It’s so easy to talk a good game
by Darren Scherbain
Spouting out the affirmations and broadcasting your good intentions makes a cute little Instagram post.
Talk is cheap! Talk gets you another stint in rehab. Talking about doing something is not the same as actually doing it!
Setting your intentions will not get your butt up the hill.
Talking is just good for …. talking.
Talking about doing it; does elevate that sense of procrastination just a little. You need laser sharp focus, strength, determination and courage to get your ass up that hill.
Your heart rate monitor and garmin will tell you your physiology, biology pace, distance and speed. These gadgets don’t tell you WHO YOU ARE!
For the last few years whenever DP, who is great guy from Singapore, comes to visit the island we embark on our customary long run. This isn’t any ordinary run, but a run that tests our resolve: each and every time.
The run departs from Rawaii pier with a scenic jaunt along Rawii beach before a right hand turn into the bumps. The first little hill gets the legs primed for the massive assault up to Kata Viewpoint. Just because we have done it countless times before doesn’t mean that it’s a sure thing.
What’s easy?
Life and the race course don’t respect past results.
This run taught us a very important lesson in flexibility. Today it just wasn’t in the cards to stick with the planned route, we had to make an adjustment and double down on the long game. It makes no sense to try and put a training load on a structure that can’t support it. Trust me… your self worth is not on the line!
You need to have the flexibility to honestly say TODAY I need to make some adjustments.
Rigidity and the EITHER/ OR mindset is a one way ticket to a few blisters.
Altering the route we made our way back down from Kata lookout and decided to adjust the route and still get in some hard fought miles. On our altered route we ran past a taxi with its phone on its roof. Waiting in a driveway for us to run past, was a taxi, and DP yelled to the guy ”your phone is on the roof of the car”. The taxi didnt hear him and was ready to bolt out of the driveway.
What would you Do?
a) You told him about the phone ……end of MY responsibility.
b) ME CENTERED – keep running not my problem I need to focus on my training and stay in “the zone” so I have a great STRATA POST.
c) There comes a point when you are squeezed and you just want to get your ass home.
d) WE CENTERED jam on the brakes and run back to the taxi and grab the phone off his roof for him.
We are all in this together and all it takes is one little ripple to make one heck of a difference?
It was never about the Taxi driver and the phone or that you had to alter the planned route. The run was a great lesson in the resolve it takes to chisel character.
