Monday, August 10, 2009

Stick to the Plan

One of the neat things about Nike + is the challenges. I wrote about chasing the people that were in my challenge, trying to catch them over time and get onto the front page (top 5) of my own challenge. I'm not sure I'll get there, but it's a measure that helps me to be motivated.

However I also had a plan to run every day and that's my goal. It's more important to me that I manage to run every day without hurting myself, and without damaging my body. I never thought that running every day was good, but after doing this for over 300 days, I've changed my mind a bit.

The thing I've also learned, however, is that you need to balance out your workloads, and your body does need rest. At least mine does, so I have to be careful. It's easy to get sidetracked and drive yourself too hard one day, and then be sore the next.

It's also easy to get excited about catching someone and try too hard to get there. Recently I found myself running over 2 miles a day, over 3 some days, to try and quickly catch someone on the list. And I noticed that my body was really sore a few times, and it impacted the rest of my life.

Using the people ahead of you for motivation is fine, but don't let them dictate your goals. Stick to your own plan, and do the best you can to catch them, without your own guidelines.

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