Many times, we get frustrated because we’re not making the progress we want in our running. Life happens. A birthday dinner for a friend and our strict way of eating goes out the window or we get sick and miss a couple training runs and are not as prepared as we’d like for an upcoming race.
Sure, when the morning comes and we realize that we’ve gained three pounds, or we go out for the first run in a few days. we feel like we should be farther along in our training than we are. Perhaps we could have been had we shut ourselves away from all the distractions in our lives. If we didn’t do all the fun things with our family and friends. And certainly, some of those events we can cut back on, but there’s no reason to miss a close friend’s birthday, and sooner or later, we’re going to get sick or even sidelined by a tough day at work or something else.
There’s no reason to throw our hands up in the air and give everything up. Our training is like that trail we see ahead; it’s not a straight, flat line. My god, how boring that would be! There will be those terribly hard up hill climbs, and there will be twists when we least expect it. But there will also be those fun, cruisy downhills that rock and remind us why we run.
We can handle all these as they come up. Once we know that all is not lost, we feel secure that we’ve retained the hard work we’ve already done and move forward.