After five minutes of being harnessed in and looking 75 feet down, my heart raced and my palms sweated. I felt scared – very scared – but leaving the platform via the stairs wasn’t an option…
I was committed to the jump. it was just a matter of gathering the courage.
How did I know in my mind I would do it? Because leaving one’s comfort zone is like a muscle – the more you do it, the easier it gets, even if it still feels difficult.
Ever since moving across the country as a teenager to accept an athletic scholarship to a college where I knew nobody, I’ve slowly gotten comfortable feeling uncomfortable – a skill that has consistently helped me to conquer fear and live a fuller life.
Think of all the brave things you’ve done in life.What’s the next scary thing on your list?
A limiting belief I’ve told myself for over a decade is that I can’t run high mileage without getting injured. (I started to try once, when I first got to college, and…got injured, with a stress fracture, after increasing from 25 miles a week in high school to 50 miles a week, within less than four months).
Three months ago, when covid wiped all of my races off the calendar for a few months, I figured it was time to go for it again, using all the information I’ve gathered over the years from reading running books, and observing my training and others’.
“What did I have to lose?” I figured.
This week’s training stats of 80 miles of running (along with 53 miles of biking and a couple hours of strength training) exceeded my goal of hitting a 65 mile week (after hovering around 45-50 most of my athletic career).
Looping through trails may not lead to a cure for cancer, (though I am learning quite a bit about cool topics like neuroscience, social psychology, grit, and motivation from my self-help audiobooks), but it has allowed me to expand what I think is possible, a discovery I’m confident will flow over into other parts of my life in a positive way, and inspire my daughter, too.
And while this piece of running mileage is setting me up for a potentially excellent season, if I get so fortunate as to safely have one), it’s done that much more than that for me. It has proven to me that I can focus and get more organized than I thought I could, resulting in accomplishing more than I thought possible (at least for the disorganized, monkey-minded, stress fracture-prone me, who, even if her body could handle the mileage wasn’t sure her mind could).
Tips for increasing mileage:
only increase mileage by no more than 10% each week (so if you run 30 miles in one week, only add up to three more miles the following week)
so the two weeks up, one week down method: incrementally increase your mileage for two weeks by 10% each week, and then decrease by 20% for a week before building on to the previous weeks total by 10%
proactively schedule and self-care, such as dynamic stretching before your run, static stretching after, doing mobility work, foam rolling, and putting your feet up the wall
eat plenty of nutrient-dense food and always have a water bottle nearby for adequate hydration
And if you start to feel rundown, in the words of my Georgetown track coach, “When in doubt, take a nap“ or a day off from running.
Let’s be real – many of us stay fit because we love to race and race well. Take those races away and it can be tough to maintain motivation. I applaud people who can push themselves to high levels of fitness without racing – digging deep at the gym or on a trail just for the pure satisfaction of it. I’m married to one of those – my husband, Tim, can SPRINT on the stepmill for 30-45 minutes, sweating profusely, for no reason other than to feel fit, vital, healthy, and alive.
Unfortunately, that’s not me.
I need start lines, big challenges, competitors to push me, and people to cheer me on. Maybe it’s because Tim, is the self-confident oldest of a small, normal, loving, attentive family, and feels he has nothing to prove, whereas I’m the 8th of a big family of nine kids – the youngest girl – stilling fighting for attention and respect even as I (gulp) push 40.
If anyone out there can relate to my experience, going through a long period without racing is tough. We miss the thrill of it, the accountability of it, the celebration after it. I’ve been there – while pregnant, I was fortunate enough to be able run throughout my pregnancy BUT being able to run without the ability to race (at least not all-out) also meant I had to find motivation to get my me and my belly out of bed and onto the track or trails with no races to try win or no personal records to attempt to set.
A few ideas for getting through this weird time:
1. Compete with yourself
Create personal benchmarks, e.j. fastest mile time or max pushups
Do virtual races/charity challenges
2. Compete with others
Chase local Strava segments and FKTs (Fastest Known Times)
Go for a creative Guinness World Record
Enlist a friend in some friendly head-to-head competition
3. Take a break from competing
Do whatever you want to, including something new, with no agenda
Work on mental game, flexibility/mobility/yoga
Take an extra long off-season and focus on other priorities, guilt-free
Whichever you choose – good luck, hang in there, and have fun!
Do your goals motivate you? Do you aim high enough?
When I was pregnant, I set lofty goals for my first season back. And I didn’t hit a single one of them all year.
Not. A. Single. One.
First new mom up the American Ninja Warrior warped wall? Fell on the first obstacle, so yeah, not even close. Win the OCRWC 3k World Championship? How about 11 spots back (a finish place I’m still grateful for, but not exactly my goal).
But ya know what? As far-fetched as they may have been, I needed those goals to keep me motivated through my wonderful yet exhausting new life with a newborn. I may not have hit those goals in real life, but I got to visualize myself doing it a hundred times in my head, feeling the positive energy people dish out freely to those who win.
It’s not that I need to win to feed my ego; it’s just that as the youngest girl in a big family, I learned that performing well as an athlete was the most effective way for me to earn respect and feel special, and I’ve been training ‘n’ racing hard ever since.
So between holiday parties and enjoying time with family, as you start to think about your goals for next year, I encourage you to go big and aim high. Because whether you achieve them or not, you’re always better off if you go for it!
