Just Because I Can

Just because I can.

That's become my training motto.  It's probably a little cliche but I suppose it's not as overused as some of the other cliches I toss around, like "pain is weakness leaving the body".  Maybe you have a similar motto.  This one works for me, though.  Whether it's turning my 3 miler into a 5K, adding one more rep to the number my Great & Motivational Training Partner assigns me for the next core exercise on the evil Bosu ball or even jumping on the treadmill after my run & core exercises to do a few more minutes a little faster than when I got off, I find myself pushing a little more each time just because I can.

And I like it.

This has been another fun training week, even though I'm very aware that I'm still very much a running neophyte with the rather lofty goal of running and finishing my first marathon in 2011.  And, once again, because I'm new, I continue to learn lots of stuff.  For example:

1) Running during the holiday season requires different kinds of discipline.  My 3.5 last Saturday went fairly well, even though I made the mistake the night before of attending my lovely wife's Christmas party, a reunion of former employees from the EMS agency where I worked as a Paramedic for 11 years and the last set of a friend from high school's band (The Clams... they're pretty good by the way), arriving home sometime after 2 AM.  I became cognizant of the wisdom of the previous evening's plan shortly after getting up at 6:30 AM to go run.  I'll be honest, the 1st mile wasn't all that fun.  Come to think of it, neither was the crescendo-decrescendo interval stuff I did for the remaining 2.5 miles, but it got done and I felt good that I did it.

2) I think there's a generation gap when it comes to run training terminology.  About halfway through my aforementioned run, a woman in her 70's started walking on the treadmill to my left.  I can't be certain, but I suspect she'd recently seen something about fartlek training that she didn't quite read through to the end because a couple minutes after starting her walk, a plume of noxious gas wafted downwind from her treadmill, enveloping me in all of it's toxic goodness.  Lucky for me, she did it again 5 minutes later.  I'm so blessed to be surrounded by folks who want to help me learn how to overcome the hardships involved in running.

3) I might have said in my opening paragraph something about the Bosu ball being evil.  Since it's possible my Great & Motivational Training Partner will read this, what I meant to say is I'm learning to embrace this valuable tool that will help strengthen my core and increase the chances that I will successfully achieve my goal of completing the Chicago Marathon.  Through determination and a positive outlook, I will come to embrace the wonderful Bosu ball and the positive results it will bring.  I can't wait for new and different core building exercises that, if they don't kill me, will make me strong.

That's right.  I said it.  Bring it.

Just because I can.