Half Marathon Training + Mind Over Matter

As you may know, I signed up for my first half marathon a few weeks back. While I might not have talked about it on a regular basis, I have actually been training regularly.  My half marathon training has taught me a lot more about myself, and has made me understand my body better over the last few weeks. I learnt to step out of my comfort zone, overcome my dislike of running in a hot and humid environment, motivate myself when I am feeling lazy, and gained greater confident as a person.

If you had asked me how my training was going last week, I would have been really delighted to tell you all about it. Prior to this week, I have been following my training plan pretty closely, and have been progressing slowly and steadily (according to my plan). Though the progress may be slow, I was encouraged and motivated when I realized how I was growing stronger with every run.

But if you ask me how my training went this week, I will have to admit that it wasn’t all that great. I struggled through all my runs this week. Even my short run of 5 km felt like a real challenge.  Usually, when I have a bad run, I will console myself and tell myself that it is probably ‘one of those runs’. I have said that four times this week, and it has really bruised my spirit.

In fact, I almost felt like calling it quits during the 16 km run this morning. I had a good start to my run this morning, but after running just 8 km, my body (or possibly my mind) was screaming, and was asking me to stop. I was tempted to take the shortcut back home, but decided to run according to my plan, since I have already had a few ‘not-so-good’ runs earlier in the week. Even after making that decision, I still couldn’t get myself back into the mood to run. I was constantly looking at my watch, hoping that time would fly, and I would find myself back at home. Of course, that never happened – time crawled.

Then, I remember how my runner friends used to tell me that running is all about mind over matter. I tried my best to divert my attention to something else – the bowl of chocolate overnight oats that awaited me at home (You can probably guess that I was really hungry by then). It worked! Even though I was thirsty, hungry and tired, diverting my attention away from the pain and discomfort that I was experiencing did make the run a little more enjoyable. I still not sure of the exact reason behind all the bad runs this week. It could be a combination of factors – sleep, water, stress, or maybe even the frame of mind before my runs. I was not as excited about my runs this week, and this attitude and mindset might be the cause of it all.

As usual, here’s a quote for this week :

I could perceive my little rock this week to be a stepping stone or a stumbling block. For me, I decided on the former – next week will be a better week.
Have you encountered a stumbling block or a stepping stone lately?
How did (are) you overcome (overcoming) it?