How I up-leveled my Fitness Goals during the Pandemic from 3K to 10K Runs
It takes a challenge to get you out of your comfort zone
I´m a runner. I’ve been running since I was 16, and while I also practiced yoga for 20 years, did dance classes when I was young, and now have an irregular Martial Arts practice, running never left me. It´s the easiest and fastest way for me to sweat it out, feel the energy running through my whole body and find a way to relax and feel empowered at the same time.
My usual practice would be 3K every day. Either in the morning or in the evening. But when one of my clients this year had me run some marketing magic for his virtual marathon company, I started running more! Obviously, it always takes a challenge to get out of your comfort zone, but it had never occurred to me that I could actually run more or even train for a marathon!
Since my client was all about marathons every week, I took the bait. Let´s see. How many kilometers could I run without having to train too hard? I love manifestations, and the biggest manifestations in my life came because I set myself impossible goals. (Hello stock market, this January with a 50% return and 120% so far till September. You just gotta be bold in your numbers).
Challenge Yourself and Set Impossible Goals
So I set myself the goal to be able to run 10K for 5 days a week within a month. That was hard. Excruciatingly hard. I first overdid it, trying to run 6–7K every day. So I stepped back and did sometimes 3K, sometimes 5K, and sometimes the magical 7K. I noticed that I needed a lot of rest in between the days and I could definitely not run every day. So the more rest I had, the faster and longer I could run the next training day.
April was a themed month in favor of planet Venus. The challenge for the gold medal was to run 200K and for the silver medal, it was to run 150K in the whole month. That’s between 7–10K for 5 days a week. So, I really wanted to be at it. Ah, I thought, 5 days a week doing double my usual routine, easy!
I guess I managed to run 130K for the whole month — with a bit of a struggle — because I came to a point where my body just wasn’t doing it and my legs felt extremely heavy. And at other moments I had such an upsurge of energy when I went running in the evening, I couldn’t sleep the whole night and I also magically stopped eating. My friends had to ask me if I’d had breakfast or lunch the next morning because I forgot.
Speaking of nourishing yourself with light energy, or runners energy, or maybe electrolytes.
When is the Moment you Transcend Your Limits?
There were distinct moments when I felt I´ll just go for 30 minutes that day, and the time I hit the 30 minutes, I felt like I can run for another hour. It was always in the most unexpected moments, and often on days, I did not necessarily feel super fit. Kind of like a little voice whispering in my ear: Go for more today. That was the breaking point when something shifted internally and I could do longer runs with more ease from then on.
I recently went for a 1.5h run (again a voice that said: Go for 1.5h today, after running for 45 minutes already) and I could have done longer if I didn’t need to go to the bathroom so badly. I basically sprinted through the 13.5 kilometers like a bunny rabbit hopping around town. Did you know that rabbits run up to 60 kilometers an hour? I do 10–12K, so way to go. It´s interesting how the body starts to switch and adjust to a new routine and everything just starts to feel lighter and easier after some time.
Until now, a marathon still did not get me, but now that a half-marathon of 21.5K is not far anymore, it´s the next step!
I hope this article inspired you to test your limits and set goals that seem to be bigger than you think! Because you can!
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