Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Did I wake up in Seattle?

The past week and a half, it's been looking (and feeling) like Seattle out my window. While I haven't been running (which will hurt tomorrow when I have my 4.2 mile race), I have been riding my bike, walking and otherwise keeping myself active.

But this morning I was thinking about where is my motivation as I stared at my running clothes, still nicely laid out Saturday night, still sitting where I left them. I haven't even been motivated enough to pull them on in the morning. I know I can't entirely blame the weather, but it certainly is a factor.

Which brings me to something I know: you need to set goals to motivate yourself. It's a lot easier to suck it up and pull on the running tights and head out the door if you have a training schedule and definite goals in place.

"But... you have a race tomorrow! Isn't that a goal?"

Good thought, but no, not really. It's the first of a summer series where I go out before the race and then give my time to the timing guy so I can work the finish chutes at the end of the race. This tells me I need to find a race and get my ass in gear to train. Like, can I get it together enough to run a 10k on June 5th? What about the Tufts 10k in October? Too close... too far... just right? What's the right combo?

Perhaps I'll have a better sense after tomorrow. For today, I'm going to pretend that I'm living like I'm in Seattle. I'll find a hipster outfit to wear and trek down to the local Starbucks and drink coffee while typing all day. Running will have to wait.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

No excuses

w5+((r4+w3)*3)+r5+w5= 2.5 miles

I blew off running the last two days because I've been writing. Yes, I took fingers to keyboard and have been busily creating characters for a 15k word novella.

And all 3k words I wrote to date stink a big one (as my 4th graders say).

So today when my gray, furry alarm clock woke me at 5:30 instead of 6 looking for food, I hauled my sorry butt out of bed, tossed on a running skirt and top, my shoes and headed out the door. It was a good run too.

The first good thing, I pushed myself a little. That first 4 minute run was tough. That watch watching, song counting sort of "can I make it?" sort of push through. I did and after that it got easier to the point where my last burst of running I was going for 5 minutes before I looked at the watch.

This week marks the beginning of Thursday night river races: good company, 2.6 low pressured miles, cheap beer and good grill food (or pizza, depending on the night) until the end of September. In fact, it's time to add a countdown timer for my first Thursday night race: the Blues Run on May 19 so this will be the last week of relying solely on time. Sunday marks the beginning of running for distances with intervals.

Progress, it's a good thing.