A Little Bit of Perspective

Greetings! It's been many months since I posted... With the change in season and the start of my 28th year on this planet, I decided a little accountability for my running and health would be a good thing. Hence, the first post back since I ran a half-marathon in May.

My goal for this summer was always just to maintain some level of running. I've sort of done this. I'm still running 3-3.5 miles a few times a week, but long runs are a thing of the past right now, and I'm still struggling to find a routine that works for me.

During the week, I've been setting my alarm for about 5:15am in the hope that I can get out the door for a run by 6am. So, my alarm goes off (three of them actually: buzzer alarm, CD player with dance tunes plays in my bathroom, and two alarms on my phone). I repeatedly stumble out of bed to my dresser to snooze my alarm, I have become a pro at ignoring my CD player, and I thrust an arm to my nightstand and squeeze every button I touch until I manage to snooze my phone. And the result is that I don't have time to run before work. One week (my birthday week) I ran four mornings. This past week? Um, not at all.

And here's an example of how my last two Saturday mornings have gone: I set my alarm for 7:30 or so, planning on running at 8:30 or so, so I have time to shower and eat breakfast before 10:30, when I leave to volunteer at the SPCA. But, it's about 8:30 before I roll out of bed, then 9:15 before I get my running clothes on... then 9:30 comes around, and I'm still here... then I start calculating whether I have enough time to run and shower before I volunteer, and I spend so much time calculating whether I have time to run that I run out of time. I end up changing out of my running clothes, eating breakfast, then rolling on out to volunteer (and I'm usually a few minutes late anyway).

Finally, tonight at 7:30pm, after spending most the afternoon on the couch, I realized I needed to stop making excuses and get my butt out the door. It may have gotten dark 10 minutes after I got outside, and I felt like I was going to have to walk a couple of times on this 3.5 mile run, but I pushed through it. I didn't cut any corners from my route, and I didn't walk. On the hills, I imagined myself doing the warrior pose in yoga--I focused on the determination and focus that pose requires, and I used that same drive to get up the hill.

And as I finished the last half-mile of my run, feeling great, I realized that I have become the QUEEN of excuses not to run. "It's been a long week. I should sleep in." "I'm sore from yoga. I need to rest." "It's too dark (never mind the fact that the first two months I trained for the half, it was dark in the a.m.)." "If I run tonight, I'll try to run again in 12 hours, and that's not good. I'll be too tired."

Um, hello!? I realized tonight that I worry more about the harm that will arise from running twice in 12 hours (oh, the horror... running 6-8 miles in 24 hours. Puh-lease.) than I worry about 5 days--or 120 hours!!--with only walks to and from my car for physical activity. (Which is what I did this week.) Yikes!

So with the realization that the biggest obstacle to my success as a runner is myself, I'm hereby recommitting to my half-marathon training schedule. My goal isn't to rush through it in 11 or 12 weeks. This time, I want to take my time with it, feel comfortable at my long run before I move up. I promise myself that even if I don't feel like running, I'll go for a walk to my local park (less than a mile away) and do some lunges and other strength moves. I pledge to use those long days at work when I feel too tired to run as the very reason that I need to go move around and get some exercise, running or not. And, I will do my best to chronicle what I know will be a fun and satisfying journey, here in this blog.

Excuses, be gone. It's time for some action.