At the beginning of this week, I just wasn't feeling a workout, and went three days without running or anything. I wasn't in any kind of funk, I just felt tired. My body was screaming "Go easy on me!" so I gave it what it wanted and rested for a few days. I even thought maybe I was trying to get sick, and that I would probably not accomplish my goal of 8 miles this week either.
Wednesday evening I started to feel a little better, and while I talked to Jason on the phone about some of the workouts he has been doing during PT, I decided that if I felt better on Thursday, I was going to challenge myself during my next run. I told him I was going to try to run my fastest mile in 9 minutes. Now, if you know me, you know, it's not about speed for me. It's all about distance. I would rather pump out 3 miles with a good pace, than to do one mile as fast as I can. I am slowly training myself to run further distances, because eventually, I would like to be able to run a half marathon. Burning myself out in a 9 minute mile won't get me there. Eventually my miles will becoming faster as I become stronger, but I am not at that point yet.
My goal was to run the mile in 9 minutes. My results were 9:13. I didn't make my goal, but it was still my fastest mile to date. I'm not gonna lie, it was tough! I was literally screaming at myself to keep going. I did it, it felt great to accomplish, and I realized that it really wasn't my body that wanted to give up, it was my brain. My brain was trying hard to convince me that I had had enough, but I blocked that little voice and pushed on.
I woke up this morning still feeling excited about my fastest mile, so I decided to push myself again, but this time to accomplish a goal of running my longest distance. I set a goal to run 6 miles at a pace that I was comfortable with and set out to see what I could do. Not only did I make it to 6 miles, I actually felt like I could continue on, but I didn't. It's all about baby steps for me, and I think it's important to revel in your accomplishments a little.
I want to challenge myself in other areas as well, so I am definitely looking forward to Jason getting back from Missouri. We will be starting a fitness routine together and he is going to teach me some of the workouts he has been doing for strength training. Even he said that his whole body feels like mush after doing some of these moves.
What are some of the accomplishments you have had recently from just pushing a little harder than you thought you could handle? What did you discover you had the potential to do that you didn't think was possible?
