Positive Mental Atittude wins the day!

[Murphy73]

Just finished W6R3! Had a hideous W6R1 earlier in the week, partly because I'd read too many posts on here telling me how hard that run would be so I psyched myself out and it was indeed awful.

I've bimbled around the posts in here for the last few days and seen people having tough runs and ok runs and great runs and I've come to the grand conclusion that running is chuffing hard....but running is (mainly) DAMN hard if you tell yourself it is!

So, this morning I spent a while getting myself into a really positive frame of mind and reminding myself how far I'd come. From my previous runs I knew approximately how far I needed to run so I could pace myself and I set myself up with some funky music too. I've learnt that at a new distance the first attempt is hard but each attempt gets easier so I knew this was going to be tough but that it was doable. I managed the long lower hill that used to kill me a few weeks ago with ease and (in my head) ran down the hill with my hands in the air in order to enjoy the downhill section, and the short steep hill at the end was better too (had to chuckle as I was passed at that point by a bloke in his 60s walking and my music suddenly changed to 'I don't care, I love it'! Anyway, I kept running (ignoring the fact that I was spotted by one of the teenagers that I teach *cringe) and instead of doing the 20 minutes required, I did 30!! I'm slower than an asthmatic tortoise with arthritis but I'm doing it and it feels great!

So, today I learned the benefit of a PMA and am going to do a parkrun on Saturday to celebrate!

[shortfatslug Graduate]

Well done on your hard effort

[Hidden]

Go you ! Hope you enjoy the parkrun. you're sounding pretty positive now

[agedsnailspace Graduate]

Brilliant! Well done - you have sussed the last 3 weeks of the program - they are all about training your mental attitude. (at least, I think so!). Have fun at Parkrun - you'll love it, but be warned, they can be very addictive. Your Saturday mornings will never be the same again! :). Let us know how you get on...

[Hidden]

Thanks for sharing Murphy. Enjoy week 7!

[RibbleLady Graduate]

Last week on W5R3 (20 mins) I ditched Laura and carefully downloaded 20mins of dancing music. I can dance for 20 mins easily was my mantra for the 24 hours before the big run! And therefore I can do a gentle run for the same amount of time...and guess what ......I did! So ready for Saturday I have 25mins of bopping tracks ready for W6R3. Seems to work for me!

[Murphy73]

The music definitely helped me today too!