JESSICA ULRICH has two running moods: wild enthusiasm and paralyzing inertia. Her on-again, off-again running career began in 2006 when her mom announce:d that she wanted to do a half-marathon for her 50th birthday. Re-luctant at first,Ulrich went along with the plans to run the Chicago Half’-Mara-thon, finishing in 2:41.
“Tums out, I loved it!” she says. She was eager to run another event until the sub-zero Nebraska winter arrived. “I started going out less and less.” The next spring, she ran another half, but hit the couch again come winter in what she calls “the dreadful cycle of my running career.”
And then her running was sidelined by pregnancy. Two months afier giving birth in March 2010, she ran a five-mile race. But as any new parent understands, finding the time to run is difficult.”There’s always an excuse,” she says “School. job, husband, Desperate Housewives. Getting out the door.especially with the baby. is so hard.”
The Expert Intervention
ULRICH’S ISSUES didn’t surprise Michael Sachs.Ph.D. and a sports psychologist at Temple University in Philadelphia.But Sachs didn’t think Ulrich was lazy. “She said something about how she was scared to go to the next ]evel,” says Sachs. himselfa runner. “She’d Iove to do a full rnarathon, but had a fear of not be ing able to finish.” Sachs realized that Ulrich had issues with confidence.
Sachs suggested a strategy to overcome fear “Jess had talked about watching TV” he says. ~Okay, so this channel has something scary and fearful on it. Let’s change it to something confidence.building, positive, or distracting”
On a long run afterward, Ulnch began to compIain about an upcoming hill.”Then I switched to ~mages of runners going up easily” she says. “And the fear went away. l said, ‘Wow, it’s working!’
Filed in: Aerobic Exercise » Chang Your ways:GET MOTIVATED