Yesterday morning in Pittsburgh I got up and headed to the hotel gym to get in my last workout of the week. I slept so amazingly well the night before, so I was well rested and ready to go.

Does anyone else sleep really good in hotel beds?

I started with a 1 mile warm up to get my legs moving and ready to run quick. Then I did 20 minutes hard effort (it ended up being a 7:35 min/mile) followed by a 1.25 mile cool down.

Sunday Workout

I was a sweaty mess by the end of it. Here is proof!

Sweaty

I have to say for a hotel gym this one was pretty awesome. I finished my workout with some bosu ball squats and a few upper body exercises.

 

During my workout I got to thinking about the saying “old habits die hard.”  If you look up the meaning of this phrase:

“The saying ‘old habits die hard’ means that someone may find it particularly difficult to change their behavior. After doing something for a certain length of time, the person may think that they can’t change the error of their ways. An example of the saying ‘old habits die hard’ could be used against someone who has tried to give up smoking but was unsuccessful.”

I’ve been dealing a lot with this lately. During my 10k training I end up running less miles that I am used to. Even before I went crazy with my mileage after I lost my job, I still used to average between 40-50 miles per week. While I am still CLOSE to that the thing about speed training is that you have to be prepared to cut back your mileage.

This week alone I have found 2 instances where I wanted to keep pushing.

On Saturday’s run I was feeling so great I just wanted to keep going. I know you don’t always come by a run where you feel that good so off and on throughout the run all I kept thinking was “wouldn’t it be nice to just keep going an extra mile or two?” I knew that I needed to stick to my plan and not get ahead of myself but it was physically HARD for me to quit at 8. I did it though!

Life up or Tear down

Yesterday during my workout after I had finished the hard 20 minutes I started on my cool down.  I hit 5 miles and I wanted to keep going so badly. I used to have a mindset where if I didn’t hit at least an hour on the treadmill it wasn’t worth it. I ended up stopping around 43 minutes, and more than once I considered just jogging slowly until it hit 60 minutes.

 

The truth is it’s true, old habits die hard. It’s a mental battle that I still find myself having to fight a lot of days. We get into a habit of doing the wrong things and convincing ourselves it is okay. We find excuses and reasons why these bad habits are the right thing.

Old Habits Die

I’ve found that the more I focus on the positive in where I am the more I am able to break those habits. The more I sit there and tell myself it’s okay to cut back your mileage, it’s okay to let yourself rest and it’s OK to run less than others around you right now the more that it becomes the truth.

It is something I have to focus on every single day. I am not convinced the habit every really goes away, I think underneath it all the habit is lurking there waiting to rear it’s ugly head again. However, with the knowledge that I have now I am able to combat those habits and thoughts when they come up again.

Mark Twain

We live, we learn and we become stronger. It doesn’t mean that at times those habits won’t try to sneak their way back in, but it means that we have become more intelligent and knowledgable at recognizing them. We learn to become stronger!

You are stronger than any of your worst habits. Old habits do die hard, but I am here to tell you that you can move past them!

 

What is an old habit that you’ve had trouble breaking?

Anyone having anything exciting going on this week?

[Tweet “Old Habits Die Hard via @LovingOnTheRun #runchat #run #running #habits”]

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