Last week recap

Oh hi there...I know, I know. I'm fired! Wait, can you fire me from my own blog? I realize it's been 7 days. Here's what I've been up to while we left summer...

 

in our wake. HA! Get it?...Wake?...

Do I hear groaning?! 

I'm sorry but all of you are going to have to deal with it. One big thing that happened is the The Husband has resumed grad school and The Bird (more on him in a bit) doesn't get my humor like he does. Not that he thinks it's funny, just that he says, "I GET it..." after I elbow him and say "heh heh" about fifteen times.

Bye, bye driving out onto the beach...

Anyway, don't hate me, but I am kind of looking forward to fall. It's like a reset button. I feel more like New Years Eve is on Labor Day and the New Year starts today. Maybe it's because, if you add the years from pre-school up through my second degree together, I've been in school for 23 years. TWENTY THREE! That's many years that began right about now. Who doesn't love the smell of pencil shavings? Oh hey, now would be a time to give a shout out to all of my teacher friends who have recently gone back (some just got kids in today). You rock! I truly know the effort that goes into teaching. Really! For those of you that don't know me well, it might have even been my first degree. Ha. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

ANYWAY...

The hurricane came through and we were spared here in our teeny little apartment. Many huge trees went down in the city, one right behind our apartment, but we didn't even lose power. I am very thankful that the worst of it for me was being really scared for a few hours of the trees banging our window and the sound of our skylight sounding like someone was trying to vacuum it out. Many people I know were without power for an entire week, had their homes damaged, lost possessions. The little sister of a friend had a close call when her car was swept off the road in an unexpected flash flood in western MA and she held onto a tree for 4 hours while waiting for the fire department. She is one tough cookie and I'm so happy she is ok! My aunt, in central VT, has to drive wayyyy around to get to work and I'm sure many places she loves won't ever look the same. Who knows when it will get better for all of them up there. When hurricane season winds down here, snow will start. Please be safe! Same for all of you in other areas of the world (hello person who checks in from Germany!). 

Ok. I'm off my soapbox. Really, I'm not a weather paranoid person, but I am fascinated with storms. The Husband made me walk to a restaurant at the end of the hurricane just to pry me away from The Weather Channel. More evidence in "Jillian is really 80."

Workouts....oh boy-eeeee....

Last Sunday was supposed to be a 10K. Since there wasn't one I wanted to do, I was instructed to pick my favorite route and just run it like I was racing. Then the hurricane hit. I paced my apartment feeling enormously guilty that I wasn't running. The hurricane wasn't all that bad here, but the wind would gust every once in a while, and the sound of the 4 story tree being ripped out of the ground of back was quite eerie! Each time I was about to be like "F it! I'm going!" the news would show a huge tree that had just fallen on one of my routes. It was pretty crazy, but each time I though, "ok, well I'll just run here instead," the news would show that exact place. Yeah...I probably watched too much news that day.  But I was safe and wouldn't know without hindsight that I may have been ok if I went out.

Monday I was supposed to have strength, but my trainer decided she wanted to do intervals on the deadtreadmill. I had managed to smash the back of my right calf just above the achilles on Saturday and it made walking hurt a little. It was swollen, but not exactly bruised. Running was the last thing I wanted to do. I ended up doing 400, 400, 800, 400, 400, 800. For once I kept my 400 pace at or above 7mph the whole time and barely dipped below that for the 800. I even finished my last 800 at 7.8! At one point, my trainer was super excited at how much faster I was and how paces I hated before, for being uncomfortable, were not pretty normal for me. I used to run a 2:05 400 and the have to slow wayyyy down. It was the exception. Now it's kind of normal for me. I love it! I never thought I'd be comfortable at that pace. Is it fast in general? No. Is it fast and the result of a lot of sweat and tears for someone who routinely ran a 5mph pace? Sure is! I did a little bit of strength after and that was it. I made sure to ice my shins when I got home: 

You know you're a runner when...you pride yourself in your ability to prop up ice packs in your freezer to form a curve that matches your shin bone. That takes a lot of shin splints my friend. Now, please meet: Saltybird! He is 17, loves my husand more than me (even though he's really my pet) and likes to crawl up on my toes with his creepy, creepy bird feet. Also, blocks the Red Sox game. Maybe when he starts saying more than swear words and screaming his own name, he can guest blog.

