Enduring

Today I had a friend stop me in the break room.

"You ride your bike to work, right?" he asked.

"Yup. I try to ... once a week," I replied. "I did today, as a matter of fact."

"Can I ask you something? How do you increase your endurance?"

And then we had a nice chat about what he's doing ... Weight Watchers alum, lost weight, stuck at current weight now and just joined a crazy cross-fit class. (How cool is that?)

He said the class is fun and he likes the variety and the strength-based activities, but finds the more cardio-focused stuff hard.

I gave my usual answers.

How do you get better at something? You keep doing it. You do it when you don't feel like it. You do it when it's uncomfortable/awkward/hard. You keep doing it and then you try to do it a little bit more each day.

That's the only way I know to get better. To go farther. To be faster. You just keep doing it.

As with any skill, it takes practice. The more you do it, the better you get. No one starts as an expert. No marathon runner ran 25 miles the first day, and 26.2 the next.

Our chat stayed with me.

Fast forward to this morning. I decided it was too hot to walk outside, so I hit my trusty treadmill in the cool basement. And I ran. For 3 consecutive miles. Which is the farthest I've gone in a LONG time. It was uncomfortable, awkward and hard.

But I knew it was time for me to put my money where my mouth was.

I haven't felt good running in a long time. It's like I'm all discombobulated. Nothing feels natural or tight or normal. I've been blaming my knee for messing with my gait and blah, blah, blah.

Truth is, it feels funny because I haven't been doing it.

Today, I felt good on that damn treadmill. Because I was doing it.

Thanks, friend, for the unintentional slap up side 'da head.

I know you will do it, too. Because you have decided to. It's not quite that simple. But it's not a whole lot more complicated, either.

P.S. Per Paul Harvey, I want you to know the Rest of the Story ... Yes, I rode my bike to work on Tuesday. The ride in wasn't bad. Warm enough to wear sleeveless, but not hot at that early hour. But humid. Now, remember, I shower once I get there. My clothes dry while I put my day in and then I put them back on for the ride home ... which was a whole bunch HOTTER. As I was blogging last night, I caught a whiff of myself. Not good. Not good at all. Two steamy hour-long workouts in one set of clothes on a "heat index" day was a bit too much. Peeeeee-Uuuuuuuu!