When it comes to fitness and training, it is necessary to go outside your comfort zone in order to improve what you are doing as well as decrease the chance that you will get bored of your current fitness routine.
Kara of WhipItUpWestCoastStyle and I co-wrote this blog post which is a reflection of how we met, became friends and running partners but is also a reflection of how we went outside our own comfort zones.
CFB Esquimalt 10km running race:
Kara finished the CFB Esquimalt 10km-running race approximately one minute and a half before I did. Immediately after finishing the CFB Esquimalt 10K, I walked up to Kara for the first time because I was curious to see what her actual time was. I knew her racing strategy was different than mine and rather than being jealous that she beat me, I knew that I could learn from her.
At the time, little did I know that we would become training partners. It’s funny how things come together and people become friends, but in this case, what originally started as mere interest upon my part as to how fast Kara finished the race turned into a weekly running butt kicking ritual for both of us.
After the race, we did a cool down while waiting to find out that our effort, overall energy expenditure and pure exhaustion, resulted in no prizes for the 2nd and 3rd place individuals…bummer.
Signing up for distances outside our comfort zone:
As the summer progressed, Kara trained for the Lululemon Seawheeze half marathon, her first ever half, and I accompanied her on the long runs as I began training for my first ever marathon—The Goodlife Fitness Victoria marathon. Signing up for the Seawheeze was definitely going outside Kara’s comfort zone, as she was a firm believer that running for any period of time over 60 minutes would result in injury and would most likely be a highly un-enjoyable experience. She did the Seawheeze, she enjoyed the Seawheeze and she ran fast, so she proved herself wrong but did get partially injured (minor detail).
For me, completing a marathon has always been one of my goals. I knew that if I could complete one marathon, I would want to do more. At the same time though, 2012 was the first year that I began racing again since my foot injury a few years ago. Since I finished two 10K races without re-injuring myself, I decided that it was time to sign up for a marathon. Initially, my goal was to finish without injuries, which I accomplished. I didn’t expect a sub-3:30 though, so that was a big pleasant surprise. The marathon itself was definitely outside my comfort zone. Back in high school, when I thought I was at my peak, the longest I’ve ever raced was a half marathon.
Kara and I benefited equally from our training, we taught each other a lot and continue to push our running weekly.
Last week that took us to our Thetis lake hills workout.
In running, hills are often referred to as a necessary evil but ultimately evil is not the right word to describe hills. Hills can be very challenging but they are a crucial part of training. They help with speed as well as mentally prepare you for hilly races.
Although we had been planning on doing more speed work and hill workouts since the CFB Esquimalt race, for some reason it took till just the other week to actually start. The workout consisted of a moderate paced 4km warm up around the lake followed by 10 hill strides up “the big hill”. Prior to this, we did many long runs together and on our own.
When you are busy and it is hard to coordinate with others, you often end up staying in your comfort zone and doing the first thing that comes to mind. Which meant going for our weekly runs and lifting weights on our own schedules but never really pushing ourselves to do the speed or hill workouts alone regardless of what we knew would be best.
Stepping outside the comfort zone can be a scary and often challenging thing to do. One of the biggest challenges is overcoming our fear of failure or of not being good enough. If you’re worried about what others think-then stop. No one was ever 100% perfect the first time they tried something new; there is always a learning curve with every new thing you work towards accomplishing.
With this motivation and point of view not only did we accomplish and dominate the Thetis lake hill workout, but we made a commitment to do it again and hopefully multiple times progressing to longer faster hills.
What have you done to get outside your comfort zone?
Happy Training! 🙂