How NOT to train for a half marathon

So 2 weeks to my first half marathon. The training plan was well laid out but alas plans are guidelines are they not?? Last week no long run, decided to play a final fall tennis tournament, 2 weeks before foot injury no long runs, before that a summer ending sprint tri, all great stuff (except the injury) but not on focus for the event to cap off summer. Back at the long run today, 8 plus miles felt fine, one more long run next week back to 9 or 10 miles and I should be fine, but not ideal prep. Strange how I feel I need to make stuff more challenging, "hey anybody can do a half marathon if they do the work!" I still haven't really internalized and acted on the fact that it is ALL about the WORK! OK lesson learned and some pain to come in a couple of weeks but I will push hard and finish strong. Time will tell how successful I'll be!

Fail to succeed

One of the things I've learned over the course of getting back into shape is the need to fail. Failure is the KEY to development. I think we all realize that to do anything at a high level we have to push things a bit. The part we sometimes don't get is that pushing the envelope means that we will encounter failure. How one deals with this failure is ultimately the key to moving forward or stagnating. Do you see it as something you can change? or is it some fixed shortcoming. In the past I've tried running but encountered injury or limited cardio capability and my old answer was often "well you are just not built that run". To be frank that was a cop out. Worse when we believe that one can't change we tend to avoid the behaviour, be it running or weight loss and then things actually get worse and you create a self fulfilling prophecy.  My success didn't come until I realized that failure were lessons, walk before you run (literally) take walk breaks, adequate rest etc. All these failures have taught me to understand my body and how to get to be a runner. The same was true of my weight loss. I've know this intellectually for ages but only recently internalized it and put it into action in regard to fitness and weight loss. Psychologists often refer to this as a growth mindset vs a fixed mindset. There is a lot of great evidence out there that one's effort and motivation is often tied very closely to this belief that one can grow. I'm a strong believer that their are no gifted people just those who work hard, work smart, and have access to opportunity etc. Yes, in some cases genetics helps or creates boundaries, but those boundaries are often very large and for most of us will never be out real limiters. There are some good popular books out today that take a lot of this literature and boil it down to some key elements. If you get the chance check out the Talent Code by Daniel Coyle or Bounce by Matthew Syed. So this week give yourself the chance to fail and reap the benefits down the road.