I was out running on Saturday morning with my walk/jog/run group. Organised by Mick from Vivos Active on a weekly basis a group of us get together and either walk/jog or run for an hour – as the name suggests. When I first joined in Feb 2011 I was very much in the walk / jog category and I’m sure I didn’t get much over 5km in the hour. Last week though I ran 9km easily – in fact I did an extra 1.5 km more than we had discussed at the start at the session. To explain it’s a return track and Mick set’s a distance for you to aim for at the start given your experience and how big you Friday night was (just kidding – there is no leniency for hangovers at 7am on a Saturday morning!)
I was so inspired last week that I kept on going and turned around when the more experienced people were at the end of Queenscliff beach.
So what made the difference this week? Sure I’d worked up to it over time and I have steadily been improving but this time I really enjoyed it and had more energy than usual.
This week I had a goal. And not just a goal I knew I ‘should’ have – but one that I really wanted. One that was inspiring me. I know the power of goal setting and of course Mick talks to us about this all the time. I’ve toyed with the goal of losing weight for my annual USA trip (achieved twice!) and running the City to Surf 14kms. But this goal is different.
It’s a big goal.
I’ve committed to cycling 800km in 8 days, across Thailand in support of Hands Across the Water.
You’ll be hearing much more about this in coming newsletters, not only about my fundraising events but I will be blogging about my training process. It’s loosely connected with Turning Learning into Action – considering the furthest I’ve ever cycled before is Freshwater to Balgowlah clearly I have some learning to do! I will of course be blogging too on Learning Transfer and so you don’t get distracted by cycling blogs I’ll preface from now on the title with “The Big Ride” – just ignore them if it’s not your bag.
Wish me luck though – I’ve a long way to go – but with a big goal in place surely it’s achievable?