57 Seconds to Go...

I really didn't want to get up this morning. After walking uphill for 45 minutes with 20 lb weights, doing squats, lunges, push-ups, then completing swim sprints yesterday, my body was fried. When my alarm sounded at 4:45, I hit the snooze button about 7 times. Eventually though, I realized daylight was gonna start approaching and the thought of skipping my training was enough to roll me out of bed--literally.

Today's Spartan Workout wasn't too intense compared to my other ones, and the breakdown is like this:

Warm Up:  Be sure to loosen up with 10 minutes of jumping rope and even a short run

Run 2-5 miles

then:

100 push ups

100 crunches

Do each exercise as:  2 x 50, 4 x 25, or 10 x 10.

Cool down with a jog and then stretch

Getting back to my 8 min pace per mile is the goal I have set for both the Spartan Race and Austin Marathon. It's been really disheartening to feel like I'm not running my best, especially when I know I can run a lot faster. So, finally, after months of trying to build myself back up, I finally broke into a sustained pace of 8:57 this morning. 

8:57, man! 

People comment all the time that running is a boring sport, and from an outsider's view, I agree. We run to get nowhere, mostly. Except that we don't. We run, well, I run because this is the only sport where your biggest enemy and strongest competitor, and best asset is yourself. At the end of the day, I'm the only one responsible for making my goals happen. And today, that feeling of knowing all those doggone lunges, squats, and hills helped me get back on track is worth going out and doing it again in the morning. 

Today was a good day. A good day, indeed. 

Today's playlist: "4x4" (Continuous mix), Deadmau5