Accountability and Discipline

I took this picture right after I got home from running my fourth half marathon (May 5th, 2012) in five years. It's of my running shoes, my Nike+ Sportband and all four of my finishers medals that I got for finishing the race. That picture captures four different years worth of very different trainings for me. The first year I ran, 2008, was my first race of more than 3.1 miles and I took training kind of seriously. I put my miles in, but focused more on just finishing/surviving than racing. I finished somewhere around 2 hours and 45 minutes. Not too bad for a first time half marathon! Then the second and third ones I ran in 2009 and 2010 I didn't hardly train at all. Probably less than 30 miles worth of running each. I just thought, "I've done this before, what am I shooting for anyway?" And subsequently my times were terrible both of them well over 3 hours. To be honest I probably even gained weight during those two years of training. I took 2011 off with two very young sons "there wasn't any time to train." Then this year rolls around any my brother in law, Andy, asks us who wants to run the half marathon again. Without hesitation I stepped up and said I would. Over the last few years, my weight and overall health had started to slip away from me. My doctor said I was about 50 pounds overweight and at the time I couldnt even finish 1 mile running without needing to stop, I was in terrible shape. So I made a commitment to my family and my accountability partners that I was going to take my training seriously this year and even set a time goal and a weight loss goal. I wanted to beat my old personal best time of 2 hours and 45 minutes by at least 15 minutes and I wanted to lose 38 pounds by race day. My whole family got on board with me and even one of my accountability partners signed up to run, 8 of us in total. So in February of this year I started running, only one mile at a time at the beginning because I couldn't do much more than that. But as time wore on and I logged more miles I was able to run further and further and I was even starting to lost a little weight. So as I was able to run further and further I made sure that I was also pushing to get faster and faster. So I was running more miles faster than I ever had. I really got my diet in check and lost those 38 pounds in just a couple months 1 full month before the date I was shooting for! So I set a new goal to lose 12 more and be down a total of 50 pounds by race day. It seemed like in the last month I was setting a new personal best every time I went out to run my 5k and 10k times were way lower than they had ever been and I was averaging about a 9 minute mile pace for a 10 mile run! It was awesome my training could not have gone any better than it did. I ran further, I ran faster and I was losing a lot of weight. The best part of it was that a lot of people I care about were doing it with me! Race day came and I beat my personal best by about 20 minutes so I killed that goal and I was down a total of 46 pounds. So I missed that one but still feel good about being down 46 pounds. *Editors note* today I am down 49 pounds and WILL get that last pound off! I said all that to say this. The difference this year for me was two fold really. First I needed the help of my friends and family. I needed someone to kick me in the butt when I was being lazy, I needed someone to call me a fatty when I wasn't eating well. I needed them to help hold me accountable, most of us will not do it on our own. I don't say we can't do it on our own because we could, we just don't. So the help of them was needed very much. The second part of this training for me came down to discipline. They can push and call me fatty all day long but if i dont get my big behind off the couch and run it doesn't matter. I needed to show discipline. I needed it in my diet, every meal, every snack every drink I put into my body every day I needed to show discipline with. And I ndded discipline in my work outs as well. Running is time consuming, and I needed to discipine myself to make that a priority and then get out and do it! Once those became constants in my life, it came easier and easier to eat right and keep working out. They soon became habbits and are now a part of my daily routine. So where do you need some discipline in your life? Do you need to get honest with someone and ask them to kick you in the butt in a particular area that you are struggling with? I have continued running since my race so that I dont fall off the wagon and I have signed up for a mini triathalon and a 5k this summer still and there is a chance that I'll sign up for another half marathon too. Accountability and discipline!