motivation | Run Luau Run

Posts Tagged ‘motivation’

Doubt

Posted in boston marathon, motivation, tagged Boston, doubt, marathon, motivation, running on April 9, 2010| 18 Comments »

10 days.

10 days ’til Boston – and doubt has started to creep in.

I have to remind myself that I have finished a marathon. It wasn’t pretty, but I did. The thing is, it’s not the finishing that has become the constant occupier of my thoughts. It is the how. I have no doubt that I can finish. I have no doubt that I can finish in under 4 hours. At this point, especially after my performance at the Eastern States 20, I have no doubt I can finish in 3:45.

But from that point, things get a little hazy. 3:30 is about where I think I know I can come in, but I want to prove to the running gods that I deserve this gift they’ve bestowed upon me. Part of me feel like if I don’t run at least a 3:20, then I will be offending them…disappointing them.

I keep wondering what will happen at 16. I know that Heartbreak Hill isn’t for another 5 miles, but that famed hill is not a mystery to me. I’ve run it many times. It will be hard – yes, harder than any time I’ve run it before – but I will know what to expect and for how long I will be running it. It’s 16, where I seem to hit these “soft walls” that has me worried.

It doesn’t help that my buddy Pete seemed to have an issue with 16 in his first few marathons before he finally broke through with a great run at Disney this year. What is it with 16? It was the beginning of the end at Manchester and it shook my confidence briefly at Eastern States.

Doubt. It’s an evil thing.

But it can also be a motivator. It can be what keeps you mentally prepared and ready for that “moment”. In every race, half marathon or longer, I’ve had a moment where my race could have gone one of two ways – when doubt about my ability to not only finish but finish strong grabbed me by the throat and tried to end my race. In one race, it almost broke me. In the other three I dug deep, faced doubt down and broke through with a smile on my face. Doubt can destroy you, but it can also drive you.

The key so far for me has been to use it as a motivator and then draw on the strength of those around me. At the Boston Run to Remember, I drew on the energy from the crowd. At the Chilly Half and at Eastern States, it was from my fellow runners. I have been told by my good friend Rick, a veteran of 22 Boston Marathons and a mentor of sorts, that the crowd at Boston will pull you through. I plan on using them as much as I can. According to Rick, you can hear the cheers at Wellesley College nearly two miles before you reach the college. He says you can feel the fans on the Newton Hills willing you on. He says as you come into Boston, the roar of the crowd can carry you home.

These are the tools that I will use to push doubt out of my mind while I run hard through the second half of Boston.

In the meantime, I will use my doubts as motivators to train smart, eat right, sleep well and take care of my legs.

10 days.

Read Full Post »

The Anchor

Posted in motivation, tagged anchor, motivation, running, why I run on February 25, 2010| 11 Comments »

Why do I run. Question or statement?

I’m not sure.

Why don’t I NOT run? I know. Awful grammar, but I think it might be the more appropriate question.

Why don’t I not run…

Because when I don’t run, I physically feel like crap.

Because when I don’t run, my mood turns dark.

Because when I don’t run, I feel gravity dragging me down.

Because when I don’t run, I feel less productive, less motivated, and less connected with myself.

It didn’t begin this way. For almost 39 years, I merely flirted with running. I ran a little track (110 high hurdles/330 IM hurdles) and cross-country (3 miles) in high school, but even then I didn’t really like it. I liked that I was competitive in my small pond in the 330’s but that was about it (I ran the 330’s because I didn’t have the endurance to run the quarter mile nor the speed to run the 220). When I got to college I hung up the cleats and rarely looked back. I would go out for an occasional run of 2 or 3 miles, suffer the leg pain for the next few days and then throw the running shoes into the closet until I had forgotten the aches. There was no consistency. I was consistently inconsistent.

