ROOTS ISSUE 6
Grounding your running, mindfulness , health and wellness
Changing the Story: 2018 Reflection
So its been a little while since I've posted on here. I said I was going to do this pretty regularly and well as we know that didn't happen. Its been a pretty crazy year between selling the house in the spring, building out a camper van (and living part time out of it), and a lot of other things which has just made life pretty challenging.
It's been hard to keep a clear head through all of this change and at times it was pretty hard to even just keep running. I knew that my future self would have been pretty disappointed if a didn't though.
Through it all its actually been one of my better running seasons, albeit my best race performances came at events which were not my "A" races. When you take a step back though its actually those tough races where you're forced to deal with things not going to they you wanted to where you actually learn the most and grow as an athlete. Sure there were a few podium finishes this year which I am truly proud of, but in reflection its knowing how I handled myself when things went off the rails a few times that I am the most proud of.
I normally pride myself in being able to be one step removed from events and being able to stay focused on the big picture. Well for the last half of this year that has not been the case for me. I let myself get sucked in and overwhelmed by all of the little details of everything that was changing around me and had convinced myself that I was powerless to be able to influence the direction that my life and my training was taking (YA I KNOW... THAT DOESN"T SOUND LIKE ME AT ALL!).
I think that every once in a while you have to experience these lows to keep things in perspective. A quote that I like, and I don't remember who said it but I heard it on the Rich Roll Pod Cast is " Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a day but completely underestimate what they can accomplish in 5 years". This grounds me in something that I have believed in pretty hard for a while, its all about showing up, day after day with consistency. Its not that you need to accomplish some amazing each and every day, you just need to accomplish something in the direction of amazing and eventually with patience and persistence you will get there. It's all about the long game.
Now the trap you can sometimes find yourself in when playing the long game is that you start looking to close at the micro things that are going on around you and you start to believe that you have not made any progress. This is where I was at. What I did though is take a look back to 5 years ago to remind myself where I was coming from and then take a look to 5 years ahead. When I did this it was pretty clear that things were right where they need to be and I am making progress I the direction that I want to be going.
As silly as it may seem, reaffirming this to myself has made all the difference in the world. It's changed the story narrative in my head from a place of despair to a place of motivation and drive to get after my goals again.
Ok great so where am I going with all this.
Where I am going in all this is reaffirming what I know I need to do. As Des Linden says "Just keep showing up".
Looking forward to 2019 I think my my main area of improvement is going to be in my daily habits. The little things I can do each day that will lead me to something amazing. I know that I all ready train my but off and generally (with some exceptions especially this year) don't struggle with motivation. So what can I do every day to work towards my amazing?
To answer that I need to have an look back at where I fell short this year. When I do this I know that I shifted my focus to heavily on just the running aspect of the training and stoped taking care of myself as a whole. So this means a need to be more focused on the little things that I think will have a big impact by the time next springs marathon comes around.
For me, I believe that to be functional range of motion in my hip flexors and quads, healthy muscle fibres in all of my leg muscles to avoid cramping and a strong core to keep good technique to hold it all together through the finish.
I tend to dive into things full throttle and then sometimes realize that I have bitten off more than I can chew and give up because I can't fit in everything that I "believe that I need to in a day". Overestimating what I can accomplish in a day. So my new approach is going to be one of simplicity. One that fosters easy daily habits that once established I can build on.
What does that look like right now? Its a simple as 15 min of foam rolling at the end of the day followed by quad stretching and lunges to open up the front of my legs. Core strength... for now I am working on my planks and push ups. There is defiantly not going to be any amazing results in the next week, or month... but my hope is that over the next months with some simplicity and consistency the results will come.