The Winner Takes It All

Since starting my eating plan again, I've started running again too.  Next week, I'll add back in my kettlebell workouts too.  (I hurt my back a few weeks ago, and it's just now getting to where I can stand up straight...so I held off on kettlebell until it could heal.)

I still don't love running, but I'm trying to like it.  I'm trying to stay motivated to do it and finish my couch25k program.  I've been doing it off  and on since February, but even with long periods of time between workouts, I've always been able to pick right back up where I left off, without struggle.

So this week, I went into it having successfully ran 5 minutes between walking periods. I thought that was super successful and was quite proud of myself.  Then, it said to run 8 minutes, walk 3 minutes, then run 8 minutes again. I wasn't sure I could do it.  That was a big jump from one day to the next.

The first 8 minutes were fine, but the second  8 minutes were tough, and I walked 30 seconds of it in the middle. Still, I felt great at my accomplishment, and boasted  to The Husband about my success.

Then I start the program today, and it says "jog for 20 minutes".  What? I mean...seriously.  W.H.A.T.??

How does one go from 8 minutes to 20 minutes? I thought for sure something was wrong with the program.  Hello!  Huge error right here.  What happened to running for 10 minutes?  12 minutes?  How am I supposed to run for 20 minutes straight?

Well, I decided that I would give it a shot.  It was quiet and cool in my basement. All the kids were occupied in the back yard.  Kimble was sleeping.  The Husband was at work.  I would try it without anyone to judge me, or see how far I could go before I began walking.

As I began, I started thinking:  What if I can do it?  I've never ever ever ran for 20 minutes straight before.  Can I do it?  Can I?  There's only one way to find out.

So I ran.  Well, I jogged. The program said to jog, so I put the speed at a nice slow jog (5.0 mph) and zoned out.  I looked at the time occasionally, but mostly I stared straight ahead.  I listened to my music and tried to think about anything but the fact that I was running against the clock.

But I couldn't help but think back to when I began running.  Just running for one minuted totally killed  me.  I had side aches and labored breathing and wheezing and tired legs and I hated it.  I could also feel my fat on my butt and hips blubbering up and down with each lumbered step.

Oh, but look at me now!  I feel a lot less butt jiggling, my breathing is controlled, my legs aren't tired.  I'm doing it!

It got halfway and thought "Keep on going!  Wouldn't it be crazy if you could run all 20 minutes?" So I kept on running.

At the 15 minute mark, I was getting where I wanted to stop.  Perhaps if I'd been outside, instead of on the treadmill, it would have been so easy to slow to a walk.  But I kept on going.  I thought that if I had made it this far, I should try to finish.

Then I only had a few minutes left, and there was no way I was going to fail.  I began to think of this blog post, and how I wanted to say "I ran for an entire 20 minutes without stopping....can you believe it?"  So I kept on running.

Then came the last minute.  I was still running, but knew I could run faster. So I bumped it up to 6.0 and ran the rest of the time until I heard those delightful words come through the speaker "Workout complete. Cool down."

With a grin on my face, I slowed down to a walk.  I did it!  Something I never would have believed I could do, even at the start of the workout.  So proud!

Three minutes into the five minute cool down, I started running again.  I always run the last two minutes of my walking cool down, just to train my body to recover fast.  Once again, I bumped up the speed to 6.0, just to prove that I could do it.

Then I was done.  I sat down to recuperate before heading up stairs.  Then, something strange happened.  I started sweating all over my body. My arms glistened.  My chest had droplets running down it.  The back of my hair was totally wet.  I looked like what The Husband looks like, when he's done with his workouts.  I know how hard he pushes himself, too, so I realized that I had pushed myself past where I normally would have stayed...and I lived! 

The sweat felt earned.  I thought back to one of the songs on my playlist, from Mamma Mia "The Winner Takes It All" and thought...I'm a winner!  Go me!

(I really was proud of myself..just zonked.)