Afternoon Runs Suck

Yesterday I learned a valuable lesson: Afternoon Runs are stupid.

As I mentioned yesterday I was feeling pretty lazy and unmotivated and I didn’t get out of bed before noon. Well I finally dragged my butt out for a run at 2pm. And that was stupid. Even on my shady, breezy, waterfront running spot it was still miserably warm.

The run started off pretty good. I was sticking to my intervals and holding a pretty good pace. But that only lasted the first 1.5 miles. I got overheated and could do nothing but walk the second half of the 3 mile workout.

I imagine if I had actually gotten up and done my run in the morning when it was cooler I probably could have kept up my intervals for the whole thing, or at least more than half of the workout.

But I’ve learned my lesson and I’m never making that mistake again.

As much as getting up early sucks, it sucks a lot less than running in the heat of the afternoon.

The First Long Run

Last week was Week 1 of my NYC Marathon Training Plan.

I’m proud to say that I completed every prescribed mile. I was slower than molasses (19-20 min/mi pace), but I got them all done.

The toughest was this weekend’s long run.

The run itself wasn’t bad, I was actually kind of surprised how easy the 6 miles actually were, then again I was power walking at the prescribed 20 min/mi pace. What was tough was doing the run in the context of the rest of the weekend.

In the last year I picked up a new hobby: The Pokemon Trading Card Game. And I don’t just play, I play competitively. I’m also a judge and league leader, but that is beside the point.

Over the weekend there was a pair of tournaments in Tampa, and I went with some of my friends. The problem is Tampa is a 2+ hour drive, and tournaments are usually 5+ hours long (between registration/check in and the end of the final round). So in order to get that 6 mile run in, I had to get up at 4am so I could be done and showered in time to meet up with my friends to drive to the tournament.

Let me tell you, running at 4 am is precisely 0 fun. But I had to do it because 1) I wasn’t about to fail to stick to the plan in week one. 2) My friend had promised to take me to breakfast on our way to pick up the other person who was coming to the tournament with us. 3) This same friend threatened to not drive me to the tournament if I didn’t get the run done. So I had no choice.

To say it was an exhausting weekend would be putting it lightly. I was so tired on Saturday that I didn’t do well in the tournament. I made a lot of mistakes and misplays because I wasn’t thinking clearly.

Sunday was a different story. I did really well on Sunday, placing 19th out of 60+ competitors, making it the best I’ve ever done at an upper level tournament.

But the exhaustion of the weekend has caught up to me today. Its noon and I still haven’t gotten out of bed. I need to go for today’s 3 mile run. But I’m just so completely unmotivated that I’m writing this post instead of going out for my run.

I’ll get the run done at some point. I just need to find the motivation.

Back to Square One

My goodness, it has been a while.

Where to begin…
Well, I finished #RunAllTheRaces2016. I ran every one except Paris

It was a lot of medals

After that I kept running, just not as much. I did the 2017 Princess, Tinkerbell, Light Side, and Dark Side Disney races. Then I kind of fell off the wagon.

Support Me and Special Olympics Fl

Despite being in the middle of training and fundraising for #RunAllTheRaces2016, I couldn’t resist signing up for a 5k at Universal Studios on November 21 to benefit Special Olympics Fl.

I paid my entry fee, but I would feel really shitty not having anything to donate as well. So I’ve been trying to raise a bit of money for them, but after a solid month of asking friends and family, I haven’t gotten a single donation. I don’t blame them, most of my friends are young families or poor college students, and quite a few of them have donated to my #RunAllTheRaces2016 fundraiser, so I didn’t expect much in the way of donations.

I have a modest fundraising goal of $150 (although I’d love to raise $1500 for them). If any of my readers would be generous enough to help me reach that goal, I’d be super appreciative.

Unlike my campaign on Fundrazr for #RunAllTheRaces2016, everything donated to the FirstGivining fundraiser goes directly to Special Olympics Fl.

I’ve got one week to raise the money. Please consider helping me and this great cause.

Donate here

No Longer Faking It

Another month, another excuse post. I swear, just about every time I think I’ve got life figured out, something else comes up.

Catching Up

Oh, hey, look at that. Its been another long stretch of time during which I absolutely sucked at blogging.

September was a crazy month. I got a really nasty sinus infection that lasted about 2 weeks. Then right after that we moved into our permanent location at work, and its kind of been non-stop since then.

Looking up

Oh goodness…where to begin?

Lots of good things happening.

I’ll try to get completely caught up on the blogs I’ve started or otherwise planned to write over the weekend. It’s only Wednesday and this week has been insane. I started my new full time position at work. I’ve been a bundle of nerves and anxiety, but it seems to be going well so far. And I certainly can’t complain about the extra money.

I’m in for Tinkerbell race weekend, which is good, because now I have some time to save for my next race registration, which is Paris in October  (eeeeeeppppp!)

Between thunderstorms, bears, and work my running schedule is off kilter again. I plan to run tonight and I should get back on track by this weekend. I just need the insanity of this first week of getting everything figured out to subside. We are starting to get into a groove, so I should be able to get back into a routine pretty quickly.

What A Week

Welp, that default positive that I’ve been enjoying for the last two weeks is gone.

I’ve been spoonless pretty much all week, but once I tell you about last weekend it won’t be that surprising.

I’m behind on my running, just because I’ve been so overwhelmed with everything else that is going on, then on the days that I did plan on running, there ended up being bear sightings, which put a prompt end to that plan.

I’m Feeling

Its a new Dawn. Its a New Day. Its a New Life for me. And I’m Feeling….Good

Its a new week and I’m still riding those good feelings from last week. While it is still weird to have a default positive, I’m going to enjoy it for as long as it lasts. It’s so weird to have my emotional score be so high.

Who are you and what have you done with Sadness?

My Motivational Score is still low, but that is more from exhaustion/lack of sleep than from my mood. Apparently my sleep sucks so bad that I’m only getting about 4 hours of real sleep a night. That would explain my lack of energy.

Sometimes Good Weeks Happen

When you have depression, it’s pretty easy to just trudge through a life of black and grey where everything is either bad or not so bad (if you can feel anything at all). Good things may happen, but they are just tiny blips on the radar filled with blah.

But every once in a while, I have one of those weeks where things don’t feel quite so hopeless.

via Hyperbole and a Half

This is one of those weeks