[fengshway]

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New Year New Goals! As the first day of 2009 comes to a close, it is natural to look back on the year and reflect on the accomplishments, the celebrations, the challenges, and of course, the disappointments. I must say, I had much to celebrate in 2008.

One of my main athletic goals was to achieve a normal scale weight for someone my height, and I am thrilled to report that I have accomplished that goal and then some! Some of you might not know that I am a lifetime member of Weight Watchers. Finally, for 2009, they have a program that fits an athletic lifestyle, so I returned to my WW at Work meeting to learn their new Momentum program. I am actually 5 pounds below the top of the normal weight watcher range for my height on their scale. And more importantly, the change in scale weight reflects a major change in body composition, going from 33% to probably near 25%-I will know more exactly tomorrow at my monthly caliper visit.

As I set out to do the first and second challenges, I also had some performance goals, which unfortunately I didn’t meet. I wanted to bench 135. well, that is a complete joke. The 105 that I thought I benched in early 08 was not proper form-didn’t touch my chest. Oops. And those squats that I thought I was doing parallel? Ummm no. but the good news, is that I am in week 11 in working with an Olympic weightlifting coach. And I got the form down now, just MUCH lower weights. And now my squats are ATG! I am still working on that first pull-up. But the amazing thing about doing weightlifting correctly?? It absolutely TRANSFORMS your running. I was able to run a 5k PR by more than a minute on very little running fitness. Very cool stuff indeed.

As far as career goals, I have to say, that FEAR was the operative word. I won’t really go into the details on this forum, because after all, it is a FITNESS forum. But I am a firm believer in LIFE following FITNESS. I notice something really interesting when I study how my fitness affects my career. As I take better care of myself, as I get more fit, it translates into more success in other areas of my life. 2008 was about FEAR for me. And I conquered a lot of fitness fears. As a multi-time Body For Life drop out, I am proud to celebrate an entire year of monthly bikini photos!

I also overcame a major fear of feeling hungry. I learned to move toward the hunger. I learned to experience mild hunger as an essential and normal consequence of fat loss. I learned that getting leaner did NOT mean living a Monk-like food existence, subsisting forever on a diet of steamed chicken and green vegetables.

And I suspect that conquering fears in fitness will translate very directly into fears about launching my career in a new and exciting direction. I have definitely held myself back in this regard, which brings me to my goals of 2009.

2009 is all about going into the Pain Cave. Let me explain. My friend Rico is an accomplished runner. I think his best marathon time is something in the range of 2:45. He just completed the Comrades last year, and placed very well. For the endurance neophytes, Comrades is a 56 mile RUN. Last year was UPHILL. This year is DOWNHILL. Needless to say, Rico knows pain. I have confessed my Boston Marathon dream on numerous occasions to Rico. Recently at dinner, he said something that has traveled with me on every run that I have done since. He told me, “Wendy, to do your very best in a sport, you have to go into the Pain Cave”. He went on to explain how the Pain Cave works. The Pain Cave is where you go to improve. It is where your brain begins to welcome the hardest of efforts-the searing burn of your lungs with every breath, the tightness of your leg muscles as they propel you forward, the moment where you are absolutely convinced that you cannot continue at this pace for even a second longer, but you find it within yourself to shift it just one gear higher, that final gear. The one that gives you just enough power to edge out your competitor at the checkered flag.

And I have to be honest, I am a pain wuss. I was always the disruptive med student of my bunch, the annoying one who was urging everyone out of the lab for a caffeine break that could often turn into an alcohol break. Studying hurt my brain. I liked my creature comforts. And lord knows, I love my food. So pushing myself to my limits, whether it be academically or athletically, isn’t something I have a lot of experience with. Sure, I have accomplished a lot. But I have limited myself greatly in so many ways, because of my love of comfort.

2009 is the year of discomfort. The year of pushing myself. In my sport, in my life. I am learning to enter the Pain Cave. And the most amazing transformations are happening as a result. I am actually starting to like it . I am realizing that catastrophic things don’t happen when you embrace your pain. Change happens when you embrace your pain. Transformations happen when you meet your Fears head on, eye to eye, recognize the enemy and kick it in the ass. And in the battle, you might just realize that your Fears were really your Friends all along. They are there to teach you some of life’s most critical lessons. I’m not sure what lessons my fear of pain has to teach me, but I am certain that 2009 will reveal some of them.

I am ready for the challenge. My own personal challenge. So my only goal for 2009 is to learn how to enter the Pain Cave, in all areas of my life.

The title of my log has to do with the running program that I have picked for this year—from a book called Run Less Run Faster, by the exercise physiology geniuses at Furman University. 3 tough runs a week. Into the cave for all. And two crosstraining sessions per week. I have chosen swimming. My swim coach has an impressive background herself, so I have learned that the Pain Cave also exists in a pool!

And of course the lifting. This year I have completely transformed my body with weightlifting, and I will always do some form of it. But now, instead of the focus being on bikini photo transformation, the focus is on athletic performance. My lifting programs are centered around becoming a better runner. I suspect that further bikini transformation might be an interesting side effect of becoming a better runner, but that remains to be seen! I will still be measuring body composition monthly via calipers and posting the results here. Above are my two initial photos for my new log---me completing my first marathon in 2000, and me celebrating a fast 5 miler that I ran today. Today, the first day of 2009, I celebrate running. And I celebrate all of the awesome support I have received on this forum. I would not be in the shape I am today without the support of my JP Fitness forum friends. Here’s to a fantastic 2009 for all of us. And an invitation to all of you to join me in the Pain Cave.


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