**This post is a podcast on the Making Strides Podcast (ep 14) for those who prefer listening than reading.**

To make training work optimally for you, you have to work hard and push the body. However, there is another component that may be even more important. Self-honesty! Being self-honest with yourself engenders long term health, continued performance gains, and makes training more sustainable.

How self-honest are you?

Before quickly deciding on an answer, first consider this…are you self-honest enough to critically assess if you have good self-honesty?

Now let’s pause for a second so I can be truthful about this topic. I am not here talking about self-honesty because I am perfect at it. I certainly am not! I’m still learning and growing trying to trust the slow evolving process of getting better a little more everyday. However, when I get it right, I feel so much better about it. Not in a fluffy, superficial way. I feel more energetic, have better quality workouts in the following days, and ultimately am able to contribute more outside of training. (home life, work, friends, etc)

See, self-honesty is one of the most important features of a runner to achieve longevity.

Why? Because life happens. You get a poor night’s sleep. You’re working on a stressful project at work requiring more hours than normal. There is a loss or illness in the family. Maybe a pandemic is happening?! The list could go on. These are things that we as individuals may have little to no control of.

We don’t always respond too well to these things. When there is a greater demand in a particular area of our lives, then something else has to give to maintain balance. This is why being self-honest becomes so important. Being honest with yourself about how you feel, how you are responding to training, and what’s expected in the days and week ahead allow you to better adapt and take on a training load your body is ready for.

The best training plans and coaches are very malleable, supporting the individual at any one time to the best of their ability with all that goes on in their life. Not just training. Nor solely doing what looks good on paper.

If you need/want any help navigating training around life. Reach out! We’d be happy to help coach you through it. You can check out our coaching information here or schedule a free consultation call to see of coaching with RunMental would be a good fit for you.