CANT BELIEVE I DID THIS!

aippolito1

Damn, girl! That's awesome. :happy:

popplylily

ow!! and "OW!!!!" good for you!! you rock, running is HARD for us larger ladies!

SHBoss1673

Good for you lady!

You've just experienced what many athletes come to eventually, the point where they have to trust that they can do more than they think they can do.

For many serious athletes, once you break this barrier, working to failure takes on a whole new meaning.

It's the road block that prevents many people from moving from being healthy to being athletic. There's no way to really explain this concept to someone who hasn't experienced it. You can tell people all you want about what it feels like to break through the "I can't do that" wall, but once you experience it, you rarely say it again (within reason).

Every athlete I know who is seriously good at something has had this moment. The REALLY serious ones (or most of them at least) had this happen relatively early in life. It's such an accomplishment, it becomes addictive. It happened to me my Sophomore year in football during 3-a-days in August. I thought I was going to die after the 2nd practice, but my coach had seen hundreds of kids look the same way, knew I could be pushed, and he did, I didn't give up, passed that wall, and realized I could get a LOT better. You can almost see the moment when a trainer or coach's face gets that an athlete has broken that wall down, they are usually just as proud (if not more so) than the athlete. Usually this is because they know that once it's down, there's endless possibility!

So congrats! Now that you know your body can handle more than you thought, you can go out and aggressively get what you deserve!

Now when you watch Jillian on the biggest loser pushing people, you can understand what she's doing. She doesn't care very much if you do that extra 10 minutes of hard work, she's trying to break barriers, she's trying to get you to believe in yourself!

questionablemethods

<Old runner's saying> - "If you don't black out at the finish line - you could have gone faster".

I once went on a few dates with a marathoner. He told me the story of one marathon where he got to the 20 mile mark, felt pretty good so he decided to "go for it." Next thing he remembers, he is at the finish line and has broken the bottom half off of his two front teeth. He has no idea how it happened and there were no bruises or scrapes elsewhere to indicate that he face-planted. Talk about pushing oneself!

There is actually a very relevant Radio Lab show dealing with this exact issue -- the limits of our brain and how they are much lower than the limits of our bodies: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2010/04/16

Basically, our mental limits are thought to be a survival mechanism (so that we save a little bit of energy in reserve for that bear that might chase us). I highly recommend the show to anyone with any interest in exercise psychology.

To the OP: WAY TO GO!!!

bksteve26

Oh my goodness you guys. I hadn't checked my post since I posted it because I just didn't think there would be much of a response. You are all so great and this is exactly why this website works the way it does. I cannot thank you enough for your kind words. All you have done for me today is push me to keep going! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I wish the best for all of you as well. And hopefully the posting section will be full of success stories to come!

sheydab

Congratulations!

themethod

so today...i went on a run with my boyfriendish person...haha...

I have one of those, too! In fact, that's what I call him, "My Person." That's how I refer to him when I'm talking to my friends, or writing about something we did together, i.e. "Tonight my person and I are going to dinner." It's a GREAT term! I also refer to our relationship as a "situation." It's better that way. Good to know someone else knows what a person is.

Oh yeah, and good job on the running stuff. LOL :laugh:

saram21

You definitely deserve to brag! That is AMAZING!