The other morning, I looked Eddie my labrador straight in the eye and said, “Today, Eddie, we are Elite Athletes!”
Well, you’ve gotta get into the spirit of things, right?
No point going out with the mindset of “I am to running what Fisher Price tricycles are to the Tour de France, even though it’s probably true …
I’d made a plan to go to a forest near us that has miles and miles of wide gravel tracks to clock up a few more miles on my quest to run a half marathon at the end of June.
I put on my trail-running shoes and waterproof socks, slammed a water bottle into my waist-belt like a knight would sheath his sword for battle, and headed off in the car with my trusty ginger sidekick.
When we arrived at the woods, Eddie leapt out of the boot and bounced off into the trees, far more interested in sniffing and weeing on every blade of grass than reaching a personal best in terms of his athletic performance, but I felt like I had a training partner, and I set off on my mission to run at least another 6 miles (I’m building up to do 7 at the weekend).
I put my earpods in and played an audiobook to drown out the noise of my gasping and wheezing, and began our expedition with a brisk walk and arm circles, and pulling Purposeful Facial Expressions (as I’m sure all elite athletes do).
When I finally started running about 5 minutes in (which felt like I’d warmed up pretty well) I almost immediately felt a pain in my right buttock.
For f*ck’s sake!
I was bum-injured!
I have no idea how or why I had this pain, but there it was - a definite pain in the arse, and it meant my plan for a blistering sprint through the woods was scuppered.
(OK, in reality I wouldn’t have achieved anything close to a blistering sprint even with fully functioning butt-cheeks, but if you shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you might faceplant a star…)
Here’s the thing:
We can all set out with the best intentions when we set ourselves goals.
And then, life always gets in the way at some point or another.
It’s unrealistic to expect a clear run every time you set a target for yourself.
I’m going to have to find a way around my right-cheek setback.
I’ll look for a way to train in some way that doesn’t aggravate it, or I’ll rest up and start again when it’s better.
Because I’m writing down my goal every day to run a half marathon, I won’t forget what I set out to do.
Repetition of goals is powerful for that very reason - because at some point, you’ll get a pain in your arse - metaphorical or literal - and you’ll need to be reminded of what you were aiming for.