The Joys of Running

As we approach the end of January, many of us will watch in dismay as our new years resolutions end with the turn of the page to February.  I am not one of them.

For quite a while a close friend of mine had been informing me that if I came to his workouts, he would help me get into the best shape of my life.  At first, I was like anyone who is afraid to better themselves.  I kept making excuses to avoid putting in the time, but finally I got tired of not working out physically.  My whole life I had gone to the gym and that had been up in Illinois.  Now I live in Florida where its like summer all year round.  I had no cold days excuses to avoid going to one of these workouts.

So finally around last March I finally forced myself into the workout.  It was a Friday and the group that I met with to do this run was doing a distance run.  Now as a runner, a 3 mile run is hardly daunting for me.  However, what I found difficult was the Florida Humidity.  That 3 miles was much more difficult than I had anticipated, but I finished the run.

My time was very inadequate and a part of my brain even told me then that there was no point in even trying to do these workouts.  But my friend then came up to me and said the proper words that I needed to hear:  "That once you walk away from the workouts, its even harder to get back into them." He also added that a majority of people who come to the workouts "Come once and never again"

On that day I decided not to become a statistic.  It was hard at first.  I only did the long distance workouts at first because I did not want to burn myself out.  Once I consistently was running on Friday's I decided to try one of the other workouts.  The Monday one.

Once I ran the sprint/leg workout, I realized that I had been holding myself back.  Rather, I was cheating myself.  A catch phrase of mine now when I do these workouts as well as helps others achieve them,

Quickly after the leg workouts, I added the Wednesday workouts which I have found to be the most difficult and the most rewarding.  While Monday is leg day and Friday is a long distance day, Wednesday is Spartan running day.  Burpees happen, bear crawls happen, jumping over large objects happens, lots of other things happen.  But at the end of the day I always feel great.

Its this odd psychological flux we put ourselves in where we know how to better our lives but refuse to do it.  Lately, I have seen the results of my near one year work outs.  I ran a mud run a few months ago and found I was in much better shape than anticipated.  With Savage Race and other tough races coming up this year, I am determined to take the next step in pushing myself.

So as January comes to a close, I would like to remind you all not to let your New Years resolutions also come to a close.