Are you done making excuses?

Congratulations, you finished another fall training cycle! You should be extremely proud of your efforts and all the hard work you put in this summer. There is nothing easy about making the decision to train consistently. What people don’t see in your post-race photo are the days where you woke up before the sun was out. The days where your legs felt like lead but you still had to complete a 5 mile recovery run. Or the days where you wondered why in the world you were choosing to run so many dang miles!  No one ever finishes their goal race and regrets putting hard work in. The reality is the people hitting PRs are the ones who are making the choice to train when others find excuses to not run. I see it all the time. I’m in the business of convincing runners to not hibernate during the winter. Sure, I believe it’s extremely important to rest and recover after your goal race. Give yourself a week or two break after you finish up your fall race. However, if you really want to see results down the road, you must make the decision to run when during the “hardest” time of the year.  I often hear people say it’s impossible to train in the winter. Did you know some of our country’s best distance runners train in a colder climate. Look at the Hanson’s group, Northern Arizona Elite, or any professional runner or group training in the northeast. Just because these athletes are more talented than us doesn’t mean they are tougher than us. Like every other human being on earth, they are effected by weather. Harsh conditions is their training advantage. If you think race day will be a cake walk, then, you are in for a rude awakening. Training through the tough days prepare you for any possible scenario on the day you have to perform.  This winter if you are serious about running PRs in the spring and beyond, make the commitment to train in the winter. I will let you in on a little secret. Not only will you enjoy your success down the road from these winter training months but you will also enjoy the training too. What most people don’t understand is that running in the cool weather is some of the easiest conditions to train through. Dress accordingly, rally your training partners, and quit making excuses for why you think you can’t do it and just do it! My runners who train year round always outperform their performances from the previous year because they make the simple choice of continuing to consistently work hard when nobody's watching.