Monday, February 12, 2007

Failing and being okay with it

I typically have an extremely hard time failing at anything, especially my self-inflicted goals. I have an even more difficult time accepting any type of failure, coming to terms with it and moving on. I'm not sure how I overcame this personality quirk (is it those fish pills I've been taking -- apparently they are supposed to "stabilize mood"!!), but I am totally okay with the fact that I did not complete my 14 hrs of training last week.

First of all, I was sick and decided that resting was a higher priority. This ended up being a pretty good choice, I think.

Secondly, I only missed that 14 hour mark by one lousy 45 minute work out (deducted from my least favorite sport, running).

I used my new "reality-based" attitude on a grueling 1 hr and 40 min run yesterday, to great success. My ankles were killing me, so at the 1 hour mark I decided that I'd complete the last 40 minutes by doing run/walk intervals. I stopped briefly to stretch and wallah, my ankles were like new again! It was truly amazing. After I stretched, they completely stopped hurting. After 10 min more of running the pain would be creeping in again, at which point I'd walk a little and stretch again. Presto! Back to normal again. Usually the day after these long runs are incredibly painful for me. I usually swing my legs out of bed and as soon as my feet hit the floor -- PAIN! Today, the hurt only a little and it went away completely by the middle of the day.

This whole moderation thing is really mind-blowing.

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