Always do your best.
Simple. We hear this statement practically every day of our lives. Giving 100% makes sense; it shows effort, determination, desire, and passion. All of these attributes are positive. In athletics, owning and then delivering these characteristics pay off in a big way during competition.
What did your best look like a couple of months ago?
In high school athletics, as in every level of athletic competition, a team sport is comprised of a group of individuals. Each individual has their own unique range of best efforts. Athletes are subject to variables that impact what their best is on any specific day. Defining your best is recognizing the variables you juggle and how they impact you. Then put your best effort into training for that session.
As a high school cross county coach, I ask my athletes to do their best; whatever that is for the day. High school is tough and the athletes deal with a list of constantly changing variables and pressures: amounts of school work, time constraints, grades, testing scores, and the list goes on.
What does your best look like now?
Currently, most of our lives look very different than a couple of months ago. The normal standards of life and school are anything but due to the majority of the country living in quarantine from COVID 19. We are told to stay home and socially distance from other people. For some runners, this can be quite a challenge. One of the major draws of distance running is the social aspect; running with friends and having fun. The limitations we are experiencing make that difficult and can make workouts feel harder and make our best efforts look pale.
Even though our daily life has been altered greatly, my advice to do your best doesn’t change. We don’t live in a vacuum and the reality is our best may look and feel very different. Right now our best isn’t measured in distance run or pace maxed. It is measured in finding a balance between our expectations and our reality. We need to do our best right now at looking towards the future when our practices will be back, our runs can be in groups, and competition is on the horizon.
Find the fun and remember the joy.
Do your best to make your run fun, find and choose the joy of running, use your miles to remember why you love the sport. Do something different, count mailboxes in your neighborhood, or cats lurking in drain pipes. Check out the clouds you see in the sky, daydream, and smile and wave to as many people as you can. Doing your best is contagious, in a good way.
Put your best effort into finding fun on your run.