So…it’s been a couple of weeks now since I joined my running club. I’m not sure what an oddsmaker in Vegas would have said about my sticking with this for 2 solid weeks but I knew it was a sure bet. Pushing the limits and expanding the boundaries. I’m so out of my box that I can’t even see my box.
The progress is slow but I am assured that there is a process in place to reduce the probability of injury and, to be honest, I’m not ready to jog a lap yet. In fact, the furthest I’ve run is 1/10 of a mile. We are now doing short intervals of jogging/walking. Runners call these fartleks [fahrt-leks]. THEY call these fartleks; I call them intervals. It was definitely a man who came up with the word fartleks.
So I’m starting to wonder if I really will be ready for a 5k by early November. Tomorrow is September and so the stark realization that I have 8 weeks to increase my tenth of a mile jog by 31 times is staggering.
.10 x 31 = 3.1 miles (5k)
Staggering. How will I ever get there? Well, I suppose it happens like most things that seem insurmountable begin. One step at a time. One day at a time. One fartlek at a time.
When we’re learning and growing at anything, we feel awkward and pretty exposed sometimes….
And then one day, you realize it’s not as impossible as you thought. You start gaining confidence just by putting one foot in front of the other…the wounded relationships, the past hurts…and pretty soon we find ourselves enjoying the growth in our lives….
And then we are there. We are doing what we never thought we could do…
We are running. How great is life that every day, with every sunrise, we are given an opportunity to step outside of our box and tackle what we don’t think is possible simply by putting one foot in front of the other.