Bored, Fat and Lazy

10 days since my last post - can you believe it?? Disgusting.

There might have been a slow 3-miler or two in the last few days, but this move into the Midtown apartments is making it tough to get motivated. I'm so frustrated and mad at myself. I didn't even want to go to the gym tonight but I was literally BORED, feeling FAT and LAZY. I probably 'dragged' myself down the 15 floors to the gym as a punishment for having horrible thoughts like "I don't need to exercise today...". You may think that race trainees are always happy-go-lucky about running; that they're excited to put their shoes on and once they've finished their run, they write merry articles in their run blogs, eat a fantastically healthy breakfast, lunch or dinner and are giddy with delight in thinking about their next run. Please allow me to put those assumptions to rest.

Just in moving to Midtown and missing several run clubs, I can absolutely believe facts like 7 out of every 10 Americans are overweight (according to a 2011 published study by The Lancet). Once you return to your nest in a high rise, why would you want to leave, after a long day at work? You've got to get changed, walk or drive to the gym, hope your machines are open, work out in the recycled air of a 4-walled room, stimulated by a TV or fans in your face, etc. And that's if you even HAVE the time to do it. If you have other commitments after work, then forget about it. The smart ones will find time on their lunch breaks or get up early in the morning to exercise - something I could never, ever do as I've always been a night worker out-er. I think that's a word. Anyway, I was bit hard by The Bug tonight. The 'you-can-just-run-tomorrow' Bug. I'm pretty sure that's the same Bug that says '...sure, eat this delicious Steak Gorgonzola Panini at 1am on St. Patrick's Day... you can work it off tomorrow'. This bug needs to be squashed immediately.

I managed to get myself downstairs and did a hard 30 minutes on the treadmill; which I've come to discover is 110% boring to me. I was almost drooling at the concrete of Biscayne Blvd that I could see out the windows; I'm just a little nervous to run where I'm unfamiliar. Clearly, this will be rectified immediately because I was almost rolling my eyes at how monotonous the repetition of foot-in-front-of-foot-on-a-conveyor-belt has become. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate gyms for everything that they are, but I've been priveleged to run in a gorgeous environment on the beach and have come to realize that it's the great outdoors that gets me going. That's what you've gotta do - find out what gets you going. Do you need the outdoors? Do you need a gym? Do you need top of the line clothes? Do you need a buddy? Do you need a great playlist? Do you need a schedule? I've discovered that I need to register for races and set a goal time to complete it. That keeps me motivated in my training. Currently I'm looking at completing the Pensacola Half Marathon on April 10th in 1:35:00.

Find out what it is that will work for you. Because there will always be those days when seeing your feet up on the sofa will be much more tempting than seeing your feet laced up in those tennis shoes!