Written by Lacey Liebert, LMHC
As we head into “the most wonderful time of the year” here is your friendly reminder that it’s okay to not feel “merry and bright.” Despite the not-so-subtle messaging about how we *should* feel around this time of year, our lived experiences are much more complicated.
For the purpose of this post, let’s focus on navigating the end of a running year.
Collectively, our club put in a lot of work this year! We ran, we volunteered, and we supported our fellow runners and community. Many of us trained day in and day out, for weeks and months, to get ready for target races in the spring and in the fall. And it was not easy. Many of us had to manage setbacks. We had ups, we had downs, and we had in-betweens.
So. Here we are. Take a moment and check in: How are you feeling?
- Burned out?
- Accomplished?
- Injured?
- Fired up?
- End of season blues?
- Wondering why 5pm feels like midnight? (Me, too).
Spoiler: all of these are really common experiences that can come up after working toward a goal, whether you hit your goal or not.
Here are 5 steps that can be helpful as you wrap up your running year:
- Reflect
- What was your running year all about? What were your goals?
- Do a month-by-month review.What comes up as you remember and recollect?
- What did you learn this year?
- Celebrate– Do not reserve celebrating for PRs!
- Overcoming something.
- Trying something new.
- Seeing yourself as capable.
- Visiting new places, making new friends.
- Grieve
- Was there something you missed out on this year?
- Did the year turn out much differently than you had hoped?
- Rest and Recover– Repeat after me, REST IS PRODUCTIVE!
- Recovery is for both your body and your mind.
- Think about it- you’ve been focused for weeks & weeks, building up to your target event.
- Rest time between training cycles is critical. There are many resources out there about this topic. Here is one:
- You may need to coach yourself to do less. The urge to do more can be very strong.
- Doing more can be a way of avoiding what it feels like to do less.
- The very real demands of our day-to-day lives often do not allow for slowing down or stopping. That is why we have to be very intentional about building it in.
Stop what you are doing. Sit back. Drop your shoulders and release your jaw. Take a deep breath in, and slowly let it out. Now do that a few more times. It takes less than a minute.
- Look Forward
- Start thinking about your next goals and plans.
- What excites you?
- What are some reasonable goals?
- What will you include in your plan to set you up for success?
- Put something on the calendar to look forward to!
- Start thinking about your next goals and plans.
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Disclaimer: The therapeutic relationship and process is unique and unable to be reproduced in a social media post. The advice here represents a generalization of material and ideas. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly. Laceyliebert.lmhc@gmail.com
To connect with a therapist, here are some resources:
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