Making the Turn

From years of distance running, I can tell you, the worst place to be in a race is that last long straightaway where you can't quite see the finish line yet. Particularly on an unfamiliar course, you don't know how close you are to the finish. You don't want to peak too early and have no kick at the finish, but you don't want to go too slowly and have that finishing kick be a moot point. It's not until you make that final turn and can see the finish line that you can really turn it on.

Today, I think I'm finally making the turn. I'm close enough to the end of the twelve week challenge that I can see where I'm headed. I can count the workouts that remain. I could even calculate how many more Myoplex shakes I'm going to have between now and then.

I still plan to start a new challenge right after I finish this one (with a week or two in between), but, for the moment, I'm trying to stay faithful to my exercise schedule, my eating plan, and everything else that I've been doing.

This whole challenge has been like one of my aerobic workouts, only on a grander scale. When I get on the bike, I take a few minutes to get warmed up. The first interval seems pretty intense and I'm not sure how I'm going to make it to the end. But I keep going and I go through my routine of checking my pulse, drinking my water and fiddling with my CD player and suddenly I realize I'm halfway through the final interval! The challenge has been like that. There've been times when I wondered if I was going to finish it, but I've been working it day after day, and now I'm down to less than two weeks. It's really been a lot easier than I expected. Or maybe I was just so desperate to make a change that the difficulties that have been involved haven't registered with me.

Actually, it seems like ten weeks has gone by pretty fast , but then again, I look back to when I started and I realize how far I've come. I've made a lot of changes in this very short time.

Rehearsals for the play I'm in started this week and I already feel like I'm a month behind on my sleep. I have to wedge my weight workouts in between when I get home from work and when I head off to the theater.

For the next challenge, I want to re-read the Body for Life book and all my web research and start the whole program from scratch. I think there are some things I changed from Bill's program that I'm going to change back. There are also some new changes I want to try. But I really think it's important to take a fresh approach instead of just extending my current challenge for another twelve weeks.

I've got that finish line in sight though, so first things first.