Goal: Jump over mental hurdles

I’ve been feeling horribly guilty this week. On two run days this week I woke up feeling like complete shit. I felt tired, drained and completely unmotivated. No amount of coaxing from my husband was going to work. I was not getting out of bed at 6:30AM to run in the rain. Nope. Not happening. I just had one thought in my head: I don’t feel like running, I don’t feel like running…

But of course after I decided not to go I felt even worse. There I was: an able-bodied woman moaning about being tired, refusing to move. Although I physically feel better for giving myself a bit of a break I’m left with that regret over giving into that childishness behavior. Like people say, you don’t regret working out, but you do regret when you don’t.

So my goal for the rest of this week is to think less and run more.

Slowly but surely…

…we’re getting faster.

Below are three recent 30 minute runs we completed (click to view better).

And four of our last runs.

We’re not mid-packers yet, but maybe this time next year we can be.

A few things we need to work on:

1. Walking faster. We tend to mosey when the timer goes off.

2. Increase our intervals. We’re still doing 1:1 intervals (run:walk) and although they are not hard, they aren’t easy. We live in a hilly neighborhood so it takes a lot of mental and physical strength not to walk the hills during a long run. I’m hoping that by June we’ll be up to 2:1. And maybe 3:1 by September? Maybe a bit ambitious considering my knee problem.

3. Sort out my knee. I’ve had an ultrasound and an MRI showing no issues with my knee. But I definitely have a prominent bump in the back of my left knee. It swells up during training and prevents me from bending it. It screams Baker’s cyst to me so I’m not sure why the doctors haven’t done any further exams. I’m going back tomorrow to insist something be done immediately. I have blogged considerably about the long wait to get health issues sorted.
4. Think positively. As soon as my knee starts acting up my determination crumbles. I am truly amazed that I managed to finish two long runs without crying. I felt like it but instead I moaned and moaned some more. My poor husband. Ever the great running partner he listened and kept me going. I need to try and work out how to…well…work out with this knee problem. I’d hate for it to slow me down and make me feel defeated.

So those are just a few things I’ve been thinking about where running is concerned. I’m pretty happy with our stats. I love to see how well we’re doing considering the hills that we have to tackle (mostly during our long runs). Yeah, quite happy.

What keeps you going?

This past weekend’s long race made me realize that I no longer hydrate as well as I used to. My calves felt like they wanted to snap apart. When I worked I carried a 32 oz jug of water all day long. And I would almost always finish it. The day before a race I often chugged a pint of Accelerade and I ran better because of all the water and Accelerade I took in. My muscles rarely cramped. So now that I’m not working I am drinking loads less water. It gets worse. I have increased my caffeine intake which hinders whatever little water I do have throughout the day.

So this week I am going to work on drinking more water but I am still left with another wee problem. I have run out of my favorite sports drink. Accelerade kept me hydrated under the Texan sun and never made me fill sick to my stomach. I need to find a substitute because I can’t find it anywhere in the UK. Does anyone know of something similar? It has a carb to protein ratio of 4:1. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I’m curious…how often do you fuel during a run?

One month and still going!

Ever the superstitious person I’ve been delaying blogging about my new running routine. What’s that you may ask, “She’s running again?” Well yes. Yes I am. I am back to running, Galloway method, of course. I’m not fit…yet.

I was inspired to post by my bestie’s return to all things good: healthy eating, planning and exercise. I was nervous about sharing my recent activity because I was really scared that I might fail. You see, I’m training for my 6th half marathon! I know, crazy. I’ve been barely walking a mile a day and now I’m running four times a week and dragging my husband with me. He sincerely is the best man alive. He HATES every single moment of it but each running day he gets up with no not that much complaining. He’s the best cheerleader. He got me through this past weekend’s 4 miler. I had stupidly eaten a super salty calzone the night before and I was heavily dehydrated. My legs felt like boulders, so tight and heavy. But I finished. Slow and steady.

I’m looking forward to sharing how training goes with a husband as my sole running partner and an unreliable* English sky.

Now…if only I could be guaranteed to look like this at the end of all this training?

*We’ve been having gorgeous sunny spring weather this past month now snow is expected Wednesday. Nutso!