On Saturday I ran my first 5K (3.1 miles) in 2 years. The last time I ran 5K was sometime before I got pregnant with Nathanael. Nathanael is 14 months old plus 9 months of pregnancy...well that's pretty much 2 years ago. I had been following the couch to 5K program but honestly, I hadn't kept up with the workouts for the last few weeks. I just get bored sometimes. I have a problem with following through. I always start projects with lots of gusto and then just get bored and fizzle out. It's a lack of discipline, and I'm trying to work on it :-D. Originally I had wanted to try to run 5K on my birthday, but the day got busy and it never happened.
This past Saturday I hopped on the treadmill thinking I'd jog for a bit (not even planning to try the 5K), but I was feeling surprisingly good at 10 minutes into it, so I decided to do at least 15 minutes. This is how the conversation inside my head went, if you care to hear it...though you probably don't! What goes through my mind kind of fascinates me though, as running & working out is so much a mental thing. I wonder what goes through the mind of someone who runs marathons??
@10 minutes in: Wow... I'm feeling good. Oh ya... I can do 15 minutes for sure. Maybe I can even do the whole 5K today.
@12 minutes in: My legs hurt. I'm tired. I'm going to quit at 15 min.Time to turn on some Toby Mac.
@15 minutes: Feeling good again. I can definitely do 5 more minutes.
@20 minutes: I'm bored. Time to quit. Oh, but I only have to do 10 more minutes to get to 5K. How sweet would it be if I could do my 5K today... Yeah, it would be awesome. I guess I can do at least 22 minutes, since I need to push myself a bit further than I did the other week (20 minutes). Okay 22 minutes. That will be good enough.
@21 minutes: I'm going to die. I'm definitely quitting in one minute. Time to find a pump up song on jango to get me through.
@22 minutes: I only have 8 minutes left to get to 5K. 8 minutes. I can do this. I hear the trainers from the Biggest Loser in my head saying, "Push through. Dig deeper. Don't quit on me." LOL
@23 minutes: I'm listening to the song "Everlasting God" and though I'm sooo incredibly tired right now, the song is reminding me of God's character, and I can't help but worship God as I'm running, thinking about how awesome it is that our God NEVER gets tired even though I'm so incredibly physically tired at this point. This is especially encouraging to me as the past few weeks have been very emotionally draining for me.
@25 minutes. I'm soooo tired. I feel like I'm going to die.
@27 minutes: Brutal, just brutal. Want to quit so badly, but I'm soooo close to finishing the 5K. I find TobyMac's Eye on It and blast it.
@27 minutes: Final kick time. I gradually increase my speed from 6 mph to 7 mph
@30 minutes: Done!
P.S. I normally can't stand music like Toby Mac or anything Christian rock related, but it definitely helps me work out harder when I listen to that kind of music. It's not something you'll hear me play any time other than through my headphones during my workouts since when I hear that stuff in a different circumstance, it normally drives me a bit crazy....haha....but it's clean pump-up/work-out music :-).
