Sock tans

I like this line of thinking. I think if you stick to it you will see very good results.

I think it is important to understand what is in your control and what is not, and not beat yourself up for things that are not. When I first started running marathons, I had some confusion about the matter. I would plan the great things I would do at mile 20, and then when I got there I found myself not only physically incapable, but also very down mentally. I could understand the physical, but I wondered what happened to me. I was not myself. How could somebody who had the faith in God, who had the discipline to go out in any weather under any circumstance and run grueling workouts be so mentally weak? Over the course of the years I learned that what you see as your mental toughness and strength has a lot to do with your body chemistry at the moment. You still have the same faith and inner desire to win, but now it takes every bit of it to just put one foot in front of the other as opposed to comfortably running your goal pace just half an hour earlier.

So I began to prepare myself mentally for that moment focusing on things that I could control. I told myself to be ready to make pace goal adjustments every mile, to see just moving forward and covering a little bit of distance as a positive, and to do my best to not dwell on the overwhelming negative thoughts. In the time of distress and confusion to be faithful to my normal self. Most important, while still doing my very best to run the fastest I could under the circumstance at the same time to be at peace with God's will.

I believe this approach - while seemingly coming from an unrelated area - has a merit in applying to a clinical chemical depression. The idea is that when you have a clear window of thought, you make a realistic plan for what you are going to do for the periods of darkness. Set some very basic goals that you know you can reach, and then celebrate reaching them, play it up, regardless of how modest they have been. This is where I got the idea of sub-2:00 quarter daily. Maybe call it "outrun the darkness" quarter. This is not to say that if on some dark day you try it, and it does not happen, that you failed. Rather, if on any day you found the ability, you succeeded, and if it did not happen by chance, then we are back to the drawing board to invent a different plan.

Thank you Sasha! I will have to be thinking of some smaller goals to achieve so that I can celebrate achieving them when life gets hard. In running as well as other areas. I also think you’re right about needing to remember that there are some variables out of your control. I will definitely keep that in mind so as not to get discouraged when things don’t go to plan. As long as I’m trying and doing my best, that’s all I can ask. Thank you for your thorough explanation! It’s really, really helpful :)