Getting comfortable with discomfort

I'm at home (well where I grew up home) in Northern Virginia right now!   Basically that means there are more trees and more bugs.  And lots of good friends.  Also, it is the residence of the original faster bunny, Fiver:

No of course she doesn't always lounge around like that.  She probably just got back from a 10 mile tempo run.

One more thing:  I've decided I'm going to start using ads from BlogHer whenever I get unlazy enough to install the ad code.  Basically I figure it would be nice to make a buck (literally one dollar given my readership!) off of this.  But if you hate the ads let me know.   I aim to please and stuff and don't want to make the reader experience go down the drain.  Also, I'll announce the Mizuno winner next blog entry. Sorry for the delay.

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When I was watching the Olympic Trials for the marathon a few months back, the announcer commented that (I believe) Shalane Flanagan had been working on "becoming a less emotional runner".   I remember thinking at the time "What the hell is he talking about?  Why would anyone be an emotional runner.  Running is the least emotional experience ever! One foot in front of the other, right?"

I didn't really think about this again until after the Ragnar ultra or Eugene Marathon.  I realized I spent the majority of the running part of both races making myself completely miserable.

Thinking things like "Why would I do this.  This sucks I want to stop.  I hate marathons...my legs hurt so bad".  Etc.  Grimacing, making faces, etc.

This is kind of my M.O. when I race.  In the words of Mason, I am the only person he knows who "has the ability to make mile three of a marathon look miserable".

Then I read something on Lizzy's blog about enjoying the discomfort that is racing.

At that point I realized I'm a very emotional runner.  One that freaks out at discomfort, is scared of racing and hard workouts, and when things get uncomfortable I want to fall apart.  I have no doubt these internal emotional outbursts do nothing to help my race and workout times and probably steal a lot of enjoyment from my running.  I'm trying to learn to enjoy the experience that is pushing myself rather than being afraid of the discomfort and feeling sorry for myself.

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Eugene? Come on...it didn't feel THAT bad.

I've been trying to apply this philosophy to my day-to-day life as well.  I get upset and spastic about things pretty easily (you may notice this if you follow my volatile twitter), and I'm sure that getting easily upset does me no favors in my professional or personal life.  In fact, I've read various personality articles that say that people are more likely to be successful in business if they are even tempered and hard to upset.  Makes sense, right?

Work situations can be mentally tough and uncomfortable just like running hard.  Best to accept it and strategically deal with problems.  Easier said than done, of course.

In the words of Mrs. Tough love, Eleanor Roosevelt, "You must do the thing that you think you cannot do".  Or if I alter it for myself: 
"You must do the thing that you don't want to do.  Just get going and do it, damnit."  =)

So this is my new attempted life improvement for the summer.  If you see me complaining or being overly dramatic, tell me to chill.  Running can hurt, life can be tough, but if we've made it this far, chances are, this isn't the race or project that's going to destroy everything.  I'm going to try to look forward, relax, and just race.