Mental Challenges

Hello Readers!

This week I wanted to touch on the mental challenge incorporated with losing weight, running and just about everything involving sports. Last week I mentioned that I would be running the Rock the Crossroads run, I did complete this run. This day defined why running is so mentally challenging. The temperature outside was 95 with about 80% humidity a typical Kansas City summer day. The run was located in the middle of downtown which meant with the concrete surroundings the temperature felt about 105 degrees. I have been training for a long time and generally have no troubles completing a 5K without walking but the elements of this day caused me to be mentally weak. I walked in three separate sections of the course. My physical conditioning was not the problem, I was not mentally in the game that night. I had convinced myself ahead of time that it was too hot to run.

This is a mistake I will not make in November when it is time for the Marathon. People who have run marathons tell you that the most difficult part is the mental games you must play when running. Having run several half marathons I can attest you must show up in the right frame of mind. In running you are given several different conditions and they can change during the course of the race, it is imperative that you have prepared yourself ahead of time for the challenges that could and will be faced.

Mental games are not just associated with running they play a very important part in the entire weight loss process. Losing weight is just as much mental as physical. By this I mean that in order to lose weight and sustain your weight loss you must be in the right frame of mind. True weight loss is a change of life style, you can lose 10 pounds in a week but in order to keep that 10 pounds off you have to commit to maintaining the exercise regiment or dieting scheme used to lose the initial weight. This is something I struggled with in earlier years of my life but have since learned. This is the reason why I continue to see results and will continue to see the positive results in my life. Have a great week readers and fellow runners!

Spirit of Competition

Hello Readers!

It has been a few weeks since I last posted. I have been extremely busy with some celebrating. I was celebrating my official passing of my last class and graduation from Boston University. Thanks to all the readers who made it out to celebrate with me! I am excited for the coming weekend as I am running my first race since Februrary. The spirit of competition is very important in keeping my training fresh. Even though I have not been blogging, I still have been very dilligent in my training. I am up to 10.5 miles as my longest run right now. I will be pushing this out to 12 miles over the weekend as I do need to be upping the mileage on long runs.

I mentioned above that the spirit of competition is important. Running is a very lonely sport when you train. This is nice at times as you are able to reflect on a great deal, it allows you to clear your mind and provides a great deal of solitude, but training can't get you that sense of competition that most of us truly desire. I am one of the most competitive people on the earth and many of you have witnessed this first hand and can attest to it, but if you have not witnessed it I hate losing. Many times I do not react well to losing. When it comes to running races I have already conceded to the fact that I am not the best, but that doesn't mean my competitive spirit accepts the defeat. The fun part about racing is seeing the continued time improvements as many times for me it is me versus the clock not necessarily me versus runners. The second great part about the race is seeing many of the same faces out and talking to other runners before and after racing.

The run I am running is the Rock the Crossroads 5K, this is in downtown Kansas City and is followed by a concert at Grinders which should be a blast. I will be running with my good running friend Jen. If anyone reading this is looking for a good time sign up it is on Saturday night at 7:00. This will be my first night race and I am a bit concerned as the weather forecast is for 92 degree heat at race time, but the run must go on. Hopefully I will see of few of you out there.