I've realized over the last couple of days something that I've been missing recently -- that feeling of accomplishment. You know, the swelling pride that you feel when you make it through a tough race or noticed for completing some project. I think that I have missed out on that feeling, in part because of some of my failures this past year and in part because I haven't been looking for it.
But over the last couple days, I have definitely felt that again...and I do want to thank my coach - she's been a big part of making me see what I've accomplished. On New Year's Eve, I swam 7300 yards. That's 100 yards more than last year. It wasn't the greatest feeling and I had to use fins. A lot of fins. But I swam for three hours, minus a few breaks, and I racked up some serious yardage.
On New Year's Day, I ran a 5K - the First Day 5K. Here is a picture of me and my younger daughter before the race, acting silly and rocking our race swag hats.
I didn't PR the race, not even close. But I did better than I did at the 5K I ran a couple weeks ago. And I didn't walk at all - not up the little hills and I didn't bother with water. But why I feel so good about it is that I executed it exactly as my coach told me to. She had given me instructions about HR to follow over the course of the race, and I did it. And I finished at a crazy high heart rate and I'm super proud of my effort level. That feels pretty darn good.
Finally today I had 2 hard workouts on my training plan. I didn't feel like doing them, especially after yesterday's effort with the race. But I did them -- and I did them right. And tonight I'm feeling pretty darn accomplished. It feels good.
Maybe the quote above is right and you need the bad days to really feel the sense of accomplishment. It probably also helps to have someone say something about it. Which means my coach is pretty awesome. Plus now, having felt this again, I I want to keep feeling it, so I guess I better keep working this hard!
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