Judge me by my size, do you?

I have to be tougher than I give myself credit for.

The things I'm putting myself through to reach a sub 2 half marathon... would you be willing to do them? Let's take a look at a few recent exhibits:

1. Metronome: My runs used to only be fun if I had Lady Gaga or Journey accompanying me. Over the last two weeks, my earbuds play a different tune... the incessant beeping of the MetroTimer app, a necessity for getting my rhythm down and my cadence to that optimal 170-180 beats per minute. I'm not sure how long it will take for me to internalize it, but my ears are pleading with me to go back to iTunes, Pandora, Sirius, ANYTHING else. Seriously, I dare you to try listening to it for ten minutes... and THEN try doing it for two hours.

2. Darkness: 6:00 am rolls around, and I'm outside and running - plus I've already walked the dog, fed the cats, and squeezed in a 15-minute warmup. Do you know the determination it takes to peel myself out of my bed, stumble around my room in the dark so as not to wake the husband, and get myself going when it seems like the rest of the world is still peacefully dreaming? For most of my life, I knew I wanted to be a morning exerciser but could not make it happen until November of last year. But just because I can now do it consistently doesn't mean it's easy.

3. Weird eating habits: Tomorrow's my last day on the Whole 30, and I certainly didn't make it easy for myself trying to get through it while travelling for business. On top of that, I recently started taking fermented cod liver oil*:

FCLO is supposed to be the supplement of all supplements, providing a good dose of fat soluble vitamins in their most bioavailable form. (This article does a pretty good job of breaking down what it can do for you). But it's not ice cream, folks. This stuff arrives with a page of instructions - nay, encouragement - to get you through the process of taking it each day. You can chase it with grapefruit juice, apple cider vinegar, whatever you want to help get it down. But I take mine straight up.

4. Marathon: To the rest of the world, participating in a Star Wars Marathon probably means watching all of the originals, the prequels, and The Force Awakens when it comes out on Blu-ray on April 5th. And then there are people like me who intend on showing up to Disney World at the crack of dawn two days in a row to run 19.3 miles through the parks. And we won't even get to ride Space Mountain.

So yeah, I think I'm pretty tough.

Tough in a weird, geeky kind of way.

*Amazon Affiliate Link. This means that if you click a link to Amazon through my site and buy something, I may earn a commission. Much obliged.

Today's Exercise: Rest