Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Athletically Mental

I took my rest day yesterday. I tried to do the routine from freetrainers.com, but it clearly assumed I was a lot more fit than I actually am. I changed the push-ups to knee push-ups. I did the bicep curls and the side laterals with 10 lb hand weights, which in terms of the former was probably not enough and the later way too much. The only other thing on the list that I could physically complete were crunches. After about 20 minutes my arms were quivering and shaking so I abandoned the workout about 2/3 through. I will probably try it again the next time I have a rest day, but next time I won't be so ambitious with the side laterals and the 10 lb weights, I think that is what killed me.

I've been thinking a lot about my routine and last Saturday when I ran a mile. I like my routine cause it makes for a pretty even workout. Though I really like the feeling I got from running the whole time last Saturday even if it was only for 17 minutes. I'm thinking that one of the toughest thing about my workouts is all the walking. There is a great thread about the mental aspects of running on the Runners World Beginner Forums. I've long thought that my physical abilities were limited by my own perception of capability. Not that I want to lift a thousand pounds or fly to the moon, goals I know to be absurd. I just wonder if I'm ready to be running for 30 minutes straight and it's my head that is holding me back. I know that the more walk breaks I take the more I want to take them, so there has to be some credence to all of this.

3 comments:

Pokey said...

I am a big *mental* gal too...so yes, you ARE only confined by your mental state. You are only limited by what you BELIEVE you are able to do!!

Now, if I would only practice what I preach! ;)

Dan Seifring aka "OBRATS" said...

2/3 of a workout is great and much better than no workout. Keep it up it will get there.

With the running, it took me about 9 weeks to get to run for 30 minutes without stopping. That might sound slow but I followed the Couch to 5K plan from www.coolrunning.com and I am glad that I went that slow. That was a year ago and this Sunday I will be running my first 1/2 marathon. Just don't try to too much to soon and risk injury. (I am knocking on wood) I have not had any serious injuries since I started running and think it is because I had reasonable goals along the way.

Emil Von Runner said...

It's funny when I started this whole thing 5k seemed like such a big goal. Now I'm thinking that this time next year (if I keep my training up), I could be in the market for a half mary. Dan, I want what you did/are doing. I don't think I'm pushing myself too much with my amount of time I run individually but I do think I stack them up to close to one another with not enough xt/rest days.