Running Out of Steam…

02 Mar Running Out of Steam…

This morning, I thought I was going to die.  No.  I wasn’t in a car wreck or even a near miss.  I just went to my cardio kickboxing class.  Now, you may think, “Somebody must have gotten overly excited and kicked him.”  Nope.  No one threw a punch at me or tried to kick me.  We get to take our frustrations out on bags.  The simple truth is that I didn’t have the steam to keep up with my crazy instructor’s “exhortations.”
  

On February 8th, I ran the Fort Smith FULL Marathon.  It was a less than stellar performance due to a radically different temperature than we had trained in, but we finished.  A few days later I got sick and then stayed sick for almost two weeks.  There are many issues about being sick that long, but one of the worst things for any sort of athlete is losing your cardio.  When you can’t breathe and push yourself, you feel weak and helpless.  You feel like you are just out of steam.

While there are physical reasons why we lose our ability during illness, the really hard part comes when we are better.  We have to push ourselves and allow ourselves to be uncomfortable as we work to simply get back to where we were.  It isn’t fun.  Let’s be honest, it sucks.

Have you lost steam in your journey towards a healthy lifestyle?  Have you allowed things to get in the way of your workouts and better eating?  Life is full of distractions.  Some, we have control over.  Others are completely out of our hands like sickness.  However, what you do next is entirely up to you.  You may have lost ground in your journey.  But just like me after being sick, you must pick yourself up and dust yourself off.  You must allow yourself to be uncomfortable.  Who knows?  You might even feel like you are going to die after a workout.  But at the end of the day, you will know that you have taken steps to move yourself towards a healthier lifestyle.