It has been two weeks since I finished up with the last race of my goals that I set out to achieve back in late May/early June. Since my run at the Chicago Urbanathlon I decided to take it easy for a couple weeks and just let the body have a break from the constant training I was throwing at it on an almost daily basis.
Well, let me just say that I did not just rest and recover, but I turned into a slob. After just a few days I had lost all motivation and self control. I forgot how easy it is to make excuses, eat whatever, and just not do anything good of yourself. Not only that, but that way of life is very addicting and such a hard cycle to break. I was only under the "Slob and Lazy" spell for two weeks, but it quickly took me over. Every night I would say I was going to run or workout and I would wake up 5 minutes late and make an excuse that I did not have time.
Yesterday, I found my motivation to change. I rearranged the basement and was able to install my ceiling mount for the TRX. I did a 10 minute core workout that about killed me. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw how quickly I was losing everything I worked so hard to achieve.
I got up this morning to run. I wanted to do a long run to wake me up and to evaluate where I am fitness wise. I could have easily made excuses to not run. I could not find my shoes, my iPod would not sync to my iTunes to load up the music I wanted, my stomach hurt from eating like a slob last night(Incredible Pizza), etc. I got out there and ran. I felt great at first, but let me tell you that I was able to tell that I lost some ground. It was a struggle to finish the 7 miles. I wanted to go for 10, but then I would have been useless the rest of the day.
I ended up running the 7 miles in 57 minutes for an 8:12 mile pace. Not too bad, but I had to work way to hard for these results. I cannot believe that two weeks ago I was running stairs in Soldier Field. This was my wake up call. What is yours? Have you found yourself in the rut of making excuses and not living the way you want to? If so, get out and test yourself. It may not be a 7 mile run, but maybe a mile walk. How do you feel? Are you happy with that? No, then create a plan.
I know the last two weeks I was not happy with myself. I did not like the way I was living and how I lost the interest to take care of myself. Start now. Don't wait until tomorrow or the next week where you can blame Halloween, Thanksgiving, X-mas, etc. There is always an excuse, but the change starts with you.
Time to put together a training plan for my first triathlon. Stay tuned.
1 comment:
The combination of massive Cybils reading and the end of cross country season had a similar effect on me. Glad to know you are making plans to get back in shape. I'm thinking about a Jingle Bell 5K, but it's awfully cold on Christmas morning at 8 a.m.!
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