Challenge Day 2

Today was interesting. I had an opportunity to give quite a few things some thought while I was stretching after my workout. I thought about a lot but one thing stands out, even now, 4 hours after I have left the gym. What stands out is the word challenge. Here is the dictionary.com definition that I think best fits the September Fitness Challenge and life in general.
Challenge - difficulty in a job or undertaking that is stimulating to one engaged in it.
After reading this definition a couple times it seems to me that maybe this definition should be amended a bit to read: difficulty in a job or undertaking that is stimulating or discouraging to one engaged in it. We can make a decision to give up or to keep going, we can decide to push through the challenge.

During my thinking time it dawned on me that the September Fitness Challenge is not just a "fitness challenge", it's a life challenge, a human challenge. It seems only fair that if I am going to blog about the "fitness challenge" that I include some of life's challenges as well. So here goes. Today my oldest younger sister was in a car accident. Don't worry she was unharmed and is okay. A bit shaken up initially but okay. She called me about 15 minutes before I was going to leave for the gym, I threw a shirt on, then high-tailed it to the accident site. Like I said she wasn't hurt. Now fast forward a couple hours, dropped my sister off at my parents house, said my goodbyes to my mom, and headed back to my van. Sitting in my mom's driveway I was seriously thinking about calling it a day and going home instead of the gym. I thought maybe the gym was too much of a challenge to deal with today. I ended up choosing to go to the gym and I'm glad I did.

I felt good at the gym today. I told myself I wouldn't get off the cross-trainer until I did a 5K (3.1 miles). Once I got going, I kept going. I stayed on the cross-trainer for 50 minutes. Of course I was in the cardio theatre. Today's movie was Invincable. After the cross-trainer it was on to pushups, situps, and dumbbell curls. Yes, dubmbell curls. I added dumbell curls because this challenge involves a lot of triceps, chest, front delts (front shoulder), and abdominals. In an attempt to keep my body as balanced as possible I will throw in excercises that work the muscle groups opposite of triceps, chest, and front delts. Today that muscle group was biceps. Nothing too crazy, just sets of 20 reps with 10 pound dumbbells.

Here are todays numbers:
4.62 miles in 50 minutes
121 situps
118 pushups
140 dumbbell curls

I realized today that taking on this fitness challenge has presented me with other new challenges, this blog being one of them. But I don't find either challenge discouraging. Both challenges are stimulating to me. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when I am presented with a challenge, then overcome it. What were your challenges today? Did they stimulate you or did you allow them to discourage you from accomplishing your goal? Even if you were discouraged some by a challenge you had today, tomorrow, be discouraged less. We can get stronger everyday, and we can do it together.

"Don't cry to give up, cry to keep going. Don't cry to quit. You're already in pain, you're already hurt. . . get a reward from it." - Eric Thomas