Excuses smooshes

Yep. It's been a long time since I've been on here.

Yep. There are good reasons for that.

Yep. It's been a long time since I've been swim/bike/whating.

Yep. There are good reasons for that.

Whatever they are they're good - but mostly they're in the past. I cannot keep holding to them or using them anymore.

My next race in February 20th. The anniversary race of the first 5k I've even run.

For weeks I've thought about what I need to do to get back into the game. I wrote a training plan & scheduled it out. I woke up in the mornings with good intentions (which were easily diverted by good blogs to read).

Sometimes you need less planning/thinking and more doing.

Finally I just went running. Hooked up with my running cousin - knowing that I'd be too embarrassed to back out - and it worked!

We went and ran the 5k course - focusing on the two big hills. My body knew exactly what to do and fell into sync rather quickly. It felt so good.

And I realized again how much I love and need my runs.

Now it's the challenge to see past all the excuses I can make every morning when I rise at 5:00am to run. Instead of thinking about it - just doing it.

Bling bling

Here they are folks. My new shoes:

Nothing fancy. Avia brand that I got onsale and used a $5 gift card!

Some day I'll have fancy shoes that were fit for me.

For right now though - these are perfect.

AM PM

When I was little my Uncle would take us to AM/PM a lot. To be honest I'm not sure what we got...but at some point, in the back of his white Toyota pick-up truck my cousins, brothers and I took it upon ourselves to make up an AM/PM song. Maybe it was the mix of ages, the close space or the Slurpees we'd devored...but we thought it was hilarious and it stuck with us for years. Even now it pops into my mind. (AM, PM, it's a mini-market, flying through the sky...*)

AM/PM has been a mental theme of mine today. Why? Well for two reasons:

(1) I stopped there about thirty minutes ago.

and

(2) I need to make a decision about when to schedule my run time.

In my uber-productive day I missed my big note to myself to make bread. Being a gluten-free family means that we make our own bread. Let's clarify. I make it. And I use a bread mix. Nothing hard - but it does mean that I have to take some extra time to do it. So I cannot just get up in the morning and run to buy some.

Which leads me to the stop at AM/PM...to provide enough caffeine for me to make it from now until 1.5 hours from now when the bread will be done.

Once in the store I stood for a long time before pushing that Diet Coke button. See, Diet Coke and I are frenemies. I love to hate Diet Coke. And I hate that I love Diet Coke. Last year I quit it completely. Like any other addiction (yes, I am addicted) once I have a little I want it all the time.

And it plays with my body. I cannot sleep right at night. I get hot and sweaty at weird times in the day when temperature isn't a factor. The caffeine high makes me unbelievably tired at the wrong moments. Of course that just begins the cycle again...

Oh AM/PM what do I do? Should I fill up my cup?

Here's where the other issue comes in...

I really want to change my runs from PM to AM. Both RunMan and I have been running at night. On the plus side that means we stretch together and it's cooler outside. On the other hand the boys are in bed which means we run at different times and, like tonight, when RunMan has a long run he's getting home at 11:00pm.

What to do...what to do...

I pushed the button. I filled up my drink. And I've been sitting here drinking it. Even with all these things going on in my head I can't reject it.

The benefit to all this is clarity. I know I need to run in the mornings. I tend to be more productive (meaning earlier bread making sessions!) and my day starts off, literally, on the right foot. RunMan can then run earlier in the evening and we can actually have time.

The other truth from AM running is that I crave things less. I tend to be more aware of what I put in my body because I've spent the morning running. At night I feel less aware of my nutrition through the day because as long as it doesn't effect my running...I don't care.

In the meantime AM/PM...you and I are going to see less of each other. Much less.

*the song is lacking when in black/white. Next time you're around me, have me sing it. It still probably won't make sense because, well, those are all the lyrics.

Success.

Two miles.

17 minutes and 22 seconds.

A personal record for two miles.

And I'm back!

The Blistery Day

Well, I should have listened to that quietly nagging voice the other night when it said "Don't go running in these shoes!".

"These shoes" of course being the ones I have had for a year now and have racked up about 300 miles on them. I've worn through the backs of the shoes - where my socks rub up against the heel - and so I've been getting blisters. My last few runs have been tough because my body has been overcompensating for blistery feet.

Tonight, when I started my run, I knew better. At the same time I didn't want to not go because, well, because sometimes it's hard to distinguish the voice of self-doubt from the voice of reason. Never quite sure which one is talking to me.

When I hit mile one of my two-miler I knew something was wrong. My strides were short and my body felt heavy. When I turned to head back the other way my ankles couldn't take it. Both went out. Yuck.

I've been trying to keep my head up. And my feet. I wrapped them both up in tape and have stayed off them as much as possible (whatever that looks like with two young kids). Now I just need to figure out where to go from here...besides to get some new shoes!