Managing your mindset – RunningWell

Hi Everyone!

Huge congrats to Amanda Bugatto who ran the Donna Half Marathon in Florida over the weekend in a “training through” time of 1:40 for first in her age group! Way to represent and help put a spotlight on breast cancer and celebrate its survivorship. Wohoo!

I have teenagers living in my house. They’re mine. What a whirlwind. Sometimes it’s just storms I know we have to weather. And I feel badly for them and the emotional volatility which they seem to be subjected to and haven’t yet learned to manage. When they’re in a bad mood, the world is obviously against them and they become the victims of their own stories. I often think “just work on changing your mindset and everything will be SO much easier!” It’s a real magic trick once you realize that reality exists in your mind and you have a hand in shaping it. But these are things we have to learn through experience and time.

But once we know how to manage our own mindets, do we always do it? Sometimes it just feels easier and indulgent to succumb to the weather of our minds. I was thinking about this as I had a long run to do on a Monday morning. I have enjoyed long runs, and often look forward to them. But I wasn’t particularly excited about this one. I wouldn’t say I was dreading it, but I was tentative and giving myself some soft goals and “outs”. It’s still cold and icy, it would be dark, I’m not feeling super peppy, I have other commitments I need to get to and it doesn’t fit in perfectly… Then I thought, ok, I have a day to work on getting myself into a positive mindset and excited about this. So I went to work on that. I had a physically relaxing day in preparation, I ate lots of carbs, I bought my favourite gels, I read stories from runners who had passion and were working towards goals (currently reading Good for a Girl by Lauren Fleshman – highly recommend). I replayed in my mind what I love about long runs, being alone with my thoughts and the physical challenge of doing something I’m completely in control of. Instead of working on my grit and ability to just tough it out, I worked on changing my perspective so that I would look forward to it and get into it. And it worked. By the time I stepped out the door I was in a good mood and excited for the experience.

I’m not saying we should have to do this for every run – sometimes it feels indulgent to act like a teenager and drag your bad mood along with you. I’ve shown up for runs with my grumpy bad mood for sure. But just know you can change it if you want. Your first reaction to a situation or workout or challenge is not a given. Instead of focusing only on training our bodies to do what we want them to, it might serve us better to work on what’s going on upstairs. You have the ability to make it enjoyable and fun. Really, you do. You really don’t have to struggle through anything. Unless you want to. I think my teenager actually seems to enjoy it sometimes so I’m like “have at it – keep hitting yourself over the head with a hammer”. It’s hard to watch, but I guess it’s just a rite of growing up and learning.

On to tomorrow’s workout! Lakeshore and Leslie – 6:05 drills, 6:15 GO.

Sets of 600-400-200 with 30 seconds bw reps, 2 minutes between sets. Up to 5. I think 6 will feel like too much. Let’s see. The idea here is “broken 1200’s”. If we were to do 1200’s straight up it would just mimic our tempos. We want to encourage a little more speed and pace by taking small breaks, but not turn it into a V02 max wrkt. So don’t treat these like stand alone 600’s, 400’s or 200’s. They should start at around 10K pace.

If getting into it and trying to encourage a faster pace and faster turnover (ppl not training for longer Spring races), same workout but longer rests and not as many reps. So 600-400-200 w 1:15 between reps, 2 min bw sets, and do 3-4 sets. Focus on fast turnover and good form.

If doing this by time: 2:30-1:30-30s at 10K pace w 30 sec easy in between. 2 mins, then repeat up to 5 times.

That is all – see you in the am!

Seanna