It's Been A Rough Winter

It was a long hard winter.  I had to struggle with motivation and depression.  It became a cycle that I had to break.  This week I broke it!

I spent this week trying to get back on track and start building my base back up.  I have my workout calendar hanging in the bathroom.  I ran or worked out every day.  I'm feeling really good this week. 

I'm running for time as opposed to mileage right now.  I started with just 15 minutes and have been adding time each day.  I did a day of cross training and two days of weights.  I'm also doing a fitness challenge this month.  By having the calendar hanging on the bathroom mirror, I see it several times a day and I have to be accountable to myself.

April and May will be used to build my base back up and on June 1st I start half marathon training again.

This week was tough, but I did it.  I ran two races this week.  On Friday I did the Good Friday Road Races.  James and I ran the 5k.  It wasn't his best race running wise, but he showed that he's really grown.  He knew it wasn't a going well, but he kept a great attitude and kept saying he just needs to finish.  He didn't complain and he kept moving.  I was so proud of him!

We also counted this race as two of the virtual races we are signed up for.  We did the Spaceballs Dark Helmut 5k and the Live Long and Prosper Leonard Nimoy Memorial Mile run.  The route had some hills, but they weren't too bad.  My legs were sore though from adding weights back and doing the fitness challenge exercises.

Saturday I ran the Harry's Spring Run Off 8k.  That one killed my legs.  They were complete toast by the end of the race.  It was hilly and ended with an uphill.  I was glad I did it though and I hope to get to do it again next year.

I had to change around some of my workouts for this week, but I have it all on my calendar.  It feels good to be back.  I'm feeling better as well.  I just needed to get up and get going.  I had to break the cycle.  It was hard, but I'm glad I forced myself to get back at it.

James is excited to start running with me this summer.  He loves running and I love having him run with me.  Tomorrow and Tuesday I'm in the gym, Wednesday is a partial rest day, Thursday and Friday I'm running, and Saturday I'm going to go the gym again.  I have the fitness challenge everyday this week as well.

Week 2 is going to be great!

Chilly Half Marathon Training: Day 1

Yes, I'm starting my training for my 3rd half marathon.  This one will be on March 1st.  I have to train all through the winter.  I was disappointed that I had to drop out of the Toronto Waterfront Half.  I want to run this one and I want to run it well. 

I've been struggling for several months with motivation and health issues.  I think I've finally got everything under control and am ready and motivated to get this done!  I have my goal and I have my plan.  Mike and James are helping me by keeping me accountable and River is ready to train with me for as long as she can.  Once the snow hits, she won't be able to run with me.  It won't be safe for either one of us.

Mondays will end up being my rest days, but I wanted to kick off the training with a short run.  River and I did just under 2 miles.  Nice and easy and relaxed.  It felt nice and River enjoyed the cooler weather to run.

Here we are after our run this morning.

Tomorrow I'm back in the gym for speed work and weight training.  I'm up early so I can be back to get James ready for school.  I've been sleeping better so I'm hoping that I can get up and get out the door.

Wednesday I have a 4 mile run, Thursday it's the bike and weights, Friday 10k run, Saturday rest and Sunday I run a 5k race.  River is doing the run with me on Wednesday and Friday.  She will have a blast doing it too!

I have to just keep reminding myself to just get out the door.  Once I'm out and going, I feel great.  I just have to get out the door.  That's the hardest part some days.

Beautiful Friday

I got some much needed sleep last night.  One of the reasons my motivation has been lacking is my lack of sleep.  I have been having problems sleeping.  I have slept fairly well the past few nights so Sunday should be a go for my run.


I took all 3 dogs our for our mid-morning walk and they loved it.  The walk well together for the most part.  River wants to get back to running though.  When we pass a runner she looks back at me as if to say, "This should be us!"  Mulder and Anya are not runners, but they love the long walks.


I get to spend the rest of the day hitting up all the thrift stores because James announced that he wants to go at the 11th Doctor to the Niagara Falls Comic Com tomorrow.  I'm off to find the pieces for the costume.  At least it wasn't a Pokémon character because I have no time to make a costume like that.


