Thursday, December 22, 2011

conquering the big hill [running]


     Today was a gorgeous day of blue skies and no clouds - a rare thing in western Washington. I decided to go out on a quick run before the sun went down, thinking I'd just run a mile or two and call it a day. I also checked the weather forecast, which says that today was the last sunny Seattle day for a while.

     So I started running. I'm pretty busy considering it's winter break, and it was so nice to clear my head. The endorphins were pumping and I had passed the 2-mile mark without even thinking about it. 

     Then I started getting closer to this huge hill. Did you get that? This hill is HUGE. If I wanted to run the hill, I would have to tack on another few miles to get myself back home. I told myself that since I hadn't run the hill in a few months, I could just walk/run it and the rest of the way home.

     But I didn't. I ran the whole way! I ran all the way down and all the way up the hill, and my heart rate evened itself out the rest of the way home with the (smaller) hills.

     The most brutal part of the hill is about three quarters of the way up when my breathing gets heavy and my muscles are tensing up. I knew I wanted to get up it without stopping though. So in my head, I repeated a phrase I've heard many times, 

"You don't think you can, but you can. Your body is stronger than you think." 

     It sounds SO corny, but it worked! It is a great reminder for any type of physical exercise to just keep pushing, because your body is truly capable of so much.

     After the six miles, I was back home. I'm going to sleep like a baby tonight, especially since my muscles haven't had a long run in a while.

xo


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