Pain is temporary, Pride is forever. This was the cheesy cross country quote that Mr. Ames used for our XC team in the late 90’s. He tried to sell this motto hard and no one cared.

I was on the treadmill yesterday, after a needed day off (I ran 4 days in a row which is Pushing it for me), and set the workout for the Mountain Peaks at 8.6 mph. Mountain Peaks is the hardest programmed course that the treadmill has. It starts at 0.0 incline and reaches 9.0 with various levels in between going on for 1-2 minutes at a time. My goal is usually 40 minutes and 8.6 is 6:58 miles. I’ve completed this workout at 8.5…and failed at 8.6. My running log if anyone was interested.

I felt really good yesterday and had to stop at the 2nd minute of the final 7.0 incline. I completed 35 of the minutes of the 40 minute workout, I was spent. It’s not often where I feel good and have to force myself to stop. Usually I can power my way through but I’ve reached my physical max and pushing past will mean I have to seriously dig deep.

The thing with running is that even Ian McGrath was good at it. Anyone can be if they try hard enough. To some people it’s easy, and other’s have to work. At 33, I’m not looking to win races but just to push myself physically. The next step past 8.6 on Mountain Peaks will be 8.7 and that will be extremely challenging. I’ve reached my limit and I’m not sure I want to push through or I’ll suffer a torn Achilles.

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