Saturday I woke up to something that had become unfamiliar to me at this point in December – the sun. Looking at the forecast I knew it was set to be about 50F with zero clouds. I got up and stepped on my FitBit Aria scale (which I highly recommend) and sadly saw numbers glaring at me that I did not want to see.
Determined to not get discouraged I decided that I would still ride my bike outside – even if for an hour. So after it warmed up a little bit I suited up in all my crazy cold weather gear and set out on my bike.
By the time I got to my first turn I realized just how far out of shape I had let myself get. As I rode for the next hour and fifteen minutes I went through a series of emotions: disappointment, anger, determination, happiness. I finished the ride and though it was the slowest pace of the year I and I felt like I was somewhat dying – I did it.
Later in the evening my friends invited me to workout with them at their gym. As I thought about the invite my body was screaming no but my mind was saying yes. My mind won the battle and off to the gym I went.
I got on a treadmill to warm-up and was going to just do some full body exercises afterwards. So I’m rocking out to the Top 100 list on Rdio and get this wild idea in my head. I decided that I should “run” a 5k! Let’s just get real here for a second – I’ve never “run” anything in my life. The last 5k I participated in I was walking at a very leisurely pace and it was years and years ago.
So the first mile and half I was fine. I was alternating between a 3mph walk and a 5mph fast jog. The second half I started to feel like death but being the stubborned person I am – I pushed through.
The last mile I started listening to the song above. The whole song has a really great message but here is the line that stood out to me,
“A hundred thousand disbelievers couldn’t keep me on the ground,
I’ve invented a momentum that’ll never slow me down,
I believe it ’cause I feel it, and I shout it out loud,
I can, I can, I can…”
The next thing I knew – I had hit 3.1 miles in just over 50 minutes! Which – for me – is huge.
I have some lofty goals for 2014 and this will be my theme song. Tomorrow I get a BodPod assessment to see just how bad the damage really is and so I know how far I have to go next year with my fitness.
Later,
John