I Found It! It was right Outside!

I had been in a funk of sorts over the last week. I had a lot going on with work, I had some traveling to do and I was nursing a sore hamstring, so that gave me permission to slack. I had tweaked my hamstring at the last trail run 10K on a Sunday and I self diagnosed that I should rest it for awhile. So I did nothing (except for my crunches) for a couple of days and then the day I went out of town, I did a measly slow 3 miles. The hamstring felt fine by then.

I got back Thursday night and life was still hectic with family obligations and basketball games and play practice and tennis tournaments, it was just one of those days where everything is happening at once. So it took some planning to pull it all off. It also made for a long day. My head told me to ride my bike when I got home, but my body screamed "BEDTIME". My bed won.

Friday is a scheduled rest day every week, so I continued with that and didn't do anything. The kiddos were gone to a Disciple Now weekend at church and Granny was keeping the little guy, so me and my bride took off and grabbed a room at the Memphis Hilton. We slept in till 10:00 the next morning!  HEAVEN!!!!

So anyways, I knew I had to get back on schedule, back to my training plan. My plan called for a 6 mile run that day. I really had no desire to go, but I literally forced my self to go (after I finished watching the Daytona Nationwide series!  Did you see that crash at the end of the race? Crazy!) It probably took me 30 minutes to get ready, cause I was in no hurry. When I say I had no desire to go, I can not emphasize how much I did not want to run that day! 6 miles sounded like a lot to me that day, so I decided to break it up, thinking that would make it easier. We are lucky enough to live near a walking trail that is not used by many. I literally can run 3.2 miles on it without having to hit the road for more than 1/4 mile. It's great! I decided that I would run this twice, rather than trying to run all around the neighborhood trying to hit 6 miles. The main point of this was to trick my brain.

This actually worked for me. The first loop went by fairly quickly, and as I made the turn for the 2nd loop, I started thinking to myself that now is the time to start getting serious. If I want that sub 2:40 Olympic triathlon time, I have to start hitting it. I have to start being more intentional about my workouts. This actually turned out to be a better run than I would have imagined it would have been before I left. And it carried over to Sunday with my bike. I had a good, strong ride while watching the Daytona 500.

I think the spark to my motivation was just getting outside on a beautiful Memphis day and running. I really had zero expectation besides just finishing the run and getting the miles in. Also I understood, that there are going to be days where a run is simply that, just a run. It is not going to be fast, it is not going to be made up of a workout, it is going to to be hard to get motivated to get out there, and I guarantee there will be a race sometime this year where I want to give up and walk it in.That is where this run will come in handy, that run is what will get me to the finish line. It did not take me long to be glad I was out there running.