Endurance

Endurance is one of those things that seems to creep up on you. One day you're struggling to make it from one minute to the next, and then before you know it, you're making it.

After being sidelined for two weeks with a knee injury on W1D3 of my Couch to 5K program, I was really struggling to get back into the swing. It was scary, really. Would my knee hold out? How did I hurt it anyway? Pretty sure now that it was the new shoes I tried out during that W1D3 run that did it. So after two weeks off, I went back to the other shoes that I'd had no trouble with and decided to give it a go on the treadmill. No knee pain, but I was easily winded and decided to call it about half way through with the excuse that I didn't want to push my knee. A few days later, Saturday, I decided to head outside and try my luck out there. No such luck. The wind was in my face, very strong winds, and it was a huge struggle to get anywhere. I was so worn out just making it through 3 intervals. I finally decided to just head back home and try again some other time.

So today, desperate for some progress, I decided to make it back over to my mom's and use the treadmill and try to finally get on to W2D1. For Week 1 it was alternating 60 seconds running and 90 seconds walking. For Week 2 it is intervals of 90 seconds running and 2 minutes walking. Let me be honest here--I was scared to death. That nasty little voice in the back of my head has been telling me for weeks, "You can't do it! What are you, crazy??? You can't even make it 60 seconds without wanting to quit!"

That little voice was right. I was having a very hard time making it, mostly because I didn't have that external motivation to help me along. I joke that I need my sister Courtney "Jillian Michaels" Burton to run with me again and help me struggle through these intervals, but it's true--having a cheerleader makes all the difference in the world.

So I took a different approach to my W2D1 workout today. I made a special playlist on my iPod with songs that are the right amount of time for each interval, so that I run one song, walk one song, etc. I'm not staring at the clock. I'm not wondering when it will be over. I know all the songs like the back of my hand, so I know when it will be over. Then I got my fat butt on the treadmill and rocked it out. Sure, my walking speed was something like 2.8 mph and my running speed was like 4.5 mph. Sure, I only ended up going 1.6 miles in 36 minutes because of the intervals. But dang it, I made it. Without stopping. Without shorting any of the running.

Why did I make it? A few reasons: a distraction, an internal motivation, and an external motivation. My distraction--the dorky kid music on my iPod because it was the only stuff I could find that fit into my 90 second and two minute time constraints. Some of it is surprisingly motivational and fitting for the occasion though. My last run interval was to the Imagination Movers singing, "When you want to give up, when you want to give in, try again, try again, try again..." My internal motivation--to rise above the nasty voice in my head telling me I suck, the fact that my pants are starting to fit differently, and the way my body feels better after the workout. My external motivation--the treadmill. I may not have had Jillian Michaels there, but by golly, whether or not my feet wanted to stop, that "road" just kept on moving, and the only choice I had was to keep moving or fall off.

So as in life, life sucks big time some times, but the choice is roll with the punches, keep moving, suck it up, cheer yourself on........or fall off the treadmill and lick your wounds. As Jillian says, "Either go throw up, or keep running." I'm going to try to choose to keep running.