I wrote this post completely as the thoughts came to me. I went to re-write it to make it more “blog friendly” and I realized even though it may not sound perfect it is coming from the place I am right now. 

BELIEVE.

I’m sure as a runner you’ve heard that word a time or two. Everyone tells you to BELIEVE in yourself, but to me it has become much more than that.

You see, after my marathon frustrations in December I had to make the decision to step away from my favorite distance and work on my weaknesses. It wasn’t an easy decision because for me I love distance running. Every single thing about it. I knew it would be a big change and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

After 2 weeks of almost complete rest, I started slowly getting my body ready to train again but this time for something different to me – shorter distances.

In the beginning I had a lot of doubt going through my head. Some of it was lingering frustrations left over from my race and another part of it was that I wasn’t believing and trusting in the process. 

I knew that working with a coach was what I needed but at the same time I didn’t want to let go of the long distance, the endurance running, and really my own ways if we are being completely honest.

I had a hard time understand the process or more so just trusting it. You see, no matter how much we try to tell ourselves we are doing the right thing it isn’t the same as truly believing in it.

There are many different parts to your training. There is of course the physical aspect of training – the runs schedule each day for you to compete. There is also a bigger part of training in my opinion – the mental. Your mind is so important to being able to get through the harder parts of running.

Racing is the same thing – to race you have to be both mentally and physically strong. One huge key to mental training is believing that what you are doing is going to get you to where you want to go.

Does this mean that you are guaranteed to succeed? Unfortunately, no. My most recent race is proof of that. You see going into that I believed in my training. I hit EVERY SINGLE WORKOUT and thought for sure that I was ready. Even though I didn’t succeed it doesn’t mean I wasn’t ready, but I had other weaknesses that were standing in my way.

You aren’t guaranteed success but your best chance of success comes from BELIEVING in the process and the work that you’ve put in.

I knew then when I made the decision to focus on shorter distances and strength for the first half of the year that I HAD to make the commitment entirely. I couldn’t wish for the past or focus too much on what should have been/could have been. I had to focus on the here and now. 

That’s where I’m at now. I’m trusting and believing in this process. Every single piece of it. That’s the choice you have to make if you want to succeed.

It really isn’t rocket science but it is one of the hardest things for so many of us to do. BELIEVE. It is the one thing you must do to become a successful runner.

As remember –  you must BELIEVE to ACHIEVE.