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!
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| 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)
