Enjoying the Journey

I've come to realize I truly love working out. I also am finding the whole calories in/calories out equation fascinating. My mission now is to pay close attention to what I eat while ramping up the intensity of my workouts in hopes that my sprint tri performance improves this year. And really, my performance should only improve. I've only completed one sprint tri to date, and if I do worse the next go 'round, that'll be quite disappointing to say the least.

One other mission I have is to get my one-pack abs looking just a tad more like a two-pack. I keep thinking back to last summer and the chat I had with an expert in sports fitness. When I was lamenting over my slow running, how I'd been trying to become faster but not really seeing any improvement, he told me a solid core is the key to increasing speed, to bettering my performance overall. To see if this is true, I've added core work every other day: planks, Russian twists, bicycles, machine crunches, machine twists, leg raises, supermans, etc. I know this is going to be a tough area to really tighten up, but if I keep with it, maybe by the first sprint tri in April I'll be able to tell a difference.

I am seeing improvement in my endurance and pushing through my mind's wanting to stop. Three months ago I would stop if my mind started whining. Now, I actually reach out and up the speed on the treadmill or go to the next level on the stairclimber. This is my childish "take that" response to the whining baby inside my head. To show that baby who's boss even further, towards the end of my sixty minutes of cardio, I've started treating the last five minutes like the ending of an event where I can see the finish line. I increase the intensity, pretending someone is just in front of me and I can catch up to her. Pretty lame, I know, but it gets my mind away from the fatigue and that snot-nosed brat trying to convince me to stop. The feeling of accomplishment is much, much sweeter, too, when I squish the impulse to slow down, to stop.
 
I'm not looking to win any medals this year. I just want to see me finally realize I can improve myself physically and mentally. I know I have a ways to go, and that's okay. It's the journey that counts, right?

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