My body is a machine, and my mind the engineer

Disclaimer: I am an astrophysicist with a strong passion for running, and although I have a few thousand kilometers under the belt and a growing collection of retired running shoes to show,  I am not a psychologist, I am not a professional runner, and the following is not meant as advice. Rather, this is simply me sharing my experiences. So here goes nothing.

I love running. I miss it when I can’t run, and I want to run when I see somebody running. But more often than not, the actual running part is not easy nor completely enjoyable. Those magical runs that are truly smooth and easy, that put my mind in “the zone” and end too soon definitely happen, but are the minority. On some days running is hard: perhaps I’m tired from having spent too many hours thinking instead of sleeping, or I am stressed because of work (or COVID, let’s admit it), or maybe I’m exhausted because of life in general. I’m still happy and proud once those hard runs are over, but during the exercise, I often feel miserable: heavy legs, side stitches, feeling like a slowpoke at best, and wanting to stop, are things I know all too well. So over time I have developed my own strategy to manage these types of runs, I call it The Triad:

1. Have a mantra. I’ve had many of these over the years, but recently I think I came up with the one that really works for me and keeps me going: “My body is a machine, and my mind the engineer”. Unlike “I can do this”, “The road is the goal”, “My mind is stronger than my body”, or other mantras I’ve tried telling myself in the past, this one puts me in the mindset of being in control, and that is the key part I was missing until now.
2. Slow up. If I’m not feeling it there is no use in pushing to keep up the pace and then having to stop 400m later. I slow down, hide my watch, mentally erase the goals I set before heading out until I find what I like to call the “forever pace”. Once I am there, I often find that I somehow feel rested, and I can pick up the pace again and bring it home. And in the end, I feel twice as happy: for being able to finish and for being able to problem-solve!
3. Listen to the good stuff. Obviously, this is dependent on safety, but nowadays I typically run on trails, so I don’t have to watch for cars. I keep the volume at a level where I can hear bicycles (or faster runners!) coming from behind, and I put on my favorites: it turns out that in between my mantra and singing along in my head, time can fly ;)

I’m pretty sure that I am not the only runner who does not always feel strong and does not enjoy all runs, so what are your strategies? Comments, please! 👇👇👇