Shifting Gears

Less than five months remain before I find myself waiting in my corral for the Chicago Marathon. It’s time to shift gears to focus on getting some miles under my belt. This month is focused on more running and getting motivated.

I shelved all of the P90X DVDs except for Ab Ripper X and Core Synergistics. Two weeks of P90X showed me how weak my core muscles are.  I will continue to work on my core while building up miles for the next month. P90X will be re-introduced later in June. I really need to build strength.

Building volume slowly is important so I don’t burn myself out or injure myself.  Injuries take time to heal.  I don’t have that time so the best thing to do is prevent injury.  Mentally burning out leads to bad runs which can cause injuries or a distaste for running.  I don’t want to have a distaste for running.  Running is a great companion.

I took un-glamor shots of myself. They’re goodbye photos known as before pics. I want to see the visual progress of my change from a 4:23:45 guy to a person that can run the marathon distance under 3:30:00. My brother took valuable time out of his schedule to take photos of my pre-training body.  He excels at photography and can kick the tail of many wedding photos that I’ve seen.  If he weren’t a med student, this could be his thing.

The goodbye old me photos will be my motivation to do well and keep me accountable.  I need to look better to make this worthwhile for all the people in my life. My bro won’t take more photos of me if I slack off and don’t show progress.  Other people look up to me.  Some of my friends are amazed that I run marathons. It has inspired some of them to undertake this journey. A few friends use it as inspiration to get healthy.  I want to be a good role model.  I don’t want to disappoint them or myself.
It’s going to be another long road to traverse. It’ll be a good journey if I break it down into smaller goals.  This leg of this journey is increasing my mileage and finding the motivation.

What are your goals for this month? Let me know what your goals are in the comments below!