I ran the Rock N Roll Nashville Half Marathon a week ago, and I have a lot of thoughts. It was one of the hardest races I’ve run in a long time, and the difficulty had nothing to do with my body. My mind quit on me. It had quit on me before I even…
Tag: fitness journey
Not Everything is Pertinent
I’m starting a new training block in the gym today. For the past two years, all of my strength training has been geared specifically to support my running. I was careful not to overdo it volume-wise because I needed to save the bulk of my energy for running, and I needed to make sure I…
Don’t Quit On Yourself
I had a heck of a time convincing myself to do my workout today. I just needed an hour of purposeful movement to tick off the box in my to-do list, and I felt so grumpy and disinterested that none of my options sounded like fun. But I dragged myself into the gym, and within…
How to Push Your Limits
When you’re trying something new, when you’re learning a new skill, when you’re pushing for a goal that you’ve never chased before – it’s not supposed to be easy all the time. It’s difficult to reach new heights if you never push yourself beyond what you’ve already proven yourself capable of. If you’ve started a…
Find Freedom in Goal Chasing
Some is better than none. Some is better than none. I kept repeating that to myself this morning as I dragged myself out of bed at 5am, fully aware that I was too tired, too grumpy, too disorganized, and too unmotivated to go out and do my ten-mile run with any enthusiasm. I told myself…
Hunt Your Fear
I had a breakthrough on a run yesterday. I went into the workout terrified that I wouldn’t be able to complete it; that all the times I’d completed it before had just been a fluke; and that I was too weak/tired/etc. to be able to do it that day. But through the chaos, I girded…
Your First Draft Isn’t Scary
The first draft of your novel and the final draft will probably look nothing alike. You will go through several drafts. You will change a lot of elements. The story you finish with may be entirely different from the story you originally set out to tell. And those are all good things. The first race…
Finding Courage
“I’d love to do that, but I’m too nervous.” “I just don’t think I’m good enough.” “Maybe one day.” I think we’re all guilty of this bad habit sooner or later: we see people doing something we want to do, and we assume they’re braver, tougher, more competent than we are, and thus that ‘something’…
Breaking Your Writing Routine
I’m currently training for a 5k race. It will be only my second official race at this distance, although I’ve obviously covered this distance many times, and it will also be my most ambitious attempt: I want to do it in 19:59 or less. And while I’m not really sure yet whether or not this…
Embrace Your Reality: Making a Writing Schedule
Our summer days are getting shorter, but they’re still hot and busy, and during the week, I wake up at five AM. I have to run my miles, ride my horse, and sometimes get some writing done before I have to be at work, and often a five AM wakeup call is the only way…