Hitting the Wall

Yesterday during my daily visit to the elliptical machine at my local gym something happened to me which hasn't since I began working out daily in January. Usually if I have energy for a workout the entire workout is good and I am able to push myself the entire time. Conversely, usually if I am not into the workout, the entire thing is a struggle. There isn't a crossover.

Yesterday after 45 record setting minutes, at a pace and a resistance unheard of to me, my body gave out. One minute I was jamming to Til the World Ends, bobbing my head, and feeling incredibily alive, and the next second the music was no longer motivating but annoying, my head ceased to bob, and my legs felt like dead weight. It was all I could do to push myself through the final 15 minutes of my workout, and even then it required lowering the resistance and the pace dramatically.

When I described the experience to Matt after we were done he said "Sounds like you hit the wall." Huh? I had heart that expression before but never really knew what it meant. Matt explained to me that my body had switched into fat burning mode at that point. Well that's a good thing right? It's certainly not bad he explained but its harder to keep going. My body had run out of available energy to burn (my breakfast) and was now reaching into my fat stores for energy. It apparently is a lot harder to process fat store energy than just ingested oatmeal energy, which is why the whole workout began to feel like a massochistic ordeal.

All those years of trying to exercise while on a starvation diet suddenly made sense to me. No wonder it had been so difficult, so awful: my body never, ever, had any available energy to burn. Hell, at some points I have to wonder where it was getting any energy from because I'm pretty sure I depleted the fat stores for the most part as well. It made sense why an act as simple as walking felt impossibly difficult when I was sick. Now I know this is all kind of obvious but I had never really thought about it this way. I wasn't giving my body anything so I was having a very hard time getting anything out of it.

If you want results from something, from anything, you have to put in the fuel, whether it be in the form of food, or probably in most things, time and hard work. People always want something for nothing (just look at  lottery participation) but there is a reason most of us never hit it big that way. It's not how things work.

Sure you can skimp on effort and time and still get something out of your endeavors but it will never be your best and it will never be that enjoyable either. It will be a chore. Why not give your all to whatever it is you do and get better results while enjoying it so much more?

I'm pretty sure there is a moral to this story besides the fact one should make sure to finish their oatmeal if they plan on heading to the gym shortly after. I plan to embrace it.