Hi, this is Debbie Boyle's coach at Mojo for Running with podcast number 107.

Reality check.

Only four miles?

Have you ever said that?

I only did four miles today or I just did three or only six? Most people

have. Heck, I have. As experienced runners, it's so easy to lose sight of reality, to undervalue

our efforts. You know, what we say is what we're thinking. It can reveal a problem with our perspective on our training,

and it's my goal today to get you to see every day's training from a more objective point of

view. You all know that one of my favorite sayings is, it's all relative. Well, that relates,

ha ha, closely to today's topic. Back in the day when I personally hosted

and led all of the Run Tampa Group Runs, I would always, pretty much always make two statements.

The first, before we started, I'd say, go as fast as you want, as far as you want, and turn around

when you want.

When I said that, I was giving people permission to customize the group run to be exactly what they wanted it to be, and that always worked well.

After the run, invariably, someone would say, I only did, fill in the blank, number of miles. Then I would say this.

I only have one rule at these runs. You can never use the word just or only in the same sentence

with the number of miles you ran, because no matter how many miles you run today, you will have run farther than 99.9% of the

population, most of whom were either still asleep or sitting on the couch while you were running.

It's funny because over the years, there were times, there there are times when I actually accidentally slip

and do it myself I'll say I only did some number of miles and it never fails someone in my

group says to me Deb I can't believe you said only that makes me smile because it means they've been listening

and they remembered. The thing is, and this is what happened to me personally on those occasions,

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