Pushing Beyond the Limit

One aspect in particular that I struggle with is to push on when the going gets tough. If I’m hill or speed training and the pain starts to flow in, my mind immediately starts talking intelligently foolishly. Just stop. Come on, stop. S-T-O-P. What’s this matter? Who cares about this hill? No one’s here to see you, no one will know you didn’t finish it. And so on.

I’ve gotten better at tuning out this voice in the past year or so and as a result have really pushed my limits a couple of times. Do you know what? The limits I had? The ones I had put in place for myself? They weren’t what I thought. Pushing through the “pain” (and of course I mean the acid in my legs and fire in my lungs – not real injury) has rewarded me greatly.

Every Tuesday night I coach a 10k clinic, and last week we started hills. Everyone struggled – it was a big hill – but they did really great. But one woman in particular had a more difficult run that she expected, I think. The hill was bigger than she realized (and we ran more of it than her previous clinic had). I ran with her for a while, encouraging her as she pushed through, but eventually got the feeling that she didn’t want me with her anymore.

That’s where I struggle with coaching. I’m never quite sure how hard to push. A few people are very clear about their goals, a few people are already very strong runners and others have a lot of determination. But some? I guess it’s because I don’t know them as well, and I worry about pushing them away. Do they want an instructor who lets them walk the hill if they want to? Or do they want an instructor who’s there beside them talking in their ear trying to drown out their negative thoughts as they push through?

One of the reasons that I believe I am a good instructor is because I’ve been the person who didn’t believe in herself, and I’ve come out the other side with the faith that if I try, if I really, really put my all into it, there’s no telling what I can accomplish. And if I can make just one person feel that way about themselves, then there’s not much more I can ask for, is there?