Mid-Week Musings: Mental Toughness, Making Goals Public, and Another Convo on Shakes

Hi everybody!!! I hope everyone is having a great week so far.

The time is narrowing down to when I’ll return to work and I’ve been trying my hardest to take advantage of what’s left of my summer by running as much as I can (but smartly) and reading all the blogs 🙂

There are so many good blogs out there (you can check out some that I follow ^^^) but it’s tough setting aside time to keep up with reading and commenting. I usually try to limit myself to 5 different ones a day or else hours will have gone by without me realizing lol!

Mental Toughness

Anyway, I’ve been keeping notes on ideas for blog posts and one of them I’ve been wanting to talk about is increasing/coping with pain tolerance. Funny that yesterday I was on twitter and caught Amber from PB&PRs re-tweet on an article written by VegaTeam (more on them later) titled, How To Overcome Three Top Mental Challenges In Marathon Training. It is a very well-written article that talks about dealing with Pain, Intensity, and Fear, three things I know I need help on.

The article first talks about how pain is functional or non-functional. When it’s the latter, obviously the runner should stop to prevent injury. But the article talks about how when it’s the former type of pain, we can use it and control it however we’d like. Ultimately, we decide how we want to interpret functional pain.

“The defeatist mindset interprets pain to mean this sucks, I obviously didn’t train hard enough and now I’ll never achieve my goal. The competitive mindset, on the other hand, interprets pain to mean my body is talking to me to either let me know I need to adjust some aspect of my activity or dig deep for that extra motivation to power through. Once pain becomes less of an enemy and more of an ally, you can use imagery (A.K.A. visualization) to power through.”

The second topic on the list is understanding intensity. Recently, Rae at Darlin’ Rae talked about how important it is for us to take our “easy” runs seriously and I thought about her words while reading the article. The article emphasize listening to our body cues and using that as a guide to determine intensity. I dig.

Finally, the article addresses coping with fear. This is a big one for me along with the first, pain. I like that article acknowledges fear as a real thing and not something easy you can just ignore. The article does state however, that like pain, it is something we can control and offers suggestions on how to do it.

1.) When negative thoughts creep in, review past accomplishments
2.) Turn fear into challenges
3.) Feel your fears but do it anyway

Check out the article for more details on the above. It’s a good short read.

Publicizing Your Goals

My buddy at A Fast Paced Life recently wrote about the disadvantages of announcing your goals. This immediately sparked my interest as you usually associate announcing your goal as brave and conducive to achieving said goal.

But Cardamom makes some good points.

The researchers postulated that when people make their goals public, they receive praise and accolades just for setting those goals. Because they already received the reward (i.e., praise, attention), there is less incentive to fulfill the goal. Attention given to your public goal brings a premature sense of having already accomplished the goal by having your identity as a member of the group affirmed by other people.

I nodded my head reading this thinking yeah, that does happen. But at the same time, I think that how important the goal is to the person, finalizing it–making it come to life, is a huge factor in how easily they are affected by premature praise. Some people aren’t comfortable with praise unless they know they deserve it.

Very interesting article and topic, and I’d love to know your thoughts. Make sure you read her full article here.

The Shake Debate

Finally, last Friday I wrote about a few things I would never in Hell-y Land try, one of them being shakes (i.e. Herbal Life, Shakeology, Advocare, Plexus, etc.). For the most part, people agreed that the abundance of these companies that promote shakes is a little exasperating (like one commenter on another blog said, there’s a reason it’s a multi-million dollar industry), yet there were some who were offended that these companies they like and endorse get bad reps.

I don’t know the details of every single product, one person was offended that I associated their company solely with shakes (they offer pills and supplements as well). What I do know and what I dislike, is that there are a lot of people who think that the only way they can get healthy, get faster, get thinner, get whatever is by spending a lot of money on something they might not even need.

I know quite a few people who really like some of these companies, who promote them, who use them in their daily life and have noticed positive changes. I have a friend who works for Isagenix in one of their main offices. I have multiple friends who are Herbal Life and Beachbody coaches. In fact, I stalk follow Robin @KneadToCook who is a Vega Sport ambassador. She’s so unlike me in many ways. She’s really fast, she eats really, really healthy (she’s vegan), and she swears by Vega Sport, a clean, plant-based, natural nutrition system. Her recipes using the product seriously make me salivate.

These friends are great people who I really care about and I don’t judge them on what they believe truly works for them. I just don’t think people can expect others to readily accept something they’ve never been comfortable with or are not ready to try. I can respect other’s opinions on their beliefs in a product no matter how much I might disagree, I’d hope they’d respect my viewpoint in return.

So there you have it, I didn’t mean to ruffle any feathers with my anti-shakes post last week. I honestly respect those who use them, endorse them, swear by them. Right now, it’s just not for me. Maybe that will change in the future as I keep seeing Robin’s Instagram pictures of her food, and maybe it won’t (because you all know how much I looove cooking–except not!) 😀

Have a great week friends!! We’re getting closer and closer to TGIF! ❤ , helly

–Do you struggle with mental toughness while running?
–Are you comfortable publicizing your goals?
–Thoughts on the shake debate?

Chicago Marathon Training: Week 5 Recap

Hi all!! I hope everyone had a good weekend as we enter MID JULY!! Where has the time gone??

I know what I’ve been doing–running!! And this week was a pretty good week in that department.

