It's something that's definitely been lacking in my running lately.
Want an example? In August I logged four runs for a total of 12.3 miles. And one of those runs? Yeah, it was the run portion of a triathlon. It wasn't much better in July - five runs, 15.4 miles consisting of two 5Ks and a triathlon. In fact, the month with the highest mileage for me this year? It was April and I was just shy of 22 miles.
It hasn't been pretty.
And it's not that I don't enjoy running. Because once I lace up the sneakers, plug in my iPod and start putting one foot in front of the other, I like it. I like the feeling being able to just go out there and run and how it gives me a chance to clear my head of all the crap that sometimes gets cluttered there during the course of the day.
It's actually going out and putting one foot in front of the other that I've been having problems with lately. Getting out the door and going. The past few weeks I've come home from work and kind of felt the urge to go run. A couple of times I even threw my running clothes on. But then the motivation to get out the door and run suddenly vanishes. And I'd rather curl up in my chair and read. Or watch TV - something I rarely do to begin with - or even putz around online. Basically anything BUT run.
I got to thinking. How can I find the consistency I used to have. And the answer came to me.
Plans. Goals.
So here's the plan:
- Aim for three runs a week. Throw in a bike or two and try to hit the pool once.
- Aim for 30 miles this month. It'd be nicer to maybe hit 40 miles, but I've been struggling to even hit 20 miles per month this year. And there are 30 days in the month, that's just 1 mile per day. Totally do-able.
- Slowly increase mileage. Start with 2-3 miles per run. See if I can get a long run to 5 miles by the end of the month.
I got off on a good foot tonight. As usual, I putzed around when I got home. Tried to avoid the run. But I eventually got out the door.
I was planning on a 2-mile run since I haven't run since last week when I tackled two treadmills at the YMCA. But once I got running and threw in a couple of speed intervals, it felt good. I wanted to keep running. So I added on an extra leg and bumped the run up to 3.25 miles. Ended up doing 9 intervals (averaging between 30 seconds and a minute) and finished up the run in 33 minutes, 27 seconds. Not bad.
Gotta start somewhere.
3 comments:
Nice job! I'm with you on getting out the door ... sometimes that's the hardest part. I did the same thing yesterday - told myself I had to do at least a mile, then tacked on an extra half mile cause it felt good.
Keep it up girl! I'm gonna be checking in with you to make sure you're doing what you say you will :)
that plan seems totally doable. i run 3x a week too, speedwork tuesday's, tempo run thursday's and long run saturday's. and i'm supposed to hit 80 miles this month. geez.
Hang in there, there are days I don't feel like walking out the door for the run (or bike). But like you said, having a goal, or race, helps with that motivation big time! And remember, soon it will be cold and snow, so enjoy these days while you can!!
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