No Pain, No Gain (and other cliches)

Yeah, yeah, we've heard it all before.

No pain, no gain.  


Pain is weakness leaving the body.  


Feel the burn.  


Mind over matter.

Blah, blah, blah.  I've heard these annoying statements so many times.  I've also been told the whole line of needing to "push through the pain".  Well, I've definitely never pushed myself to do much of anything when exercise or fitness is concerned.  If it becomes painful, annoying, or frustrating...I stop.  Well now that I'm attempting to take this half marathon training seriously, I realized that I'm going to HAVE to push myself to make any progress.  I can't just stop when something becomes uncomfortable.

Tonight, I hit a physical and mental block after about 15 minutes of running on the treadmill.  My legs ached, my stomach hurt, I felt like I might vomit, and my mind kept wandering to thoughts like:

"You can't do this."
"You will never finish 13.1 miles.  You can't even finish 2 miles without stopping!"
"You can just stop and walk.  It will feel so much better."

But then I started remembering the moments I've spent running in races.  I never quit during a race because:

A.  I paid to participate.
B.  People were cheering me on.
C.  I wanted to have the best time possible.

I started to realize that I need to treat every workout like a race, at least in the sense of persevering.  I told myself to basically shut the hell up, and I also told myself that I could run for much longer than 15 minutes.  I ignored the ache in my legs and the queasiness in my gut, and proceeded to crank up the speed.  I ran for 28 minutes at a 10:30 pace, and I DIDN'T STOP!!!  I know this may seem like a small feat to many, but for me it's a big deal.  I always take little walking breaks, and I finally proved to myself that I don't need to.  After about 20 minutes, my legs felt better and my stomach stopped hurting.  Magic!


So from now on I will be keeping this in mind, no matter how cheesy and cliche it might be: