The Mental Game

When training this last weekend, I promised myself I would do a certain distance and fulfill that commitment. This is a pattern I make all the time, I commit to a challenge each running session before I train, also depending on the type of training, for example; hill reps, interval sessions, etc. But most of the time, for me the commitment at the beginning of a session is made on time not distance, so I changed it a little this time…

The real commitment this time whether it be time or distance was in staying power. I’m not talking about endurance with physical staying power that the body needs to make the distance or time. This time I’m talking about the mental staying power, which so many experienced runners warned me about in the early days of training for my marathon challenge last year. People who had ran marathons and ultra marathons, all saying the same thing; “Running a marathon is a mental game Donna.” Back then I initially focused on my physical capabilities and how I could improve on them every day!

Hearing these words more than once; “It’s a mental game Donna.” I thought there must be some truth in this. Of course they were right! I experienced this on marathon day and all through the training before hand in fact, especially through tough times of injuries, lack of encouragement from certain people in my life, and the death of my brother last year. These were all tough times mentally that I had to pull through and turn them around to get me over the line…each day!

So getting back to my weekend training session, the weather was fine at first a little cool, but that’s fine for me as I warm up quickly when running. However today there was no warming up or taking off my jacket after a km, instead there was rain and strong winds to run against like a slow motion Bionic Woman episode or was that Baywatch?… Whatever! It was hard going and very challenging (even the cricket team I ran past packed up and left) and the thought of stopping this distance challenge and racing home in the hope of feeling fine with quitting “Sheez! It’s a valid excuse and I’m not training for a freakin’ marathon or running to save the world” said the voice in my mind.

But what I did have in my mind also was a 10yr old boy named Thomas. I will be running a 5km fun run with Thomas next Sunday and this will be his first 5km fun run ever. We are both super excited to be running together and he is doing something even extra special with this run. He has decided to raise funds for the MS Foundation, in hope to find a cure for MS, only just recently finding out his mother has been diagnosed with MS.

Thomas is a real example of strength and a champion going through challenges and fighting on, as he too has been a patient of the Royal Children’s Hospital, just as I was and has been following my RDR journey. He ran a little with me on marathon day last year and was one of the ‘Whys’ that kept me going the distance that day. It was windy and raining and even hailed that day, but nothing was going to stop me from completing the marathon, not even the extreme pain I was feeling in my right hip.

So thinking of Thomas last weekend, thinking of the weather (I have ran in before and survived) and thinking that maybe it just may be raining and windy on the 5km run with Thomas on Sunday, there was no way in my mind I could stop my training session and race home and quit.

Nearing the end of my distance challenge the strong wind and rain stopped and the sun came out, feeling as if it were congratulating me for making the distance and not giving up 🙂 It was all worth it.

Have you ever been so close to a goal and let something get in the way, because it just wasn’t going as you planned? Some things may get in the way or even some things out of your control will blow you off track. Is that a reason to quit and go home?

Please show your support to Thomas at https://give.everydayhero.com/au/thomas-running-for-ms  he is very close to his goal.

The Power is in Me!…it’s in You too!

Donna

 

Getting in the meditation zone

So I’ve recently decided to commit to meditating once a day, usually in the morning to set myself up for the day and do
whatever the voice guides me in to get me in the ‘right’ mind set…hmm?? That is questionable if I really think too much about it, so I stop thinking too much about it and just do it!

Last year a friend emailed me a guided meditation link to listen to this dude. She warned me, “Oh he will speak for awhile beforehand, but it is good once you get past his intro and get into it.” Ok, so I plug my headset into my iPad and eagerly await the mellowing of my mind or whatever it’s supposed to do and listen to this dude talk about himself, his history and…I don’t know after that, he was getting rather boring so I thought I’d check my emails and kinda got distracted with more important things to attend to and that was my meditation experience… enticing not.

“Donna, you should try meditating” said the one millionth friend, I have heard this so many times and it makes me think, am I that obviously in need of this?

So we all know I like to accept a challenge. “Donna if you do this you will notice changes” ok, so I will notice changes, questioning in my mind, the challenger obviously noticing my buzzing thoughts…is it that obvious?! “Yes, good things will start happening.” Well, in that case, let’s check this out, surely there has to be some sort of positive outcome if everyone is telling me to do it. The challenge was to meditate once a day, preferably first thing in the morning before I start the day for 30 days. Wow, 30 days in a row?! Could I commit to this?! So I went ahead and bought the guided CD and off I went.