After college my running became even more sporadic. I ended up teaching at a small ski academy in Maine (actually had a few future Olympians as students), and began power lifting with some members of the alpine ski team. The weight piled on. I had gone from 160 lbs in high school to 190 in college to a whopping 220 as a young adult (the scary part is that the last 30 lbs were between my chest, arms and neck). After teaching for three years I took a job in a New York City law firm and began working 80 – 100 hour weeks. Running went from sporadic to almost non-existent. I would work out when I could, but rapidly all of the muscle I had put on power lifting with the skiers went soft.

***

Flash forward 15 years and I’m married with 2 kids.

Leading up to this time I preached exercise but seldom practiced it. My wife and I had been dealing for sometime with our younger daughter’s diagnosis of autism; each in different ways. Despite putting on a good front, I was adrift and lost. My wife on the other hand had found focus in her blog – a diary of a mom. It was (and still is) an outlet for her and, in many ways, helped her find some sense of peace and purpose. It turned out she was good at writing and connected with people not just in the Autism community, but beyond. She gained an audience. She not only was helping herself, but she was now helping others as well.

I continued to drift, lost in a sea of uncertainty and doubt. Yes, I was the at home parent, taking care of my children during the day. It was and is the most difficult “job” I have ever had. That said, I was disconnected from adults and foolishly worried about how I would be remembered. True, my purpose was my children, but that is the case with any good parent whether they work or not. My focus began to unravel. That was until my blogging wife wrote this: Eye of the Tiger.

Go ahead. Go read it. I’ll wait.

***

So, if you continued to the comments section of her post, you saw that I jumped right in there with her (if you didn’t read it, the short version is that she declared that she had signed up for the 2009 Hyannis Half-Marathon). Truth be told, it wasn’t just the distance that worried me. After I read it, I called the wife and asked her if she realized that Hyannis in February was probably a little on the cold and windy side. She didn’t budge. She was determined. I remember feeling that I couldn’t let her do it alone. As independent as the wife is, I wasn’t going to let her fly this mission solo.

So I told her if she was going to do it, then dammit, I was going to support her all the way. The very next day I dusted off the treadmill in our basement and got to work.

3 miles. 30 minutes.

OH CRAP! THAT HURT!!!

That was Friday, October 24th, 2008. I gave myself the weekend to recover and promised myself 3 days of running the following week.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday. 3 miles. 30 minutes.

By Friday the lungs didn’t burn so much. The following week I did the same. I thought one more week of this and I should be able to bump it up a little.

But a funny thing happened that Wednesday, November 12th. The night before had been poker night. Occasionally one of the members of our poker group will bring a nice bottle of tequila. The night of the 11th happened to be one of those nights. Several shots, several beers and way too much junk food later, I woke up with an awful, AWFUL hangover. I managed to get the kids to school on time and went about my day.

I looked at treadmill after drop off and walked away. After a morning of errands I again looked at the treadmill, but my pounding head told me to walk away. Finally, after lunch I forced myself, my headache and my now sour stomach down to the basement for a run.

I wasn’t letting Jess do this alone!

When I hit 3 miles I wasn’t paying attention. I looked down to see that I was at about 3.25 miles.

Hmmm. I wonder if I can do 4?

I hit 4.

If I keep going I might be able to do 5.

I hit 5.

Maybe I should see if I can do 6…

I hit 6.

Wow! If I keep going I could hit…I looked at my watch.Dammit! Gotta pick up the kids! I don’t know how far I could have gone, but I…felt…GREAT!!!

The next day I did another 6. The following day the same. I very quickly (and foolishly) started cranking out the miles to see just how far I could go on the treadmill. I started doing 8 and 10 miles runs on the treadmill like it was nothing, occasionally sprinkling in a 12 miler. I went from almost no miles in October to 110 in November to 130 in December.

I was hooked.

I felt good.

I rapidly dropped 20 lbs and nearly 4 inches off my waist. I secretly began thinking about running a marathon – about qualifying for Boston.

