Good Afternoon Fellow New Runners!
Boy oh boy I have been a bad blogger as of late! My apologies for not posting on any discernible schedule, I will improve next week, I promise!
Today’s question in the fitness blog challenge is “How do you measure your fitness level”? I can tell you, I used to measure by how many days I worked out. If out of a seven day week, I did anything fitness related more than four days, I was doing pretty darn good! Everything counted, walking, yoga, hitting the gym, heck there were even days were grocery shopping counted in my book. (In my defense, it is a lot of walking, pushing a heavy cart, lifting the bags…it is a workout!)
Then, I discovered running and well, the problem with running is no matter how well you did the day before, you want to do even BETTER the next run. You want to go a bit farther, run a bit faster, pant a little less. (OK, maybe the last one is just me). It wasn’t just enough that I ran three miles. Oh no. I had to run those three miles just a little faster than I did the run before. If I still felt good after four miles..why not run five, just to see if I could. I don’t know what it is about running that does that to us. I can tell you, I never thought “I have to bend farther the next yoga class” or “I’m going to pedal faster on the bike at the gym next time!. For some reason, running brings out the inner competitor in all of us. I researched this topic to see if there were any articles as to why this might be, but surprisingly found nothing. Is this just me? Does anyone else find that running seems to be the one sport that spurs their inner-competitor?
However, as many of you may recall, I am a 30 something blogger. No longer in my teens and twenties, I am someone who needs to realize my limits. Some of my runs lately have been a struggle just to keep running. Humidity and heat get to me more now. Gone are the days were I can come home, completely drained from a long workout and just lounge on the couch to a Law and Order marathon. Now, when I get home, no matter how dehydrated, how exhausted I may be I have a little one who needs my attention. I have a husband who needs to talk to me. I have a house that won’t clean itself (can we please work on this invention?) There are some days were I cut my workout short because I know my energy will be needed later in the day. Days where I walk more than run because my body is reminding me I am, in fact, not 26 any more. So I do just that and listen. Some days I run far and fast, other days I run slow and short. But at the end of the day…I run, and even if my inner competitor beats me up for my time or my distance I know…
Enjoy the Run!
Yvonne
Diary of a New Runner 