GIVING UP AT THE RIGHT TIME

Giving up is the same as quitting?

Or something more insidious?

Quitting feels so final, like, “All done here.”

Giving up delivers a different message.

I look for people who have given up. I want to know them.

I don’t know what they gave up on, but they have the signs:

Not enough rain, too much rain.

Too cold to too hot in two hours.

This shirt makes me look fat?

Skinny jeans make my legs look skinny?

Mr. Potato Head? What?

In this post, Giving Up isn’t about mental health, it’s finding your groove.

(150 posts tagged ‘mental health.’)

I used to be a runner.

If you knew me then and weren’t a runner, you became one.

It started by going out for track in 7th grade, track AND field.

I ran a race called the 1320, the Thirteen Twenty.

That’s where you go if you’re not strong enough to throw something very far in a field, or fast enough to beat anyone in a short race.

The competitive spirit wasn’t completely formed as I jogged three laps and came in last every race.

My own teammate heckled me, calling me a loser. He was a high jumper.

So I tried harder and still came in last.

It wasn’t about giving up when I quit the team.

My teammate still heckled me in the school halls, calling me a quitter AND a loser, but it didn’t matter since we weren’t on the same team.

In youth sports I always blame coaches when a kid quits.

I blamed myself if a kid quit any of the teams in my decade long coaching career.

Blame Coaches For Quitters?

I became a dedicated runner after I got wiped out at the Army wrestling team tryout.

My excuse:

I was a month late to Fort Dix, New Jersey after finishing Army medic school in San Antonio, Texas.

In March.

I went from warm weather to freezing cold; came in at 180 lbs, but scheduled for 198 lbs.

The coach was competing for the 198 lb slot.

I got pounded by 180 pounders, but didn’t get pinned.

I quit wrestling and blamed the coach.

Instead, I focused on running.

They were bitter, hard, long runs along the Schuylkill River.

They were the lonely runs of a twenty year old turning the page from the biggest competitive test of a lifetime.

Running it out while stranded as the medic on duty in a South Philadelphia civil servant clinic?

I wasn’t giving up.

(390 posts tagged Army. It makes an impression.)

Your New Walking Coach To Prevent Giving Up

I coached youth sports three seasons a year, sometimes four.

Met a lot of kids and lots of parents, parents who wanted their kids on my teams.

I’m still impressed by the double-coaching part, the administrative voodoo of scheduling practices back to back for my two sons’ teams and recruiting assistants to coach games when they overlapped.

If you’ve never coached, or coached the right way, you’re missing out on one of the best times of your life.

The second best time is right now.

Self coaching says put on a pair of shoes that feel right and fit right so your foot flexes at the places that don’t cripple you, and go outside.

Walk until you’re bored, have to pee, or get tired, not necessarily in that order.

Go by The Rule Of Two: don’t let two days pass without getting out there.

Wear special walking clothes so you feel like part of the team, the movement team.

Find your groove and stay in it, same time, same place, same get up and go.

If you’re wondering who is giving advice?

It’s coming from a 3:32 marathon at Seaside, a 42:30 10K, under 6 minute mile at Duniway, and bike ride from Eugene to Portland.

That’s my Enduro-cred for the talking the walk talk.

2

Like yoga and breathing exercises, walking the same path at the same time is a routine to bore you to death.

If you don’t know, it’s supposed to bore you, but only the part that gives up.

Keep going or stop?

If you do it right you ponder like this:

I could stop since I’m only walking. I don’t need a run-away-truck deceleration ramp or parachute, not a tack strip.

I can stop, so I’ll stop, but I still need to get back home.

So there you are.

You just overcame Walker Block.

If you do get stuck, just tell yourself, “I could get a dog.”

And if that doesn’t motivate you?

Get. A. Dog.