Seeing Stars

As y'all know, I'm a planner.  I loooove to plan things - trips, travel, workload, training, anything and everything!  I have a wall calendar that I use for laying out my training & racing plans every year.  I color code it for short runs, long runs, races, cross-training, strength training, etc.  I have a couple different places to hang it throughout the house.  Sometimes it's on the wall next to the treadmill, sometimes it's on the bedroom door, sometimes it's on the fridge downstairs (although that doesn't happen much anymore - it tends to hang out upstairs these days).  The location of the calendar in the house depends on how much motivation I'm needing.  It's current spot, hanging on the bedroom door, means ***YOU MUST PASS ME AND LOOK AT ME BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO BE A TOTAL BUM AND CRASH IN BED WITHOUT DOING A WORKOUT***   Yes, it really does mean that!

Yes, I did flip over to September for the pic - fresh & clean!

While the calendar is a great organizing and motivational tool, it's also a reward system.  When I do a planned workout I have a stash of glittery stars (yes, like teachers use on kindergarten papers) that I put on that day.  It's a silly little thing, but those stars really do give a little feeling of accomplishment!  I get a little warm fuzzy when I give myself a star after a workout (yeah, could also be feeling a little nauseated, but hey, we'll go with the positive on this one).  

It's also a simple way to get a feel for how well (or not) I'm sticking to training.  For instance, July had only five - yep, five - stars in the whole month.  That's just Saturday long runs and one mid-week walk.  Yikes!

So I'm pleased with how the second half of August is looking - yes, I already bailed on one mid-week workout last week, but 4 out of 5 in one week ain't bad - and certainly better than I'd been doing - and I loved the feeling of giving myself those stars almost every day!  I even gave myself an extra-special star on Saturday after I did both a run and a bike!

So, just for the heck of it, Last Week:

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - Short, slow run - 2miles 

Wednesday - 30 min bike (5 mi)

Thursday - Skip 

Friday - Rest

Saturday - 9 mile run, 30 min bike (5.2 mi) 

Sunday - 30 min bike (5.3 mi)

A Little Something New? A Little Bit of Motivation? Let's Hope So.

As can probably be seen in my lack of blogging the last 4 months or so, my motivation has been non-existent lately.  Nothing, not even starting group training again has gotten my excitement for running out of the pits of despair (okay, perhaps it's not quite THAT bad, but I do believe it's at an all-time low)...

So I'm trying something a little new.  I bought a bike last year to add in some cross training on my non-run days.  Some weeks I use it, some weeks I don't.  However, just having the thing started me thinking about maybe, maybe, maybe doing a duathlon at some point in the future - some far-off, remote, indefinite point in the future.

Then a friend signed up for a local woman's Du, billed as "beginner friendly," that includes a free training plan and group rides/runs.  And the gears started turning...

Before I knew it, and before I could talk myself out of it, I was registered.  Holy Moly!

http://www.espritdeshe.com/page/show/721267-du-dallas#.U_OEmflHB-V

I'm certainly not giving up on running altogether - I completed a half marathon at the beginning of August and I have another one scheduled for mid-September - but I'm hoping that adding in this new aspect of training will kick-start some additional motivation and excitement.

The short course is 2-9-2.  A two mile run, 9 mile bike, and a two mile run, will be held in a nearby town, and is supposed to have a "fast & flat" course.   I contacted the race director and asked about a cutoff time - I'm pretty sure I'll be one of the slowest (if not THE slowest) participant out there.  Turns out the short course has the same time cutoff as the long course, so I have no worries about getting swept.  Whew.

So, I'll just be out there to meet the challenge of adding in a new sport/component, have fun, and get some bling!

This week is the kickoff of the training plan for me.  It's only an 8-week plan, but I'm repeating two weeks due to some scheduling conflicts of a race and out-of-town travel that will impede my weekend training bricks.  Bricks!  I'm going to be doing brick workouts!  That's so foreign to me!  These are things that my triathlon friends talk about and here I will be doing some of my own...craziness!

Looking forward to sharing the journey and hopefully the accomplishment of this new challenge with y'all, and hope I can do a better job of keeping up with the blog this fall.   ;-)

Photo Recap of the Double Weekend

FIRST ...  SPRINGFIELD, IL

The group in front of Lincoln's Home.

BFF & me with the Lincoln statue at the Illinois Capitol Building

Lincoln group pre-race (It was freezing that morning!)

RP, Nikki, and me finishing Lincoln.

Lincoln group post-race in front of the old state capitol building.

Nikki and me, post-race in Springfield.

Lincoln medal! 

AND NOW...ST. LOUIS!

"Holy Hill" on the Go! St. Louis course means you get a sprinkling of holy water from a priest at the beginning of the ~2 mile hill!

RP, Nikki, and me post-race in St. Louis.

St. Louis group post-race.

Go! St. Louis medal.

The two races together.

Being touristy - going to see the Gateway Arch!

 Going up in the arch!

Building our version of the arch at the St. Louis Science Center.

PRAGUE!!!!

24 days until I leave for PRAGUE (and somebody gets left behind)!!!!!!!!!  Wuhooooo!!!!

Photo Credit HERE.