In running, as in life, Discomfort is not your Enemy

Discomfort is not your enemy. Its part of the process of growing into the runner you want to be.

There’s a moment in every hard session or race where your breathing starts to labour, your mind starts to entertain the thought of stopping, and you know it’s going to get uncomfortable from here. A point where, if you let it, your mind will quietly start building a case for backing off or quitting.

That’s discomfort doing what it does best: asking you to choose.

Choose to back off or choose to say 'this is where I get to show how tough I am'.

If you think running at your limit will one day feel easy, it won’t. Even as you improve, the feeling of being on the edge stays. We're not trying to make that feeling disappear, but to train your mind to meet it with skill. Every session is a chance to practise that. 

Practising endurance and mental toughness.

How do you practise it? Expect it. Plan for it. Have go-to strategies ready for when it shows up: a phrase, a focus point, a way of breaking the effort into smaller chunks.