On Friday, I was at the gym on my lunch hour getting in a workout. My training schedule on this day called for an 8-mile run.
Running on a treadmill is incredibly boring. It reminds me of what it must be like to be a rat. It is something I only do when completely necessary. Over the course of the treadmill run, I had a couple of thoughts I want to share.
When I head out on a 3-mile run, the first ½ mile is where I get my legs warmed up. I am usually strong and good until I start getting real close to the 3-mile mark and then I begin to get tired and my legs start feeling a little fatigued. Sometimes it is hard to finish. When I am done with this short run, I seem to be just as tired as when I run longer distances like 8, 10 or 12 miles. Go figure?
On Friday, when I was running my eight, I noticed that when I hit the 4-mile mark my legs felt strong and I had almost no fatigue. About then the situation that I just described in the previous paragraph popped into my mind. That made me ponder this question; why is it when I set out to run 3-miles, I start getting tired right before the 3-mile mark, but when I run longer distances, I have no issues at all with 3-miles? My conclusion is that the mind is a powerful thing. The fatigue is all in my head. My brain knows I am close to finishing, so it wants to go into let’s shut ‘er down mode.
I am sure there is some name given to the phenomena I just describe in the previous paragraphs. It is probably something very cool sounding like The Paradox of Completion. If I Googled it I could probably find it, but I won’t because I think the lesson to be learned here is really simple. No matter what you are doing, finishing is tough. That’s why so few do it. The old saying that if you want a puppy ask for a pony really does hold true too. When my mind knows the goal is eight, then running three is not even a concern. Now on to the next thought I had while on the treadmill last Friday.
As I said, running on a treadmill is tough for me. It is so boring. On Friday, I guess I was at about the 6.5 to 7-mile mark when I had about all of this treadmill bullshit I could take. I was completely worn slick. As I was about to reach and hit the red get-me-the-hell-off-of-here-button, I looked up at a TV monitor that was tuned to ESPN. The program that was being aired was Beyond the Story. I couldn’t hear the audio associated with the program, but what I could gather from following the video was that the story was about a young woman with one leg and her quest to run the Boston Marathon. I began to watch the video closely. It was inspiring. So inspiring, that I completely forgot about the boredom and fatigue. When the program went to a commercial break I had this thought, “Okay, Chris, here you are with two perfectly good legs. How dare you think about quitting short of the goal that you committed to when you walked in the door? Finish the damn run. You’re not tired! You just want to quit.” When I run, my speed is 5.5mph to 6mph. I’m slow. I am what other runners call LSD; Long Slow Distances. On this day as punishment for thinking about quitting, I cranked up the speed to 7mph and ran out the remaining mileage. You would have thought I was Bruce….. I mean, Usain Bolt!
I truly believe that two of the keys to high productivity is learning to control your mind and setting high expectations for yourself. Honestly, that is the only way I can explain any of what I just wrote about.
I hope that you have found some good in what you just read. Perhaps it will inspire. Maybe at some point in the future when you are struggling to push it across the finish line, you will think about this post and finish strong.
Until next time, be sure to Find Your Adventure and Live Your Life.