Friday Thread: The upside of quitting
Have you ever quit training, or quit in the middle of a race?
Have you ever quit training for a race, whether it’s due to injury or just plain exhaustion? Or have you ever found yourself in the middle of a race, or just a really long distance, and said to yourself, “I’m just not sure I have this in me today?”
I think we all find ourselves in that place from time to time; I know I did back in the spring, when a lot of events in my life (plus a nagging injury) all combined to tell me it was time to slow down and even stop.
The thing is, we all internalize the messages we see all around us to “never quit, never stop, never give up.” Which is good advice, a lot of the time! But sometimes it isn’t — and that’s the hard part, isn’t it, figuring out when it’s the right time to keep going, and the right time to stop.
My question to you today is, have you ever experienced this — in a training cycle, or just in the middle of a run, or in the middle of anything difficult you were doing — and decided it might be better to retreat for today and come back stronger tomorrow?
Love to hear your thoughts — and I’ll share mine in the discussion below too.
Yes, Although I have never quite a race I have slower down but more important there are times I have had to quite running over my 48 year career. Times when the Kids needed me more than running , weather in the cold Wisconsin Shows but mainly injuries when I broke my elbow when running, drove my self to the hospital and had surgery that day and had to drive my self back Home at that time in Houston. It definitely took me some time to get back but in reality I will never quite running regardless of my young 80 years old.
Many times! The most important part of good training is listening to your body. I’ll often set off on a 15-20km run and then 5km in realise it’s just not the right temperature or my body’s not right or my mind will just say, “not today”.
I know then next time I get back out there I’ll be in a better mindset because of it. I find everyone I tell I’m running or training has advice or what they would do but honestly, just listen to your body & inner voice, it often knows what’s best.