Not quite yet

This post was going to be about how I have been for a run today and how well it went (or not) but I just haven't quite managed to get there yet. I am still pretty hopeful that I will, but the minutes are ticking.

This has been one of those classic, not quite yet days. I will go for a run....soon. Not quite yet, but soon. Now here I am near the end of the day, runless. With the aid of perfect hindsight I now know that I should have gone running about an hour ago. I didn't because I wasn't sure I had time, but it turns out that I did. Whoops.

Whilst I wouldn't call my day complete procrastination, there is a certain element to it. It is something that I have found over the years can be a real barrier to sporting progress. I used to have a rule in the wee hours of the morning, don't think, just go. I would find that if I sat down long enough and pondered long enough about what I was about to do it would be an hour before I was out the door. The longer it took me to get going the more likely it was that I wouldn't get out the door at all. The session where I had a definite deadline, like a squad session or a group ride were best because they forced me to stick to a timeline, otherwise it was just too easy to delay myself. Hence the rule, don't think, just go.

Once I instigated my 'just go' rule I found that more often than not the things I perceived as being potential barriers to my session, the reasons that I was delaying, typically fell away. Usually they turned out to not be problems at all. Usually it turned that if I had postponed, or even stopped my session, then it would have been done needlessly, which in turn would have been frustrating and counterproductive from a training perspective. A bit like today.

It turns out that I probably should have 'just gone' today. Got on with it and stepped out the door. I am still hopeful that I might fit the run in anyway, but if I don't then it will just be yet another example of why putting off the exercise that you are hoping to do rarely leads to a satisfying outcome. Lesson learned, at least until the next time I do it.

Perhaps Nike was on to something when they came up with their motto.