What a difference a week makes

My mom used to say, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” I use that idea at the gym. By decking myself out I head to toe Nike gear, donning my weihtlifting gloves and strapping on my iPod, I feel like I look the part. Often, people ask me how to use equipment and sometimes I can help, and sometimes I can’t, but some point is that by looking the part I step into a more motivated mindset. Super corny, I know.

Last Sunday I had a bit of a meltdown after my intensely crappy “run.” The very next day I sucked it up and ended up spending three full hours at the gym and had an excellent workout. After two hours of doing full body resistance stuff, I hopped on the treadmill hoping for just 20 minutes of my lame run/walk looping. I must have loosed up my knee because I was able to go for an hour, running for two minutes at a time.

There is this mindset that in order to move forward, sometimes you have to backslide a little…like two steps forward, one step back. It’s frustrating to move backwards when you are attempting to make progress, but the bigger picture is that you are steadily moving. This week was a good reminder of that.

Then on Tuesday, I went up and down the Tabor Steps for two hours. Wednesday I had a solid two hour workout, with my last 50 minutes on the treadmill. Thursday I took a break and Friday I made my way to the treadmill again. It’s the most successful week I’ve had since surgery, and I’m hoping to repeat the whole thing again starting tomorrow.

Running 6 miles doesn’t seem so far away anymore…