Tuesday...work was one of those days that happen so when you have a routinely annoying day you can be like, "Oh, well at least it's not like TUESDAY..." I got home at 9pm. I started at 6am. I was exhausted and it was too late to run 4 miles anywhere near where I live that late. The rest of the night went: shower, food, faceplant.

Wednesday (after agonizing for 12 hours over telling my trainer I skipped the run) I had more strength training. She was understanding, but also worried about making my mileage without killing me. This week we're in right now has a total of 27 miles. If I missed any days last week, I'd be almost 10 miles below what I'm doing this week and risking injury with the jump. So I also had to run 4 miles Wed. I took it slow, focused on form and was fine.

Thursday was intervals. I took them a little slower because I was concerned about the multiple days of running I was doing in a row. Most were around 2:15.

Friday. 9 miles. Dun dun DUNNNN!!! I wasn't so much nervous and just really not feeling like taking 90-120 minutes to run before I had to pack for our long weekend away. Pack AND leave the house alone to pick up The Husband at school. I have MAJOR problems getting out of the house when we're leaving for more than a day. I have this dread that I will leave something on, plugged in, running that will burn the apartment down or that the bird will be able to escape. So I need to check everything at least 15 million times. The run went well. It was a breezy, sunny 68º. Miles 1-2 were the usual internal screamfest of, "quit...quit...quit, quit, quit, QUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTT". It takes a log time to get into my grove... 3-6 we're great and I ran the fastest then. 7 was painful because my hip flexors felt like someone had been punching them. At 8 I could "smell the barn" and picked it up just so I could be back sooner. I'm super proud of mile 9. I am someone who never runs a two loop (or more) run. I will never do that second loop! I just don't have the willpower. I run a big loop or an out and back because, before I know it, I'm halfway through and I have to turn around complete the run to get home! I couldn't find the place where I was supposed to exit my loop and run a 1/2 mile our and 1/2 mile back to add a mile onto last week's 8 mile loop. I was SO annoyed! I decided to run my 8 mile loop and at the end run the 1/2 mile path in the park and then back. Super risky because the path is way to close to home. I did it and I ran it at about an 11:20 pace. Not super speedy at all, but I was REALLY trying to not run myself into the ground. I'm also proud that I couldn't even get that as a 5 mile race pace last year and it's this years easy long run pace.

It all comes at a cost though. This weekend we went away to visit family in Maine and I had one short run to do. It was supposed to be a "shake out" easy run after doing my 9. It was pretty, easy and scenic (minus a killer hill) and I felt good. Until about 5 hours later. I was walking around Camden and my left foot started to feel weird. Then tight. Then it HURT. Sometimes my feet will get little stabs of pain that come from nowhere and then go away completely. This didn't, this felt exactly like what my right foot felt like when I was doing half marathon #1. Right before I kept running on it and ended up with a swollen black and blue foot and ankle. (Don't run through pain!) I couldn't believe it. I stretch. I listen to my body. I take rest days. I ice. I strength train with my trainer in a very strategic manner to fix the imbalances that have caused pain before. Why? What else should I have done? Is this it? Game over? I refuse to give up but I refuse to hurt myself. After HM #1 I couldnt run for months and, wouldn't you know, life handed me a basket of things I could have used running to work through. It couldn't have come at a worse time. It would be like someone not being able to use a trusty journal to work out their feelings. I needed to run. I needed to do something so unlike my old self, because one day in  2006 I found myself standing in a park, staring at runners and knowing I had to. If you were around me this weekend and I seemed sad or far away. This is where my mind has been.

I still owe all of you a couple of posts. Two fun ones (my trip from this weekend and a recipe) and two more serious ones. The serious ones are 2008-the fateful half marathon at the end of 09 and then 2010 to now. 2009 will obviously end in an injury, which I will get into then. I know a lot more about what my deal is now, thanks to doctor visits and trial and error. I have some major tightness in my calves and my quads and its causing a chain reaction down my leg to pull on tendons in my foot. The tendons inset on the calf muscle on the outer portion of my leg and then loop down around my outer ankle and attach to my outer foot about halfway down the side. Then pain is just as it's always been, right in the middle of the outer edge of my foot. All the tension is just pulling on it and I didn't get to it before it hurt me. I'm hoping a few days of rest, ice and working the knots out will help. The race is 5 weeks from this past Sunday and I have no idea how this will pan out.

