Excuse me, can I have a ride, I'm sick of running.

I completed an 8 mile run by myself today. Pam had to coach at a competition but I still needed to get my 8 mile run in and I knew if I went to the gym and tried to do it on a treadmill that I wouldnt finish. That's the problem with running at the gym, it's too easy to just hit the stop button and go home. However, when you are out on the road or trail you still have to run back so why not keep going.

For the first four miles I listened to my Ipod and felt pretty good. I didnt take my first 20 second recovery walk until mile 3 and then made it to mile 4 where I stopped for a quick stretch and refuel before turning around. I decided to turn my Ipod off for the run back. I am so used to 'noisy' runs that I had forgotten how quiet it can get. I also forgot how much harder the run is psychologically when there are no distractions.

There is a a part of the trail that is completely isolated from traffic, it was also the part of the trail where I didnt see a single person for at least 5 minutes. It was creepy quiet. I used to run in silence all the time when I lived in Los Alamos. I didnt like to use my Ipod back then because of the narrow roads, traffic and actual wild life animals. Has the city life made me lose track of what 'quiet' actually is?

It was a psychological trip. Suddenly my thoughts were right there center stage. Unavoidable. A girl passed me on her bike and all I could think was, "Excuse me, can I have a ride? I am sick of running now."

I walked today more than I did on Monday, but I am not concerned because I was only 4 minutes slower which wasnt bad. I hope to run another 8 miles on Monday ... hopefully I will run a lot more than today :)

Keep running!

How tired can one person be?!

After my 8 mile run yesterday morning I was excited that I made it through my day without a nap and really feeling tired at all. I even managed to stay up until after midnight. But oh my goodness ... when I woke up 8 hours later for work, I was exhausted! I felt like I needed another 10 hours of sleep.
I was sluggish all day long and while at work I just wanted to lay down on the floor and take a nap. Since that wasnt an option, I just thought about coffee all morning/afternoon. Was this exhausted really from the 8 mile run 24 hours earlier?!

When I got home from coaching gymnastics at 7pm, Josh was all ready to go to the gym. I was hungry and irritable and just wanted to nap, but I put on my shorts, sports bra and running shoes and slowely walked myself out the door. I wanted to just say, screw it, and go to bed ... but Josh was so motivated that I just didnt want to kill his spirit. Oh and did I mention that I wanted 'In 'n Out' ... I know I mentioned it to Josh like 10 times. But he kindly pointed out that if I ate a double double and animal style fries that I would hate myself and feel like complete and total crap. I agreed and so we decided that we would hit Trader Joes on the walk home from the gym. Thank You Josh :)

At the gym there were no treadmills which was a good thing, because the last thing my legs needed was another run. My joints needed a rest after all that pounding the day before. So we hopped on the bikes for 20 minutes and pulled out a solid 7.2 miles. Though there were times when I thought for sure that I was grinding to a hault. I comtinued to complain and whine for a few minutes into the bike ride and then became too tired to even try forming sentences .... Thank you Josh ... again .... for being patient with cranky me :)

After a little bit (and I mean minimal) strength training (for me) we left and I got a healthier meal at TJ's. I'm pretty sure it was delicious, but I inhaled it so fast that I cannot really remember lol. Just kidding ... it was Indian food, which I love!
It is now 10:10pm and as soon as I post this I am going to bed. Thankfully I will just sleep in tomorrow (until 8:30am), go to work and come home ... I need to rest. Then back at it on Thursday :)

Onwards and Upwards fellow runners ... and non-runners of course!

And on the forth day I shall rest ... I can't wait till the seventh.

I woke up this morning with an exhausted body and a few sore muscles after yesterday's run. I wasn't 100% sure if I would workout today but I ate a salad for breakfast just in case. Sure enough 2hours after breakfast I was ready to go.
I decided to do some cross training today. I did 30 minutes on the sit down bike and then some strength training for my abs and obliques as well as some dips and pull-ups for my upper body. Having done that, tomorrow is most definitely a mandatory rest day  :)
May the awesome workouts continue!

Lazy or Clever?

Last night I got maybe 3-4 hours of sleep ... probably closer to 3. I got up at 7:30am to coach gymnastics for 3 hours. I've been feeling like my cold has pretty much passed but having not slept and working 2 jobs today I decided it might be wise to take the day off of working-out to avoid a possibility of getting another cold.

However, this is my second day off in a row and I instantly feel guilty about that because I am afraid that I would keep taking days off and lose all the conditioning that I've worked so hard for. It is much to easy to get lazy, easy to make excuses but I am hoping that I will be strong enough to get past all the excuse making. After all, I did work-out on Thursday even though I felt horrible.

Tomorrow I will probably be taking the day off also UNLESS I get off of work early tonight, get some descent sleep and get up early to work-out before my family arrives. If that can'y happen, I guess there is always the option of doing a late evening work-out seeing how 24 hour fitness is open 24 hours.

Okay, I feel better about my decision to take today off. I need to take care of my body so that it can take care of me. In fact, I've been working pretty hard all week, so two recovery days might prove to do me well.