Just after running the Sydney – City to Surf 14km run about two weeks ago, I got sick with quite a bad head cold.
Now, in the 8 months that I have been keeping up what some would call a crazy regime of waking up 5 or 6 out of 7 days a week at 5am and going for a run, I have had times where I couldn’t keep up with it. Sometimes it was because of an injury – my left knee seems to not like the whole idea of running around so much and can let me know it! And I also got a cold here and there but these things didn’t stop me from getting up and running because I had a fairly strong habit that I had developed over 7 months.
But not this time. Getting so sick right after running the marathon really knocked me and forced me to stop running and getting up so early and for the first time this winter in Sydney, I began to really struggle with the early mornings.
This not only impacted on my overall physical well-being but I began to have quite a few negative thoughts about the fact that I seemed to have lost the motivation and discipline to get up early and do what I know I must do to keep my energy, my motivation and my productivity at strong enough levels.
What I also noticed was that my emotions tended to fluctuate quite a bit more as well and there were a ton more negative thoughts that I needed to fend off!
So, I had to really shift my mindset around and come to terms with the fact that sometimes we just have to stop and allow ourselves time out and the most important part is not to be so harsh on ourselves if for whatever reason we are suddenly not meeting a standard we have set for ourselves.
Things have now started to get back into order and I am feeling more able to get up early. In fact today was one of the very coldest morning runs I have done – 4 degrees!!!
Allowing a bit of time to “not be okay” is normal and human and so I encourage all of you to reflect on this during this week and do the very best thing you can do for yourself and the ones you love –
BE COMPASSIONATE with your SELF!!
Have a great rest of the week!
David
COMING SOON!