#Janathon Day 3 – Life Lessons from Failure

We’re 3 days in and I’ve considered whether I should just ditch Janathon completely.

I’ve already failed on 2 days, but that’s 2 days out of 31, and I think food poisoning should be considered a valid excuse. So I shall soldier on, with the goal of improving my cardiovascular fitness considerably by the end of January, food poisoning be damned!

I woke up this morning feeling considerably better, but still struggling with solid food and feeling pathetically weak and feeble. I still had faint hopes that I could manage a 10 minute run around the block, but these were squashed by my morning dog walk.

To be fair my morning dog walk was around 3 miles as we had to walk up to the vets for their vaccinations, but as I stomped through muddy puddles I could feel the cold sweats and occasional bouts of dizziness and I thought “Hey, maybe going for a run ISN’T such a great idea after all”.

If we’re going to turn this into a life lesson, it would be not to let setbacks ruin your progress. Janathon is like a micro version of setting yourself fitness goals or intentions. You’re in this for the long haul and when life gets in the way that doesn’t mean it’s time to throw a hissy fit and give up completely. You keep on doing the best you can, and eventually, those goals will be within your grasp.

I started Janathon this year because at the end of last year work and life got in the way of me doing as much as I’d have liked, and because I know that I prioritise strength training over cardio when I’m short of time. I wanted to prove to myself that I can fit in more than I think, and work on improving my fitness, even when I’m short on time. I still want that, and just because I couldn’t go for a run for 2 days doesn’t mean I should throw in the towel.

So, I’m still here, and a 3-mile walk (and 127 points earned on my TomTom today) isn’t a failure for someone who spent yesterday unable to get out of bed till 4 pm.

Your success and failure isn’t made up of one missed gym session, or one run cut short, or one day that you finished work late and just couldn’t face that spin class. It’s all the other days, what you do regularly, that really count.