Calm before the storm

It's a beautiful evening in Boston. Let's hope our roof and windows stay intact. Our apartment is two full walls of 4' tall casement windows and two walls of old crumbly rowhouse brick.

No worries though. We're stocked up!

 

Beer and duct tape. No we did NOT get twisted tea.

We already have plenty of containers for water, a roll of heavy plastic and enough food. Not sure what I'm going to do about my pretend 10K race on Sunday. My training plan says race. My trainer says just run 6.2 as fast as I can LIKE it's a race since there aren't any I want to do then. I guess that's a good thing.

How it all began (Part I)

This SHOULD have been the very first post of this blog, but when I get an idea to start something, I just need to DO IT or I will think it to death. It took me two months just to come up with a name for it. Could you imagine if I tried to write this post out too? Once I decided on a name, I sat right down and wrote the first post.

I got the idea to run in the fall of 2006. Idea may not be the proper word. Infection may be more accurate. Somehow it crept in and I could not stop thinking about it. I dreamed about it. I saw runners everywhere and I tried to figure them out. What does it take? Does wanting to run badly enough count? Before this point I had done Absolutely. Nothing. Athletic. No sports as a kid. No sports in high school.

I walked through this park almost every day after the job I had then.

I'd come around the corner up ahead, towards where I'm standing while taking this picture and think, "it would be so awesome to run through here!" It was the infection taking hold. I really felt a pull towards it. I just wanted to run off the stress and everything else bugging me and feel free. (Is that cheesy? Whatever!)

In typical fashion for me, I couldn't actually just buy some sneakers and get out there. I had to look up running online, buy a book about running, think about it a lot etc. Some may call it procrastination. I think I'm just a good researcher. I went on a trip to Miami with my best friend a few years before that. While we were in the airport, I was shocked to find out that she hadn't really done much research about where we should go and what we should do. She laughed at me and said, "well I already knew I was traveling with you! What would I read that you hadn't already found, read and sorted?" Touché, friend who knows me too well. 

I'm really trying to be a little more spontaneous.

(It's still impossible to get me to go to a new restaurant anywhere without looking it up on Yelp though.)

Actually, this hits on another point. I'm a little type A.

WHO. IS. LAUGHING?! Okay, I can be a lot type A. I hate to be bad at things. That doesn't necessarily mean I'm good at a lot of things. Or that I kill myself to be really good at things. It means that before I started running, I usually picked to do things I knew I was good at (playing the clarinet but never really practicing? Check). That was part of the intrigue. Why did I have to be that person? Who decided? Why do we carry baggage that tells us we can't or shouldn't when there are at least as many indicators that we CAN? It means that I've really had to work on my mental dialogue. I'll get to that in part two (or three. ha).

Oh, geez...I've tangented myself off into the woods. Where am I? Right.

I thought about running all fall and into the winter. Because, seriously, no one likes fall running in New England. It's much better to wait until it's closer to 0 degrees out. In December I went and bought The Complete Idiot's Guide to Running and Jogging. I love this book. I tell every new runner I know to buy it. Besides being an accomplished runner, Bill Rodgers is such a super nice guy and has a ton of information to share. This past December, I ran a fun run that he puts on every year. Not only did he mingle and chat with all of us, but he sat at a table signing pictures (or whatever you brought), chatting more and taking pictures with anyone who wanted them for hours! I had the chance to tell him what an impact he made on me in person that day. He seemed almost like he wasn't used to hearing that (it can't be true though). Unless I could show you his face and you could hear the tone of his voice when he talks about running, there's really no way to show you how much he loves it. How much it seemed that he loved seeing all of us there, newbies and veterans alike.

