One more step

August 30, 2012

I’ve been running intervals ever since a dear friend introduced me to them. It’s incredibly simple: walk 2min/run 30sec for 10 intervals.

Then, as you progress, increase your intensity until you walk 30sec/run 30sec.

I never liked running before because it’s so hard and I always felt so tired and weak by the end of it. But intervals give my body the chance to recover – to run hard and fast and then walk just enough to catch my breath, to empower me to run again. Now instead of walking away defeated I spend a half hour in the mornings dwelling in my strength (and as I increase intensity I increase intervals instead of decreasing time).

It’s hard sometimes, the 5th-7th intervals are usually when it gets particularly difficult to keep going. I use all sorts of tricks I’ve learned over the years (most notably listening to Transformers: Dark of the Moon, It’s Our Fight by Steve Jablonski).

But the thing that makes the most difference is reminding myself that the moments when it’s hard are the most powerful. Those are the moments when my strength is harnessed and increased.

In my last run I don’t time it; don’t cage myself in seconds or expectations. I just run as long as I want to run; let it just be me and the music running until I’ve gone as far as I think I can go.

Then I take one more step.

Fight for one more step

Because that step is your strength
It isn’t about what your body can do – it’s about your will
It’s one more step beyond what you think you can do
One step that defies your comfort zone
One step past your limitations
That one more step is how you become stronger tomorrow.

Feature image photo credit: Mary Thorson

Posted in: Life ~

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