Discipline

Are you considered to be disciplined if you mindlessly make your runs green in TrainingPeaks? For some, discipline is of course a case of showing up to sessions, and not snoozing that alarm. 

For me, it’s certainly harder to skip a session than to get myself to it. I thrive on the harder workouts, and the stacking of consistency. 

This morning, I woke up early for my long run. A session that I had already pulled back from Marathon Pace efforts to easy running; in order to allow for the heat and humidity. But upon waking, I felt the last week’s travel fatigue catch-up with me. And being on Day 2 of my cycle, I was somewhat sluggish to say the least. 

The easiest thing to do here was to lace up, ignore my feelings, and to run. To make that 2 hours running session go green. I paused and reflected on what discipline means to me. I want to run in freedom, not fear. I want to listen to my body and to not always take the “easy route”. 

The outcome was simple, yet hard. The session needed to change or be skipped. I amended it down; I even put in a coffee stop and some tourism with Jack mid-run. Far from the initial marathon pace work I had programmed. As a result, I had a great run and loved every minute of it. I was present and mindful in my run, my body, and my thoughts.

It could be viewed as disciplined or lacking discipline, I guess. I like to think the former.