Day 12 - Take it to the Limit

Thank you to the Eagles for another musically appropriate post title!

Number/time crunch:
FitCamp Challenge - 30% Complete
Pre-Vacation Workouts - 3 classes remaining!!! (It truly is getting down to 'last chance workouts' now)

Now I'm going to shock myself for a minute and (prepare yourself brain, this is gonna hurt...) take some of my own advice.

Yesterday I talked about celebrating small successes, and giving yourself some benchmarks to acknowledge the progress you've made. Well today as I was FitCamp-ing, I was doing my level best not to think about how difficult it was to do whatever it was we were doing at any given moment... but instead think about how much MORE difficult it was a couple of weeks ago, when we started. I tried to imagine myself doing these exercises at the beginning - what would my pace have been? How many breaks would I have taken? How much would it have hurt the next day?

That actually gave me a little mental grin as I was otherwise gritting my teeth and feelin' the burn. I might not be power lifting triple digits, but I was doing stairs with dumbbells that I wouldn't have even tried to pick up without throwing my back out when we started. 

My goal today was simple - keep moving. I wanted to do every exercise continuously with no breaks. I realized that I may have to slow down from time to time, but I was determined to not stop completely - which is a HUGE difference over a couple of weeks ago, where it was all I could do to keep going for half of the exercise before I needed a breather and a 'shake it out' moment.

Happy to say that with the exception of running the buildings outside in between sets, I succeeded in finishing every exercise without taking a break. I may not have done the most reps, or lifted the heaviest weights, but I keep reminding myself I'm not competing with everyone else. I'm competing with ME. I am still finding that the runs, even though they're short, really bother my lungs - but I'm trying to fit in at least 2 of the quick 'fence and back' runs, and 2 of the 'around the buildings' runs, during the class, and will focus on increasing the number each week, until I'm able to do them all.

Another mini-goal I had was, when I did do those runs, to not be the last one back inside. This led to a few moments I didn't think I had in me... on the way back to the building, I actually pushed myself to pass people. These little personal victories for me are something that makes me want to keep coming back for more - so I think I'll start setting myself up with a daily challenge. Not knowing what the class will be each day, I can't really pre-plan it, but I'll make sure it's something that pushes my limits. I just keep thinking about how far a car can drive on fumes... and realize I'm a sub-compact, so I should be able to go even further than most! :-P

With vacation looming, and my to-do list this week growing instead of shrinking, I'm relishing a few more head-clearing mornings before I'm on my own for a couple of weeks. That will be a major test - how will I fare without Chris and Megan's awesome leadership? Where is my self-motivation level right now? I'm a little nervous, can't hide that. But I'm determined not to backslide while I'm home. I know it's only been 2 1/2 weeks, but I refuse to give up any of that progress. It just feels too dang good. 

Don't know where today's quote came from - but I love it, so I'll end with this - a nice summary of where I'm at mentally and physically with this journey:

"Be proud, but never satisfied."