Whether your egotistical or just a little insane some of us have this desire to see how far we can really go... Well let me tell you this thinking can get you into a lot of trouble. And I think I'm in A LOT of trouble.
Last Saturday I ran 14 miles and did ok... I managed, but it was pretty slow. Before that my long distance running had been a bit sporadic, but despite that I felt fairly confident I could do at least 12 and 14 if I pushed it. So what did I do? I pushed it to see if I could do 14. SO I did what every good egotistical person would do I thought "you must be REALLY good" and decided to do push myself a little harder this week. Monday I ended up completely burning out practically all of my energy and the rest of the week I just did my best to hang on for my 16 miles this today. I ran loops around the Capitol building and Memorial Park. It was a really nice morning... until about 10 am when the sun came out full force and I was beat.
While my ego feels great that I just ran 16 miles... my legs are arguing a rather different story.
So what did I learn? Well #1 is to Listen to your Body and #2 I'm actually not superwoman. I know I know you're all shocked right?
So as it turns out our bodies are pretty good at surviving... In fact that's why we've lasted as long as we have. If it weren't for our bodies self defense mechanism that attempt to override the ego we'd have died ages ago. Our caveman ancestors would have all died while trying to see who could kill the biggest dinasour or something like that.
Survival takes a moderate amount of ego, common sense and a lot of attention to the cues your body is telling you. Its pretty easy to ignore the warning signs that your body is sending you until its too late and something drastic happens... like you pass out from dehydration or injured with a muscle strain. Or on the other end of the spectrum- when you ignore the signal to move you end up with a serious illness or disease like Metabolic Syndrom and Type II Diabetes. 5 Important Signals.
Practice listening to your body throughout the day and while exercising. You can do this by pausing, analyzing the situation, look at yourself from inside out and ask yourself what do you really need?
1. Learn what Hunger really feels like. No I don't mean starve yourself. But do you know the difference between a craving/stress/emotional signal and a hunger signal? Most people don't.
2. Learn the difference between mental and physical fatigue. Physical fatigue is your body's way of saying I need more sleep or a rest. Mental fatigue is a way of saying I'm over stressed and your mind needs a break. Sometimes exercise can be a great "mental break" for your mind. So are activities like yoga and meditation.3. Learn that the difference between stress and anxiety is simply how your mind intereprets the situation.
4. That restless feeling in the middle of the day? Your body wasn't built to sit around all day. Get up and move around.
5. Learn the difference in muscular sensations during exercise. It will help you know when to push on and when to stop. Not all sensations are bad, some are just stronger than others. Simply because your legs or lungs are burning doesn't mean you have to stop. But when you feel that muscle sensation (aka pain) that IS telling you to stop you need to listen.
Please help me by becoming a sponsor of my Run-A-Thon!!! See Run-A-Thon Event Details page on this blog for more info.
No comments:
Post a Comment