Five points for Gryffindor if you got the Mean Girls reference in today’s
title. Another fact you should know
about me, I’m a HP, MG, PP (Pitch Perfect!) freak and will work them, and other
movie lines, into everyday life as much as possible. My good friend, Tracey, once said that I
quote movies and TV shows like a dude. I
took it as a compliment! OMG another
little fact you should know about me that completely blew Tracey away upon
first witnessing is that I can word-for-word rap the entire Ludacris portion of
the song Yeah by Usher. I’m so proud of this little nugget that I
made this factoid the headline on my Match.com profile. You’re welcome, single boys of
Gainesville!
Okay, back to limits.
Today while at the gym I learned a very valuable lesson about
limits. Not the mathematical kind that
Cady Heron needed help with but the kind in your mental and physical
capacities. Earlier this week after leg
day, I had this burst of energy and wanted to run. A few statements need to be made before this
story begins. 1. I loathe running. 2.
Running loathes me. I’ve never
been a runner. In elementary school when
they made you run a mile in P.E., my friends and I would never finish before
class time ran out because we would walk and talk the entire time. I’m awkward and don’t know how to breathe and
I can’t make it very far without stopping.
Because of our mutual hatred, I haven’t been on a treadmill over 3.7 mph
in months. My workouts consist of spin
class 2 times a week, core day, leg/butt day and arm/back/chest day. I don’t even warm up on the treadmill anymore
and usually stick to the elliptical or bike.
So after my leg workout, with Miley Cyrus blaring in my ‘buds, I decided
to hop on the treadmill. I kept waiting
for my body to give out and collapse into a sweaty, crumpled mess on the floor but
it didn’t. I made it 6 minutes and about
half a mile. I was up to 5.5 mph and a
1% incline. I was DAMN proud of
myself. I couldn’t believe it! While this may not be a huge accomplishment
to many please keep in mind that 7 months ago I thought running 1 minute
without stopping was a HUGE deal. This
was 6 times that!
Today, I was once again feeling the need for runner’s high
and I stepped on the treadmill after arms.
Are you sitting down? I RAN AN
ENTIRE MILE IN 11 MINUTES AND DIDN’T STOP ONCE.
What?! I basically high-fived
myself as my Jell-O legs hopped off.
Here’s the thing about limits, you don’t know what yours are until you
push them. You have to see how far your
body can go and (here’s the tricky part) you can’t let your mind convince you
that you can’t do it. When I only ran 6
minutes the other day it was because my brain was all like, “You can probably
only make it half a mile. You should
totally stop at half a mile so you don’t overdo it. There’s no way you can go further than that
because you’re not a runner.” Take that,
brain! The biggest obstacle holding you
back from achievement is yourself. Shut
your brain off, turn up Turn Down For
What and just run.
I will say this to any of you who don’t like running, don’t
press the issue. Start by doing
something you do like- spin, Zumba, water aerobics, etc.-and use those to build
up your endurance. Endurance is what
will help you run for longer and give you time to focus on your form and
breath. The longer you run the more you
will enjoy it. Also, when you finish
make sure you stretch, stretch, stretch.
I did and still felt my calves cramping on the walk to the car. Next week I’m shooting for 1.5 miles. I’ll keep you posted on my progress!
“From that day on if I was ever going somewhere, I was
running!”
1 comment:
Totally got the MG reference, and I mean instantly.
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