Mindful Miles with the Self-Love Run Club
Currently, it’s still a run club of one, but I’m going to lean hard into this chapter. If you’re not ready for some mindful content that’s inspired and drawn from the miles I’m putting down on a weekly basis, check back in May ✌️. I’m fully embracing and engulfed in my sober, long distance running, bio-hacking, meal prepping era.
About a week ago, I re-posted a instagram video from fitness entrepreneur Devon Levesque. He was going on a rant about people messaging him and saying that “they’re thinking about running a marathon or half marathon.” His response was, if you’re thinking about it, just go and do it! I let that sink in after I re-posted it to my story. That night at the gym I went for a run and I felt amazing. As I walked on the treadmill, in the midst of my cool down, I pulled out my phone and entered a half marathon in April.
Since then, I’ve gotten on the Nike Run Club app and jumped into a basic “14 weeks to half-marathon” training plan.
I’m two weeks into half-marathon training and I’m feeling so charged up I wanted to share my thoughts thus far. So, here are 5 things I’ve taken from this training regimen, and how we can implement these lessons into our own mindful habits.
The power of a training plan. Joining the app has been really good for me. The plan is laid out perfectly and has changed the way in which I’ve been training. It’s not that I wasn’t training hard enough before, I was, but that’s kind of the problem. I was going too hard. I thought that pushing really hard in the gym every day was going to get me the best results, which is a natural thought process. But this plan has taught me that the easy runs really boost your aerobic capacity to run further distances. When applying this to life, I would highly stress the need to manage your level of burnout. A well crafted plan will get you to your goals quicker than chaotic misguided work. Work smarter, not harder. A well crafted plan is necessary if you want to be as efficient as possible.
Coaching. This goes hand in hand with the first point, but it’s a relevant distinction. The Nike Run Club offers guided runs, where coaches chime in on the provided runs and talk you through what you should be doing, what pace you should be going, what effort you should be giving. It’s extremely helpful to keep you grounded in the work you’re doing. You know what you should be doing once the plan was laid out, but their calming effect on the run makes me feel so much more confident and gives me the ability to keep understanding what’s being asked of me and to stay within the guidelines of the plan. When applying this to our lives, think about you and your partner. The coaches constantly check in to ensure you’re on the right pace and giving the correct effort. If you keep open lines of communication with your partner and keep reiterating the goals, tasks, values, and perspectives to maintain, it keeps everyone locked in on the big picture. Having someone in your life that can giving positive reinforcement to keep you dialed in on everything you want to achieve is utterly priceless.
Stepping out of my comfort zone. I mentioned at the end of last year that I wanted to PR in a race or run farther than I ever had. I didn’t run a longer race, but I completed a few longer runs than I’ve ever gone on before. I’ve only ever stretched my legs out to 4, 5 and max 7 miles only a handful of times. Which, is barely half the distance of a half marathon. I’ve never really trained like this in my life, but I’m really enjoying it and feel better than ever. This is easily applicable to every day life and it goes back to Deven Levesque’s message. If you’re feeling something that’s slightly out of your comfort zone, you have to lean into that and just go for it. Do something that pulls you out of the groove and challenges you. It’s a way to build your confidence so you can believe in yourself and gain momentum.
Runners high is very real. That’s all there is to it. Runners high in your every day life is like momentum. Maybe you started journaling every night before you go to bed. Maybe it’s a new system you’ve employed to boost your productivity. Maybe a new morning meditation routine. Once you take action, put in the work, and gain momentum, it feels really good. You feel like this is now apart of you and that if someone took it away, you’d feel loss or sadness. Go get that runners high from something new, healthy and productive in your life that’ll make you feel like an even better version of your current self.
Delayed gratification. Like with anything fitness related, you have to have delayed gratification otherwise you’re going to quit and give up on yourself. You thought you’d see real results after two weeks? That’s ridiculous. I have been running and working out pretty consistently since August, which is also when I got sober. Those results are showing, but being two weeks into my training program, I don’t expect to have shaved a minute per mile off my expected pace. Everyone wants 6 minute abs. Everyone wants to make $10K/month on your side hustle after a month or two. Everyone has goals and ambitions and the ability to work to try to accomplish things. However, you need grit to get you to the finish line.
There’s a theme I’m starting to pick apart through my message as I write this. It comes down to setting goals where the path to accomplish said goals is just as enjoyable as the end result. I wrote multiple times about New Years resolutions, goals and I wondered what everyone else is doing and how it’s going. For myself, I set goals where the processes brings me joy. I want to read more books, I want to run races, I want to keep writing and building an audience for this blog. All of the things I want to accomplish require a specific plan, support from my loved ones, stepping out of my comfort zone, consistent action to gain momentum, and grit to accept delayed gratification.
As always, thank you for reading. ❤️🙏
Have a wonderful weekend guys, cheers!
