Sunday, November 30, 2014

It's the CAN, not the CAN'T

26 weeks (~6 months)
YOU define your own limits.  You don’t know what you are truly capable of, so quit putting limits on yourself!  I swore I would never run a half-marathon (ran my first at 3 months pregnant), I would never do a half-iron triathlon (have now completed 3), and would NEVER run a marathon, simply because I had zero interest in ever taking on such an undertaking.  As I gained fitness, confidence, and quit telling myself “I can’t,” I began finding out what I COULD do.  I ran my first marathon (and only thus far), alone, and crushed the Boston Qualifying time by almost 15 minutes.  I’m really not lying either when I say I was NOT a runner in the past!  My family can definitely attest to that.
I see things as a challenge now though.  My big off-season challenge this year was actually given to me by my neighbor.  50x50 on 1 minute in the pool – sprints.  Upon first hearing this, my arms already ached just thinking about it.  But I figure I have until the end of February to work my way up to 50 on 1 minute.  So I won’t say, “I can’t,” or “that’s too hard,” instead I can say, “not yet, but I’ll get there.”  So far I’m up to 26x50 on 1-minute, and I aim to hit 50x50 around my 38th week of pregnancy (I’ll be cutting it close!)  So while I can’t run very far or very fast, I CAN swim and I CAN bike.  So I’ll focus on the things that I can do.  We'll also see how long I can squeeze into my one-piece for swimming!
She has also been an inspiration herself.  At my YMCA, we are in the middle of a 100-Mile Swim Challenge.  We have several months to complete it, but my neighbor’s goal was to swim all of it (165,000 yards) before she had her baby (just born on Friday!).  She completed the entire challenge in less than 3 months, which also happened to be her 3rd trimester!  So maybe today there are things that you can’t do, but there are things that you CAN do.  Let’s start there.
The greatest limitations you will have to overcome, are those that you put on yourself.

No comments:

Post a Comment