My Old Friend: Perfectionism
My husband and I, and the rest of my RunDisney pals preparing for the WDW Marathon Weekend in January, are headed into our peak weeks of training. I have been thinking about the differences in state of mind between the preparation for my first and second marathons, and wanted to share a common thought distortion that many of us experience.
In the lead up to the first marathon, November of 2017, I found myself having some trouble balancing life, work, and marathon training. I remember sitting with my training plan and a pencil on a Sunday night, trying to figure out when I was going to run during the upcoming week, and would feel all sorts of stress and overwhelm set in when I realized I might not be able to fit all of this training into my week. My old friend, perfectionism.
I felt guilty each and every time I missed a run, thinking that somehow, this would ruin any chance of my finishing the race at all. I felt like I was surely going to fail at completing the marathon. Thoughts like, “Miss one training one, and the whole race will be a disaster,” or, “Shorten one long run, and you’re going to be toast on race day.” This is a classic thought distortion called “all or none thinking,” where anything short of perfect leads to a feeling of failure.
Instead of this all or none thinking, let’s look for some balance and flexibility. Does anyone really stick 100% to their training plan? I imagine very few people can say that they followed a training plan 100% for 20 weeks. Life happens. We aren’t professional runners. We are working, doctoring, parenting, fill in the blank...
Insead of beating ourselves up about missing a training run or shortening a long run, let’s cut ourselves some slack. Let’s not make it a habit, but let’s mark it down in the training journal, take a deep breath, and move on. One foot in front of the other, my friends.
My coach likes to remind me, and in turn, I like to remind all of my athletes: that no one run and no one training week makes or breaks the training plan or race day outcome. If we can write down our efforts and thoughts, we can then recharge, regroup, and revise our goals as needed.
Instead of our brain feeding us thoughts that make us feel like we are failing, we stay flexible and cultivate feelings of calm which will serve us better, allowing us to put the missed run behind us, move forward, and get back out there for our next run tomorrow.