Besides the fact that it has a ton of information, the book gives two hugely valuable pieces of information:

1. Go slow. No. Slower. Really, I had no aspirations of speed and even I was shocked at how slow I had to run at first.

2. NO ONE is going to laugh at you. Okay, no runner will. Not even the fast guys and gals. If anything, my biggest cheering squad have been from the very front of the pack. They run because they love it. You don't train that much and that hard if you don't and they want to share running with you. If someone does shout something mean to you while you're running, I suggest doing what I do. In your head (Not out loud. People are crazy...don't actually respond to them!), you insult their manhood and then immediately forgive them because, obviously their Mom didn't hug them enough. Sorry guys, it's only been boys behind the very courageous drive-by insult. I'm sure there are mean girls out there somewhere too.

ANYWAY.

My first run was in January of 2007 through the park in the picture above. The "feels" like temperature was -12 degrees. At least the weather couldn't get much worse. It was day one of the training plan, which is similar to the Couch to 5K offered on Cool Running. I had also decided on a first race to run and I was fairly terrified. Did Captain Type A pick a 5K? Noooooo...it had to be a 5 MILER that caught my eye. I didn't really mean to pick a longer race, but this one looked great. I finished the 5K program and since I was a few months early, I used the extra time to go from 3.1 to 5 miles. The race was Boston's Run to Remember, honoring fallen law enforcement officers and benefiting youth at risk programs.

 

It started in the Seaport area and ran through downtown. It was so much fun to run down the middle of empty closed streets that I'm used to seeing clogged with traffic. My official time was 1:02:43, a 12:25 pace. I don't know that I had a goal time at that point. I just wanted to finish the whole thing without walking, which I did. I ran another 5 miler that fall in 59:59 and made my goal of coming in under an hour (just barely!). A few weeks later, I did a 5K and that was it for the year.

Did I feel like runner yet? Not really. Should I have? Yes.

Here's another thing. Weight. I started running at about 175lbs and I am 5'4". I was down from my highest of 179.9 and felt awful. Just a teeny bit more and I was going to break into a weight decade higher than I had ever seen. However, people bigger than me and people smaller than me have done it. You may want to get your Doctor approval to begin running if this is new to you. I suggest it, because you just never know. While I did not use running for weight loss, it did help. Diet made the biggest difference. I don't subscribe to any certain diet, although I have tried many of them! After being up and down until the beginning of 2010, I learned that it's really just portion control, moderation and making good choices. I know, how obnoxious am I right? It's totally not easy to do this, I get that. I'm still battling the last 10lbs until my trainer and I evaluate where we go from there. I'll get into that and food more in the continuation of this post.

Keeping it real

First off, I see there are some new people reading here. Hello and welcome! I am planning on actually writing something in the About Me section, as well as my long-promised How It All Started post this week. I really promise this time!

Training since my last update started out great, just as I had left off. The realist (not even cynic!) in me knew that a bad day was around the corner. It's just not realistic to think that you can go out there every day and be all, "tra-la-laaa! I'm running faster than I ever have and it doesn't even feel hard! Wheeee!" That's what Sunday was like and I knew I'd pay sooner or later.


Wednesday was a rest day for me last week. Thursday was 400m X 7. I used the track at the Back Bay Fens. It's really pretty there and there's usually a lot going on. It's good if it's in the circle in the middle. Bad if there are a million people walking all spread out.

 

This was taken across the river from the track, on the loop I sometimes run.

Anyway, I was dreading this workout. I had to work, so I ate a small dinner at work at 5 and didn't get out there until about 730. The specific workout is that I have to run all 7 at faster than a 2:42 (which is my half marathon goal pace), but faster if possible. Between them, my rest is half the time the previous interval took and I need to be walking or jogging slow. My best 400 is about a 1:52. I think I could do faster at this point, but I had seven to do after working for 13 hours. My times were:

2:07

2:21

2:22

2:23

2:25

2:24

2:23

Keep in mind that I'm still not that fast. A fast single mile for me is somewhere in the low 8s. My 5K PR is a 32:30, although I've run it in about 29 in practice recently. It's a big improvement from when I ran a 12 min pace no matter what the distance and was embarrassed to haul myself around the track!

