I went and saw Ironman 6 times in the theatre and I’d go see it again in a heart beat. It’s the first solid movie of the year that I’ve watched. I was able to watch it all 6 times without ever getting bored. And with each viewing, I picked up a little more that I maybe didn’t catch the times before. There were two lines that I particularly liked.
Sometimes you gotta to run before you can walk.
That is the attitude I have when it comes to me and sports. Before I can get out there and train for whatever it is that I want to do, I actually have to get out there and do it. Just once, I’ve got to get out there and do it just once and then the bar is set and I can begin setting goals and training to meet those goals and improve upon said bar.
It’s really the way I was raised in the school system when i could run and participate in PE, before diabetes. At the beginning of the year they had us get out there and run a mile (amongst other stuff) to see where we were at. Then over the course of the year we’d do different things, short runs, long runs, etc. Every quarter, we’d run that same mile again to see how we had improved. A baseline was set, and the line was moved every quarter when we were tested again.
It’s very much how I operate now. Back then as a little kid it was run a mile, let’s go, with the coaches in your face, you just did it. Now a days, since I’m back on the athletic train, the events are a little different, when I go set my bar it isn’t just a mile, it’s more, but setting those bars on the smaller of the big events will help me prepare and train for the bigger of the big events. It gives me something to work towards.
For example, I got out there and ran the 10k in Boulder. I didn’t run every mile in its entirety and my times weren’t fast by any means. But I now have a goal for when I run. I know that I want to be able to decrease my hour 20 minute time for a 10k to an hour or less. I know that I don’t want to walk miles 2 and 3. I know that I have to not start out running right from the get go but maybe walk the first quarter mile, and then I can take off and run my heart out. I now have something to work towards. It’s perhaps a bit backwards, running before I walk, but it’s what works best for me.
But this kind of mentality also brings me to the second line that Tony Stark (a.k.a. Ironman) said that is important to me.
Okay, this is where I don’t want to be.
Yeah, I think that a lot too, although, I’m not usually hovering over a 1965 Shelby Cobra with my flames threatening to ruin the car. No, I’m usually on some bike ride wondering what the hell made me do whatever it was I was doing. Like tackling a mountain. This statement for me in the context of running before I walk is all about listening to my body.
I’m a big baby when it comes to pain anymore and so I know that when my body is screaming, it’s not where I want to be and I’m going to slooooooooow down. But it’s also what enables me to run before I walk. I can do anything without considerable amounts of training as long as once I’m out there doing it, I also listening to my body.
Yeah, Ironman/Tony Stark knew what he was talking about.
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