The power of positive thinking. Or, reading really *does* work.

I was tired and pretty hungry. I didn't get out of work early like I had planned to. And I was going to skip my mid-week run, one of only two "work" days in my training schedule.

But I decided to try it anyway. And, again, I surprised myself. I made it all 60 minutes -- six miles.

A few days ago, I read The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer for the first time in several months. I scanned through most of the intro chapters, but really got into all the mental preparedness text. This is my favorite trick, and what I credit with with helping me run tonight:

"One of the things that has become clear to us through working with people training for the marathon is that in order to maintain a positive attitude about training and running, it is necessary to develop a positive attitude about life in general. It is almost impossible to be positive about training while being negative about most other aspects of your life.

To develop this kind of attitude, if you don't have it already, it will be important that you begin using a particular phrase whenever you catch yourself saying or thinking something negative. The phrase is, "...but it doesn't matter." We know how difficult it is, especially early in your marathon training, to avoid saying or thinking things like, "I am really tired today," or "My legs are sore today," or "The weather is really rotten today," and then to use these factors as reasons not to run that day. So, what we want you to do is this. Whenever one of these negative phrases comes into your mind or out of your mouth, we want you to add "but it doesn't matter" to the end of the sentence. Why? Because it really DOESN'T matter unless you believe it does. You can, and will, run anyway. And you will be really glad you did when you are finished."

Indeed.

Tomorrow: 60 minutes on the treadmill