The second day of running is vital. As I mentioned in Part I, it’s important to know your own weaknesses and the obstacles that will get in your way, especially in your own mind. On more than one occasion my Day One was followed by a "break,” which lasted for months. What were the excuses I used? I can’t even remember. Every time I’ve stopped running regularly – and there have been many – I’ve regretted it. It’s so much harder (for me) to start again.
The results of yesterday’s run were sore legs – often used as an excuse to delay Day Two and weight loss… 0.8 lbs., which put me under my psychological red line of 180. To give you an idea of how close I am to the BMI red line (25), those 8 tenths of a pound… a mere 13 ounces is the difference of being judged overweight and not overweight. It’s right on the line. If I actually cared about BMI (which stands for Body Mass Index, in case I haven’t mentioned it) I’d be excited. Woo-hoo! I’m simply using BMI as a guideline for this series.
I’ve got one of those 8 hour gigs where I sit in a chair at a desk and watch a computer screen all day. It can really be an energy drag and having run the day before for the first time in months (at least) makes it uncomfortable to get up from that comfortable chair, due to what’s known as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). I got up anyway and did some leg stretching and movement to keep the blood circulating, while all the while chanting to myself, ‘I gotta run. I gotta run.’ Never under estimate the power of positive self-talk.
It was gray and gloomy when I got home. I had to keep moving. No time to check for “likes” because I know I’ll get sucked in and the next thing I know I’ll be making excuses to skip a day.
As I got into what I call my “Uniform of the Day” I flashed back to boot camp. If I was ever a strong runner, it wasn’t in boot camp. I could barely make the requirements. During the middle weeks of training we had “free time” and during those moments I went out and ran around the barracks. It was San Diego in the winter and the weather there was a lot like it was here on Day Two, damp, misty, chilly.
My uniform of the day is a pair of camouflage cargo pants, hoodie, my camo bandana, well worn hiking boots and a pair of weighted gloves (3 lbs. total). This time I would time the run. I needed a mark to beat. I find measuring to be important. Author, Peter Drucker said, “That which gets measured, gets accomplished,” or something like that. This is why I measure everything I want to accomplish. This makes sense to me.
Today the run took me 28 minutes. My legs were sore, but my breathing was better. Generally I don’t breathe when I run, I pant. Today I focused on my breathing technique, which will eventually take my mind off of what I’m doing – which is running. Which is suffering. I’m not loving it yet. But I made it through. Day Two.
Stay tuned for Part III.
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