Motivation from Captain America

Quotes can help motivate us to reach our goals. Let’s take a look at one from the first Avenger, Captain America

How can we look at Captain America for some running motivation? We probably all came to think of the opening scene from Captain America: The Winter Soldier where Steve Rogers kept passing Sam Wilson, calling out the now famous line, “On your left.” However, while that does motivate me on some of my runs when I want to run faster, there’s another quote I like to look back to when I want to train for distance.

“I can do this all day.” - Steve Rogers, a.k.a Captain America

When it comes to marathon training, my training plan calls for a lot of easy runs. Personally, I’ve struggled in finding the right easy pace. I’ve heard things from maintaining a conversational pace, or adding 2 or 3 minutes to my race pace, or the “Maffetone Method,” or running at a zone 2 heart rate. However, one thing that relates all these different methods is that it’s an effort one can maintain for a longer duration of time, or in a sense, something you can do all day.

So that’s where Cap comes in during my runs. When pacing myself and my goal is a longer, easy-pace endurance run, I like to tell myself, “I can do this all day.” I use that to evaluate my effort and start to adjust once I realize that things are getting too hard for me. Is this an effort I can run consistently for the goal distance? If not, it’s probably a good time to slow down. If so, let’s hold this pace and keep going.

So for yourself, do you have any favorite quotes you use to help motivate or keep you on track with your running or training? If so, share them in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

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