I was with my son recently about plans for my next quarter’s fitness goals.
He’s a keen runner and has run a marathon in the past, and he’s also a GP (well, they always say chat your fitness goals through with a GP don’t they? I wonder how many people actually do!)
I mentioned that I really enjoyed the marathon walk we recently did, and it made me want to get outside and do more running now the mornings are lighter, and asked him what he thought about a goal to go from a distance I’ve previously run (which is 5K) to doing a 10K run in 12 weeks.
He told me he thought it was a reasonable goal, and also gave me a piece of information that I realise has been a mental block for me in the past:
Apparently, the way your fast/slow twitch muscle fibres change over the course of your lifetime means I might find endurance running more enjoyable now than when I was younger.
When I was at school, I was a sprinter and quite a good one, but I struggled with anything longer than 400m.
My legs would turn to lead and I’d be blowing out of my arse to keep them going.
My PE teacher said “You’re not built for distance running, so don’t even try”, and I took that to mean forever!
I never realised in my 50’s I might be able to enjoy spending time running distances, so I never set it as a goal, but with this new information, I feel as if new possibilities are opening up for me, and that I might not completely suck at distance running after all!
Take that, Miss PE!
(I’m sure she meant well - I mustn’t blame her for channelling me in the right direction…but I feel annoyed with myself for accepting a limiting belief about myself!)
Of course, I might still hate it, but I won't know until I try.
Could there be anything you’re not trying because someone’s told you you’ll probably fail and you believed them?
Why not have a go anyway and see what happens?