I still cant believe that I am writing this blog as a Dopey Finisher!!! Dopey was hands down the hardest thing I have ever done, physically, mentally, emotionally all of it, and the best thing to come from all the pain, suffering and negative mindset was knowing there were so many of you following the journey and it completely changed me!
For me Dopey taught me how strong I really am, how hard I can push, and how much I hold myself back, its a challenge that will have you question why you signed up, it will make you question whether or not you can do it (fun fact you can! if you put in the work!) it will teach you how to trust a processes that you don't know, and to be freaking vulnerable! Its going to be something that you will cherish for the rest of your life!
So lets break down some of my biggest tips as we enter the very first week of Dopey Training for those of you who are following the Jeff Galloway program:
First thing I wish I knew going into training was EVERYONE HAS HARD RUNS!!!! Babe if you have a run that you aren't proud of, a run that made you question whether you can do this or not, a run that you needed to stop and collect yourself know something THAT IS NORMAL!!! These runs right here, these are the ones we celebrate when you are running down Main Street USA, the runs you that you cry at mile 25 because you realize YOU ARE DOING THE DAMN THING!!! A bad run, a bad week of running does not make you a bad runner! It does not mean that you cant do this! (I really need to listen to my own advice sometimes!)
There are going to be some serious hard days, I am talking days when it takes everything in you to show up and to get your run in, again WE ALL EXPERIENCE this, there is nothing wrong with you, it does not make you week, its called being challenged (remember we are doing the Dopey CHALLENGE), this is your mind wanting to stay in your comfort zone and that is the beauty of this challenge is you are going to be pushed outside of that and its going to cause doubt, its going to cause the I don't want to, its going to make you question and wonder but you girlfriend you got this! You can do this, what I do is I tell myself give it 10 minutes, 10 minutes of movement and if I am still struggling to find something to keep me going I give myself the grace of trying again later. Usually though by 10 minutes in I am in it and I start to think about the finish line feels, I think about how much stronger I am becoming!
If you are having to do your runs on a treadmill, take the time to watch some of the amazing youtube videos that are out there of the courses you are about to run! This helped me so much come race weekend because I knew what was coming on the course and it gave me something to look forward to! It was also a nice way to help the time and miles go by!
Join a dopey community, there are so many of them out there and its so fun to get to know new people and talk all things training and race weekend! I have one and I love reading what the girls in my group are doing to help, and seeing each other motivate one another when its hard! Its also a big PLUS on those long run days to know that there are others out there doing it and you can chat with them once you are all done!
Last a final tip for training is have a reward calendar! This was something that was super fun for me when I started and it helped me with saving some money too! I broke my training calendar down into 3 week chunks, I follow Hal Hidgon's 18 week training calendar so for me I had 6 chunks and each one had a reward! So my first one was a new pair of Minnie eats and a Disney tee shirt that I wanted for the trip, I had to complete all my training runs in those 3 weeks in order to make my purchase! The next 3 weeks it was a new pair of running shoes that I had been eye balling, as the weeks went on and the milage got hire I rewarded myself with bigger prizes and then at the end budgeted for a dinner at the contemporary to celebrate it all coming to a close! Having those little rewards for myself was something that helped me with one not buying all the things lol but then it was also helpful on those days that I didnt want to run, I knew that I had a little something for myself for completing it :)
I hope that these tips help you as you start your training, I will be bringing lots more in the coming weeks and am going to try really hard to document each week this time around and share it all here!
Love,
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