{week 9} Progress NOT Perfection

The Lab Rats - night training run

My mantra used to be Perseverance not perfection. I'm awesome at persevering. I consistently show up and do the work. I really don't need to work on perseverance. As I stated in a previous post (Fully Baked), I need to work on pushing myself outside my comfort zone and persevering is simply not a big enough goal for me. 

Paul coaches a new U13 club soccer team. The boys play with their heart and learn from mistakes and have consistently become better with each game. This past Saturday, the boys played against the #1 team in the league and although it would be nice to say they came from behind and won, that didn't happen. They lost. But they played very well and as I was talking to one of the soccer moms I told her Progress not perfection {who knows where these thoughts come from; sometimes genius thoughts spontaneously appear in my mind} and she really liked that. I told my husband later and he really liked it and is now using it.

I've embraced Progress not perfection (since way back this past Saturday) as my new mantra. I tend to beat myself up mentally when I don't hit goal paces or a workout doesn't go as planned. I still finish it (see above) but I don't necessarily allow myself the euphoria of a job well done. 

I'm great at looking at what went wrong and learning from my mistakes (which is awesome) but I don't give myself credit for what went right--the mistakes I didn't make, the progress I've made. Three years ago, I was re-learning to run and celebrated the joy of running 2 miles straight. I'm now training for my second marathon of 2015. That, my friends, is progress. 

Week 9 (9 Weeks until CIM)--at the halfway point!

Goal Mileage: 48 miles

Monday: Rest or cross-training
Tuesday: Recovery run - 6 miles Rest
Wednesday: Medium-long run - 14 miles Rest
Thursday: Recovery run - 6 miles
Friday: Rest or cross-training Recovery run - 6 miles
Saturday: Recovery run + speed - 6 miles with 6 x 100m strides
Sunday: Marathon-pace run: 16 miles with 12 miles at marathon race pace