Breaking Through

This is Part II of the post I wrote last night. If you haven't read it yet, click here and do so. Don't worry. I'll wait.

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Done? Good. Now you've got some context.

The 12 minute mile last night did not happen. I'm not at all disappointed however, because I still shaved more than a minute off my previous PR of 13:31 which is over a year old at this point! Last night I finished at 12:21 thanks to my trainer who kept pushing me when my brain was ready to give up.

Stupid brain, it was ready to throw in the towel before we were even half way through! It was hard, don't get me wrong, my legs burned, my chest burned and at a few points, I really didn't think I could go on. It took everything I had to go from 5mph to 3.5 or even 3. I did go down to 4.5 a couple times, and at one point, went down to 3.8 for a few seconds, but finished strong at 6 to close it out!

:)

The new mile time was not the biggest thing that happened last night, however, I learned 2 very important things. First, make sure to take proper recovery steps! I cooled down and stretched, but I didn't do any kind of recovery shake or meal until over an hour after I finished. Bad idea. Later last night I developed a migraine that didn't go away until less than an hour ago!

The second thing was more of an epitome than a lesson. My belief about myself and what I could do shot through the roof! 21 seconds is nothing. I will beat that before the month is out. :)

In closing, to those of you who read this and encouraged me online, over the phone, or otherwise, thank you!

On a side note, this blog post is very applicable as well. Check it out!

How fast can I run a mile?

Heading to the gym tonight for a Monday workout with my trainer. I've made it a rule to never miss a Monday workout, unless I have a mixer scheduled, but that only happened once a month. Even then I try to get one in during my lunch break at work.

Anyway, I digress.

Tonight's going to be tough and I'm really nervous about it. Last week we did fartleks on the treadmill. Apparently he was quite impressed and thought that I could do much better than my current mile time of around 14:30. (Up from 13:31 last year. :-( ) He said that I have a lot of mental blocks to break through and that I could definitely go much faster at the current fitness level I'm at.

I think he's crazy.

He went on to say that at the session tonight, we're getting on the treadmill again, and going at 5mph for a full mile. That's a 12 minute mile for those of you like me who's strong point is not math.

Now I know he's crazy!

I'm trying to talk myself out of being so nervous, but I really am! I really want to be able to do this, but this really puts me face to face with a lot of my insecurities and doubts about myself.

In a way it's very much like my AdvoCare business. There's a lot I want to be able to do, and think I can do, eventually, just not as quickly as getting it done tonight!

I know I've told many many people that running is 80% mental. I thought I've broken through a lot of the mental barriers I had, but apparently, there's a lot more that still need to be shattered.

What if I can't do it? What if I do it, but I'm breathing and heaving so hard that everyone around me wonder's, what's that fat girl think she's doing? 12 minute mile? What's the big deal? Why am I making such a big deal of this? If I can't do it tonight, big whoop. I'll get it done later on. But I really want to! What an accomplishment to say I've done it! What if I can't do it though? What if people hear how hard I heave and think that AdvoCare's not all it's cracked up to be because the fat girl on the treadmill obviously isn't very fit and healthy like AdvoCare reps should be?

See what I mean? I've been going through this cycle all day. I wish I could just tell my brain to shut up!

This has become a very vulnerable post...

Anyway, one way or another, I'm getting my workout in. We'll see what happens!