Inside the mind of a committed (read: obsessed) exercise enthusiast, or, how I went from “I am not going to even walk today” to running 10km.
5am: Eyes closed still. Sleepy. Been awake since 4:30 when the cat jumped on my belly and woke up my need to pee. Can’t fall back asleep; the alarm is set for 5:30… I’m not getting up any earlier…. Run day today. Ugh.
5:15am (ish): The cat is onto me. She knows I’m awake but I’m pretending to be asleep and ignore her pleas for food. I can hear the rain outside. I’m tired. It’s clearly raining hard. Probably windy. Definitely cold. I’m tired. Really don’t want to run… but I should…
5 minutes later: I know… I’ll go to the gym and run on the treadmill. No rain, no wind, not chilly. *envisions banging head repeatedly on brick wall* I can’t do it. The treadmill is the hamster wheel of hell. I’d rather not run at all than run on a treadmill.
5 minutes later: Well now, there’s an idea. Not go for a run… I should take a rest day. I know, I know, this is my month of my self-imposed challenge of exercise every day, no days off. Buuuut…. rest days are important, just as important as anything else. That’s when your body heals and repairs itself so it can become stronger….. I know this stuff, I’m a personal trainer and Yoga teacher… yes, I’ll take a rest day.
5:30am (alarm finally goes off): Sigh, up and time to get ready for work. I’m glad I’m taking a rest day… it’ll be good for me. I’m not even going to go for a walk today. Nope, complete rest day. Restorative. Good.
6:00am: I’m going to head out for the 5km route. I’ll just do a walk/run and take it easy. Better than nothing and I’ll be glad when it’s done that I did it. Can’t take the guilt of being sedentary.
6:15am: dressed and ready to go just about. Another glance outside and switching to the slightly more water repellant jacket as it’s coming down like crazy out there. It’s ok though, just a 5km walk/run. Won’t be out there long.
6:30am: out the door and starting to run. A few blocks in and everything feels good. Maybe I’ll skip the intervals and just do a straight through run for the 5km.
…Approaching the turn off that will take me from the 5km loop route to the 7.5 km route…
If I can do the 5km, maybe I’ll do the longer run… I won’t run it though… I’ll walk/run interval it.
…At the approximate 2.5km point… Usually take a 30 or 60 second walk break here but hmmm, maybe I’ll skip this one. I’ll do King George Terrace hill then do a walk break… yeah, let’s see how hard I can push through the hill without a walk break first…
… Hill done and kicked ass on it. No point in a walk break now that it’s levelled off… and I’ve made it this far. Maybe I’ll do the full 7.5km without a walk… yeah… see how hard I can go today.
…approaching the turn point that is the halfway mark for the 7.5 km route… hmmm, I’m feeling good, great even. What if I didn’t turn here and instead I kept to the right and kept going for the 10km route? I don’t have to run all of it… I can walk/run interval it. Yeah
… ignores the turn and heads on, now committed to the 10km route.
… 5 minutes later… it would be stupid to walk NOW. I’ve made it this far and I still feel great! I can totally do this without walking! I’m not going to walk.
…Approaching the Marina which signals the last 2.5 km of the route. Almost there. I can definitely do this without walking… I wonder how my time is? My timer is at home so I won’t know till I get there…
… I feel so proud that I’ve done this without walking – it doesn’t matter what my time is. Just doing it without walk breaks is accomplishment enough.
… I bet if I just pushed a little harder I could finish in a better time than last time.
… Not that the time is important.
… Oh hell, who am I kidding…let’s see how hard I can push and how fast I can do this last couple of kilometers. Timing is everything.
*Arrives home, sweaty, soaked from the rain but feeling amazing*
And that’s how you go from snuggled in bed, swearing you are not even going for a walk to running one of the fastest 10km’s you’ve done in 10 years.
whisky sweet 