Planning a fun future event that demands physical conditioning is a great way to motivate your rear end off the couch to engage in pulse-raising activity. Especially if the event involves people who are near and dear to you. If that's not possible, at least find some people who are fun to hang out with. Your goal is to be in slightly better shape than the others, so that you don't have to kill yourself trying to keep up with the rest of the gang. That might demand hard work, unless all the people who are near and dear to you are old couch potatoes!
So as I mentioned before, the near and dear people who were my fellow cruise travelers agreed that a trip up the South Sister would be a great motivator to be in shape by August. Since two of those people are under the age of 25 and are avid CrossFit workout fans, well, we just won't be able to allow them to set the pace or they will kill the rest of us old folks. But this activity is a great motivator to get out six days a week to either take exercise classes, run, climb the stairs at the stadium next to my school, Zumba, and find some hills to hike on weekends. The South Sister hike is only a 12 mile round trip, but with a 4900 feet elevation gain.
Another fun thing is to schedule some 5ks or 10ks or whatever distance you are comfortable with. It's really fun to walk and talk with friends and get some exercise with no worries about speed. It's also fun to set a goals for a time you'd like to beat and get out and compete.
Last year a couple of co-workers and I enjoyed walking the 5k "iRun for Kids", which is sponsored by an organization that provides classroom grants for our school district. Those co-workers didn't sign up this year, but a couple of teachers invited me to run with them. We got separated at the bottleneck going over the bridge, and I fell in behind someone who seemed to be running at a good pace for me. I soon realized she was someone I knew and hadn't seen in ages, so we ran together and visited. Time flew by as we talked. She placed second in our age group last year, and wanted to be one of the top three this year, so she was on the lookout to pass other women who looked to be our age! As we neared the finish line, I said I would fall back so she could cross the finish line first because I didn't care about placing. She said no, let's cross at the same time and see what happens. So we synchronized our steps and crossed together. After we got our drinks and bananas, we got our results. Much to my dismay, I placed 3rd and she got 4th. I felt like such a swindler! My time was 10:17, and hers was 10:23. The timing chip was on the bib, so I must have been leaning forward just a bit more!
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| These are my co-workers, Katie and Kerrie. |
This was the first time I have actually run side by side with someone. My running has always been solo, and I thought I preferred it that way, enjoying the time to myself to think, pray, listen to music or an audiobook. To my surprise, I found that time went even faster while visiting with someone, and I went faster also.
It made me realize what a lazy slug I have have been lately because my running time has really slowed down, and I haven't been pushing myself. So I would probably improve my fitness by running with someone who is slightly faster than me so that I would push myself a little more. So message me if you're a runner who would like to torture me into going a little faster!
So, are you going to grab some friends and sign up for a 5k or 10k together soon? Or is there a challenging hike you'd like to do this summer? How fast would you like to be able to run a mile? What other goals do you have that inspire you to work out?
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