This summer I took a class that helped me transition from walking to running. It trained me to run a 5K which I did run last Saturday with a brilliant time of 44 minutes. I almost ran the whole thing, but recovering from bronchitis slowed my progress a bit. While I didn't make my goal of running it in 30 minutes ( I do plan to continue to work towards that goal.), surprisingly it taught me a couple of things other than running. It won't surprise me a bit if these other two results will have a bigger impact on my life than the running does.
First - I learned that you can run farther and longer by changing your thoughts from "I'm not sure I'm going to make it." to "I go a little bit farther each day." and " Keep on going ... you can do it." On certain days, it would've been quite comical to listen to the words that I said under my breath. While at the beginning of the class, the words that you would've heard are either best not repeated or just down right depressing, by the end of the class, I sounded more like the train that could. I have to say that the preschool version is much more effective than the "mature" version.
Second - When things started to get really bumpy with having difficulty breathing and finally being diagnosed with bronchitis, I learned that I still have determination. In high school, I was quite the determined and even at times driven individual. I made goals and I achieved them. Indifference started to show itself once I met all of my goals and then couldn't figure out what goals to make next. Motherhood slowed me down greatly, and while I have been grateful for many of the things that it has taught me (not to mention those two small bundles of joy), I really thought I lost my determination, my will power, and indeed, my ability to get things done other than laundry, meals, & dishes. This class taught me that the determination is still there and all that it needs to be activated is a worthy goal. I am currently doing some soul searching on what goals to make, but fitness is definitely one of them! I can't tell you how glad I am to know that I haven't lost that part of myself although I'm still looking for a bit of patience (but I never really had that either).
I would love to hear about any of your unexpected results!
