We all have an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other, representing what we say to ourselves in our heads.
Not being a religious person, I refer to these two inner voices as The Cheerleader and The Cow.
I heard them both very loudly this morning.
Before I took some holiday in the week before Easter, I went to an event where there were several speakers (me being one of them), and I listened to a lady called Nicola Buchan who’s a gym owner and strength and conditioning coach.
She’s been placed 2nd in Scotland’s Strongest Woman and 6th in Britain’s Strongest Woman competitions.
In her talk, she told us how she went from Couch to Ultra Marathon - she simply set herself the challenge to go from non-runner to 44 miles, and she did it.
The message in her talk was we can all do more than we think we’re capable of, and she inspired me to change my fitness goal this quarter from running 10K to doing a half marathon.
I haven’t done any running for over a year, and I’ve previously only run 5K, so I thought 10K would be a good stretch goal for me, and I know you shouldn’t compare yourself to others, but it seemed a bit unambitious after listening to Nicola, so I decided to aim for more to see how I get on, (a half marathon is just over 21K).
I ordered my new Nike road running shoes, and set out for my first run the other morning.
I didn’t plan my route as such - just thought I’d head out of the door and see how far I could get without feeling totally ruined.
I was slow, I got a bit lost, I was knackered when I finished, but I had a great time!
I walked the first and last 5 mins, and I also walked up some of the bigger hills, but I actually managed to cover 6.75 miles this morning - which is 10.8 km.
My Cheerleader was going f*cking beserk when I realised I’d already hit the goal I set myself originally. I guess the marathon walk training and the Peleton rides have really helped my general fitness levels.
However, my Inner Cow was saying, “I don’t know why you’re so happy - it took you 1 hour 19 mins to go that far. I’ve seen faster slugs. In fact, I’ve seen faster disabled slugs!”
My Cheerleader hit back with, “But it’s her first run - she can get better!”
Cow slapped her down with, “You do realise she'll need to run twice that far to hit her goal. DOUBLE! She could hardly breathe after 6 miles and she had to walk up the hills. Your mate’s a dick. She won’t do it. She’s no Nicola Buchan!”
And so the tussle in my head continued - and I’m sure it will continue to do so, but I’d like to think I’m better at listening to the Cheerleader rather than the Cow.
It seems as though the Cow is always so free with her comments. She never waits to be invited to speak.
I used to listen to the Cow far too much when I had mental health problems, and sometimes it takes a while to shut that horrible negative voice up, but the Cheerleader is always there in the background with something nice to say if I go and look for her.
I reckon if I can gag the Cow for long enough, I’ll be able to run twice as far as I did today by the end of June.
I won’t even care if I don’t do it perfectly, because at the very least I’ll have made some progress on my fitness if I do the training.
What could you achieve in the next 3 months?
Gag your Inner Cow (or Bull because he’s full of it, too) and give your Cheerleader something to shout about!