Keeping your eye on the prize

Today is day 80 of the 100 Day Fitness Challenge I set myself to run 5km every day for 100 days.

Day 80. I can’t really believe it. The end is so close that it teases me as I work out how many Tuesdays are left or early morning runs I’ll need to do before I can have a day off on January 1st.

The thing is that I have just this week started to enjoy it. Not just like it, but really enjoy it. The kind of enjoyment that has seen me running with a smile on my face for the first time in 2.5 months. Where I have wanted to run faster, not just get around. Where I don’t mind what time of day I run, I just want to get out there and knock another one on the head. Where (heaven forbid) I was driving home one night from Fit Camp at 9pm quite sad that I had already done my run for the day and didn’t need to go out and do one 🙂

If I’d have listened to my inner chatter around day 35 I would have believed that it was a stupid idea and given up.

If I’d managed to get through that but then listened to my mind telling me to consider stopping the challenge at day 55 because my leg was getting painful to run on, I would have stopped and rested and missed out on this feeling.

So I am glad that despite the voices I created for myself nagging away at me I was able to stand resolute in what I set out to do. I set myself some values for this challenge which have kept me pursuing this achievement even when times got tough.

• I value the achievement more than quitting.
• Making it public meant it was never an option to quit early.
• I value what the practice of doing something everyday does to you. You have good days and bad days, you get better and there are days when you are worse, this you can apply to anything in life that you strive for.
• I never set out with the intention of liking or even enjoying running. It was the process I wanted to conquer. To prove how deliberate, continuous action will get you to where you want to go, even if you don’t know how you are going to get there.

And where did I want to go? To 31 December, 2013 with my last run ahead of me, 99 behind me knowing that I am going to nail it. That’s what it’s all about.

So what next? Well did you know that the best time to start planning your next goal is just before you complete the last one?

That’s what’s next. Finding a new challenge whether it be physical, personal or commercial to really get my teeth into. I’ll be chewing that over on my next run out.

If you’d like to set yourself some really exciting targets for 2014, come along to my free event on Saturday 4 January where you can set out exactly what you want to achieve for your health and fitness next year.