Your Body Does What Your Mind Tells It To

"Your body does what your mind tells it to!!!" That's what Ed (my spin instructor) was yelling at us today during minute 10 of our 12 minute interval. I seriously think Ed might be a sadist; EVERY single time I go to his class it's a hill interval workout. His motto is that resistance makes us stronger, which is technically correct. Every time you push yourself beyond the limit of what you thought was possible, you get stronger.
I've been on a workout high since the half marathon, because it really IS true, that your body will do whatever you tell it to (obviously, there is a threshold but it's significantly higher than you could ever imagine). Everyone who competes at endurance sports knows that it's 90% mental and 10% physical. Since the half marathon, every time I feel like I'm getting tired I just tell myself to suck it up, and that a week ago I was significantly worse off. For example on my 5.5 mile run on Saturday, at mile 4 I was starting to feel uncomfortable and it was almost laughable to me that I would consider slowing my pace. I slapped myself in the face (figuratively, of course) and realized that less than a week prior I had run THREE TIMES that far, in 90% humidity no less.
I did some abs today prior to my spin class, and was definitely regretting 20 minutes in. It's amazing how time flies though. I get into the zone, my legs are burning and all I want is for class to be over, and then it is.  It's unreal how much I LOVE that feeling, that feeling of being close to total exhaustion and then taking a huge breath in and using all of my energy to push myself just a LITTLE bit harder. And then it suddenly gets easier. Maybe I'm just as crazy as Ed, or maybe the chemistry of a runner's brain is a bit different :)

Official race photo courtesy of bright room. Bad Ass!!