Matt B. Perkins

Running

No More Resets: The Path to a New Routine and Mindset

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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hit the reset button.

On writing.

On running or building out a full workout routine.

On meditation.

Or on any form of daily routine in general.

It’s all gone to shit, everything I’ve tried, even methods of starting small and building gradually. I always seem to start strong then waver off after a short period. I’ve had a few successes, most notably with certain elements mentioned in books like Hal Elrod’s The Miracle Morning (for general routine building) or Jerry Cleaver’s Immediate Fiction (for writing). And for the record, those are two fantastic books, and I’ll get into great inspiring reads in another post soon, but for time-saving purposes, let’s get to the point . . .

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Notes from The Run Log, Part 1: The First Month

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The last month has been interesting.

I revamped a bit of a running routine, running six days a week, all in the early- or mid-morning hours, mostly. This is part of an ongoing effort on my part to re-spark some long-desired habits of self-care and creativity.FullSizeRender

Let me be clear, though, that I’m not announcing or detailing any kind of “plans” I have in place for running or any kind of habit change moving forward, for two reasons:

  • I’ve done this many, many times before, and every time I do announce that I’m planning on doing something, I seem to not follow through with anything I publicly commit to, so while I do have some intentions in terms of what I’m going to be doing moving forward (in terms of running, writing, what I’ll be doing with this site, etc.), I’m keeping them on the old shelves of the mind and will happily relay some of the results here.
  • Regarding the above, I’ve read that research shows announcing goals can be counterproductive to actually carrying them out.

All that said, one thing I am trying out now is rehashing notes from my daily running log, a small blank notebook with cardboard-style covers, with the contents of the first month’s efforts transcribed below. This is a bit of a look at where I am and where I’m going in regards to my running journey – and most of this is sort-of starting from scratch after several months of lying rather dormant, the result of a slight injury (what I believe was ITBS, given the symptoms, though through rest and recent exercises this seems to be subsiding, thankfully) from poor training for my first half marathon I ran back in October.

I’ve committed to another upcoming half-marathon (details to come on that later), but I’m trying to see where the daily log of this will go. Before we begin, let me also clarify that I’ve intentionally kept mileage during the past month low.

Really low. Painstakingly low. Embarrassingly low.

Why? Because my goal this round was not to see how fast or how far I could run, it was how often I could run and if I could do it consistently. This was all about re-forming the habit. Following this will certainly follow-up notes as I move through the next 12 weeks of training.

For now, here’s Part 1 . . .

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