Overcoming the Upper Limit - Mental Toughness

It's been a while since my last posting.  I've had a lot of challenges.  Ever since the RiverBound 10K I've been going backwards.   I could not understand why since basically my whole training plan is building blocks of miles.  This is a proven strategy.  So why was I having so much trouble?


At one point I actually sat down in the trail during a run said I cant do this and declared I was done.  Lucky for me my trainer Kelly was with me.  He had repeatedly said that physically there was no reason why I could not complete the run.   And unless I was partying it up and lying to him about my homework - this had to be MENTAL.  I had hit a wall.  My mileage went down as well as my times.  The worse the session, the more confidence I had in anything I could do got sucked away.  At some point I wasn't even running a mile before stopping and walking.


Well, crap.   Mental.  That  sucked.  That really sucked because I wasn't entirely sure what was wrong so how the heck was I was going to fix it.   Even now that I'm working on this problem I still think this sucks.


Enter Laura - she's like a combination of sunshine and a stern fairy godmother rolled into one.   She helped me see I clearly had hit an upper limit problem.   I clearly was comfortable with the fact that I was capable of reaching my 5K goal and I had even achieved the 10K on the road.  But I really struggled with the 10K trail.  Instead of overcoming and moving on - I hit my limit.  And thus, the self-sabotaging started.   I'm really good at this!  :-)   Every run after that trail race that little voice got louder and louder.  "You can't do this, you have never been good at any sports, you're over 40 why are you even out here, remember how the kids pointed and laughed at you".  Yep - not that I have this market cornered on negative self talk but I do ok.


Well screw you little voice.  And screw you upper limit.   I'm not quitting on my training plan.  I'm not backing out of my race schedule.  I'm not the fastest peep out there but I am not going to quit.


Today I did not run on a trail.  I ran a 5K distance on a greenway.  I did not suck.  I finished and I did it around my PR time.   So yeah I'm coming for you "upper limit" and you better be ready cause I'm going to busting thru you.   And little voice - if you don't have anything nice to say - park it and shut the hell up.


Next up: Grandfather Mountain's Bear Run - 5 miles straight up the mountain.