If you’re a runner looking for a dapper fellow, look no further…
May all your feet be keeping it classy. 😉
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Some funny related matter:
Do speed goggles exist??
Is being in a relationship with a runner a blessing or a curse? (umm, total blessing!!)
The HOTTEST Friday night dates around.
More running MOTIVATION and CARTOONS
Have you heard my big news, yet?!?! 🙂
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1) ‘Staches, yay or nay??
2) Do you have something funny to share, joke, pun, anything…we all need a laugh.
I’m excited to share my first RUNNING book: “Effective Mental Strategy: Race better by out-thinking your brain”!!
Running hard hurts. In order to race and train your best you need to block out that pain and stay in an effective mindset.
This ebook will teach you strategies to refute those pain messages from your brain and refute that voice telling you to “Stop!” and “Slow down!” Also included are insights from professional distance runners sharing the tips THEY USE to stay mentally tough during workouts and races. These rocking runners, Sarah Brown, Sara Hall, and Jason Hartmann, your brain would go dizzy counting up all their accolades: World Championship Teams, Pan Am Gold, Marathon Titles, you name it!
I’ve chosen to use my cartoons as teaching tools to make the reading fun and engaging. I mean humor DOES make everything better and, after all, while training and racing does require an amount of seriousness, running IS fun. And running personal records are even MORE fun!
This ‘instructional comic book’ is written BY a runner; because who better to poke fun at our crazy quirks and thoughts than a runner herself?!!
BUY NOW to order this awesome ebook in PDF form here– $9.99!
*Please indicate if the email you’d prefer the ebook be sent to is different from your payment email address.
This running ebook is also available in the Kindle version at the Amazon store: BUY IT HERE!
Sneak peek of what’s inside!
It’s not a crime if you went running in the morning but have yet to shower by 5pm 6pm 8pm 9pm until right before you go to bed. 😉
Happy Monday, Running Friends, and if that means you are one of the poor souls who have to leave home for work…theeeen, maybe you’ve gotten that shower. Don’t worry, you have the weekend to look forward to lounging around in running clothes all day! 😉
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More Running Cartoons!
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1) How did your Monday start?
2) Are you a bit lax when it comes to the post-run shower RIGHT away??
3) Best thing happening for you this week?
Running is a test. We take it willfully and grade ourselves accordingly.
[Please contact me if you’d like prints! 🙂 cait@caitchock.com]
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More Sunday Morning Running Inspiration
More Running Motivation
1) How did your last test run go?
Sometimes a runner’s already won the race before the gun’s even goes off. Questions. Doubts. Insecurities. None of these belong at the starting line; starting line of a race or a workout. A runner needs confidence. NEEDS it… no amount of physical endurance, speed, or fitness can make up for it.
How one steps to the line is what separates the GAMERS from the runners who perform at about the level they do in workouts, and then harriers who self-implode.
Confidence is a tricky one, it’s a mental factor of running and training. Once shaken, a runner’s confidence can be quite difficult to fully restore. Injuries, off days, strings of bad races, all of these plant seeds of doubt. Doubt is like a monster that, once you feed it, it grows exponentially in size. It’s a voracious monster that will eat a runner whole. Step to the starting line enveloped in that ugly monster and you might as well not even wait for the gun to crack. You’re already a dead runner ‘running’.
By the time you step to the starting line, there is NOTHING you can change about the past. Stop any questions of, “Should I have done…?”, “Did I do enough…?”, etc. You can’t do it, so no use worrying about it.
Don’t let that scare you off, if you’ve got some doubts, that’s only natural. And if you’re currently fighting from falling into the pit with that ugly doubting monster, THERE IS still hope for you yet. It works two ways. You CAN restore your confidence. You CAN still step to the line a gamer. It just takes some work and shifting your thinking.
Usually doubts start from one of two places:
1) An Event: Events would be after injuries, poor performances, etc…it starts with a legitimate reason to question if your fitness is off and snowballs. Usually the first race or workouts back after an injury a runner naturally goes in with a little more trepidation. You need some solid performances under you belt to steamroll that confidence train back.
To help BOOST that train, remember that your talent and fitness never goes away. Your first race back may not be your PR, but trust in the process, trust in your dedication, and trust that you’re only going to improve from here.
2) Anxiety and Stress: Anxiety and stress tend to spike around pre-race time. I wrote whole posts HERE and HERE on how to use those nerves to your advantage. If you let too much pressure, internal and external, load you up, it’s like running with a weight vest. To help unload that pressure, usually it takes the runner looking within THEMSELVES and finding that passion and love for running that brought them to the sport. If they can get back the excitement and joy for just running, eventually the times, workouts, and races will get back on track.
Ironically, the LESS you think about races and workouts, typically the better you’ll do.
Remember that NO race is the last race in the world. Yes, it can be a Championship race or a PR you’ve been wanting to pop FOREVER…but know that tomorrow will always come and another race will too.
1) Where do you draw your confidence from before a race?
2) How do you use a race day atmosphere to BOOST your performance compared to regular workouts?
3) Have you ever had a time when your confidence was shaken, how did you get it back?
Some things are so scary they can only be real…true tales of running nightmares!!
This story comes by way of a runner in Minnesota. You know, one of those states that actually gets REAL winter weather. No, the scary part isn’t the snow, wind, or temperature reading. That’s just freaking wrong.
