A Little Inspiration

In my last post, I described some challenges I have encountered since I recently decided I wanted to learn to run. I try to imagine I am in the home stretch of a triathlon when I am having a hard time getting motivated on the treadmill, like this past Tuesday. It seems to work, and it takes my mind off my tired legs and helps remind me to control my breathing. I was hoping to use the same method of self-motivation on Wednesday, when I took my first Spinning class.

For anyone who might not know (I didn't), Spinning is like cycling on Speed. Literally. You sit on a stationary bike with a flywheel you can adjust to varied levels of resistance. My instructor shouts out things like 'find your 5!', meaning half of your total possible ability, with 10 making the pedals unable to move at all, and the pace is electric. We listened to pop music blasting, and even though I was getting my butt kicked, I had to laugh a little when our pedals happened to pump up and down to the beat of Lady GaGa.

About half way through class, I made the mistake of glancing at the clock, and thought, 'oh my god, I'm only half done!?'. Time for some creative motivation.

I imagined I was doing the DALMAC, the yearly bike tour from East Lansing to the Mackinac Bridge. It's a 500 mile ride over 4 or 5 days, depending on your endurance. I'd like to complete it once, just to do it. It actually just finished this year's run, with some of the worst wind and weather the riders have ever seen, and I imagined I was pulling through the final leg, with the bridge finally in sight. I imagined the feeling of accomplishment and of empowerment I would feel after making it, and I imagined how cool it would be to share my ride with other people who have had kidney transplants, like me.

The last few minutes of Spin class went as fast as our legs did during our time sprints. I made it! It was tough, but I left feeling awesome and strong, and looking forward to the next week.