run out of excuses.

lets be honest, just when i feel like i’ve got a grip on this workout thing, motivation drops, life goes crazy and then POOF, an excuse appears. its like magic, really. just when i need a reason not to get that run in, life almost always throws me a bone and gives me a solid reason not to.

take last week for instance. in a normal week, we operate at the level of busy, which is manageable, but much easier when you are firing on all cylinders. but then the stomach flu hit me. i had no choice but to sit life out for a day and do my best to recover. losing a day out of your week is hard and then trying to make up for it while you still aren’t one-hundred percent is even harder. 

so with 2 weeks until the colfax half-marathon, this weekend was supposed to be my longest training run, the grand finale, final push of training, if you will. but i was dehydrated and weak from being sick. i didn’t want my last big run before the race to be horrible and possibly injure myself or even get sick while running (no one wants that!). so i didn’t do it. 

but then i started feeling bad. excuses are so easy. and while this was a pretty good one, nothing about training for a race is supposed to be “easy.” and while the stomach flu wasn’t a part of the training plan, excuses aren’t either.

20,000 steps before 8:00AM!

so i found a way. it involved waiting an extra day to know that nasty flu was behind me. it meant getting up at 5:15am and starting my run in the dark so i could be home to be with mason in time for dr. chris to head up to adjust his sunday morning patients. it wasn’t the easy way. or the way i wanted to do it. but the satisfaction i got from pushing myself beyond the excuses was more than worth it. it wasn’t the 11 miles i was supposed to do this weekend, but 9.5 miles felt far greater than doing none and letting the excuses win. 

i’m not saying this is how it goes every time i want to sit one out. but this is a great reminder for me that the easy way doesn’t feel so good. and when the calendar is full and it doesn’t seem like there’s time to squeeze that run in, take a second look. 

but i’m not gonna lie, the nap i’m about to take is going to feel pretty amazing too!

- kristen

A return to running

I have gone through three phases of running in my life.  First when I was in high school, those were the days.  Running came easy, I didn't have to work to go out and run 3 - 5 miles nor did I have pain when I was done.  Recovery happened naturally.  Second phase happened when I was in my twenties I had to train more in order to run longer distances but I still had no problems recovering.  This made running enjoyable still.  Cue my current phase in life.  My body no longer recovers like it used to, running causes knee and ankle pain when I try to do it like I used to.  My wife who has become quite the dedicated runner herself has been urging me to start off slower for years now.  Finally I have decided to start slow and build slow.  I am putting forth a dedicated plan aimed at building up my running to 30 straight minutes without straining my body.  My goal is not to run for longer than 30 minutes but to eventually increase the distance that I can run in those 30 minutes.

In my first week of running my objective is to do run walk intervals.  I will be starting with 1 minute of running followed by one minute of walking.  My goal is to increase the running interval segment by one minute each day of running, once I am at 3 minutes I will do that duration for two runs so it should look something like this.

Sunday - run 1 min, walk 1 min for 30 minutes
Tuesday- run 2 min, walk 1 min for 30 minutes
Thursday- run 3 min, walk 1 min for 30 minutes
Saturday- run 3 min, walk 1 min for 30 minutes

Update to come after week one.  If anybody wants to join in let me know, I no longer want to be a distance runner.  I just want to enjoy pain free running again.

 -Chris