Making Room for Real Life

The week before last (first week of August), I managed to get in my first double-digit week in a few months. Sad, yes, but I take my little victories as they come. I was on track to continue the trend last week (in preparation for my half-marathon training that starts next week), but alas, life got in the way. I planned to do 3 miles on Friday and 4 on Saturday morning before my fam came into town. However, not long after I got up on Friday, I found out that one of my friends had been hit by a car the previous night and was in the hospital. She fractured her sternum and left kneecap, and may or may not have done something to one of her upper vertebrae. Luckily, the car was only going about 15 mph at the time, so she wasn't hurt worse (remember guys: be careful walking home at night!). She's at home now and seems to be feeling a bit better, and her mom flew in to be with her. Needless to say, most of Friday was spent in the ER waiting room, and Saturday I slept in.

Later Saturday morning, my parents arrived to drop of my brother while they took a weekend trip to nearby Fredericksburg for their anniversary. Now, my brother's 15, so I suppose he could have stayed home alone, but would you trust a 15 year old boy to stay home alone? Not this one, I wouldn't. :-p So I played the nice big sister and we hung out at the mall and got pizza and ice cream for dinner. Somewhere in there I managed to sneak to the gym to crank out 4 miles on the treadmill. Not as terrible as it sounds, since I broke it into three segments: 2 miles, water break, 1 mile, water break, 1 mile. However, my knee wasn't too happy at the end, so I made sure to ice it afterwards. It's still a little cranky today...

Yesterday, my brother and I got breakfast at a pancake place and I had this epic green chiles and swiss cheese omelette that had to have been made with about 5 eggs. I ate half, along with 3 pancakes, and I was pretty much full for the rest of the day. Though, later in the day, I did have a bag of Sun Chips. My knee was still bothering me yesterday, so I didn't do anything. I'd rather let it rest than aggravate it and have to sit out for 2 weeks.

I've mentioned this before: I'm not a morning person. I've decided to give running at sundown another try this evening, just to see if I can tolerate the heat. It seems to be about 95 around sundown. Although it is nice running in the morning when it's cooler, I'm not sure I've been feeling this alertness you're supposed to feel from getting your physical activity in before your day starts. Mostly, I'm just tired. So, I plan to set out around 8:30 PM for 3 miles, to test my heat tolerance and my cranky knee. If the heat's too much, then mea culpa, and it's back to 5:30 AM (at least until late September)!

So...though I didn't maintain the double-digit base last week, I was able to be there for a friend in an emergency, and I definitely think that's more important. You have to remember to stop and make room for real life, and just be grateful to have the ability to run when you can.

Motivation and Four-inch Heels

So, I seem to keep losing motivation to run on Saturdays, when I've tentatively scheduled my long runs for half-marathon training. Everything's fine during the week, but then Saturday comes and I have no desire to get out of bed, let alone run in the morning. If I only had to do a short run that could be done on a treadmill later in the day, I don't think there'd be a problem. Or if it wasn't like the surface of the sun by 8AM, and I could just run outside later than 6... I guess I'll keep working on the scheduling of this training business, and we'll see how it works out. This week I'll either do my long run on Wednesday or Friday, with Saturday as cross-training. We'll see...

I was going to run this Saturday, but ("what had happened was...") my Dad was in town buying me a new car (!!!), and I figured I'd just stay in and make pancakes for him. After he left, I thought I might hit the treadmill at the gym, but...yeah. You get the picture. Later that night, I went out dancing for a friend's birthday. I haven't been to a club in ages, so I was kinda of excited to get all dolled up--which happened to include a rather fierce pair of four-inch heels. It was a fun night, with lots of hip-hop, dancing, and perhaps a few too many drinks. Since it had been so long since I'd been out to a club, I'd forgotten that my feet feel fine while I'm groovin', but the pain kicks in as soon as I slow down. Actually, it wasn't too bad, but I did decide to let my feet (and my knee, which also probably has a beef with the heels) a rest. Not to mention the fact that I didn't get home 'til about 3:30...

This week got off to a good start with a nice 3-miler this morning (would have been nicer if that lady's dog had been on a leash--who walks their dog at 6AM?!?). This week, I'll concentrate on getting my miles in before the weekend to avoid the end-of-the-week malaise.

How do you stay motivated during the weekend, when the temptation of laziness (or greediness?) sneaks up?