show was Bob Kennedy, an American record holder, who was the first non-African to break 13:00 in the 5,000m distance. He discussed his thoughts on the mentality needed in order achieve breakthrough performances in running.

One of his ideas that really stuck with me (and I’m paraphrasing here), is that a runner can show up on any given day with two different attitudes – one, wondering “how much am I going to fail today” or two, “I wonder how much I’m going to succeed today.” Of course, both of these depend on other factors – strength in training, sleep, nutrition, overtraining, proper recovery, etc. but it just reminded me how much of this sport is a mental game as well as a physical one.

How much am I going to succeed today?

What a great perspective. The optimism in that attitude is tremendous. The first attitude is one of fear, which is exactly what I’ve been trying to weed out of my running. Running scared is no way to run. Even if I don’t meet my goals for a particular run or race, at least I started out with a positive attitude. I started out looking to succeed rather than trying to control my fears.

I continue to run strong and consistently and this attitude is exactly what I need to add to my running. How much am I going to succeed today!

As I start this new month, I am looking to take my mileage up to the next level and hold it steady at 45-50 miles a week until I start training in January for the Country Music Marathon. I’m going to ask myself this question, each time I start to question my abilities, each time I start to lose confidence in myself and my running.

My current marathon PR is 4:19:09. My last half marathon time predicts a sub-4 hour marathon time. When I initially saw that prediction, my reaction was “no way!” but now, I want to rethink. Rather than shy away from the sub-4 hour goal, I am going to embrace it. If I don’t get a sub-4 in Nashville, it just means I didn’t succeed as much as I could have succeeded. It doesn’t mean I failed.

Also, this new attitude may have inspired me to try a different kind of race. Who knows? Maybe I’ll give it a shot! We’ll see where this new attitude takes me.

Daily Dozen:
10.36 miles this morning (first run below 30 degrees – definitely wore tights this morning)
XT and push ups and other strength training @ lunch hour