It’s hard innit
I don’t know about you, but I find all these people who do the marathon each year two things.
1. Inspiring.
2. Slightly mental.
It’s such a long way though isn’t it? 26.2 miles of absolute hell from start to finish. That’s if you wear a pair of shorts and a vest, god only knows what it must be like in a giant inflatable costume of a penis or whatever the hell people dress up as.
It’s amazing how much cash people raise for good causes to run the marathon, I find it brilliant someone being prepared to torture themselves for hours on end going through excruciating pain during the race and then for days upon days afterwards to help others. That right there is something to be praised in my opinion.
The serious runners, able bodied and those with disabilities, the Elite, are amazing athletes. Incredible endurance and mental fortitude on display and the pace they can just smash round the course at is ridiculous. It makes me sick just thinking how hard they work.
Those who do it to prove they can do it, mad as a box of frogs in my opinion! That said, well done to them too!
Me and Running
My reasons for running before (long time ago now) were for fitness for sport etc and to get lean.
I thought; “You know what? I’ll do about 20 miles a week, then that should get me lean.”
It didn’t, my diet was shit.
Pasta, lack of veg, too much processed food and too much booze contributed to an average body.
As I cleaned up my diet and got myself fitter, I thought I’d have a crack at a 10k with my new found fitness. I forgot I was near on 15 stone.
10km doesn’t sound much, it’s only 10,000 metres after all.
I did it, and I finished about 90th out of 470, which wasn’t too bad.
The whole way round, the only thoughts that were going through my head were:
“Why the feck am I doing this? I hate running.”
and
“Those guys are skinny, I don’t want to be skinny, I want to be lean and muscular.”
It was absolute hell, there were hills for gods sake. Hills I had to run UP before I could run DOWN. I mean who wants to be doing that really!
After I finished the race, second to an extended family member 9 years my Junior, I felt like I was going to die. A small sense of achievement was there, but nothing more. I knew I wasn’t going to be doing any more.
I think this was the turning point in my training that made me really think about how I can adjust my training style to actually ENJOY getting leaner, rather than just doing something because it helped me get there.
I am glad I did this 10km for 2 reasons.
1. It made me realise I hate running, and I won’t ever make myself, or any one of my clients ever run to improve their physique, unless they actually want to.
2. It made me realise that I knew shit all about fitness, and I needed to research HARDER and learn better, more efficient ways of getting more from training without painful things you don’t enjoy.
Take home lesson – you’re more likely to succeed in your goal if you’re actually enjoying the process of getting to it.
