My Journey With Health And Fitness – Staving Off Disappointment

Out for my run this morning and because it wasn’t quite dawn I made sure I was wearing my reflective vest over my running jacket. I came up to a well lit intersection and though I should have been very visible an upcoming car, who had plenty of time to see me, it didn’t even stop. Instead he just rolled through the intersection. I am pretty sure even as he turned past me he didn’t notice me.

I have been working hard lately and even changing things up. Yesterday I decided I really needed to up my hill training so decided instead of 10 intervals up 1/2 of the steepest part of the hill I would do 5 intervals up all of the steepest part. I started with the first one and thought, ok, this may kill me. But, the next thing I knew I had done 5 intervals and was running home up the rest of the hill pretty proud of myself.

Today I decided to also increase my fast intervals. I had been doing 1/2 block as fast as I could and then backing off for 1/2 a block. Today I ran my hardest for a full block then eased off for 1/2 a block. The only part of the run where that didn’t happen was up the hill but that is normally what happens. I got to the 6k mark and thought wow, that has got to be the best run you have ever done. Imagine my surprise when I checked my Fitbit and I had only shaved a few seconds off Tuesday’s run. You have got to be kidding me! I put everything I have into that run and I didn’t see any results.

Ok, time to regroup. The fact that I was able to double the distance I run up the hill is pretty impressive. The fact that I ran more than 1/2 of my 6k at a hard run is also impressive. Time for me to stop beating myself up when I don’t get the results I want. Instead, I am just going to try harder on my next run. I swear, sheer determination is what is going to get me to my goal.