Who am I? Major accomplishment...got up at 4:45 and went to the gym to run my half hour. I don't know what is harder...getting up that early or going to bed early the night before so you get enough sleep! Why is it at 4:45 in the morning you think that 5 more minutes of sleep is really going to make a difference? As I laid there convincing myself to get up and just do it, a million excuses were running through my head...you burn more calories when you sleep enough hours each night so is it worth it to get up and exercise or sleep another hour? Maybe I can workout later (we all know what a lie that would turn out to be)? Finally, I decided to test the theory that you would feel so much better after you are done if you'd just get up and do it! So ...I hobbled out of bed and threw on my clothes (Thank God they were still in a pile on the bathroom floor from the other day), got on my sneakers and started out the door, impressing myself that I was up that early. ( I am usually a 6:00 waker plus four snooze alarm presses so that puts me at about 6:30!) As I started the car, I frantically realized I needed my headphones to watch the tv while I ran. In a panic, time was ticking, I couldn't find the darn headphones. Now what? At the last second, I ran up to thankfully grab Logan's headphones since he never cleans up anything and they were out on his dresser. Off I went, with a big smile on my face and feeling that beginning sense of accomplishment of getting up to go to the gym.
Next step, get on that treadmill and pump out my half hour. I really wanted to challenge myself to go a little more than the last time I had my running fiasco outside at the field. So, I decided to try jogging one minute and then walking one minute at 3.3 mph. As I started with a few minute warmup trying to get my motivation going, a girl I know jumped on the treadmill next to me. Thank God for a gym buddy! Don't underestimate the simple act of a conversation while working out...it is a great distractor when you want to doubt that you will be able to accomplish something hard. I was wondering if I was going to be able to do the 1:1 run/walk. It is definately a challenge at my fitness level, but I started my pattern as we chatted away. Before I knew it, 20 minutes had passed without much of thought that I was doing it! I had run 10 minutes out of 20! YEAH! Thanks to my gym chat, I felt so elated that I was doing better than expected. I won't lie though. When she moved on to another part of the gym, I was left with my own thoughts and limited distraction from the morning news show, so I started to realized that I still had 10 minutes left to run/walk and was feeling tired. Should I go back to 1:2 run/walk but I knew I was be disappointed in myself at the end for not pushing myself so I bore with the last 10 minutes (5 more minutes of running) and made it to my goal....15 minutes run and 15 minutes walk. To many this may seem like no big deal, but to me, I was so excited! I had run half my time!
I did feel that "You did it!" feeling that I had started off my day right and hoped it would carry through. It was worth getting up early (and going to bed early and missing a new season of Bethanny!) Thank God for DVRs....next time I am tempted to sleep in and miss my morning workout, hopefully I will remember the mental benefit when you finish of doing something challenging and having time for yourself before your day gets sucked up by responsiblities and schedules. YEAH today!
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