In Your Head

I started running recently...for multiple reasons. One: I was getting really out of shape cardiovascularly. Two: I needed to get out and get some form of exercise outside of daily housework for overall general health. Three: My husband has always been a runner, so it would be a healthy activity we could share. Four: I believe it is good to practice some sort of discipline in our lives, and I had gotten pretty lazy with that.

So I started running a day or two a week a couple months ago. I really had to start from ground zero. I'm not proud to admit it, but I was lucky to make it a quarter mile before I was out of breath and ready to walk. But my husband came out with me and encouraged me on. Run. Walk and catch your breath. Run again. Everyone has to start somewhere. Weeks later, I am still plugging away at it. I have run as much as five miles with little or no walking, but at a slow pace. Most often I go three or four miles, but I keep trying so that eventually it will get easier and easier.

Do you want to know the biggest secret I have learned about running? (At least for me personally) Running is as much of a mental exercise as it is a physical one. Seriously. I'd say it's 50/50. Yeah, I have to be able to get out and move, but I have to decide to move. I have to say to myself, "One foot in front of the other." I set goals in my mind and decide I will achieve them. Sometimes it is one more mile, sometimes it just making it to the next 1/4 mile post. My most successful runs are out with my husband because he runs along side me (making it look easy) and chats away so I forget that my legs feel heavy or that my lungs are working hard. And I can go...so much farther than I thought I could. It sounds silly, but it really was an "ah-ha!" moment for me when I learned that. I have to want to run, and believe that I can in order to push through when my body says it's hard.

So I lace my shoes up, become 'the little engine that could' (I think I can, I think I can) and watch the scenery go by!