About Crossing your Limits -Original post: https://www.movimentowellness.com/si

Posted on September 14, 2017 by Sabrina Powell, One of Thousands of Health and Fitness Coaches on Noomii.

As I mentioned before, I’m no marathonist, but I do love running. It’s my escape from the craziness in the world.
I love to run as I think, say my mantras and sweat. Oh yeah, I sweat a ton and I love it. I feel like I’m cleaning my body from the inside out. It’s my free detox, no green juice needed here. Flushing out toxins as I breathe out any bad energy that might be surrounding me. When I’m done, I’m physically exhausted and mentally renewed. Absolutely ready [for a shower and] to start my day with the right foot!

Lately I’ve been alternating my runs with walks though, since my little dog retired from his running dog position. He’s still young but it’s been way too hot for him, so he stepped down to the walker position, which is great – as long as he’s moving and keeping his little body healthy and happy.
So I’ve been alternating walks with him and runs on my own. Same distance, pretty much half the time for the second option. Which works great if I don’t have much time.

The other day I saw an ad for a 5K in Miami and I thought – “hmm that would be fun”. A night time run, with a fun course, followed by a clubbish party with a famous DJ an all – which is so not me, since my husband and I haven’t been partying like that for so long I can’t remember, but it sounded fun – cool for being at night and a cool little challenge to take.
I say challenge because I had no idea if I could handle running for a whole 5k distance.
How come? Because I had never measured how much I ran. Funny huh? Health and wellness coach, twalker, Pilates instructor, work out enthusiast, healthy living preacher, movement motivator and I didn’t know how far I could move. Well, I had never downloaded a running app, never posted how much I ran or anything like that because I never felt I needed it. I run for fun and in my opinion, fun doesn’t need to be measured or calculated or shared publicly.
I had increased my distance though, that I knew, because I had recently changed my route. So I knew I was walking and running a longer distance for the last week or so. When we decided to run this 5k (by we I don’t mean my dog and I, just to clarify, I mean my husband and I), I said – “first I need to see if I can handle this distance, because I don’t have a clue of how much I can run".

So I went on and downloaded a free running app (literally the first one that showed up) and went for my morning run.
I thought to my self – “If I’m running about 3K, I just have to run 4 the next day and 5 the following, and I’ll be prepared. I can do this, I’ll coach myself though it.” I was a little insecure, but I knew deep inside I could do it.
Surprised was I when I finished my route and asked my dear Siri to convert the distance showed on the app from miles to kilometers, to find out that I had just accomplished a 5.15km run. Happy, smiley, proud. That’s how I felt. I texted my husband right away: – “just ran 5.15K. I can do it! (Running girl and praising hands emoticons!)”.
He was happy and proud of me; I was happy and proud of myself. I knew I could do it; otherwise, I would practice for it until I was ready.
I must say that I am 100% conscious that this is something super simple, that does not take any “super natural wonder woman skills” but still, I was proud of testing my limits.
Oh, and just to be clear, I’m talking about a non-medal event here; there was no winner on this run, it was just a regular, run for fun type of 5K.

Did I mention that I was once told that I couldn’t run? Yeah, because of my herniated disc. That was before Pilates and all. So I “learned” how to run at the age of 30.
I thought you should know.

Anyway, I bought the tickets and we went, we ran, and we had fun! We were right in front of our block of people (every group was released every 5 minutes or so), and we took off and right away a group of guys passed us like lightning and we kept up and on our own sweet pace {special thanks to my hubby here, because I know that he can run way faster than I can and I even said while huffing and puffing that if he wanted to go on, I would catch up – eventually, at the finish line, LOL – but he stayed with me! Health or sickness, fast or slow… right?} and every once in a while we would speed up a little, like down the hill (up the hill was tough by the way!) or when we wanted to pass someone. By the way, passing is fun!
Right at the end, we passed a group of people, “just ‘cuz” and I grabbed his hand and we crossed the finish line together – I know, cheesy, but I felt like it, and it was sweet, and it felt good.

Then we went for our free electrolyte drinks, towels and all the goodies they had to offer us. We even watched the DJ performing for a few songs. Then after enjoying the party for a while, we walked to a restaurant, set outside and enjoyed a nice meal and a drink, of course. After all, it was Saturday night and we had just run a 5K! (I’m smiling. Proudly, happily and “goose bumpy” smiling).

Now here is the question: have you crossed or tested your limits lately? How does it feel when you do? Do you feel that energy and motivation rush through your body? Or is it time to push yourself a little bit? Is it time to switch things up?

I don’t get tired of saying that you deserve to feel good.
How about you go on and find what makes you feel good?

As far as I’m concerned, I’ve already ran twice this week and I can’t wait to run again tomorrow (weather permit), I will keep running 2 or 3 times a week, because it’s a habit that really satisfies me at the moment and hopefully soon there will be another 5K for us to participate.

May you find a healthy habit that makes you happy and may you find a new one, when it doesn’t satisfy you any longer.

Wishing you an abundance of wellness and happiness,

Sabrina Powell
Founder of Movimento Wellness,
Health & Wellness Coach
and Pilates Instructor
coach@movimentowellness.com
movimentowellness.com