Sunday Morning Chat. Overcoming that mountain in front of me!

Sunday, February 26, 2017 · Mike Davis

Good morning,

As we are just about to flip the calendar from February to March, I am sure most of you are eager to do so. I am excited about a new week and hopefully better health. Last week was limited to a single run because of fatigue and this morning I am optimistic that my body is on the mend. This is the first morning in a few that I actually want coffee and hopefully that is a good sign. Tomorrow I hope to ease back smartly and get back to a routine. I am pretty sure that last Thursday’s run set my recovery back and I won’t let that happen again.

Exercise (to include running) is an awesome habit/routine, that many are great at maintaining. However, that routine once broken can become challenging to reengage. At first, we skip a few runs because of our schedule, health, weather, or other reasons and then the few, become a complete week and then before we know it, it has been a few weeks without any runs. I am guilty of that currently, as I have missed a few weeks of strength training and while I can list a few excuses, I know down deep, I have lost my focus. For me, it becomes about laziness and giving in to it. While that sounds harsh, I must be honest, I am fortunate and have available time in my daily schedule to fit in workouts. Many of you work 40 (and more) hour work weeks and finding time to run and strength train is a challenge itself. Never mind, finding the necessary energy.

When we get away from our running and/or strength training routine, we often struggle to comprehend how we could maintain it, while we have so many other things going on in our lives? After a period of absence, we now view our daily schedule as full of business and that time we once dedicated to running has now been filled by other stuff. How do we get it back?

The problem with our schedule may not actually be at the heart of not getting back to working out. On the surface, we may feel that our schedule is crazy and finding regular intervals to workout is not realistic, but in reality, as we lose our physical conditioning, we are also losing our mental conditioning. It does not take long when we stop running or working out, for us to lose our conditioning and with that our energy level decreases, causing our mental fortitude to decline. In other words; that run or strength training now looks like a mountain to climb and with each missed workout, that mountain gets higher and higher. Now, we start planning for a start date in the spring, when the weather will be better.

If I am not talking to you, God bless you and keep at it! I may only be talking to myself here and if so, thanks for letting me use this time to overcome. Despite not having many of the challenges y’all have, I am struggling to get back to a routine of running and strength training. I know very well the importance of both for me, physically and mentally, yet I am battling myself. The mountain does not seem high the day before when my mind knows what I want/should do, but then the actual workout time approaches and I am looking up mountain and my energy level falls toward empty. I have given more than once and each time makes more challenging the next.

This week will have some challenges for me. Still feeling less than 100 percent healthy, I have a test on Wednesday, I am behind in studying for both my classes and I need to put some time on my ACE certification course. All pretty valid excuses to miss some runs or strength training, but I have no doubt I can fit in a couple of each, if I really want to. The best chance of climbing the mountain that stands before me, is to be okay with setting a goal that only gets me a little way up. Tomorrow for instance, I am going to set a goal of running for 30 minutes. That seems short by many runner’s standards, but for me, it needs to look doable with the way I feel physically. Tuesday, if I feel stronger, I may increase that time, if not, it will be the same. So already, I feel like these little steps will be easy enough that I won’t need a lot of energy to succeed. That alone, will help me to progress and hopefully build on physically and mentally.

If it has been a while for you and if you don’t want to wait till spring, think about starting something easy. Surely, you can find time to walk/run 20 minutes tomorrow, or maybe do a few body weight exercises for 15 minutes. Don’t feel like you must have some super workout, but just something that you can accomplish in a short time without a whole lot of energy or conditioning. More importantly, follow that up with the same workout a day or 2 later and continue to stay with that mindset. Do not increase the duration or distance for at least a couple weeks, but instead work toward 2 to 3 days a week. Our goal is to develop the habit that will grow with the energy that increases as we climb the mountain little by little.

I have to start again and I know that if I put another week in between myself and climbing that mountain, I will struggle that much more. I will let you know how it’s going.

Today I am late in chatting, so I have already enjoyed my Sunday worship. I hope you have a great week and let me know how you are doing? Comment below!

God Bless!

Mike