I was really happy about how I did and that I managed to stay pretty even, other than the first 1/4. Even The Husband (the genetically gifted I-woke-up-running-in-the-8s husband) was impressed when he ran the last 2 with me.

Friday was a day with my trainer (more strength) and a 3 mile run. As much as the track workouts (the 400s) have greatly improved my speed and fitness, they are really tough on my body. Friday my shins were sore again and I slogged through my 3 mile easy run.

Saturday was another 3 mile easy run. I felt a little better and did it in a what felt moderate 31 min. 

Sunday...oh, Sunday. 8 mile long run Sunday. Why? Why did I sleep until 10:30 when I knew it would be hot? Other than working forever and running after... I checked the weather and it said it would be overcast until noon. Okay, if I left right then I'd get back in time, so I hurried up. The Husband and I stepped outside at about 10:45 and, immediately, the sky cleared. That would normally be a great thing, but not when I have to run for an hour plus! I hoped I was wrong and off we went.

It was miserable. I felt bad that, due to the heat, I was keeping a much more conservative pace and my over 6 foot tall husband was literally shuffling to stay with me. I got a mile in and told him this was the best I could do. I suggested he run up to the next intersection, about a 1/2 mile away, and meet me there. He didn't know the course for the run, so we had to somewhat stick together. We did this until we got to the pond, our turnaround, and he decided it was easier to run at my pace than start and stop. I felt awful. I was ruining his run. There wasn't anything I could do about it since he didn't know where we were going, but I felt like I was letting him down. Why should his run and training suffer? He was such a good sport about it too. He really didn't mind sticking with me and didn't complain. It was me and my head that was the problem. I couldn't get into my groove. I could hear him behind me in his sequence of run, shuffle, walk a few steps. Repeat. I knew he was staying behind me so I couldn't see him and wouldn't feel bad. I was hot, salt was stinging my face and I jut wanted to be home. 

Finally, at mile 7 it started to pour. I would normally have been elated, but I felt so mentally beat down that I just shuffled through the drops. I love running in the rain. I ran most of my PRs in the rain. I laughed and mentioned that our windows were open and it's too bad we didn't learn anything from the Friday storm than soaked everything within 7 feet of our windows. The husband ran off ahead and I slogged home in a time of 1:32:08. An 11:31 pace. I was bummed. I sat on my front steps and tried not to cry while The Husband said things like, "but you ran 8 miles!" "You didn't quit!" "That's still not a bad pace!"

It didn't really help. I came upstairs, made a smoothie and showered. As I sat down with my lunch, I saw that the Triathlon World Championships in London were on Universal Sports. I LOVE the triathlon. I haven't done one yet, but I'm thinking about it. Then, it went to commercial and I saw this, which almost made me cry (yeah, I'm kind of like that. I've gotten teary eyed daydreaming about qualifying for Boston):

"Maybe strong is just what you have left when you've used up all your weak..."

 And then I stopped feeling sorry for myself. Completing a miserable, seemingly endless run took a lot more than the ones I'd normally pat myself on the back for. Maybe my thinking is all wrong.

I'm sorry, Officer...was I speeding?

It's recap time! That means I should have been posting more often, but was busy running, eating, sleeping and generally being a waste of space. Oh, and working, which contributes to my desire to make the couch cushions as flat as possible on my off hours. I should mention that my work schedule is kind of weird. I work Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 6am to 7/8pm. Most days are physically, mentally and even emotionally tiring, sometimes exhausting, but I still have workouts to do after all of them. My speed workout is always on Thursdays, but it always ends up okay.

Anyway, Sunday was long run day! I had a 7 miler, which is the furthest I've run since 2009. I was dragging when I left the house. I just didn't feel like it. I had a lot to do later that day and I just wanted to get it over with. It's hard to feel like that when getting it over with is going to take 75-90 minutes!

