When I competed in track and field, I was a sprinter…. so anything over 400 meters is “distance” to me.
But this post isn’t about my exploits in track… it is about training, and confidence, and habits, and quitting, and success… all of these are related.
About two years ago I had hip replacement surgery. After the surgery, I began walking, then walking/ running, and then running … distance… 1-3 miles… three to four times a week.
Three months after my hip was replaced, I entered (along with my wife who was new to distance running, too) my first 5K race. It was in downtown Kansas City, and involved a long hill during the second half of the race. It was in the summer and the temperature was over 90 degrees. My goal was to survive… finish… and if possible run (no walking) the entire race.
Well I did survive, and was able to finish the race without walking. My wife and I began to do 5K’s monthly… and I kept my training up, running 2-3 times a week. Over the next couple of years I ran, and completed each race (nearly 20)… from steaming hot KC summers, to a Mardi Gras 5K this year when the wind chill was 10 degrees… all without walking… and generally improving my times as well.
But this post isn’t about my exploits in 5K’s… it is about training, and confidence, and habits, and quitting, and success… all of these are related.
Heading into this past winter my training started to ebb… I was nursing a sore Achilles, the weather was bad, busy schedule… all the excuses our athletes sometimes use. At the start of the spring, my wife and I entered a 5K in downtown Kansas City… pretty much the same course that I ran my first ever 5K on two years ago…. the one involving a long hill during the second half of the race.
This race was different. I had not been training. The first half of the race was OK… I got to the hill and began to struggle. No matter how much I told myself “I Could Do More”, I knew in my gut that I had not done the training to back it up… the mantra was shallow… the internal pep talk was merely bluster.
I started walking… in fact I walked most of the hill, then finished the last part of the race running.
My time was actually much faster than the first time, two years ago, that I had run the course, but that was hollow… I had walked.
There is a link between hard work… training… and true confidence.
I had already entered another 5K a couple of weeks later…. I still had not been training like I previously had. It was a relatively easy course on a pleasant day. The first hill… the first time things got a little tough this race… I walked again…. and it was easier to do… no huge internal struggle… I just took the easy way and walked a little… I could justify it… I was 57 years old with an artificial hip!
The reality of it was that quitting was becoming a habit… it was much easier to quit … to walk… the second time than it was the first.
Vince Lombardi said “Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” and “Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.”
There is no substitute for hard work.
Hard work=Real Confidence= Success
It all is interrelated … connected.
Related Posts:
You Can Do More… your brain is lying to you…. Don’t Believe It!
Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com
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