Shutting it in a box.

As athletes we have to learn to be able to shut some things in a box and move past them. Sometimes this is harder said than done, but we have to work to do this, so we don’t affect our current state of training. Being stuck in the past, whether it’s from a session or race that didn’t go as we hoped, there is no point dwelling on it. 
 
Racing as a runner is a bit like horse riding, if you fall off, or in our case have a bad race or training session, the best thing to do is get back on, aka get back out there. 
 
Following on from British Champs I was very nervous about going back to racing. Whilst I know what happened had nothing to do with my fitness or current training state, it still got to me more than it probably should have. I felt as though I wasn’t good enough, yet I had outdone anything I thought possible this year by just getting to the start line. After a few days feeling sorry for myself, and some frank chats with my boyfriend, I got on with it. Over thinking what had already happened in the past would not help me into the future, so I needed to move on, and ASAP, before it affected my training. 

​With my England Debut looming, I was desperate to get back out racing and get rid of the negative racing memories of the past I had stuck in my head. For me, and I’m sure for many people, the best way to get past a race that didn’t go as I wanted, is to race again. My love for racing always seems to just come flooding back, and all I want to do is race. In the end, racing is what we train for. It’s a time to prove our strength and for all the hard work of training to accumulate in to one result. 
 
My nerves were a lot higher than I thought in the morning of the race, but as soon as the start gun went off, the nerves disappeared, and I was ready to race. I felt so strong, I knew I had no reason to be nervous anymore and I just went with it. As soon as I was doing what I love, I knew I just needed to shut any negative memories in a box and put the past behind me. 

​Something I did learn, was how important it is to be able to go with the ups and downs and use them constructively, not destructively. Everything is all part of our ongoing journey, so we should use everything we go through to build upon ourselves as athletes into the future.  
 
I keep telling myself, don’t dwell on things more than you need to. Acknowledge their presence and move on. Do you find it easy to put the past behind you and move on, or are you a dweller like me?