It ended up being a great run. It was overcast and in the low 70s and felt like it could rain at any minute. I was a little disappointed it didn't. I ended up feeling really strong and ran what I felt was a good pace. I wasn't sure what that pace was until mile 6 because I got a little lost (haha...yeah...) and I didn't know where any of the other miles were. I actually had fun and it was a beautiful course. I ran along part of the Emerald Necklace (the BAA Half Marathon mentioned on the link is the one I am training for) and used Jamaica Pond as a loop to turn around and head back. I can't believe I had never run down to the pond before! You really forget you are in the city. There's dirt to run on! The sad part is that so much of the string of parks have been chopped up and separated that it's hard to follow them from one end to the other. I don't meant streets intersecting. I understand that it's necessary, but I'm talking about having to dart across four lanes of angry traffic on Rt 9 (Huntington Ave). Crosswalk? Pedestrian light? Not so much. There might be a crosswalk wayyyyy down at the next light, but I can't really see from where I emerge.

After making it across, I run over to a streetlight to re-tie my shoes (I'm a bit compulsive about how tightly my shoes are tied). I put my foot up on the base of a light post and notice a Boston Police cruiser had pulled up next to me waiting to turn and the guy is giving me a weeeird look. I'd like to thank my broken filter for allowing me to blurt out:

"I'm sorry, officer...was I SPEEEEEDING?!"

(smile...quizzical look...burst of laughter)

"Sheesh...what's so funny?!"

(shaking of the head...driving away)

I know, I know...my blistering 10 minute miles are a lot to process...

Anywho...I finished mile 6 and saw I was just under 63 minutes. I was killing the 10K pace from last Sunday in a training run! I finished 7 at 1:15:43 and a 10:49 pace. My 10K pace was 11:07. Both courses were very hilly.

I point this out to give all of you beginners some encouragemet. I worked for SO LONG to run a sub 12 pace in a 5+ mile race. Last summer was the first time I did it with a 58:45 5 miler. I KILLED myself to take 15 seconds off my mile pace. As excited as I was to improve, I was highly discouraged at how little I got for the massive amount of work I put in. It was enough for me, for a very long time, to just finish the whole thing without walking (or even walking too much).

This summer has been a string of breakthroughs and I am still surprising myself. I think I'm surprised because I finally stopped worrying so much about it. Instead of running and running and hammering and hammering, I learned that I needed to get stronger, not just run more. I have never had a strength workout with my trainer where I haven't been at least a little sore the next day. She's pretty awesome. Not only does she know the perfect workouts to make me stronger and have a more balanced strength, but she catches tightness and possible injuries before I really know it's occurring. She is also so far into my head that she deserves an award. It's been crucial in getting me to do some pretty crazy workouts without me #1, realizing what's coming and #2, flipping the F out! I look back on that interval workout I wrote about in July as a major turning point. I left that day knowing something was very different. When I did my next run, I realized that I was freed from a suffocating case of doubt.

Monday was a strength and yoga day, that I did on my own since my trainer is out of town. I'll see her on Friday. Tuesday was a 4 miler that I did in 38:20!

Holy crap.

I was worrying about running anywhere in the 10s and I pulled out a 9:35 pace. My first mile was even an 8:56! I know the difference in my workouts compared to before, but this all feels a little out-of-body. I had a crazy, vivid dream about running an upcoming 5K in 28 minutes. I woke up so excited, thinking that I had really run that race. I was a bit deflated when I realized I hadn't.

Today I did the first 5K in about 29 (if it was an official race, I'd PR by 3:30). The first 3 miles I did in 28. I need to do another 5K soon. For some reason, with the shortest distance race I run, I get to the start line and turn into Choke-a-saurus Rex. I run 32s, 33s, 34s. I haven't tried a flat course since I started really having breakthroughs. It's time!

Dear City of Boston

THANK you for choosing directly across the street from the entrance to my gym as one of your 15 permanent spots that your food trucks will rotate through. Really.

Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, I not only have to try and not chew on the counters while I get ready, because the cafe downstairs is cooking bacon (BACON?! At the GYM?! REALLY?!?!?! WHYYYYYYY), but this is my view as I leave. Redbones BBQ has a food truck. You are amazing, Redbones, but you're killing me! I'm a little obsessed with the food trucks (Bon Me I love you!), but I don't dare go to Redbones by my gym. I am 100% certain my trainer will choose that moment to look out the window! Sigh...

Today's workout: 1 hour strength (mostly upper body and some leg presses) and 1 hour elliptical on resistance and incline 15. UGH. I was supposed to run 3.5 miles but she switched me to elliptical thanks to the return of the dreaded shin-splints.

