Goal Work

In the Screwtape Letters, Uncle Screwtape wisely advises his nephew Wormwood that an easy way to distract humans from a goal is either to encourage them to live in the past or focus solely on the future. A backward looking person forgets to assess where he is today to see what more needs to be accomplished. And a forward looking person is discouraged by feeling like he must accomplish all future events right now.

This morning Cecilia ran my 1st loop with me, and I smiled to realize that the vivid days on which I desperately begged God to help me get up that hill are behind me. But already in my head I was dreading the 2nd and 3rd times up the hill today. The sun was higher and I was going to be more tired and what about tomorrow when I add 5 minutes to my run and thus a dreaded 4th loop?? I nearly let myself walk just picturing it.

Then Uncle Screwtape popped into my head, and I knew it was a trick. My moment of discouragement was happening while I ran downhill, not up. I decided instead to think about my goals for the race. I looked back and saw that I can run up a hill, but I won't stop to rest on my laurels. Today I need improvement. I headed out 2 hours later than I wanted...but I went. And real world conditions will work in my favor on race day. My goals for October...?

10 miles scares me. It scares me because I know that if I had to run it today, I couldn't. And every training run between now and race day means more work. I see them all layered on top of each other, an enormous mountain for me to run.

Deep breath. A short term goal would be more helpful than a race day strategy. How about I look forward to being able to run a full 30min--about 3 miles--four times this week? How about I happily notice that this is the last week of my pre-running training plan? How about I decide that today's worries are enough for today?