Can't sleep. Yesterday rested from the 6 miler. Today I do some cross-training (prolly biking / lifting) stuff. Looking into potential marathons. Right now possible winners are this fall's Under Armor in Baltimore, or there's another in Richmond I'm looking at. Any ideas from anyone?
Today I ran (read: survived) a 6 miler. It was like 90 degrees outside, and it took me 1.5 hours (stats read 14 min miles...awesome :) But I made it nonetheless, and just think, after the temps go down, running this far should be breezy cheezy.
Here's a pic of me in all my post-run glory (Pits McGee)
Over the last few years, my pastor made a lot of extreme, awesome changes in his diet, excercise and overall health. I asked him what makes the difference when you're trying to break an old habit or establish a new one. Here's what he had to say: ------------ Great questions about consistency, staying the course is hard for everybody. In complete candor let me say there are two aspects of what made me consistent. First I had to get to a point where I was completely sick of the direction I was heading; I hit that “enough is an enough” spot. Deep, deep discontent is what gives birth to change. Second I discovered the reward of discipline was indeed sweeter than the reward of indulgence, this I found to be absolutely true. This is what psychologists call “Operant Conditioning”. What that means is when we engage in certain behaviors we get either punished or rewarded. When we are rewarded we tend to repeat that behavior over and over again. The reward factor for me was I started looking less hideous, I started feeling better, people started complimenting me and those positive rewards kept me going. There are rewards for eating a whole chocolate cake – you get the sugar high – followed by the guilt and “why did I do that” record in your head. So the guilt for being undisciplined cancels out the reward for messing up, with the reward of being of disciplined- it is pure reward and it feels better than messing up ultimately. Any indulgence- sleeping in too long and not running give a short reward, doing the hard thing really brings a higher level reward. -------------
Another staple of my conversation with Steve-O yesterday was a guy who has decided to run a marathon, and is using this training schedule. I think that’s the schedule I’m going to follow as well. That gives me 18 weeks to find a marathon (or halfie) to run, sign up, and train for.
Just to give you an idea as to what I’m working with…I’ve never really been the super-athletic type. I was usually last guy picked on a team in elementary school (And some girls got picked before me), but I wasn’t crazy overweight by any means. I’ve just never considered myself “athletic”. And for those of you that can stomach it, (use EXTREME caution) : ) Here’s a pic I took last night after my first run in all my shirtless, pasty-white glory.
And that, my friends…..is what I intend to change.
That’s what I thought when I woke up from a lazy mid-Suday nap this afternoon. I’ve been thinking, talking, planning, discussing, wondering, hoping, “one-day”-ing this whole deal long enough.
I don’t know if it’s any one thing that’s making me feel this way, but I’ve finally reached that “all-too-used” buzzword: the tipping point.
Maybe it was talking to Steve today between the services, and hearing him talk about how he’s decided to give up soda for the next two months just because it’s time for him to “step it up” a level. Whatever it is, the decision has been made. I’m committing. No looking back. No more excuses.
I’m running a marathon.
I’m not sure about the training methods, not sure about which marathon. But I want to do this. And I’m starting today.