I spent the walk making my normal lists of what needs to get done and spent some time thinking about my running.  It's one of the few times I don't think and with my mind in overdrive lately I really need to get back at it.  I planned our route for Sunday.  I know it's just going to be a short run, but just thinking about getting back out there makes me smile.  Sunday looks perfect for a run too!


I'm ready to be back at it.  I have a few races coming up that I will run with James and I'm excited to have him training with me this summer. He won't go on long runs, but he and I will do some short runs, hill work and speed work together.  He made the comment that he likes running with River and I.  Then he said something that I have to remember to keep me motivated and remind me why I enjoy running.  He said, "I like when we run with River because she has a lot of fun running.  She reminds me of 4 things about running.  You should run fast, pull hard, be carefree and have fun."  It's so true! 


Running should be fun and carefree.  Sometimes I think we lose that when we are training for a goal race or trying to find time to fit in a run.  My goal for the summer is to be carefree and have fun while I'm running.  I want to be as happy as River is when she's running.  I want to have that 9 year old mind set that James has.  Just have that feeling I did when I was a kid.  How great it felt to run.


So my mantra for the summer is Run Fast. Pull Hard. Be Carefree. Have Fun!


Have a great day!

Day 32: Sleepy Day of Cross Training and Weights

Thursdays are getting to be hard for me and I think it's because I know the end is near and my schedule will be changing again.  On Thursdays I get up between 3:30 and 3:45 in the morning
to coach an early morning Masters swim practice.  I get a bit discouraged as Thursday mornings is a light day and only about 3-4 swimmers show up.

I always have problems sleeping the night before an early morning practice as I'm afraid of oversleeping and missing the practice.  So I dragged myself out of bed and got everything ready to go.  Luckily I had all my workout clothes ready to be put in my bag.  All I had to do was throw them in the bag along with my shoes and water bottle and I was ready to go.  I grabbed a breakfast pita to eat in the care after swim practice. I had some Fruit-To-Go bars in my desk at the pool so I also had breakfast while coaching.

After swim practice I really didn't want to go to the gym.  I just wanted to sleep, but I knew I had to go to the gym.  I need to stay on track with this training.  Once I got doing on the bike it felt smooth and easy.  I read my book, but still kept the RPMs up above 95 most of the time.  I didn't even realize it had been 40 minutes until the machine beeped.

Today's weights were legs.  After Monday lifting on really tired legs, this felt really good.  In fact, I'm ready to increase weight next week on everything.  It felt so good.  Honestly, I was surprised at how good this workout felt considering I was so tired.

When I got home poor River had to get out for her long walk.  It was almost 10am by the time we got out for her walk.  That's a good 2-3 hours past when she normally goes.  She was more than ready for her walk.

After her long walk, I was finally able to get some more food in my stomach.  Leftover potato soup never tasted so good!  I'm still ready for a nap, but I feel like I have more energy since I got my exercise in and ate some food.

Tomorrow River and I have a 5 mile run and we will be doing it early so it will still be cool.  I'm really looking forward to it too.  On to the rest of my day!

That felt better

After yesterday I was a bit unmotivated.  I still made myself go up and workout.  I didn't use the treadmill because they just hurt my knees, hips and ankle.  I decided to really push myself on the recumbent bike.  I did 9.11 miles in 35 minutes.  I new personal best. 

When I got up there I felt really sluggish, but I just decided that I was going to go and go hard.  I knew that I had gone 8.5 miles before and I really wanted to hit 9 today.  Of course it helped that the book I'm reading hit an exciting fight scene.   I find that I push faster when I come to parts like that.  LOL.

I have a meet this weekend so I'm going to try to get one run outside between now and next Tuesday.  It may or may not happen.  I'm going to take some running clothes with me and I may be able to get out between sessions for a quick run.  I'm really hoping that I can. 

April 9th is my next race.  I want to be on or drop a little bit of time since March 12th.  But I have to remember that that course was mostly downhill.  Its hard to compare the two races, but we'll see.