When I was in Sweden in May, I found myself at a communal dinner table making friends and eating with some lovely people. During the conversation I happened to mention running the Berlin Marathon and my new friend, Nancy, asked me “how do you even start to train?” I wish I had said then, what I’ve come to realize now: conquering any goal must be done in snackable bites. By nature of a marathon training plan, 26.2 miles is broken down into shorter runs, where milage gradually increases week after week. In my brain, I break out each run into small snackable bites to help encourage my brain and body to complete the run. After all marathon running is mental as much as it is phsyical.
When I run the loop in Central Park on a hot day, I give myself permission to stop at all the water fountains. Snackable milestones. By doing that I’m taking the pressure off myself to continuously go and consequently, without that pressure, I find that I don’t actually need to stop at every fountain or milestone I set myself. My inner dialogue goes something like this - “See that tree on top of that hill? Once you get to the tree you can stop if you need.” <runs up hill> “Oh hey tree, no need to stop, bye bye.” I set small milestones throughout each run, small snackable goals that get me to accomplish the distance I need to hit.