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| The Athlete's Way - Training your mind and body to experience the joy of exercise. By Christopher Bergland |
I read this book during my first half marathon training and it made a world of difference. Every one who is not a runner at one point in their life goes through a mental transformation during their training. Before the half, I was not an avid runner. I had run longer distances, but not in years and I was not mentally trained to log the long amount of hours that it took to do the runs and I would dread having to go out for my 5 milers. I would get so bored, and I had a problem with being fidgety, meaning that I would focus on the tiny negative things of my run rather then the experience. If my shoe lace hit my leg when I stepped, or if my hair wasn't perfectly tied back on my head. And the whether. That was the wost. But I longed to get better, so I had to figure out some way to get my mind where I wanted it to be.
This book came at a perfect time in my life. Somebody knew I loved running and just handed it over to me. It became sort of my training bible. I was in a very transitional phase, trying to figure out how to manage my anxiety about life, and channel it into running. It was tough, and there were more bad runs then good runs. As I have progressed I now have more good runs then bad runs, but it wasn't easy to get to that point.
This book talks about the chemical make up of a person's brain, how it reacts to exercise and how to change your thoughts. Its very interesting to read about, cause I love that kind of stuff. The human body is an amazing thing. I would read this book before a run to get the motivation to go out when I didn't feel like it. Or if I came home from a particularly hard day, I would find solace in knowing that I didn't HAVE to feel like that if I didn't want to, and it would give me the tools to change it. I spent many days with my highlighter, paging through the words and the enormous amount of quotes, finding hope to continue through my journey of changing my mentality from addict to runner.
"Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits, watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny."
- Frank Outlaw
This book came at a perfect time in my life. Somebody knew I loved running and just handed it over to me. It became sort of my training bible. I was in a very transitional phase, trying to figure out how to manage my anxiety about life, and channel it into running. It was tough, and there were more bad runs then good runs. As I have progressed I now have more good runs then bad runs, but it wasn't easy to get to that point.
This book talks about the chemical make up of a person's brain, how it reacts to exercise and how to change your thoughts. Its very interesting to read about, cause I love that kind of stuff. The human body is an amazing thing. I would read this book before a run to get the motivation to go out when I didn't feel like it. Or if I came home from a particularly hard day, I would find solace in knowing that I didn't HAVE to feel like that if I didn't want to, and it would give me the tools to change it. I spent many days with my highlighter, paging through the words and the enormous amount of quotes, finding hope to continue through my journey of changing my mentality from addict to runner.
"Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits, watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny."
- Frank Outlaw
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