Perfectly Imperfect

I knew it was coming before I felt it.  Another rainy day interfered with my run so I decided to bust out the old Plyometrics DVD from P90X instead of push myself on the treadmill.  I felt the familiar sting in my calves and then thought, "Why did I just do to myself?"  I knew it wouldn't last long and it would be fine and yet I was even more sore the next day.  This same kind of pain happened about a month before when I subbed the Monday night spin class.  That sting came on our last hill and I felt like my calf was about to explode.  I immediately started scolding my calves on both occasions! My mind immediately jumped to STOP I NEED THOSE TO BE PERFECT!

After a few too many days of barely being able to not feel the sting in my calves (hello elliptical like crazy) I finally jumped back on my training schedule.  To say I feel derailed from my initial goals is an understatement.  I've had to adapt in so many ways I felt defeated as if I wouldn't make my goals.  I started talking to one of my best friends about these feelings (who just signed up for her first ironman...She's super impressive) and she reminded me that there is no such thing as a perfect training season.  She was a competitive runner all throughout high school and for a year in college.  She reminded me that she is still training and learning new ways to push her body and conquer new goals.  Hearing that she sometimes still struggled with her training schedule put things into perspective.  Here is someone who has been a runner for well over a decade and here I am still relatively new to running.  I was looking at this half as a one time only thing.  I was trying to be a perfectionist and finish my first half without stopping to walk at all and have some incredible time.  I stopped myself and thought who am I kidding! I have years of half marathons ahead of me.  This one is conquering the 13.1 miles for the first time and enjoying it.  I was striving for perfection and then being upset with myself when I wasn't reaching some crazy goals I had set for myself.  This entire challenge is about being better than I was yesterday and I am going to savor every second of being perfectly imperfect.

So my friends, I've decided that I want to take you along with me during my half.  I plan to have a certain someone with me at each mile or half mile (depending on how I narrow it down).  More realistically it'll probably be a song on my playlist.  If you have a favorite running song or just high energy awesome song send it my way and I'll think of you when it comes on!

Here's to embracing being perfectly imperfect and loving every minute :)