Blank Slate.

For many of us the new year is about setting up race schedules and these become our goals. For many people the new year is about a new beginning.

I went to get some new shoes yesterday. On Dec 31 of all days! The store was packed and I got a good chuckle out of all the people there in the store. I learned from one of the guys that most of the people that had been in that day were doing the usual new year "I'm going to get back into shape." shopping.

Now four years ago this was me so I applaud these people and hope they not only reach but bust those goals in half!

If I have one thing to offer let it be this. Go into it like you have never run before. Think of it as a blank slate.

I ran from my teens to almost thirty. I ran A LOT! I ran thousands of miles and  raced at any distance I could get to. I ran over a hundred miles a week for eight weeks to just do it.

So when I started back after over ten years off I thought I could just jump right back into it. This is a quick way to get depressed and the quickest way back to the couch. Which is almost what I did until I figured something out.

Everything in life has an expiration date. You cannot let what happened years ago control you today. Think of it as going into the fridge and getting out some milk. You take a drink and it has a taste so sour you throw up. Now do you put that milk back into the fridge? Do you pull it out the next day and do the same thing again?
That is what I did over and over again. I would go out on a run and sure enough I would think about the "old days".  And it would bum me out comparing yesterday me to today me!

Finally I realized. I just need to start over from scratch. I set my sights on twenty minutes . Then 3 miles, 4 miles, 1 hour.....and boom I became a runner. Not a runner again but a new runner. I was able to enjoy all the  milestones because they were new.

I think this works not only in running but in life. Live today.

More to come.....