Year 2, Day 3

Training Week 5

Today my training partner and I walked 10 miles. 10 miles! I was tempted to brush it off. After all, it's not my goal. I've been working up to this. It's not a big deal, right? Except that it is a big deal, because it's ten miles! My body made sure I knew that. I've been "walking it off" all day (curse my husband's childhood soccer games). My husband thinks it's pretty funny to watch me limping down the stairs because the last hour on my butt with the ice pack has left my muscles stiff. That limp has forced me to realize three very big things:

1) Ten miles is a big deal!
2) Ten miles is a bit hard on my body.

And best of all:
3) Two months ago I couldn't have completed ten miles without puking, and I couldn't have walked around the house the next day. Today I did! That's an even bigger deal!

Despite the pain that I'm in from pushing my limits today, I'm feeling amazing. It's like I'm a whole new person! Two months ago I couldn't have completed ten miles in one sitting. In January I couldn't have completed the five that I do every day. I hadn't really put a lot of thought into that. I hadn't really thought about the fact that just seven months ago I was...a whole different person. I wasn't capable of doing the same things I'm doing every day now. I certainly wasn't capable of pushing myself to the extents that I can now!

Sure, I hurt right now. At quite a few points today I've hurt...a lot. It's a little insane. But I relish this hurt. It means that I pushed my boundaries. It means that I went farther today than I have before, that I'll be able to go even farther next week. It means that soon I'll be even stronger, and even better. It means that today I was more capable than I was six months ago, two months ago, or even a few weeks ago.

I can't really describe to you how important this is to me. Instead, let me ask you this:

Just how much could your life change in the next few weeks if you got started today?