ultrarunningmom

Nearly all of my runs start before the sun has begun to brighten the sky. As the fingers of pink, yellow, and orange stretch into the spreading pale blue, my spirits rise. It doesn’t matter if I’m at mile 3 or mile 93 the rise of the sun always brings hope and joy.

Some of this is due to the rise in serotonin levels in the brain. But I also think that it is tied to instinctual knowledge that has been ingrained in all life since the beginning of time. The world becomes cold and dark and then it becomes bright and warm.

This cycle is just a part of life and a part of every run. There are miles of darkness and miles of brightness. There are many causes of this up and down swing during running, sugar depletion, mental doubt, and aches and pains. You can get through this by remembering that it always comes back up. Give it a few miles, the sun will once again rise.

Our training goes through cycles too. We deliberately put ups and downs in our training programs to allow for recovery and building. There are weeks were we are just beat and our times are all off, and then there are weeks where we crush every obstacle that dares to attempt to block our path.

All of the runners I coach, come to me at some point disappointed in their times or telling me how they struggled through a run which is normally very easy for them. I remind them that it can’t be sunny all the time and it can’t be dark all the time. It will come back up, just stay focused on the training taking it one day at a time.