Sit Down. Shut Up.

The Negative Committee had a meeting this week. They told me they weren't happy with what I've been putting out lately.

"The problem is, Jill, you're just not good enough for us. You're a let down. We know you can do better, so why aren't you? Why aren't you giving us the 110% we expect? You know that we don't accept less than that, so why do you even show up with your sad, ho-hum efforts?"

Friday is a run day for me. I alternate between jogging at a normal pace and running at a speedy pace to work on bettering my overall pace for regular runs. I wasn't really looking forward to going to the gym and pounding the treadmill.

"Skip it tonight, Jill. You're too tired and you probably won't run well anyway," the Committee chirped.

I puttered around the house a bit. Then I was hungry so I ate something. My gym bag sat on the floor, my shoes peeking out.

"Don't give up, Jill. It won't take long and you'll feel so good when you're done,"

There's a positive Committee too, of course. Gentle in nature, it is much more soft-spoken than the Negative Committee. I sighed and put on my gym clothes.

On the treadmill I entered my speeds for jogging and running. I decided to push it harder on the run intervals so I set a speed I'd never touched before. I would run for a total of 27 minutes.

At 10 minutes the Negative Committee had regrouped. "Aren't you tired? How's your knee? You've run hard enough, why don't you just finish the session off at your jog speed? Does this interval training stuff even work anyway? I mean, have you actually noticed any difference?"

Maybe I would take it easy, I decided. But not right away. I should run at least 9 intervals at the high speed, since I was doing a 9:30 mile, so if I ran 9 minute then that would be almost a mile, cumulative, at high speed. This math seemed to satisfy both committees.

I got to the ninth interval. Okay, I could take it easy now. I'd done the work.

NO! DON'T GIVE UP ON YOURSELF! ARE YOU READY TO COLLAPSE? DO YOU FEEL WOOZY? DO YOUR LEGS WANT TO GIVE OUT? WELL THEN KEEP GOING. DO ONE MORE.

Positive Committee had found a megaphone. I listened and did another interval. And another. And another. And then I was on my last one and I ran it as hard as I could because maybe I did suck this week. Maybe I couldn't make the sunshine and rainbows appear but I was not going to cheat myself out of a good run. When my time ticked down to zero I punched the stop button, my lungs sucking for air and legs burning. I'd done it. I ran and I did not suck. The Negative Committee scowled silently and I glowed in all my sweaty glory.