Comfort

It's Friday night, most people my age are out socializing, drinking, having a good time. My Friday night is at home, in bed, resting up for an early Saturday morning run. I've been throwing in some bigger runs.... big to me runs anyway.

5:15am the alarm went off. Just barely enough time to eat some food and get bundled up. I turned on the news to see what the temperature would be. It was in the single digits with a wind chill. Hmmm, this should be interesting. I know that if I don't go through with this run I'll feel terrible all day. I kept thinking about what I COULD do instead. I could head to the YMCA and run on the treadmill. I really wanted to do 10 today though. It would be easier, warm, and COMFORTABLE.

Really it seemed like the temperature wasn't an issue for me. I guess I wore enough layers. I was winded. Even though I didn't feel the cold on my skin, it was affecting the way I was breathing, it was hard. As we ran I wasn't sure how far we were going. I watch my garmin the whole first half. At 2.5 miles I thought maybe we could head back. I'd be happy with 5 for the day. Then at 3 miles, I thought 6 miles sounded pretty good. By mile 4 Adam asked me if I wanted to go for 8 or 10? And at that point, what's another mile? I'm glad we went on to 10. I had to shut that internal dialogue off. The entire first time I was worried about what was going to be easy or comfortable.

Then I started to think about the whole comfortable thing. Being comfortable isn't going to make me stronger or faster. Being comfortable isn't going to help me be a better or faster runner. In order to improve, I must push limits and push past comfort. The most uncomfortable runs are the ones I'll learn the most from, both mentally and physically. I'm not saying that every run, every time, needs to push limits because I know the relaxing runs are important. It's balance of all of them. But this run, was my uncomfortable run; and it was good.

This whole comfort thing goes for everything. Life would be boring if everything were easy and comfortable. Push limits in every area. It makes everything more exciting. And truth is, everything will be all right. Pushing limits only makes you stronger.