No figs where harmed during the photo shoot. Afterwards...now that's a different story!Wanna know what cake we have this week? Probably not but that's not going to stop me! Again we have a layer cake that stands at over 10cm high. This week we have chocolate sponge top and bottom separated from the vanilla sponge by a layer of whipped cream with little jellies in it. And if that wasn't bad enough, we also received a handful of figs stuffed with white chocolate and dipped in dark chocolate. As my Mom packed these treats in a box for us I moaned that I would get sooo fat from all of these sweets. She brushed me off with a 'well if you only have a little piece each day' comment to which my husband promptly responded that the cake and figs were for him anyway! Ah my family is so helpful.
Anyway to the point of this post: a few months ago I decided I needed a fitness challenge. In my typical style I dreamt big - a bit like stating that I wouldn't even have a tiny piece of cake during the week. Yes, I went off and found one of the most physically challenging races I could - an adventure race - and suggested that as an option. Alternatively if the race was only to involve running, then the least I would train for was 10K. No small steps here - unless you're living on the edge you're taking up too much space is my motto!
Mainly because of the difficulty of the challenge I proposed to tackle, I began over analysing the situation in my head. Eventually I came to various conclusions and drafted a multitude of excuses why I shouldn't participate in any race or indeed train for an event. The main one that sticks out is the motivation behind trying to get super fit which has much less to do with health and much more to do with wanting love. I've keep meaning to blog about it (wanting love as motivation) but I haven't come up with a solution to the issue so it just pings around in my brain occasionally. In any case Charlotte at the Great Fitness Experiment wrote a perfect post about it last week. After all, if the motivation for exercising was more about others than myself and I didn't enjoy the process then trying would be bad. After extensive over thinking I have even worked out all the negative consequences I might face if I trained, most notably having higher expectations for my fitness in the future.
So, should the flawed motivation underpinning my desire to be fit enough to run a race stop me from actually training for one? I've finally reached the conclusion that it shouldn't because regardless of the reasons for it, the desire to improve my fitness is alive and kicking inside my head. So I've chosen a 5K run to participate in at the end of August. It's in my diary, it's on the blog so it's too late for thinking. Now I have a few months to train for something that is still a challenge, but not such a far cry from anything I have ever done before that it seems like climbing Mt Everest. I'll finally be taking little steps and not biting of more than I can chew.
Which brings me back to dessert. Little steps right?
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You KNOW I'm applauding the little steps! :) You can train for the 5k, complete it, and then reassess what you *want* to do next. Maybe another 5k, maybe a 10k, maybe something else entirely, but meanwhile, you're making progress all the time. It's perfect!
ReplyDeleteyou can do it, for you all the best have you seed yo yo no more Bernie she did a guest blog for me yesterday check it out if you havn't heard about shes great Rebecca
ReplyDeleteThat does seem like an excellent choice. I think we all want it (what ever "it" is) right now, but the little "tippytoe" steps in the right direction is what gets the job done!
ReplyDelete(Can ya tell I had breakfast with Cammy?)
I SO know this feeling Spring Girl, how many times have I bitten off more than I can chew to find myself over thinking and not doing anything at all. Good for you. That 5K, as well as the training will be brilliant.
ReplyDeleteWhat motivates me changes day to day, sometimes it's wanting to look hot, other days wanting to feel accepted and sometimes it's wanting to be able to take control of my life and live it the way I imagine. Maybe it's OK to be motivated by different things at different times, maybe that's what keeps us going?
Hurray, we can run a 5k together! I was telling my dad yesterday that I want to run a 10k that's coming up in 2 weeks, and he talked sense into me- reminding me that so far the most I've done is 4.5k, and adding another 5.5k in the space of a couple weeks would be a horrible thing to do to my body. Right: small steps!
ReplyDelete- Sagan
GREAT! Little steps are always the key...i love little steps!
ReplyDeleteCammy - That's what I was thinking, hoping (fingers crossed) that I will want to keep going. But if not, I've done it anyway!
ReplyDeleteRebecca - Thanks. I did check it out and she's got great advice.
Patty - Yes I can tell. I'm thinking it's wicked cool to be able to meet up!
Berni - changing motivation - that is wonderful advice, you are very right. Thank you.
Sagan - I was thinking the same thing when you posted the other day!
Rupal - Funny, I usually hate them. I never like being at the start and not being competent. No better time to learn that!