Each one of us, no matter who you are, have failed at something at some point in our lives. Sometimes it feels like we fail and thats the end. Thats not true. failure will never be fatal, no matter how bad or irreversible it seems, never let your failures, dissapointments or mistakes define you or where you’re going.
Conditioning of the mind vs. Conditioning of the body
10×800 – one minute rest in between
10×1000- 90 sec rest in between
16×400- 90 sec rest in between
These are all some pretty killer workouts! Considering there all fast, and on a track. The mental strength it takes to get through one of these workouts is probably that of equal to the physical aspect. A year ago I would’ve considered one of these maybe one of the hardest things ever, in life! (Given I’m short in years and limited in experience) but now I see that being inured is harder than all of these workouts. -Not physically that’s for sure. But now I really see the importance of having mental stamina, strength and perseverance. Running is a crazy sport!! Since being injured I’ve really seen and realized the conditioning of your mind is just as important as the conditioning of your body. As runners we’re obsessed with the long run, the classic tempo, the short stuff, and though we’re not all that ripped, the strength. All of these things condition and push our body’s beyond our limits. This is what going through an injury does to your mind. Some may not come out victor. It’s totally your choice. You just have to mentally stick it out, exactly like all these killer workouts.
Look at Meb Keflezighi for instance. Winner of the 2014 Boston marathon. Many people, coaches, fans, fellow runners, and doctors said that he would never make it back from a hip fracture that left him crawling(literally) two years before. He could barely turn over in bed. But stayed loyal to his passion and his dreams. He had the mental fight that he needed to make a unremarkable, unbelievable comeback and went on to win the Boston marathon. Was it easy? Heck no. I’m guessing it was harder than any workout he’s ever done. When everybody lost hope for him, he never did. Meb is an inspiration.
With mental strength anything is possible.
To be a champ, you have to believe in yourself when nobody else will.
Believing in yourslef in good. Yes. But in order to be a champion, we need to believe in ourselves when nobody else will. Yes I’m sure a lot of people believe in you. But we can’t always depend on others to believe in us. Sooner or later there will be one day when the only one keeping you going is you.
Every person in this world(and every person reading this) has the potential for greatness, no matter your gender, age, size, ethnicity or beliefs. Only the ones who have the strength to truly believe in themselves and keep moving forward are the ones who will experience this greatness. Believing in your self when times are hard can reveal character and will. You can’t rely on your mom believing in you to achieve greatness, it’s fatally important to believe in yourself.
“Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith”
Don’t lose hope, no matter what your going through, you can make it. I now know how important believing in your self, is now that I’ve seen both sides of the spectrum.
There’ve been ups and downs, doubts and belief through my small trials, but I soon lost hope and I doubted my self. I began to think that I would never achieve the great dreams that I used to know I could achieve. My dreams felt crushed. One evening before bed, I knelt down in faith and asked the one universal question we all have at some point in our life: why has this happened me? Why me?
I asked God what I needed to do to heal my knee.
That Wednesday I went to see a new physio therapist. As soon as I took off my shirt for examination she noticed something me, my mom, my physio therapist, a sports medicine doctor and my family doctor had all not noticed: I had severe scoliosis.
I believe this was an answer. It wasn’t the greatest news, but at least I knew that this could be why I was injured in the first place and what I need to do to get back running.
Do not doubt your faith, God is there when you least expect him to be, he’s there when you’re about to break, if only you let him in.
Hope is a powerful thing
No, I am not going to write about some amazing life changing experience that gave me hope. It’s the opposite really.
At first I had hope. I never would have thought I would be off for more than a month. I never would’ve thought that I wouldn’t get my spot on the 2014 provincial team. I stayed positive. I did everything I could to stay in shape. I kept on waiting and praying for my knee to heal. One month off turned into two. This was absolutely HORRIFYING to me. Two months off running for someone who’s obsessed with running seems like 2 years. Still I believed. I believed I could get through this. I believed I could still go to the Olympics. I went through summer off running. I went to some meets as much as it hurt to see everyone racing and competing. I stayed positive. I cheered on teammates. I thought I could still make a come back. In September I was able to jog. My knee seemed finally ok. So I started cross country. My knee was still not 100% but I was tired of not running. I couldn’t stand it. My knee also seemed to hit a plateau. It got to a point where it didn’t seem like it would get any better. So I ran in cross country. Not very fast but I ran. At first I was happy and grateful to be back running . Then I realized it wasn’t going to get better, I was slow and I certainly wasn’t anywhere near to where I used to be. About seven months after I injured my knee, and months after physio therapy) that did as much as me on cleaning day) I began to forget what it felt like to run without pain,( a thing I had done for so many miles and years before). In the back of my mind I couldn’t believe that I was the same person that had won nationals the previous year, the same person hat I was before.
I had lost hope.
“It’ll be better tomorrow or the next day”-What they all say(/hope)
In March 2014 when I injured my knee on a school skiing trip, being the stubborn, crazy runner I am, I refused to hang up my running shoes for a couple of weeks, and I tried to resume my normal training for weeks after I was injured, soon enough I was crawling around the house. My thoughts were ” it’ll be better tomorrow, or the next day” as my previous “injuries” had always been. Honesty at first when I realized I couldn’t run, there was a bit of relief. I was tired.
I now see how stupid I had been with training and not listening to my coaches. But that’s just me. I work and work and work until I’ve achieved what I want to achieve. I don’t stop until I absolutely have to. Some may call it a gift. But at times it’s more of a curse. I think God knew that I wouldn’t stop until I physically had too, and I think he knew that I was taking a wrong path. I needed to refocus. I need to look at the big picture. I only realized this maybe 10 months after I got injured. I know he will not give us more difficulties and trials than we can handle. And my modo is “if you can take it, you can make it”.
So I began to think “okay, maybe a month off running”. I’ll be slow but it’s ok I can’t run right now no matter what. So I biked, I swam, I did endless amounts of core. And so living with my injury began.
Bent. Not broken
I’m 15 years old, I’m a sister, friend, cousin, athlete, daughter(obviously), quessadilla/cheesecake/pie lover and obsessed runner. I’m a national champion in the 2000 m and a two time national medalist, I’ve held and broken several provincial records for Alberta track and field. My goals for 2015 were to make team Canada for the world youth championships. I really believed I could do it. Some people would argue that I peaked too early, or that a burn out was inevitable, but I thought I had it all planned out until my dreams came crashing down in March 2014 when I injured my knee while skiing. I’m currently still coming out of my injury and getting back to running.
Later that September I was diagnosed with severe scoliosis. I know nobody has it easy. I’ll be blogging about the ups and downs of my journey and I hope I can inspire you to dream big and never give up. Alwaus remember, if you can take it, you can make it.
This is my story
bentnotbroken1999 