Three Thoughts I Used to Break Through My Exercise Wall

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I’ve seen some breakthroughs in the way I exercise recently that I’d like to share. First, some background: I grew up an “athetically challenged” child. I was the classic slow, uncoordinated, last-picked kid who admittedly gave up easily in favor of activities that were less threatening and more comfortable.

Starting in early Jr. high and through late college, I carried a few extra pounds around with me. At my heaviest I was 240, and lost ~75lbs for a low of 167 in early 2003. Since then I’ve kept my weight between 170-185, mostly by portion control and remaining conscious of the food I’m eating.

Through the years - before and after my weight loss - I’ve tried my hand at lifting weights and cardio with limited success. To be honest with myself, I just didn’t put the extra effort into learning the right way how and didn’t set and follow through with plans. No wonder I remained frustrated for lacking the results I desired.

This year I set the goal of breaking through my prior limitations with distance running, as this is the biggest mental struggle I’ve faced with physical activity. Last year when I would run, I hit my limit after an average 20-25 minutes on the treadmill. On two occasions I ran :30 and :45, but I couldn’t bring myself to overcome the mental hurdle of accomplishing that again.

Last winter I had the fortune of meeting Dean Hewson, a triathlete and technical writer, at a seminar I attended. I asked for some pointers on breaking through my wall and his advice was pure gold to me.

• First, Dean instructed me to slow down. To build endurance, I wasn’t in a race. I’m already a slow runner, so this frustrated me, but I gave it a go anyways. After all, he was a triathlete, I was not.
• Second, he told me to think internally “I’m not even going to start this run until 15 minutes in.” This was a real shocker. I hit my limit at 20-25 minutes, so 15 was my valley of death. How the heck was I going to start at 15 minutes?

Since my goal this year is to run a 5k by May and a 10k by September, I started hitting the treadmill regularly about a month ago. I took Dean’s advice, slowed it down, and drilled into myself that I wasn’t starting until 15 minutes in. This alone wasn’t enough to bring it all together though - my early times were in the 30-40 minute range - good, but not great.
Then another thought came to me that brought it all together:

• I once heard a speaker admonish his listeners; Don’t dwell on how you feel before a difficult activity, but how you will feel after you’re done. I’ve lived with that thought in other areas; so I applied it here and started focusing on the feelings of accomplishment I’d have once pushing through (I wish I could remember the speaker and the exact wording).

Thanks to these thoughts, in the last two weeks I’ve been consistently running for 45 minutes and 1 hour on the treadmill. That’s right, one hour! Last night was one of those runs. For the last ten minutes, I thought my legs were going to fall off and my lungs would give out. But I kept my head up, avoided looking at the clock, and laser-focused on how I would feel about accomplishing what I had set out to do when it was all finished. It’s an amazing feeling - I know the athletes reading this can relate. If you’re reading this and can’t relate yet, don’t fret, just get out there, take action, and persist until you reach your goal (and don’t forget to write me when you do!).