56 days to go
We live in a world that feeds off our insecurities – the beauty and fashion industries are valued at £375 billion, the weight loss industry at over £150 billion and the advertising industry that promotes these businesses has a value of around £500 billion.
These businesses work very hard to make us feel we are not good enough as we are in a way that is supposed to make us feel inadequate if we don’t look like the models, don’t own the latest fashions or have the perfect ‘airbrushed’ skin and hair in their efforts to get us to buy their products. And, even if we don’t think we pay much notice to advertising, it is everywhere and has an insidious way of affecting our thinking.
So, the last thing we need to do is beat ourselves up if we don’t meet the expectations we set for ourselves.
My training this week has not been all I had hoped it would be. I’ve never been much good at following plans or routines so I don’t have a coach but come up with a training schedule for myself for things like this challenge. The benefit to me is I can flex the plan as circumstances change which they did this week meaning I had to lose a day of hill training and the weather reduced what I was able to do on another.
Instead of feeling I’ve come up short, I’m looking at the positives that I have gained this week which include visiting 17 of the 62 fell tops in my challenge and recceing routes between some of them. There was quite a bit of ascent and descent between these too which is great training for my legs. I also faced my demons on an exposed ridge and spent time out there with folks I haven’t seen in over a year. So even with the weather and the lost day, this was a great week for me.
If things don’t work out as you hope then that’s ok. There’ll be whole host of things that you have completed so focus on all these because it’s all good and you are awesome.
Courage doesn't mean you don't get afraid. Courage means you don't let fear stop you