Nothing to10K?

I have a couple of confessions to make.

  1. I haven’t run, done yoga, or much of anything else for about 3 months
  2. I also haven’t written much because I operate on a switch, my motivation is ON or it’s OFF across the board
  3. I have a serious commitment issue – I’ve been running off and on for years now but I’ve never got much over a 5K an I’ve never once committed to a running plan.
  4. I am one of the most excellent people you will meet at making excuses about why I don’t want to get on and stick with a plan, and also I’m most excellent at making excuses.  Even about things I want to do, and then I convince myself (pretty easily) that my excuses are actually truths.

So, ya.  That about sums it up.  I’ve decided not to do that anymore. Again. Sound familiar? But this time I’m going to try a couple of things I’ve not tried before. Because you know, that thing where if you keep doing the same thing over and expect different results…  I’m about 2 more times from being committed.

I chose a plan to get to a 10K and I’m committing to actually doing it.  I usually have preconceived reasons of why I might skip a night or why I might not finish it.  Yes, really.  This time I wrote it all on my calendar and I’m not making any schedule changes or skipping any nights.  If my run doesn’t happen until midnight or if I have to get up at 5am to get it in, so be it.  I looked at a bunch of plans and decided to go with Hal Higdon’s novice 10K plan.  A lot of people swear by him and the plan includes cross training and such so there you go.

My usual method is to tell no one when I start something like this because that way when I quit before I finish no one will ask me about it. This time I even told my sisters, so there is some built in shaming if  so much as skip a night.

Also, I’m going to do a weekly check in here to keep track of my progress.  Probably boring for anyone else to read but this blog actually started as a running journal way back when, so it works for me.

Finally, it’s about time for a new mantra.  I’ve read this one on the internet a bunch of times and it seems to about sum things up for me at the moment.

stop giving up

So here I go, off to find out what happens if I actually start something fully committed to doing it by the book. Wish me luck, and feel free to be part of my shaming team if I come anywhere NEAR to making excuses.  Which I won’t.  🙂

Do you ever have an issue with following through on commitments you try to make to yourself?  Do you have any suggestions on how to break through the limitations a person puts on themselves?