PL  |  NL  |  FR  |  ES  |  PT  |  IT  |  DE  |  DK  |  NO  |  SE  |  FI  |  GR  |  JP  |  CN  |  KR  |  RU  |  AE

  Report this article

More information

Weight Loss Guide

Distribution of Body Fat

Diet and Exercise

How Much of You Is Fat

How Fastin Diet Pill is Effective For You

Foods That Help You Lose Weight

What Foods Melt Fat

Obesity: What Not to Do to Lose Weight

Exercising can be fun

What are YOU made of

Healthy Method to lose Weight: Calorie Cycling

Lose Weight and Burn Fat: Three and a Half Quickest Ways To Burn Fat

Good Pain, Bad Pain

"All of the training, all of the sweat, all of the pain has paid off today and made every agonizing moment worth it!"

My cardio sessions have taken on an entirely different meaning in the last week. No longer do I simply "grit through" my workouts. I feel like some predatory beast stalking something in the distance yet unseen. I am running hard and on the hunt from the instant I start my stopwatch. Within minutes sweat is pouring down my face but inside I am calm… patient. Halfway through my legs are a blur as I sprint to hit my second 9. My breathing remains steady and I am aware of nothing other than the rhythm in my ears and my goal ahead. I check my distance covered and time, knowing that I'm flat out moving! I visualize my muscles contracting and expanding with each stride. I feel more machine than man. I see myself from above, like some sort of out-of-body experience. My running is peaking and I am faster than I've ever been in my life!

My mind wanders as I alternately become a cheetah running down a gazelle on the Serengeti, a cyclist closing in on Lance Armstrong and a NASCAR driver running through the pack. I am all of these things from one instant to the next. I am speed! Momentarily, I am yanked back to reality and I notice others looking at me askance. I've chosen to train on a treadmill this week in an attempt to better regulate my speed, and most people don't run this hard or this fast on a treadmill. I check the time, 18:00 minutes and I've already hit three miles.

I push myself hard, cranking up the speed on the treadmill. My legs are rubber but I feel like I'm flying. I can almost feel the wind rushing across me. A small voice in my mind suggests I slow things down a bit. I squash it and send a quick, "Lord give me strength" heavenward. Thirty seconds left and I've crossed beyond a ten. That small voice in my mind is now screaming at me to stop this lunacy! 00:15 seconds left and I feel like I may lose control of my bladder. My breathing is ragged. 19:00 minutes, I've done it! Slowing the treadmill I glance around. A close friend gives me a smile that tells me all that I need to know. I notch personal bests at three miles, and also a mile this day. All of the training, all of the sweat, all of the pain has paid off today and made every agonizing moment worth it! It's the fastest I've run since I was a recruit at Parris Island.

In the gym, I tweak my left shoulder while doing incline bench presses. When my shoulder first begins hurting, I ignore it. By the end of the last set, it's pretty sore. I was going heavy and I let my form get a little sloppy. When I try my beloved pull-ups, it really bothers me. A quick trip to the Flight Surgeon tells me that tendonitis has set in, big time. I'll have to change my routine because I can't lift anything overhead. No more shoulder presses. No more incline bench presses. No more pull-ups or weighted dips. Not what I need right now. The exuberance of my run times are balanced with the reality of my injury. If I were not competing in the Challenge I would immediately take several weeks off from all weight lifting. That's not an option right now, so "care and proper form" has become my new mantra. I give thanks that this is Week 10 and not Week Seven. I have also learned a valuable lesson: it's tempting to push yourself in these last few weeks, but you still need to follow the program or you risk injuring yourself like I did.