Last Monday I spent my usual 45 minutes on the bike and did a few core strengthening videos at home. Nothing too exciting.

Tuesday morning I had all the intentions of doing some strength training videos but I had my monthly lady visitor (sorry guys, tmi) and I was not in the mood for anything at all. In fact, I pretty much laid in bed all day until it was time for me to run.

I made it out to my run club at 6 and had 5 miles on the plan. It was super hot–nothing new–and I wasn’t feeling well. I think that’s why I ran so fast, 9:17/mile–I wanted to get it over with lol!

Hot run.

Hot run.

I still wasn’t myself Wednesday and continued to rest until it was time for me to run. Wednesdays are speed work days with my run club so I made it out to the track with the hopes I could muster the energy for a good run.

On the plan were 6x800s. My coach asked me what my goal pace was (4:00-05) and he said he’d pace me. This was both a good and bad thing. Good because it would hold me accountable, bad because it would hold me accountable.

I nailed the first 800 at 4:04 and the second at 4:02. Things were getting speedy with the third one at 3:58 and the fourth one was back at 4:03.

I was loving the consistency; I was on a roll!!

And then my hands started to itch….

here we go again. 😦 I let my coach know I was feeling an allergy attack coming and that I was going to have to cut the workout short.

I was super bummed.

Thursday morning I managed to crawl myself out of bed to run with the 5 at 5 crew. I was still feeling the effects of the previous night’s Benedryl so I took the 5 miles nice and easy, 10:09/average.

Friday was a rest day I took full advantage of.

My long run schedule for Saturday had 14 miles and I knew I would have to have an early start. I woke up before my alarm (at 3:15!!) and in my still half asleep brain, forgot to pack fuel in my water pack! I didn’t realize this until I had already met up with my friend crazy enough to run with me at 4 in the morning. She had extra fuel I could use but I was worried as it was not anything I had tried before.

The plan was to run 6 miles and then meet up with the rest of our run club at 5 a.m. Our friends we were meeting up with had 8 miles on their schedule so it worked out perfectly in that I’d have company for my entire run.

My splits for this run were all over the place. From the start, I just couldn’t get into a good rhythm.

Nowhere near as consistent as my 800s on Wednesday lol!

Nowhere near as consistent as my 800s on Wednesday lol!

When we finally met up with my 5 a.m. friends, my 4 a.m. buddy needed a potty break so I hung out with the other gals. While I waited, I took the unfamiliar Gu and knew it was not going to work (Mocha is not my go-to flavor). My other friend had some Honey Stinger chews (which are super yummy) but I think with the combination of that and mocha, my stomach was just not feeling it. I had to stop to use the restroom when I got to mile 8.

And it was just hard to get going. I couldn’t maintain a steady pace and the whole run just felt uncomfortable. When we got to the bridge that signaled one mile left, I did some quick math in my head and saw that I was near to averaging my goal LSD pace of 10:00/mile. I’d have to pull off a pretty fast mile 14 to help pad the average but I’ve been liking finishing strong anyway so I went for it. Mile 14 was 9:06!

Splits still all over the place but yay last mile!

Splits still all over the place but yay last mile!

It was a tough run but I was still very pleased that I got it done. Plus, it’s these tough ones that make us mentally stronger, right?

Total mileage for the week: 26

–How do you get yourself into a nice rhythm when you just feel off?
–Do you have a preferred flavor/type of fuel?

I hope everyone has a Happy Monday!! ❤ , helly

 

 

4 Fitness Trends No Way In Hell I’ll Try (and 1 I will!)

Well hello there Friday, how you doin’?

Hi everyone!! I’m linking up again with the DC Trifecta ladies Cynthia, Mar, and Courtney for their weekly Friday Five. Today’s topic are fitness trends you’re just not that into.

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There’s a few of those on my list and I’ve included 4, but I thought I add one trend that I am into as well:

1. Mud Runs

Even before the poop fiasco that caused severe eye damage to a woman, I was never into mud runs. It’s just not my thing and not something you’ll find me doing. Ever.

2. Taking Running Selfies

I have a few friends who take pretty awesome pictures of themselves running and have been asked how they do it since, well, they’re running. I guess you prop your phone/camera and video play while you run, then snapshot it when you see a good angle?? I’m not entirely sure how it’s done but I find it kind of a lot comical thinking of re-enacting myself running to get a picture. I’m already awkward as it is.

3. Plexxus, Shakeology, Herbal Life

Man, there’s so many of these types of shake thingys, I can’t keep track of them all or know what each one is all about. What I do know is that I like food. A lot. And not in liquid form.

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4. Body Wraps

They may have worked for somebody, but I’m not interested.

5. Being Social <—–

This is a yes, most definitely. I’m all about joining/running with a group and/or keeping tabs with running friends online through social media–it makes training so much more fun!

#WeRunSocial

#WeRunSocial

Thank you for your encouragement and support on Wednesday’s post regarding my fundraising 🙂 And shout out to Olivia @BalancingMommy and Allison @InvertedSneakers –Thank you for your donations! I hope everyone has a great weekend! ❤ , helly

–What do you think of my list? Had you heard about the poop fiasco?

–Is there a fitness “trend” you’re just not that into?

–What fitness “trend” do you enjoy?
**Please know that these are my opinions and if you’re into any of the things I noted, please do not take offense.