It’s day #3 of The Future!
The Big Picture
As a coach of runner’s moving up in both distance and speed I regularly come across a lot of doubts and fears. Their goal is a race about 12 weeks away at the start of the season and they are often petrified about their ability to achieve their goal. They can run a 5k race (3.1 miles) but a 10k (6.2 miles) or 15k (9.3 miles) or 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) race? THAT is something beyond their abilities and thus they fear they can’t do it.
And you know what my response to calm their fears and give them confidence is? I tell them this: You are right, you can’t do it…
Yet
I teach them that three letter word, ‘yet’, and it makes all the difference. It makes a difference because it helps them understand two critical things. First is, they don’t have to run a 1/2 marathon today. All they have to do is run the training run slated for today. That means they have to run 3 miles, maybe 4. Not 6 or 9 or 13, just 3, which they know, and I know, they can do. They can relax that way and just focus on the small picture, a much easier task.
Second is, training (and life) is a cumulative process. That brick wall you sometimes hit in training? While it stops you dead in your tracks, it also returns some value. And that value, otherwise known as ‘experience’. will come in very handy, perhaps at the next training run. Or maybe on your rest day. Or maybe 10 weeks down the road at the race. Who knows when you can spend what you earned from that workout. I don’t know. But I know you earned it and it’s in you and you will need it later on in the future.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865, American President #16.
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