Old habits are hard to break

Boy, old habits really are hard to break. I saw that in so many forms last night:

1.       When I fall out of a workout routine, regardless of the reason, it takes so much energy, positive thinking, and failure to get back on track.

2.       Getting out of the “all or nothing” mentality is really haaaard.

3.       Running a path I am used to running in the opposite direction confuses the heck out of me.

To start off, I did NOT want to run yesterday. I was making every excuse in the book to delay it until today. I got super busy at work and didn’t eat lunch until 3:00 (having eaten breakfast at 7, this did not bode well), so I was still kind of nauseous feeling and cranky (yes, hunger makes me quite cranky). Then when I got home, a girl I went to college with was on Ellen, so obviously that was a necessity. By that point, my couch was very comfortable and I did not wanted to move. I finally got up and decided to go (yay!). It so easy though to just say, “eh, I’ll do it tomorrow” when I haven’t been in the habit of doing it.

I got to the park and decided I wanted to run/walk for an hour and twenty minutes. This is where my “all or nothing” mentality regarding working out kicked in.  I know exactly where I get it from (thanks mom), and I know I need to get out of it and set more attainable short term goals, but nooooo I want to reach my long term goal NOW! The “running” I have done so far since my accident is great, and I should accept that, be happy about that, and progress slowly, but instead I kick myself for not being about to go longer or faster. Then I try to increase my mileage or my speed by too much and get discouraged. Ug, trying to get out of that… working on it…but as seen by last night, it’s been slow progress.

Last night’s run in a nut shell- 1:30:47, 6.2 miles.

I got to the park with very little plan besides my 1:20 goal. I decided I would just see how long I could run and go from there. I ended up running the first 2 miles, walking a mile, running a mile, walking a mile, running a mile, then walking the last .2 miles. I can honestly say I am very proud of myself for the various milestones I met with the run, but also for the fact that it made me realize I can do walking/running intervals and still be happy with myself at the end.

My new plan of attack is as follows:

1.       This weekend sit down and come up with an actually running plan instead of my current one of “we’ll see what I can do”. I know there are lots of good training plans out there so I am open to suggestions. I may decide to follow a set one or adjust it a bit; either way I am making a PLAN!

2.       I need to find a new place to run it I am going to go more than three miles.  The park I have been running at is great for shorter runs, especially because it has a lot of small hills. However, it’s only a mile loop so I got very tired of it by the middle of my run yesterday. I tried to “switch it up” and go the counter clockwise, but by the end of that loop I decided I didn’t like that. J Yes, I am weird, oh well! I am also open to suggestions on this front as well as.

I am very much looking forward to the time when my blog updates just have short stats of a week of runs, but only running 2 or 3 times a week doesn’t look so good in list form.

 Tonight I am going to try yoga… I hate yoga, almost as much as I hated running, but we will see. I found a half hour DVD in my collection, so maybe the shorter time will be ok… or at least bearable.

Get super excited- my next post is going to include pictures from my first two SEWING projects. Woohoo!