Happy Thursday, everyone! For this morning’s post, I thought I’d ask one of my fav bloggers to share with you all the importance of fun running! Charlotte from http://www.wildthingsRUNfree.com wrote a bit ago about her struggle with running towards a PR and running just for the run of it.
I loved her insight! A lot of my friends have gotten into running, but simply do it for fun. I have felt a little disconnected as of late because I’m trying to PR at my next half marathon & train for Boston. Reading her post helped me get out of my head a bit and it reminded me not to take my races so seriously.
For you runners, whether its recreational or crazy competitive, this one’s for you. Thanks Charlotte!
If Running Isn’t Fun, You’re Doing It Wrong
Posted on April 23, 2012
I loved training for this week’s half-marathon! I want to get that statement out of the way before delving into the rest of this post.
As absolutely over the moon I am for the Columbia Iron Girl 13.1 this weekend, I am equally as excited for it to be over, and to welcome some fun races into my life. Don’t for a second take that as an indication that I’m not loving distance running, because I am.
But – After several months of not taking no for an answer, not listening to my body as well as I should have (example: though I got LUCKY and was able to finish CUCB no problem, my doctor made it perfectly clear that had I had weaker muscles surrounding my ACL, I would have been toast.) and now with all the responsibility that comes with my first Kitchen Manager position, I am running out of time and room in my mind to stress about training and long runs. Not to mention the pent up anxiety over whether or not this dream of mine could ever become a reality… I am ready to just have some fun.
I’m a firm believer that, yeah, you want to dedicate yourself to your dreams, you want to go after them and you want to give it your all, RUNNING SHOULD BE FUN. If it isn’t fun, you’re doing it wrong. So, I am over the moon to embrace a summer of fun running.
The Warrior Dash
I know that a lot of “serious” runners don’t like the Warrior Dash & other Adventure/mud runs of the sort. But – I have to say, let go! Let go of the “I NEED TO RUN A MARATHON & PR” mentality. Let go of the do or die. Have some fun. Embrace a day of laughter, mud & sunshine. Go back to the basics, which as I already stated, is having fun in my opinion. I think it’s really important for getting that PR you want, to go back and remember why you love running so much. To go out there and have FUN for awhile, spend some time NOT focusing on your speed and distance. It’s refreshing, and without that you are going nowhere, fast. & regardless of what you try to tell me, there is no way you can convince me that running boot camp style obstacle races won’t increase your strength and stamina. You just won’t be able to convince me of it.
Wonder why your training isn’t going so great this time? No injuries, just crap training runs? Let go and have some fun, I bet you see a difference almost immediately.
So here I am, 6 days away from 13.1 ready to embrace the finish line and all that is to come after. I AM a runner and I still can ENJOY and LOVE a day of 3.5 miles of running, 13 obstacles, pits of mud and clay, Viking Helmets, and a few too many beers in the sun.
just TRY to tell me that doesn’t look bad ass
(source)
So I guess you can all guess what my next question is…..
ARE YOU A WARRIOR?
You can check out Charlotte via Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/Char__Latte
My Question For You IS…..
Do you ever feel like you get tunnel vision easily when trying to achieve a certain goal & forget to love what you’re doing?
I do ALL. THE. TIME. Especially with running, and in reading other runners blogs, I tend to go crazy! I feel self conscious for not having a 7min mile split during a run, and forget to just enjoy being outside of myself for an hour or so each day I run.
Have a great morning, all & I will talk to you in a bit!
Kay