Running helped bring the rest of my life back into focus. Whether it was the endorphins or just the almost daily breaking of a sweat, I felt like there was balance back in my life. I was able to take the nervous energy that was distracting and tiresome and harness it in a way that gave me more productive energy on a daily basis. I didn’t want to go back.

I finally found that I wasn’t drifting anymore.

That is why I don’t not run. And just like any other physical activities, if you don’t just do it, you lose the motivation to keep doing it. I refuse to let that happen.

Is it ironic that I stopped feeling like I was running in place by hopping on a treadmill and literally running in place? Ultimately there are many, many reasons why I run or don’t not run. Several of those reasons are intertwined with each other, but finding a touchstone, an anchor if you will, was a big one. Running has become one of my anchors.

Why do you or don’t you run?

Read Full Post »

Persist

Posted in motivation, tagged dailymile, motivation, new year's resolution, persistence, running on February 1, 2010| 11 Comments »

How’s it going?

It’s February 1st. One month has passed since the new year.

Still sticking with it? Still strapping on the shoes and pounding out a few miles?

I hope so.

A few weeks a ago I was reading a variety of posts both lamenting and praising the “resolution runners” that were pouring into the gyms and onto the streets.

As runners we curse them for clogging up the treadmills and sidewalks, but at the same time hope that many of them will take running on as a regular part of their lives. Runners know that part of the solution to our problems with the Health Care System is running. A healthy nation puts less strain on the system.

Runners, as a whole, are a healthier bunch that tends to avoid many of the diseases associated with being a “bag o’ potato chips eating couch potato”. I know that most of my dailymile friends are still running. It’s what we do. We let each know what we’ve done and push each other with support and challenges.

But I wonder, are you still running?

or biking?

or swimming?

I hope that you are fighting through the powerful inertia that is your couch or bed. That you continue to fight to get to the point where if you haven’t run by the end of the day, you feel a little edgy. It is a wonderful feeling, knowing that you’re legs want to run. Scratch that. Need to run. It will get easier. The change, both physically, but more importantly mentally, is coming.

It’s only been 31 days.

Persist.

***IF you have lost momentum, so what? Today is the 1st day of a new month.

Read Full Post »

“Shut Up and Run!”

Posted in motivation, tagged ironman, kona, motivation, running, shut up and run, triathlon on January 19, 2010| 3 Comments »

Runners, in general, are a motivated bunch. Whether it’s the early morning, lunch hour or late evening run, one has to be motivated to get out the door. But there are times when I’m either on the road or on the treadmill I feel myself losing steam. It can be emotional, physical or a combination of both. We have all had those moments, not just in running but in our every day lives too. Very often we are inclined to give up, call it a day. Chalk it up as a bad run and put in the extra miles later.

When it happens outside of running, I remember to think about two friends of ours who happen to be soldiers. One is stationed in Iraq, the other has just returned from Afghanistan. I remind myself that because of them and all the other volunteer soldiers that make up our armed services, I am free to do what I do. Brandon and Paul, words cannot convey my gratitude to you and your fellow soldiers.

However, when I am running and I feel myself wanting to give up, I think of my friend Brian. Brian has participated in the Ironman Triathlon in Kona 3 times, most recently in 2008. He is not a super-athlete. He is just a guy like you and me. He does not enter to win. He enters to finish. He’s finished the race all 3 times! I can’t imagine swimming 2.1 miles, riding 112 miles and then, THEN running 26.2 miles.

“Shut up and run!” That’s what I shout at myself when I start to drag. Brian runs 26.2 miles AFTER he’s swum 2.4 and then biked 112. “Shut up and run!” It usually works. Usually it’s the only motivation I need.

Oh, did I mention that Brian has only one leg? Yeah, that’s right, he’s finished Kona three times on one leg!

So the next time you start feeling yourself lag and you start feeling sorry for yourself while your running, think of Brian finishing Kona three times. Think of his determination and will. Then dig down a little and gut it out.

