Bring it on

When I work out, there are two aspects of my personality, two conflicting characters, that struggle for my attention. In my own mind, I have named them "I can't do that" and "Bring it on". This goes back to my days as a distance runner when I would be at mile eighteen of a twenty mile race, my knees screaming with every step and my brain telling me to quit. At that point, something else would keep me going. Chalk it up to pride, fear of failure, desire for affirmation or simple stubbornness, but I never dropped out of a race.

This morning, after a late lower body workout last night, my quads were burning during my warmup on the exercise bike. In the first three minutes, I was considering quitting. "I can't do that" was throwing out every reason that I might just hang it up. "It hurts too much." "You'll never make it twenty minutes." "You're still too dehydrated." Meanwhile, "Bring it on" was saying, "This is going to be a great workout because you're already suffering."

Well, not only did I finish the workout, but when I finished my high point with the bike on resistance level 7, I punched the up button and did and extra minute at level 8 (the highest the bike will go). I read somewhere that it's that minute at the highest intensity that makes the difference between good results and great results. And that's what I was thinking of as I punched the button for more resistance after almost twenty minutes of hell.

I got off the bike after my cool down and my muscles were spent. I thought, "Wow, that was a great workout!" It was then that I realized that "Bring it on" had taken over and "I can't do that" was totally shut down.

Bring it on!