The greatest running advice ever

I’ve received two great pieces of advice in my lifetime. I’ll save one of them for a later date, but I’ll share one with you tonight.

Don’t go out like an asshole.

My sister gave Eric and I that sound advice last year before our first 10K. I can’t remember who told it to her, but I’m positive she appreciated the tip as much as I did. She encouraged me to start at a normal, steady pace. You start too quickly or too hard and before you know it, you’re huffing and puffing or worse, pulling your caboose over and stopping your race before you even really get started.

I’ve applied that logic to my life across the board, but I must have forgotten it in recent months. I’ve been pushed close to tears almost every other workout. Why can’t I run more than a half mile without stopping? I felt like I was starting all over again. Why do I feel like I’m 350 pounds? We’re planning on a half marathon and I can’t even run a mile? Things weren’t looking good.

Then by some miracle, that advice popped in my head today and I was actually excited to get out and run in the 32 degree weather. That’s right. I said excited. The last time I was excited about running was months and months ago. So, I made it home after work and started my run. I took off at a pace closer to 12:30, as opposed to my 11:30 pace I’ve been trying to maintain.  I had an 11:30 pace six months ago when I was running every day. I need to ease back into this.

So whatda ya know? I jogged those three miles without stopping and it only felt terrible for about a half mile of it. That’s progress my friends and for the first time since the start of phase two of this journey, I thought, I can really do this. Not only can I do this, but we can do this. Because if I can do this, so can Eric.

Time to apply this logic to swimming.