A few days ago I surprised myself by doing a tougher workout on my treadmill than I normally do. See I was scared to do workouts higher than two because I just didn’t feel I could do them. In my mind anything above two was just too hard. So for months now I have just been walking and doing walk-run workouts. Because the goal is to work my way up to running, I thought I was doing pretty good until last week.
For a few weeks now I have been this workout walk-run interval series. I don’t exactly know how many workouts there are. I stopped looking at how long a series was after I started because I realized I would be more consumed with how close I am to finishing rather than focusing on just working out. Anyway back to this particular series. Last week I got to a workout and as I was preparing to do the workout I realized that it said the level was 4/7. I had a whole conversation with myself because the first thing I wanted to do when I saw the level number was to run. I had never done a workout on level 4 before. Heck I hadn’t even reached 3. Now here we are two levels higher than I planned to go. So I had a decision to make I could either do this workout or I could punk out and just walk. I stood there for like 2 minutes trying to decide. So then I just decided to go for it. I made it through and I was so proud of myself. Yes it was a little harder than my normal workouts but I did it. Then you know what I wound up doing after that. I did a second workout. I’ve been saying I want to do a second workout for awhile now. But I always found an excuse not to do it. I found a live class I was interested in and decided to do it. That turned into the first day I completed 3 miles. I felt so accomplished. I wouldn’t have done any of these things if I kept letting my fear of not being able to complete a higher level get the best of me.
I’m starting to realize that if I keep allowing myself to do only what I’m comfortable with and I never force myself to go beyond what I’m comfortable with I a, always going to be stuck. I am always going to be watching people reach their full potential. If I had just stayed at the level I was at on my treadmill I wouldn’t know what it felt like to achieve another level. That victory felt so good to me that I am hungry for more. I’m ready to see how far I can actually go. Recently I accomplished running 4 miles on the treadmill. I can’t wait to see when I beat that record. I am truly starting to set new goals for myself just to see where I can go. I’m glad that I did it.
