16-Week Commitment Challenge: Week 6 complete

Before I start my weekly commitment challenge assessment, I want to gloat a bit about my accomplishments this morning. Technically, today's exercise will count toward this week's total, but still I ran a 5K today!

It felt pretty good; I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to run the whole way, and the last half-mile was especially brutal, but I never stopped and I never gave in. My time was 38:01, which was fine by me; I said I would be happy with anything under 40 minutes, and I am. I came in #356, and my girlfriend who ran with me was about 3 seconds faster. She's training for her first marathon, so she's allowed to beat me. :)



I feel great, and I'm definitely going to keep running as part of my workouts, but I won't lie, it was HARD. I'll be ready for another one...eventually. :)

++++++

Otherwise, how did I do this week with my goals?

1. Attend WW meetings every week without skipping any.
I got a Bravo sticker for talking about this challenge; the other members were pretty impressed I've been keeping myself accountable on the blog like this. Hee!

2. Exercise 4 days a week minimum.
I ran Monday, Wednesday, Friday in preparation for the 5K. Whoohoo! I think the next step is to get myself into regular days/nights for workouts; I've been doing it "flexible" style so I could accommodate any meetings, etc, but the truth is our lives are pretty steady. I need a firm schedule.

3. Count my points in my Tracker.
Nope. But I'm going to try this week!

4. Cut back on the alcohol to 1-2 drinks a week.
Yep, just a sangria when we went out for Mexican on Thursday. But I'm realizing that Fridays are VERY tough; all I want to do each Friday is have some beer and pizza, or anything unhealthy and extravagant, and really does take a sheer force of will to remind myself weigh-in is the next day and I would like to see some good results. I'm going to see what I can do to work around that Friday longing.



I am feeling like the ship is finally turning around and may just avoid the iceberg in time; I'm no longer gaining like crazy, and the habits I am trying to create with each goal of this challenge are beginning to settle into my brain and my routine. These are all things I WANT to do differently, but for the first time I am feeling like they're not as far away as they were.

To use a different analogy, I am starting to see the finish line now. BUT. I think I need to remember what happened today when we made our last turn into the park and could see the finish line for the first time. I wasn't able to sprint toward it immediately; I was very quickly reminded that just because I could see didn't mean the race was over. My heart was racing in my chest, my breathing was terrible, and my legs were screaming for me to stop and walk. But I wasn't done; there was still another 1/4 mile to go. There were times as we plodded through that last bit that it felt like the finish line was moving farther away! It wasn't until the very very end, only a few yards to go, that I was able to pick up the pace and run over the line. I thought I would do that from further away, but I couldn't. I HAD to keep my steady pace until I was steps away.

I need to remember that on this journey.