Motivation – During Marathon Training

Waking up this morning, my schedule had me pushing out the door for a mixture of a track workout and tempo run, but try as I might, it just didn't happen.

I don't know if it was a coincidence or what. But, I am currently reading Dean Karnazes' book about 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states and as it so happens I have been reading through the portion of the book where he discusses motivation.

As he worked through his busy schedule of 50 marathons, the lack of sleep, trying to eat right, and the heavy work load had him looking for ways to find the mental motivation to continue with his challenge. In the books talks about where he found his strength. Sometimes that strength came from within; sometimes it came from his family, and sometime it came from the people that ran with him.

So rather than dwell on the fact that I missed my morning workout, I had a nice breakfast, watched a little TV, and cleaned my house before heading off to work.

The workout can wait a few hours and getting a few small tasks finished around my house gives me a nice sense accomplishment.

The moral of the story is that marathon training is a long drawn out effort and we all experience tough times. Making and achieving some short term goals help us overcome that mountain of marathon training even if the tasks we accomplish are completely unrelated to our marathon training.

Sometimes, a little distraction is all that it takes.

 

 

Tales from the Road