With all the advancements we’ve made in the world, running and otherwise, one would think we’d have solved this whole ‘power outage’ issue. I mean, c’mon, we’ve landed on Mars. But I digress.
Minnesota. Dead of winter. Night. Running outside is clearly not an option, unless you want to wind up with frost bite on your nose and unconscious from slipping on black ice. Treadmill it is.
WHAT?!?!? Power issues, FIVE BLOWN FUSES?!?! What is a runner to do? Enter the Running Nightmare Zone. This quick-thinking runner, in what can only be described as a true Running MacGyver moment, rigged up the treadmill off of a remaining circuit and…
…got the treadmill working. No lights, no problem, that’s what a flashlight is for.
The runner was quoted, “You can take a lot of things away from me, but my sanity won’t be one of them.” AMEN!!!
Scary.As.All.He##. Stay safe, stay sane, stay running, My Friends!!
**Names have been omitted to protect the traumatized 😉
1) What’s one of the craziest situations you’ve been in to get your run on?
I’m actually embarrassed to say…it’s crazy.
2) What’s a true running nightmare tale you’ve lived through?
3) What’s the last scary thing to happen to you on a run?
Just this shady looking dude I passed, it was dark, I definitely ran wide and picked up the pace.
Because we’ve ALL had those prickly bush fantasies in the middle of a workout or race. “I’ll bet hucking myself into that tangle of nettles will be a LOT less painful than what I’m doing now.”
It may not always be a prickly bush, but the mind certainly has a crazy way of looking for any excuse to get you to stop running. Fighting those ‘excuses’ and telling yourself to IGNORE that whiney voice inside your head is something ALL runners deal with. Constantly.
We know that complainer, that voice telling us that we can’t, will always be there. We start every race and workout aware that the time will come when the pain sets in, but we ALSO tell ourselves that we CAN push much further past what that whiney, compliany, snot-nosed little voice tells us.
Run mentally tough…abstain from hucking yourself into that prickly bush. Well, at least until you’ve gotten through all the repeats, then, well, do what you will. 😉
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Be a GAMER: How to be confident going into workouts and races
Master Your Nerves: How to use pre-race nerves to your advantage
More posts on mental toughness HERE
More Runner’s Strip Cartoon Movie Shorts HERE
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1) What was your last ‘prickly bush fantasy’?
A bush.
2) What are some other funny thoughts/fantasies you’ve had during workouts or races?
3) What has become the best way for you to stay mentally tough during workouts and races? What’s your most-used tool?
Life’s more vibrant with running.
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More running motivation HERE
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1) Where do most of your runs take you? ie: roads, trail, track, etc.
2) What are typical Friday and weekend night plans for you?
3) Running brings color into my life by…
Don’t worry, if your local donut shop has an ‘You lick it, you buy it’ policy, CLEARLY they aren’t familiar with runners. We’ll lick it, we’ll lick ALL of them if you force our hand…errr, foot??
It’s kinda cold outside, what with winter and all that, but get your run on, blast the heater, and crack open those pints…errr, half-gallons?? 😉
Yes we’re runners, yes we’ve earned it, so if we want to lick at will…well, we will!! 🙂
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Certainly we love to dream and drool about all the glorious tasty delights we’ll be entitled too after those runs, BUT we also make sure to fuel ourselves up right. Eat to perform, right!??! Tips on all that HERE
Motivation to get your run on HERE…then you can hit the donut shop.
More laughs? Cartoons and comics HERE
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1) Are you a sweet or salty kinda person?
I dream in cakes and sugar.
2) Last food you ‘day dream/ran dreamed’, and looked forward to post-run?
3) Go-to healthy post-run snack?
Cottage cheese and a muffin.
I’m sure it can be a little tough for spouses waking up to a cold left side of the bed…”Sorry Honey, out running.” Being in a relationship with a runner may mean pleading out of weekend plans because they’ve got their long runs, races, workouts, and whatnot. All night ravers and barhopping don’t exactly work well into the training program.
Air-drying our running shirts and tights across the banister, cupboards full of protein bars and Gu’s…the oft empty refrigerator. “Sorry Honey, I got hungry!!” That’s runger for you.
Certainly the friends and loved ones of a runner may suffer, they may not ‘get it’, they may not harbor ANY desire to worship the all-mighty mile, rock a Garmin tan so burned into your skin it lasts through winter, or not bat an eye about wearing ‘short’ running shorts in public. “Seriously, they’re not even that short.”
The thing is though, TRUE friends and TRUE loved ones may not always ‘get’ our running quirks habits but they will support us regardless. Some have argued that running is a ‘selfish sport’ and in some ways it may appear to be. But I will always argue that any selfishness is absolved so long as:
1) Every running KNOWS how lucky they are for any support they get.
2) Always thank those awesome people waiting at the starting line or watching your kiddies (or doggies, or plants, or comic book collection) so you can go for a run.
3) Running makes you a happier, more productive, better you.
Any runner who does that, not only DESERVES their running ‘me’ time but shouldn’t feel any ounce of guilt. Even if they’re dodging out of the marriage bed in the wee early morning hours and their spouse is left to spoon with a pillow. You’re not cheating…you’re a runner. 😉
1) What are some ways that you are lucky, what pillars of support do you have in your life?
2) How do you thank your awesome family or friends who think you’re crazy for this running thing but support you anyways?
3) How does YOU running make you a better person and how does that benefit your supporters?
Umm…if I didn’t run no one would want to be around me…fact. 😉