I can think of just a few runs that felt amazing the first few kms in. Most of my runs take 2-3 km for me to settle in. My body takes a little bit longer to warm up, and be ready to run. I have learned that about myself, so at this point, I do not let that determine how my full run is going to feel. Sometimes it even takes longer than a few km, but I know my body will eventually come around. But, I think this could easily translate over to the way we live our lives. The way I live MY life. I was telling a friend the other day, who was feeling really nervous to try a new sport... "give it 20 minutes and then decide if you like it or not." When I said that to her, I realized that this has been my motto for the last few years. I think we are easily very quick to react, set our minds, and check out of something that could be really good for us... because it feels hard at first.
Like I said, a good number of my runs start out with heavy legs, and lower energy. But, once my body settles in, my heart rate is steady, and my nutrition really starts to get the gears turning... I love the run again. If I decided how I felt about running based on the first few kms of a run every time, I would not be back out there. Because I have learned to allow how I feel to settle, I have also learned how to carry out a run and finish well, even when there are lows.
New/change is obviously very uncomfortable for most of us. If it's extremely easy for you, and you thrive in that, you are rare and I'm very envious. But, a lot of us need some time to adjust, let our minds settle, and really sit in the new reality for ourselves. Maybe that is a new job for you, or a new relationship, or a loss of a relationship, or moving to a new city. There have been moments in my life where I made up my mind too quickly about how I was deciding to feel about the "new reality" in my life, and I missed the really good thing that was right in front of me. I had made my mind up that this was going to suck, and I didn't like it. Obviously if we have an attitude like that, we will live out that reality. But, in recent years, I have quickly adjusted into the "give it 20 minutes mindset." Obviously change can take more than 20 minutes to adjust to, but you get what I am saying. If you allow yourself to take a step back and give some space, maybe this new reality for you could be the best thing. The most impossible situations, or the ones that could have brought you some insane hurt, could turn into a new season of life that you thrive in.
A lot of you will understand when I say trail runner learn how to "suffer well." I have learned that I am mentally strong, and can push through feeling pretty crappy on certain runs. Translating that back to life... I think we also can learn to suffer well. Life is guaranteed to throw us some pretty big curveballs, and there will be some pretty big mental climbs (if we are sticking to the trail running lingo), but it really comes down to what the mindset looks like in those moments. I say this a lot to the people I am close with.. "the pain I have experienced felt like I would never walk out of it.. but I would NOT trade it for the world, because it brought me here to this exact moment... a stronger version of myself."
Whatever "new" looks like for you in life currently... give it 20 minutes, or however many minutes you need, before you set your mind. Push on. Resilience is truly beautiful.
(She did end up loving the new sport)
