I love the diversity of CrossFit. There’s Olympic lifts, straight strength training, immense bounds of cardiovascular output with machinery like the rower, assault bike and ski erg, gymnastic moves like handstand walks but most of all, there’s the run. The run can be incorporated into a WOD (workout of the day) in so many ways like in the Hotshots WOD with every round ending in a 400 meter run or the Murph which starts and ends with a mile. One WOD we did had various lengths of runs after every round and I used those runs (light jog) as a chance to recover.
Lately, I’ve been taking running to the next level and oddly enough, it’s one of these CrossFit things I am improving on quicker than other skills.
Rewind 3 months ago. I downloaded the Nike Run App trying to better my running skills and run farther since I usually end up with shin splints and have pulled a hamstring in the middle of a 3 mile run. My coach friend Sam went over proper shoes and exercise drills so I was set! I started with the “Getting Started” program then moved to 5K Training Plan in 8 weeks. I learned everything from what a fartlek is (interval training that involves alternating between fast and lower paces) to a speed run with intervals, recovery run, long run and even a headspace run (meditative runs). I’ve had sooo much fun laughing at the coach’s monologues (I like to run with guided runs) to the variety of ways my body was pushed to limits unknown.
And today was the culmination of all those runs, all that hard work, all those 3:30am runs and 7:30pm runs, all the days I didn’t feel like it and the days I did, the days that were easy runs and the ones where I thought that my guts were going to explode.
1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
I didn’t have a goal time coming into the run but Sam said I should be aiming for 30 minutes. With that in mind, I stretched and did a warm up jog before I hit play. Once in the race, I had to learn to stop breathing as if I was a dragon and focus on form. The last kilometer was rough. That’s when I started coaching myself and reminding myself of all the training and all the 5 and 6k’s I’ve already done. Coach Bennett talked about how the end of the race got me thinking about how things come to an end. Coach Bennett said that the end of the race really wasn’t the end but a new beginning.
Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
I finished the 5k in under 30 minutes. I finished in 28 minutes (personal best). And the first thing I did was download the 8 week 10K Training Plan and then I cried realizing that I just ran my fastest.
One end is a new beginning. My life has been a series of beginnings and ends strung along though they can seem to not be linked at times or have abrupt stops and jolting starts. But God knows our end from the beginning. He sees it all as the path we should take, the race we should run. I am about to step into a new beginning soon which means something is about to come to an end. I have to be cryptic until I can have everything finalized and then I’ll let you know. Let’s just say that I’m excited for the new venture in life God is taking me to, one I didn’t know I wanted:)
Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’
Comments