Where do I sit and do this? Well I’ll play it at my desk in my laptop; I can use my headset and be in ‘the zone.’  So every morning I eagerly played, at first kind of easily guided by “the voice” then a week went by and I had imagined every relaxing place I could think of, the beach, the river’s edge, the rain forest, the beach, whatever else… let’s face it, how many smells, feelings, colours can I go through in 30 days? This was turning out to be hard work; this made me think of the things I had to get done that day…going through my list, when is this 20 minutes ending? What good things will happen? Now feeling guilty about thinking this way during a meditation,  I focused on goals, pictured them, surrounding them with a giant bubble (as the voice said to)and pushing it off into space…this was fun and entertaining at first…but every day? How many goals am I supposed to have? Do I put the same goal in every day and push them in a bubble off to space?

Finding a valid excuse to stop for awhile before my 30 days were up, I had someone stay with me…I couldn’t get away and have private time at my desk, there was no place to meditate! Can I transfer this CD on my iPhone and hide in my bedroom and find my peaceful zone? This was becoming all too difficult. THEN a thought came to my wondering mind, I wonder if there are meditation apps? Oh my, there were heaps! This was crazy trying to choose the ‘right’ one, spending all night in bed finding a meditation app, what a chore?!

Found it! Yes I now play it most mornings, sometimes even at night. No BIG decisions of what to put in the bubble, sometimes I even fall asleep but the voice says it’s ok to.

This is not meaning to be a write up against meditation. I actually really like taking the time to meditate now! Who’d have thought?

Now I bet you are asking if good things have happened to me since meditating, so am I! Is it just that if we look out for the good things and expect them in our life they are more apparent? I wonder…

The Power is in Me…it’s in You too!

Donna

Looking back to move forward

Last week I wrote about time and dare I say ‘Time Management’ the term we often shy away from, thinking maybe that’s possible for someone who has a Personal Assistant 🙂

It got me thinking about time and goals that I’m pursuing.

Yes, this week I had a ‘moment’ with a goal where I was left feeling flat and disappointed. It is a running goal that I’ve set with a time and date. This is to happen in a couple of weeks time, so I thought I’d test myself out.

This run had me a little disappointed this weekend, ok I was in tears! I ran for a certain time; smiling, being grateful that I CAN run and doing the best I could on the day … and didn’t make the distance in the time planned and YES I was disappointed. “In tears about a dumb run?” The voice in my head questions almost mocking me. Yes, I cannot believe I’m admitting this to you.

This made me think of my running journey and looking back at my diary, I read:

“Jan 21, 2013 – Doing my long brisk walk session this evening, I found myself walking along a path with a huge grin on my face. This isn’t as long as I once thought… not so long ago it was a massive achievement to run this length. Now I finally take time to breathe and look back at how far I’ve come and the improvements I have made.

This is something I’m learning to do with this marathon challenge, as I have done in the past with my whole life journey, just to pause once in a while, breathe and look back and see how far I have come and where I am going.

I have heard people say, even motivational speakers, “Look forward and never look back.” I understand what they mean, but I still think looking back for me, personally reminds me of the journey that has led me to now hasn’t always been rainbows and lollipops reminding me how I have succeeded and struggled in the past to get to my goals. At this particular moment I am reminded of the fact that it takes baby steps to get to a big goal. So I look back at my small baby steps here; 30 steps, then this path and next my 5.3km fun run challenge and now it appears more achievable in my mind, encouraging me to keep believing in me.” 

Reading this brings me to a state that encourages me to keep going, keep striving to reach my goal, even if it doesn’t happen on the exact date. I must also admit, I haven’t put in the training time as I should to train for such a result to happen…

Have you ever made a goal and haven’t quite reached it at the exact time you aimed for? We all do it from time to time; I’m not claiming to be Queen Goal Achiever 🙂 So maybe we should look back once in a while and keep striving for that goal and pat ourselves on the back for the distance we have made already along the way…I’m not just talking about running.

The Power Is In Me…it’s in You too!

Donna