But I don't WANNA!

I've spent many hours over the course of training on my bed, just staring up at the ceiling and willing, PLEASE, running clothes, switch with my street clothes. Please? Someone told me once that if I'm dreading a workout to at least commit to putting on the workout clothes and I'll most likely feel like I can get through it.

Yeah....I'm lazy. REALLY lazy. Just putting on my running clothes feels like a lot of work. I want to watch television, I don't neeeeed running clothes! Why put them on? I DON'T WANNA!

To be honest, I'm not sure I've ever met any person, ranging from beginner to race winners, who don't dread at least some of their workouts. I love running and I like I more as time goes by. I don't always feel like that right away though. I owe some of you my thoughts on this issue, so I thought I'd share here. If you have anything to add, please comment! All of these ideas have been passed down to me either by friends or from books/online:

• just commit to putting the appropriate attire on. This is usually enough to put you in the right mind set. Think about it. If you're coming home from work, you mind is (if at all mine) set at, "Shower! Wine! Television!!!" Or, if you are trying an early morning run, your mind may be more, "don't do it! Don't get out of bed. Nothing good can happen out there!" You put your clothes on and, viola! you're a runner now. No? Just try it. Word to the wise. DON'T sit down when you get home. Be robotic about it. Go right in, grab your stuff and change. The couch is the enemy. You will never get up. 
• commit to just 10 minutes. Most people want to do more after that. If occasionally you don't? Maybe you need the rest that day. Only you know how much you have been doing. I prefer the first tip, just because it works better for me. I know that, first, I have to change, go down 3 flights of stairs and walk 3 blocks to start my run. Then second, once I've run 10 minutes away, it would be 20 total to loop around and go home. I may as well do my 30-40 minutes. I realize this right away, so it's hard to convince myself it's worth going downstairs at all. I don't even let my thinking get that far. I just put the clothes on and go. If I start thinking about it too much I literally start going, "la la laaaaaaa...I can't hear you!" in my head.
• I cannot remember who said this, (I think I read it on Runners World) but it helps put each workout in into perspective with the whole training plan: think of each workout as a deposit to the bank and on race day you get to withdraw. I try and remind myself of this during the run. To be honest, it didn't really help until I saw the benefits of my workouts pay off. It was after the first time I had a serious race plan, worked with my trainer that I finally felt prepared and had a great race. Don't wait until this happens to start thinking this way, but when you do have a great race that you worked hard for, you will really see all those individual workouts as a great cumulative reward.
• treat it like your job. You go to work, you buy groceries, you cook, you do your laundry. You do all sorts of monotonous things that you'd probably rather skip, but don't. Why is your workout any different? Make it a non negotiable.

That being said, am I perfect? Noooooo....Am I on week four of my half marathon plan (AHHHHHH!!! 1/3 of the way through!!!!!) and have managed to jack up my training Every. Single. Week? Yes. I've done all of the mileage, but I tend to skip my Tues run. It's so silly because it's an easy short run, but it's after my first 13 hour day of the week of standing at work all day and I just desperately want my couch. And, also? Excuses. Big fat excuses. By my next shift on Thursday I'm all over it and just block out ANY thought about my training. I know I will just go home, change and not allow a single conscious thought about the workout until I am at least half a mile from my apartment. That's what I did today. Tuesday I spent 15 minutes laying on my back on the bed while my brain went, "hhhhHHUHRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrr" and then gave up. You know what that means? Instead of just getting my butt kicked by my trainer in the morning, I get to do that and run 3.5 miles. She pointed out that my legs might feel like rubber since I keep on stacking my runs all at the end of the week and ran 18 miles in 60-ish hours. Ooops...that's more than my weekly mileage before I got serious this summer.

I guess what I'm saying is, for all of you new people, give the plan a chance to prove itself. You may be pleasantly surprised at how much it really pays off. I promise it will. My very first mile took 14+ minutes to run and I never thought I'd later run 3 miles in 30 minutes. I just kept on going out there. If your week doesn't go perfect, if you miss a day, move on. Guilt is too heavy a load to add to your run.