Trust the Process

We all run better when we have something to aim for whether this is a goal race event or getting back into the habit of running twice a week.  Sounds easy doesn’t it, pick a goal and get on with it, but there’s a weak and often fragile relationship between good intentions and turning our intentions into reality.

But how do well meaning and thought-out intentions turn into action?

We love to feel good about an intention, a need to achieve a specific goal, run a marathon when your 40, 50, 60 etc; this is evidenced every year when Joe Bloggs and his dog enter London Marathon ballot as soon as it’s aired on TV. And it’s a wonderful feeling of anticipating success and greatness…the problem is getting from the intention, getting past this feeling of excited anticipation to the actual achievement of starting and finishing, this is where the real struggle begins.

Let’s start at the beginning, how to find your next goal, and this can be overwhelming, especially if you’ve had a recently disappointing race that’s knocked your confidence. Fear of failing or even a perception that you failed can be overwhelming, crippling in fact, almost choking you into paralysis of moving forward, fear and anxiety grinds you to a halt and you might just stop running.

How do you get back in the game if you’ve perceived your performance to be poor or if your motivation is at rock bottom?

When something has ground to a halt, something important, something critical within the process or along the route has stopped working resulting in a break down or a complete stop. If we apply this analogy to running, it’s useful to look at important or critical components that might have caused a standstill.

If we shift the focus to understanding the many components and the processes of what is needed for you to achieve your goal, we can begin to move away from catastrophizing about not being a “good” enough runner or being unable to run, or whatever story you tell yourself and begin to move forward again and start to run, and enjoy running again .  

Your goal can be anything from getting back to a group session to running a marathon, the process is the same; goals do not have to be race/distance/pace specific; the goal is personal to you.

Plan, Prepare, Prioritise and Produce

Decide on your goal, let’s use the example, of attending a group session, you haven’t been for a while and may be a bit nervous, instead of focusing on what might happen, try this instead,

Plan how to get to group, identify a day that you can make it, think about the preparation needed to get there, what commitments have you got on already? Does that day really work? Do you need to eat earlier in the day? Can you put your running kit on first thing in the morning, so you are ready to go?

Preparing enables you to be able to deal with eventualities that might crop up that could prevent you from attending.

Prioritise, think about what YOU need, what are YOUR boundaries, the boundaries that are “non-negotiable”. Put yourself as a priority.

Produce by planning, preparing, and prioritising, the result should be that you “produce”, that you make the situation happen i.e., you go to group.

Breaking down your goal/s enables you to identify barriers early in the process so strategies can be put in place to heed off any potential bumps in the road.

Of course, it’s not all plain sailing, but have a look at what has worked for you in the past, was it meeting up with a friend to run with, did having some accountability work for you? Do you enjoy/prefer following a structured plan?  If you don’t enjoy the pressure of a race as a goal, then change your goal, it can be anything you want it to be.

Some people find routines difficult, they become too boring, too rigid, and overwhelming, and if you lack motivation then routines are hard to follow. Change the routine, try different routes, different running buddies.

By recognising that there is a process and understanding the negative effects that pressure can have on you can build and develop strong psychological foundations as well as physiological ones.

Enjoy the journey, sometimes it’s better than the destination.