Today was a tempo run; warm-up, 5 minutes at race pace, cool-down, and do it again. We started at 8, but right at the beginning of Summer here, you sweat when walking from your car to the door of the gym! I will spare you the details, but let's just say, my body is arguing with my brain about being outside at all in that heat. It makes me think that is time for a little motivation.
It can be hard to motivate yourself. That's why I don't like to run by myself, but hey, it happens. Motivation can come in many forms, rewards, advice from friends, or "yelling" from your coach. And sometimes it's as easy as reading some quotes from other runners. Here are some I love. They make me want to go run right now (of course I am sitting in the air conditioning right now with the curtains closed. I might change my mind if I go open the door =)
Please share with me if you have another favorite motivational quote. I'd love to hear it.
"You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement."
- Steve Prefontaine
"Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it's all about."
-PattiSue Plumer, U.S. Olympian
"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."
-William Faulkner
"If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run."
--John Bingham
It hurts up to a point and then it doesn't get any worse."
- Ann Trason
"Runners just do it - they run for the finish line even if someone else has reached it first." - Author Unknown
"The trouble with jogging is that by the time you realize you're not in shape for it, it's too far to walk back."
-Franklin P. Jones
To be number one, you have to train like you're number two. Maurice Greene
If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a board and knock me down, because that means I didn’t run hard enough Steve Jones
Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character.
T. Alan Armstrong
You have a choice. You can throw in the towel, or you can use it to wipe the sweat off of your face.
Gatorade ad
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.
Booker T. Washington
