Phases Of Running

It’s very interesting to experience the several phases of a run. I’m sure many people go through different ones and perhaps even more or less numbers of phases than I do. I usually go through five.

There’s the first phase, where you feel like you own the world. The second phase is where you immediately regret having ever went outside in the first place. The third phase, I would say the worst phase, is where you contemplate how shameful it would actually be to just fall to the ground and lie there until someone comes to get you. The fourth phase is where your body is so fed up with your so called “will” and “urge to turn your life around” that it just gives up and you keep running. The fifth and final phase, the phase that makes it all worth it, is when you stop your run, knowing you’ve given it your all, and again, feel like you own the world.

The hard part of running, or working out, or doing anything in general, is that the first phases of the activity are always the worst. It is as if those moments are designed to test you, to gauge how badly you want to succeed. It’s like a hill where after your first few steps you think, “Pshh, I got this, I could do this all day” only to, minutes later, be crawling on the ground begging the gods for forgiveness.

The trick is to accept and even welcome these phases because each new one you enter puts you closer towards the end. Oh, you have a cramp? Fantastic, means my body is in the making up excuses phase. That one usually comes before I start to really hit a stride.

Be happy to enter into new phases and understand them. Tell yourself that this is phase so and so, and it comes before this and that. Your mind will be tricked into thinking that the excuses and fatigue come naturally and will pass naturally. If you master this, pretty soon you’ll be able to trick your body into passing through the phases faster and so you can hit your stride sooner and progress to levels you didn’t even think of.

After Tired Comes Great

I had a rough weekend feeling pretty sick and so, fell out of the loop of working out every day. Today, I went to the gym and hit it hard. I nearly gave up half way through.

Working out can be really tough. When you’ve had a couple days of feeling off your game and head back to being active, your body can feel like you’ve hit the reset button. The soreness hits you again and the fatigue jumps out of nowhere. Giving up can seem very easy and very justified.

Twenty-something minutes in, I was feeling the pain. I was tired, I was using heavier weights, and my body was throwing a tantrum. I looked at the clock and thought, “Hmm, how can I justify leaving now. Can’t go too hard while working out right? I shouldn’t push myself too far.” It was all bullshit, of course, but my mind was loving every word of it.

I decided then to finish with one workout I always have to do when I hit the gym, I call it my four-hundred punches. What I do is (holding dumbbells), I do 50 weighted and 50 weightless jabs, uppercuts, haymakers, and body shots. You end up with stronger arms and much stronger punches. An added bonus is that when you switch from holding the dumbbells to punching freely, your arms move a lot faster and you feel like a superhero.

It was at this time that one of my power songs came on (the songs that I designate to get me pumped up again) and I let loose. I went for it better than I ever went for it. I sweated and I felt great. Suddenly, I had all my energy back.

You see, it’s easy to be tired. It’s easy to think up an excuse and go home. What’s hard is getting passed that to your next level, going passed the pain to your god-mode. When you tell your body to shut up and get with the program, it does. Your mind controls your body. What it says goes. If your mind says, “I have a full tank of energy,” your body says “Umm, yeah, okay, got it.” I picture mine speaking that way but I’m sure yours sounds a lot cooler.

When you are feeling low, attack your go-to workout and play your power song. Get passed the fatigue because After tired comes great. The harder it is to get over the hill, the more fun it is going down the other side.