Read Full Post »

No Carrots

Posted in motivation, tagged better eating, desire, happiness, health, motivation, my favorite running blogs, No carrots, run, vicious cycle, virtuous cycle on December 16, 2009| 2 Comments »

[tweetmeme source=”luau” only_single=false http://www.URL.com]

Why do you lace up your Brooks or slip on your Vibrams and hit the road? Why do you get up early or stay up late to put in an hour on the treadmill? Why do you put in the miles?

Whatever your reason, the word for what drives you is motivation. We all come to (or I hope will come to) running from different places, and therefore many of us are motivated by different reasons. We have all had the on again off again spurts of running/exercise. Whether it was because we felt we needed to drop a few pounds or our doctor told us we needed to get some exercise, we have all dangled the carrot in front of ourselves to get our feet moving.

And it works – for a while. We achieve the weight goal or bring down the bp. But the all too often truth is that we quote our last President, telling ourselves, “Mission Accomplished” and go back to our old, not-so-healthy routines. Chasing and achieving our goal is gratifying, but then we are left with a void that is usually filled with the very things we were trying to leave behind. If you are only running and exercising so you can fit into a pair of pants or a specific dress, I can pretty much guarantee that you will eventually end up back where you started.

Now I am not saying that the carrot doesn’t have its place in the overall fitness of the general population. It can be a very powerful, if flawed, tool. It gets people off the couch to the treadmill or the road.

It is a start.

Eventually though, we have to be willing to re-frame what it is we want and desire. We need to look in the mirror and ask how that triple helping of Breyer’s or the entire cheese pizza really makes us feel. It feels so good at the time, but what about 10 minutes later – 60 minutes later. Do the bad habits really make us happy in the long run?

I am not one to say there is no place for indulgence. I have and will continue to partake in my share, but if it’s something I do every day, it’s not much of a treat.

Early on in our relationship my wife and I had a conversation about long-term vs short-term profit. If we go solely after the short-term profits we tend to lose out in the long run – just check the economic health of America’s auto industry. She was talking about business, but that principle can be applied across the board in life. Your body is the temple that houses your soul, your well-being. Taking care of your temple for the long haul is more likely to bring inner happiness.

The bottom line is that we need to take that carrot, use it initially to get off the couch and then throw it away.

That is what happened to me last November. My carrot was that my wife declared to the world that she was going to run a half-marathon, on the Cape, in the dead of winter. I wasn’t going to let her do it alone, so I said I would train with her. For two to three weeks, this motivation – this carrot – got me out of bed and onto the treadmill. I would run 2 to 4 miles at a time and not really enjoy myself at all. It was a chore.

The internalization happened when I woke up one morning with a, um, “headache” from card playing the previous night. I dragged myself to the treadmill and started running. Lo and behold, after three miles I actually felt better. I added on a mile, then another and then another. I had to jump off at 6 miles when I realized I had to pick up the kids from school. It was the farthest I had run in memory and I felt GREAT! That was the moment for me. I had discovered that running could make me feel great. I no longer needed the carrot. The motivation to run became a need and has been ever since. Before I knew it I was running 10 – 13 miles a session with a smile on my face. The increased running then led me to eat more healthfully. I already ate well, but as I got into better shape, my engine began to demand cleaner fuel. The better I ate, the better I ran. The more I ran, the better I ate. It was a virtuous cycle*.

It didn’t hurt that I could see the benefits of running and eating well in the mirror and on the scale. I never felt that I was fat or overweight. I wasn’t. But since dropping from 205 lbs. to 175 lbs. I feel noticeably faster and generally happier and healthier. I also don’t get sick nearly as often nor as severely as I once did. I feel great and I don’t want to change that.

The desire – the motivation – needs to come from within. Find a way to do that and I guarantee you’ll find a new level of happiness.

*That’s the best I can come up with for the opposite of a vicious cycle.

***Note: I do find actual carrots to be a wonderful snack. Dipped in a little Sabra hummus, they can be a great healthy and filling midday/late night munchie.***