The countdown continues – I’ll have one more ‘big’ post mid-August about the upcoming Couch to 10K so if you’re interested (or know someone) be on the lookout. There are only 33 days to August 29th – the weekend before college football kicks off in full force.

Starting this week, Wednesdays at 5:30 pm (Pepper Place) we’ll host another 4 weeks (maybe 5) of Speed Camp. It’s group speed work, it’s free and I’d like to say it’s ‘fun’ but it’s speed work. It is extremely rewarding, how’s that? Feel free to contact me with any questions…..

With college football just around the corner the coaches are all making their rounds before they get down to the day to day, game to game grind of the season. Interestingly everything they do boils down to 12 Saturdays – or 3% of the year. 97% of the year they recruit, evaluate, coach, scheme, and market their University for 12 days – millions of dollars, heck hundreds of millions of dollars ride on those 12 days. Careers are made or lost, reputations, legends, legacies on 3 % of the days of the year.

Fans look at the season and say, “We’ll be lucky to go 7 – 5,” or ” we’ll only lose 2 games” or, whatever…but when you ask the coach or the players how they expect to do, “We expect to win! We expect to win them all!”

Now I understand the chances of the Little Sisters of the Poor stand virtually no chance against Michigan or which ever powerhouse, but then there was Appalachian State a few years ago. in the words of Lloyd Christmas, “So you’re saying there’s a chance.”

It’s not the ‘chance’ I’m really interested in – it’s setting your own personal bar up there. It’s setting YOUR bar for 4% of your day. Trying your best, regardless of what your best is for that day, that race, THAT 4%. Running smart, pacing smart, doing speed work, distance – just doing your dead level best, expecting to win, seizing the day. When you do that almost any goal you work towards is attainable.

It may take time. But in running that’s to be expected – our body has to adapt to going faster, longer than ever before. Your lungs, heart, muscles all that ‘stuff’ south of your brain has to adapt to the rigors of longer distance or faster runs – but it won’t if your brain, specifically your mind doesn’t expect to win.

No coach says, “Get out there and don’t embarrass yourselves!” Whew, that’s a pep talk! It’s “every down, every play, every minute, every second, every yard.” You win every yard and you’ll win the game – you head out the door expecting to win and your runs will continue to improve regardless of your initial purpose or goal. Never settle, never ‘hope’ to win – whether it’s work or play, a fun run or race…Expect to WIN! and more times than not, you will.