Tuesday, March 24, 2015

A massive dose of the 'shoulds'

There is a lot written about psychology, everything from the real science through to pulpy magazine soft soap, but over the last couple of weeks I have been indulging in one of those things they all agree is bad... the 'shoulds' or a little more specifically the 'should'ves'. For example:

  • I should still cross train.
  • I should've avoided the injury in the first place.
  • I should eat right.
  • I should've read all those run coaching books.
  • I should do proper training.
  • I should've seen it coming.
  • I should've listened to my body not try to stick to every letter of the plan.

None of these things are especially helpful, most are down right unhelpful, and all of them hurt my mental state. Given that these are only a sample, there are some I'd rather not commit to the blog, you can see that I was in a real funk. It was pretty nasty and meant that I was feeling drained even without doing any activity, it even stopped me icing my leg as much as I was advised because I was busy cycling the should list round my head.

All the 'should' stuff is something that most therapy practitioners would have a field day with, and eventually (though not a councillor) I spotted the pattern for myself. Now I have the fun part (!), stripping away all the paralysing shoulds and should'ves and getting moving again. Recognising the problem is more than half the cure, and I know that the moment I get to go for a run again they will almost all disappear.

Injuries seem to have plagued any attempt I have made at consistent training over the last couple of years, and this last one has carried the biggest psychological impact as I put a lot of pressure on my self to improve this year. Aside from avoiding injuries my biggest battle this year will be not to pysch myself out. I want do run the best marathon I can this year, and perhaps the only 'should' worth retaining is this one - "I should just enjoy it". In the meantime I'm back on the turbo trainer, looking to strengthen up generally, and have signed up for a running coaching course in a few weeks time to really get myself going again.

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