Results: 21 Gym Visits, 45 miles
Success! I did it! One down and eleven more to go.
I managed to get to the gym 21 times and ran every time. Not having a specific mileage goal helped me feel more comfortable working at a pace or distance where I didn’t feel terrible in the days following the workout, and allowed me to recover quick enough that the following visits weren’t miserable. For the most part I did 2 miles per day, generally in or around 20 minutes. Not feeling like I needed to hit 3 miles or 5k with every run allowed me to experiment with different speeds. I started with 6 mph for 20 minutes for the first few times. I got to the point of doing 6.5 mph for 20 minutes, 7 mph for 2 miles and even found a good strategy for upping both my speed and distance without much notice, to the point that I completed one 3.1 mile (5k) run in 24:59 seconds. That was not something I had set out to do, but I definitely felt very good about having done it. It was my record pace for a 2-4 mile run that I’ve tracked using RunKeeper.
My main goal was to start a habit that I could hopefully carry over into my everyday life. I think I did that. Not necessarily because it’s become a reflex to plan on going to the gym everyday but because I’ve removed the dread of HAVING to go to the gym. In my head, going to the gym for a half hour quick run was a mountain. I needed to get changed, let the dog out, drive the 10-15 minutes to the gym, scan in, hit the locker room, warm up, run, cool off, do some abs/pushups, grab my stuff and spend another 10-15 on the road. All the while figuring out when to eat dinner since this all happened after work. In reality this isn’t a big deal. I always feel better about things in general after I’ve exercised. And sitting on the living room floor watching (more) tv and surfing the internet isn’t exactly a much better use of my time. Now that I’ve removed the enormous mental burden that I created around working out I think it will be easy to keep this incorporated into my life. I think I will always try to go to the gym 3-5 times a week, or at least get some runs in. Shooting for both days on the weekend gets me well on my way. I’ll try to go 2 or 3 days in a row and take rests where I feel like I need to. If I start to feel to sore after repeated visits then I know it’s time to take a step back, recover, and reevaluate my training plan.
Even though I forced myself to go to the gym on two days where I felt terrible, like death, I enjoyed the challenge. I look forward to some future months where I continue to challenge my activity levels. And if I find that my motivation is trailing off, I’ll have no problem committing to this again.
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