How Do You Do the Hard Stuff? Change up Your Routine!

by Karen Elizaga | Posted: March 9th, 2010 | No Comments »

I’m in London today and keeping to my word – training for the April half marathon. This morning, I was incredibly nervous before my run. 10 miles! Three weeks ago, the longest I’d ever run in my life was six miles, and even then I could count the number of times I’d done that on one hand.

Does it surprise you that I was nervous? I surprised myself a little because I am not a nervous person, and honestly, if I didn’t finish, there was no real consequence (lose a medal? pay a penalty? be embarrassed? NO! none of that!). So why was a nervous? Hmm not sure why.

Anyway as I started my run, I decided to ditch the nerves. What good would it do me? Either I’d do the ten miles, or I wouldn’t. I didn’t want to waste the energy on nerves.

Then as I ran, I decided that to get through to ten, I’d have to trick myself by zigging and zagging through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. I’m a pretty systematic person. For example, when I shower I go through the same routine every time – wash face with Clarisonic while rinsing hair, wash hair, condition hair, soap body with Japanese wash cloth, shave legs with conditioner still in hair, shave armpits, rinse everything. Same way every shower. I don’t deviate. And this is my MO for a lot of things. It works.

But not with everything. Until now, my running has been limited and I’ve given up quite easily. When I started, TWO miles at a snail’s pace was a big challenge. I would run and peter out.

With ten miles to check off on my training schedule today, I knew I couldn’t do this. So I zigged and zagged diagonally, choosing odd routes based on what I wanted to look at, instead of systematically running around the perimeter of the park.

I ran on different terrains and avoided hills (hey, anything that’s not flat is an hill to me!). I chose the water over the trees and spent more time in Kensington Gardens over Hyde Park. I made sure not to have a plan.

I surprised myself along the way with this “unpredictable” and enjoyable route. And I finished.

Think about what you do and how you do it. Are you trying to get to the same goal and failing because you’re trying over and over again in the same exact way? How about trying something new?

Changing up your approach can get you to the end game without your really thinking about it! You will really surprise yourself!