Fitness Friday - Improved Physical and Mental Stamina

This week has become a week of celebrations and today's celebration really helps to reinforce a point that I made in a previous post about variety in your workouts.  You see, I'm not a big runner, but I do enjoy going out and challenging myself to a wog (walk/jog) to just see how my training is going in my overall fitness/stamina. 

So today was one of those days, I just felt this need to run.  I went out to the track near our house and just started to jog. The entire time I kept thinking, "If I could just make it to XYZ location, I will let myself walk for a little bit." Then it became, "Well, I'm feeling pretty good...so let's go one more lap." And then another and another.  I just couldn't believe that I kept jogging without stopping.  Since mile 1 was partially walked from my house to the track, I decided if I could just run one full mile without stopping it would give me an accurate picture of how fast I could now run a mile.

Here is what I found out...



Not only has my physical stamina improved significantly but so has my mental stamina.  Where in the past I would have let my mind trick me into thinking I couldn't continue, I kept pushing myself forward.  On top of that, I ran (well jogged) longer than I ever have in my life and at the fastest (in consistency) min/mile then I ever have as well.

Admittedly, tonight I obsessively stalked my MapMyFitness account to find a time that I had a min/mile as low as this one and the only one that came close was back in May 2013!!!!!!!!!!  All others were 11:20+/mile!  Check this out:

May 2013 (Avg. Pace: 11:04, Best Lap: 10:19):

 

April 2017 (Avg. Pace: 10:41, best lap 10:18):

 

The largest difference between 2013 and now is that at that time I was wogging on a consistent basis.  That was primarily the only exercise I was doing and I didn't have the right mindset to really push myself on a daily basis.  Now I do weight lifting and stepping and really give it my all during each workout.  I do about 45 minutes of stepping and 30 minutes of weight training 6-7 days a week.

 

So back to my point at the beginning of this post...even though I don't jog on a regular basis (the last time I jogged was April 2016, not kidding), I'm still able to do it from time to time and see the improvements in my physical and mental stamina. :-D

 

Check out my "Switch it Up" post to read my thoughts on making sure to switch up your regular routine from time to time.