What to do if you don’t feel ready…

“I’d been working nights, hadn’t had a good training run for the last 4 weeks and was standing on the start line not sure I would make the distance.” I quote from one of my running clients, who went on to run a great race without “ever getting to the point where it felt hard”. He had a great run, but the situation could have provided a perfect opportunity to back out because he didn’t feel perfectly prepared. He didn’t feel completely ready for the challenge ahead.

At one point it would have felt like a great idea – to sign up for a running course, to enter a race, to (re-)join a group or to sort out your aching back. But now it’s the time to do it, it feels horrendous. You start berating yourself for having your stupid idea in the first place and you start searching for reasons (excuses) why not to do it. This isn’t you; you’ll be fine just carrying on as you are.

Change is hard. Especially if you’re making a change yourself, of your own free will. Your body and your mind conspire to maintain the status quo, to stay in the comfort of the known. Somewhere deep inside you need to connect to your why: to your vision of you running, to not waking up with a pain across your shoulders.

The trick here is to do it anyway. To start before you’re ready, because in truth, you’re probably not ever going to feel completely ready. Actions create results so you must skip your imagined nightmare of the first step, do it anyway and soon enough you’ll be on your way to easy running, personal bests or springing gracefully out of bed in the morning for a great day ahead.

If you’re really not sure if you’re ready then get in touch and I’ll help you to figure out what the best next step for you is. If you’re beginning to think you’re ready – get in touch to take that next step: 1:1 coaching, group runs, training plans or deep tissue massage.