The object of a person's ambition or effort, an aim or desired result. For you math nerds, in a very particular order: You/(Desire+Ambition+Aim+Effort)=Results. Little pat on the back for coming up with that play on words in the moment!
We set goals for ourselves all the time. At work, at home, in our hobbies. Some are long term, others short term. Some people make a list of their goals and then put them in a bucket (to carry them around I guess?)
I love a goal and the confidence that comes from stomping that goal out, having a dance party to celebrate said goal and strutting off to save the world (wearing a cape of course). For the second year in a row, along with many others in my triathlon club, I set a goal to run 100 miles in the month of January. I think I'm a bit of a natural runner (my mom says I'm the best), certainly not the fastest but more of an energizer bunny type (sans pink suit and drum strapped to my chest, that would definitely slow me down), so I wasn't particularly pushing myself to take on this goal. I even had plans to make it more of a challenge for myself by running 10 miles a day the first 10 days of January to knock it out. I ROCK!
And now it is time for more word math in case I'm losing anyone: Fairweatherathlete+2014 Polar Vortex+Procastinator=Excuses.
January in Michigan SUCKED and I didn't own a treadmill or a gym membership. It's light outside for maybe 9-10 hours, 8 of which I'm either at work or driving to/from work, we had a record # of days in double digit negative temps, and endless snow dumping and blowing across the state. I was doing all my miles on weekend runs with my Sparkle.Pounce. ladies at a nearby park. But despite the daylight and mostly cleared paths, a few of those runs got cancelled or cut short due to weather (and maybe a little lack of Desire+Ambition+Aim+Effort). It was the last weekend in January, Saturday's run got cut short and Sunday's run completely cancelled (the roads were dangerous, I swear!). My mileage was at 43.5....out of 100. More math: that's 56.5 miles left to go with only 5 days left in January, all weekdays! I'd have to go to work AND run on the same day! Ludicrous. I start texting my faithful, supportive, kind running pals saying I was throwing in the towel, it just wasn't in the cards, mother nature hates me, etc. Often you can reach your goals all on your own and other times we need people working along side us. And then there are those times we need someone to just really tick us off. And without much banter, one particularly understanding pal sent this image as his response:
Something literally ignited inside me. He wasn't being empathetic, he was slapping me in the face with pity and accused apathy. It worked. I cursed him, literally, and defiantly said "I'm doing this!"
Have you done the math yet? I needed to run 11.3 miles EVERYDAY that week in order to make it to 100 by that Friday, January 31st. A new goal! A new crazy, stupid, risky goal. Why was I doing this? Sure I'd paid to participate in the challenge but the money was going to charity so no skin off my back, I had nothing to prove to anyone. But everything to prove to myself, to see something through, to not just give up and to finish what I started.
The weather was still raging, so how in the world was I going to finish this? Trying to get the miles in outdoors was pretty much out of the question. Where there's a will...I signed up for a 7 day FREE trial membership at a strip mall gym 1 mile from my house. GENIOUS! The catch was I could only use the gym from 11AM - 7PM. Potential roadblock. So I changed my hours at work that week, which would allow me to get home earlier and start running in place on a rotating rubber belt for approximately two hours each night. Now I just had to do what I set out to do, finish running 100 miles in January.
There was still a sliver of doubt. What if something blows up at work (not literally, I plan meetings and luxury vacations, actual fires are not common) and I have to work later or weather causes traffic jams and my commute doubles, what if my Achilles snaps from this sudden increase in volume and I miss a run. 11 miles/day was already stupid enough, to have to increase any other day to make up for a missed day would have put a stop to this madness. One of my favorite sayings: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at at time.
Monday-I worked from home, knocked out the run during my lunch "hour" and felt pretty darn good about it! Credits to Taylor Swifts albums getting me through those 11+miles.
Tuesday - after work, between miles 7-9 I started to mentally struggle because treadmill is against a mirrored wall and I'm getting dizzy staring at my bobbing self and thinking a lot about making sure my mouth isn't hanging open for too long. Credits to all the songs I have from Glee Soundtrack, RIP Finn. Wednesday-it's getting REALLY boring, the TVs are hanging above my head but just out of sight since running with a slight back bend and staring up is not good form. My feet are hurting, I'm thinking this might be the first time I actually lose a toenail. Credits to my Vermont Road Trip playlist.
Thursday - legs were sore all night and most of the morning, I'm thinking tonight is gonna be really bad, torturous even. I'm scared. But I showed up and got on the treadmill. Maybe subconsciously I was thinking, after this, I only have one day left and I will be done, because I barely remember hitting start and after lip synching an unknown number of songs I uncovered the treadmill screen to see I was already at 11 - what the what?! The bottom of my shoes were hot to the touch. Tonight I played iPod on random, all songs. Had to skip over a lot of books on tape chapters and Christmas music. Only one day left! Friday - I was probably bouncing around a little excited...I had made it to the last day and I knew a dance party awaited me that night. Slight diversion to the plan today, I was going to use a treadmill at a friends house. A little Ellen, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz and some Boy Meets World (yea - remember that show?! Starring the real life little brother of that kid from The Wonder Years, such a talented family) and a few final miles I counted since I needed to take her dog out, trade off for giving me her garage code and letting me use her treadmill.
Holy Crap! I had done it! 56.5 miles in FIVE days and fairly unscathed! No lost toenails, no saddle gait, just a happy cocktail of Desire, Ambition, Aim and Effort.
So, friends, set a goal, plan a celebratory dance party for when you accomplish that goal, put your cape on and then....finish what you start.
Sparkle.Pounce.
LeighAnn
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