The first Wednesday of each month, the Deb from Deb Runs will be providing a word about which to blog. Kind of like a nice little blog prompt. Posts can be fitness or health related, but don’t have to be, so really anyone can play along. Just be sure to link up with InLinkz on Deb’s main post, and share the love by reading and commenting on other’s participant’s posts.

Today’s word is Mindset.

So according to the dictionary, this is what “mindset” means:

There are so many ways to approach this word in relation to running because “it’s all mental,” right?

In other words, once we believe we are “runners,” we will be (feel like) “runners.”

This happened to me after I ran the Freihofer’s Run for Women 5k for the first time.

Then my “mindset” changed again after I finished my first Half Marathon.  Now I believed that I was a “long distance runner” not just a runner who can run 5ks.

You don’t have to run your fastest race to be happy crossing the finish line.

I had one of my slowest 5k times at this race but I finished my first race after not running for 5 months (post ankle surgery) with tears streaming down my face.

Sometimes these negative thoughts crawl into my mind:

• I can’t run that fast.
• I can’t run that far.
• I will get injured if I…
• I am too old to …
• I suck at hills.
• I can’t run in warm (humid, windy, cold…) weather.

As Henry Ford says: “If you think you think can or you think you CAN’T, you’re both right.”

In RUNNING and in LIFE :

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I’m also linking with Susie and Rachel and Debbie and Lora for the Running Coaches’ Corner.

Happy Running! Does your “mindset” affect your running?