Stopping and Starting

Have you ever had a day where what you're doing seems so difficult that you just want to quit? That was today for me.

A lot of people don't quite understand why I run. They can't comprehend why I would willingly make my body endure mile after mile at a pace that most people would never want to do. Well today, I was questioning it myself. We do speed workouts twice a week. They can be anything from mile repeats, running on a track, to ladder or interval workouts. Mount Vernon High School is right across the street from my campus, so we do some of our workouts there. The perimeter around all of the sports fields equals a mile. Coach had marked the 400 meter marks with flags. This was our workout:

400 easy, 400 race pace, 400 easy, 400 race pace
3 minute rest
800 easy, 800 race pace
3 minute rest
800 easy, 800 race pace
3 minute rest
800 easy, 800 race pace
3 minute rest
400 easy, 400 race pace, 400 easy, 400 race pace
1 mile cool down

For those of you who lost track, that's 6 miles of speed work, plus the mile cool down, which makes a grand total of 7 miles for the day. 800 meters equals half a mile. 400 meters is 1/4th of a mile. Make sense?


It was also extremely hot and humid today. I don't run well in humidity. By the third loop, I was losing steam. And the 3 minute rests? Yeah, it doesn't feel like much of a rest. My mind was basically battling against itself. Half of me just wanted to stop more than anything, but the other was screaming at me to keep going. I was overheated, my legs felt like jelly, and I was sweating so much it looked like I had gone swimming. I knew that if I stopped the workout, I would regret it later. There were some times during my summer training that I didn't do the full mileage I was supposed to and I felt guilty afterwards. I knew I was capable of going the distance, but my doubts got the best of me. But today, I kept going. I had to jog some of it, and I did the last loop in my socks because my shoes were rubbing, but I did it. It was really hard, but crossing the line for the final time, knowing I didn't give in, was one of the best feelings. The support of my teammates helped a ton too.

Sometimes we have to do things that are difficult. We may get to a point where we think we can't handle it anymore. But I'll bet that you're a lot stronger than you think. You'll make it through.