Running mantra?

Hmm… Well I always just set milestones in my head and commitments in advance:

I will sprint to the next telephone pole.

I will run all 5 miles – no walking.

I will sprint the last eighth mile.

Stuff like that. I make specific commitments and stick to them.

That ice cream isn’t going to burn itself off.

I prefer the KISS method for something like that…so MOVE YOUR BLOOMIN’ ARSE!! ;))

I’m always counting my breaths. I use different cadences, but I’m always counting them off and staying conscious of my breathing. That’s what I like to focus on.

I imagine myself inside the Olympic stadium on the last lap of the marathon that just came in. Everyone cheering for you. Tens of thousands of people watching you, believing that you will be the victor.

I’m much too basic. concentrate on breathing

IIIINNNN out-out-out
IIIINNNN out-out-out
IIIINNNN out-out-out

do you joggers not look at the scenery around you as you go, and the people you pass?

Read this:

“Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We’d run the three miles in twenty-one or twenty-two minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six-and-a half minutes per mile]. So this morning he said to me “We’re going to go five.” I said, “Bruce, I can’t go five. I’m a helluva lot older than you are, and I can’t do five.” He said, “When we get to three, we’ll shift gears and it’s only two more and you’ll do it.” I said “Okay, hell, I’ll go for it.” So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I’m okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out. I’m tired, my heart’s pounding, I can’t go any more and so I say to him, “Bruce if I run any more,” —and we’re still running-“if I run any more I’m liable to have a heart attack and die.” He said, “Then die.” It made me so mad that I went the full five miles. Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, “Why did you say that?” He said, “Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”

(Bruce = Bruce Lee)

I’d like to mention here that I am 54, out of shape, and feeling my age.
But Bruce Lee is taking a dirt-nap.

When I used to run, I had the tune to Rocky going thru my head.

I like to feel like I’m bada** when I’m exercising, so you can think something like:

I’m kicking a** and taking names!

Hello your name here, I think your a weak, pathetic, incapable scar on the world’s face.

Care to prove me wrong? Show me.

Also try flotrack.org and watch some workout videos. It always gets my friend and I pumped before we go on a run. Workout Wednesdays are the best usually.

Lifes a race and it starts now and I’m in it to win.
Quiting just means losing more than the race.

“Make pain your friend and you will never run alone.” I forget the name of the woman who said that but she did ultra marathons and the 100mile sort of treks.

I just count steps, I know approximately how many steps to a kilometer at slow, med and fast pace and I run to that.

try endomondo app for your phone (any phone with gps) pretty odd app that tracks your work outs facebook style and if you use headphone gives you the pep talk along the way ;)

http://www.endomondo.com/login

“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”

When I get tierd while running and just want to quit, I think “Relax…concentrate…drive” and “Push…push…push”. It helps to keep me on pace while dealing with the pain.

HIT IT!!!

I have been a trail runner for a few years and I have a son who is now nine who is my biggest fan and last year I tried my first 100 miler and ended up only making it 92 miles and my soon looked at me when I got home and started to cry telling me I broke a promise to him. At that point I made up my mind to never know that dissapointment again. I have since ran a number of ultras and when the going gets tough I remember the look on his face.

I just don’t know how to respond to this, I keep thinking what a miserable selfish kid this must be. To have no compassion for you or pride in the 92 miles is not necessarily a good thing, at least to my thinking???

Childhood innocence. In his mind I made a promise to him to finish.