Motivating yourself!

I miss Jamaica :(

Today I went into the gym thinking, I only have to do 25 minutes of running today according to my training plan, but last time I was only suppose to do 25 minutes I did 30 and I was ok.  So I was going to see what my run was like and see if I could make it to 30 minutes, but I was going to be happy with 25 minutes.  So I got started, and as I'm watching the timer on the treadmill roll over 15 minutes I thought to myself, you're half way there you can do this.  A few moments later I realized that I didn't account for the 5 minute warm up walk I did and that I was actually 20 minutes away from the goal!  That really messed with my head.  All of a sudden those next 10 minutes were the hardest of my life.  When I had finally been running for 20 minutes I knew I would make it to 25 minutes, but still wasn't sure about the 30 minute goal.  Then as 25 hit I started really talking myself up.  "You've got this, you did it last time you can do it again."  "You took that 30 minute goal and kicked it's ass!" "You are going to feel better and look better if you do 30 minutes instead of quitting now."  That did it for me, I just kept repeating those mantras to myself and I was able to run the full 30 minutes.  I did just over 2.5 miles in 30 minutes and walked for another 10 minutes finishing at 3.3 miles.  (5 min warm up, 30 min run, 10 min cool down)

So I'm curious does anyone else have any mantras that they tell themselves to get through the toughest part of your workouts?

Oranges

Today I wanted to share one of my favorites things to do after a good run.  When I am done with a run I crave oranges more than anything!  I am thinking this is due to my years of playing soccer and always having sliced oranges at half time.  The association between running and oranges has stuck with me all these years.  I am just getting home from the gym right now, and I didn't run today (it was a cross train day), but I still went straight to my counter and grabbed a nice plump orange.  MMMmmmm! While I was at the gym I did the cross ramp again for 35 minutes and burned a little over 300 calories.  Tomorrow I plan on running another 30 minutes.  Wish me Luck!

Success!

So after taking 2 days off from the gym due to computer problems and a sister who got dumped :( I finally made it back today.  I went in knowing that I was going to be challenging myself by trying to do a 25 minute run! I got started and luckily I was able to get on a good treadmill with a built in fan right in front of the TV.  Even though it took me 15 minutes of slowly riding a sit down bicycle to find a free treadmill I was able to start running right away.  When I was about 10 minutes in this girl gets on the treadmill next to me and she and her friend were chatting SO LOUD!  Then on top of that she starts making call after call and talking very disrespectfully for being in a public place.  Finally she gets off after walking for 15 minutes and I am able to concentrate on my run again.  Then I look at the timer and realize I'm 10 seconds away from 25 minutes!  So thank you to the loud mouth lady who distracted me from the time.  Anyways since I was feeling good at 25 minutes I decided to keep going and see if I could go to 30 minutes.  As 30 minutes came around I was at the point where I knew stopping would hurt more than if I just kept running. But I was starting to get a side cramp so I stopped and felt amazing as I walked away from the gym. I was able to do 2.85 miles in 36 minutes.  I know that I won't be going to the gym tomorrow at all since I'm having a dinner/jewelry party so this makes up for it :)

I did it!

Well I went to the gym.  I actually had to go tonight if I planned on going tomorrow morning.  See my free pass expired yesterday and I had to go during their main business hours in order to sign up as a full member.  So if I didn't go tonight, I wouldn't go again until tomorrow evening.  And even though I have been telling myself to go to the gym in the morning for over a week now and haven't made it there before 4pm during the week.  Anyways back to tonights workout.  I did week 6 day 2 of the C25K plan.  Warm up, 10 min run (5.0), 3 min walk (3.5), 10 min run (5.0), cooldown.  I am super exhausted though.  I think it has something to do with the crap food that I ate today.  It was yummy then, but now I am regretting it.  So goodnight!

Need motivation......

Hello whoever is out there tonight, it is 6:45 pm here in CA and I am trying to talk myself out of going to the gym!  I have already eaten dinner and cleaned up most of it, but I still feel like not sitting on my butt and doing nothing! I need some words of motivation, or just a flat out threat would work, JK!  On the menu at our house tonight were sweet potato fries and mexican turkey burgers MMmmmmm.  One of the hubs favs!  

 
P.S. I'm busy watching The Office HaHaHa Love that show!

Start of Week 6!

So I woke up Saturday morning and knew that I had a lot to get done before going up to our cabin at 10am.

I needed to get laundry done, tidy the house a bit (I HATE coming home to a messy house), and get in a run.  So I started the laundry, got sweept away in Julie & Julia, and all of a sudden it was 9am!  So I finished up what I could and got to the gym a little late.  I still hadn't decided at this point whether I would do week 6 day 1 (5 min run, 3 min walk, 8 min run, 3 min walk, 5 min run) or just run for about 20 minutes.  When I got there though I figured that I should stick to the plan that C25K had for me, obviously it's a plan that works.  So I shortened my warm up and cool down in order to make it home by 10am and was still able to get in about 2.5 miles.  Had a lot of fun at the cabin too!

Couch 2 5k

So I don't think I mentioned last time what training plan I was using to train for the half marathon.  I am beginning with couch 2 5k to get myself up to the bridge to 10k plan.  Since I have been an on and off runner I started in week 5: Day 1 run 5 minutes, walk 3, run 8, walk 3, run 5.  Day 2: run 8, walk 5, run 8. Day 3: run 20 minutes.  Monday I did week 5 day 2, and it did not treat me well at all.

I did realize 1/2 through my run that I could have slowed my pace a bit (from 5.5 to 5.0) and the second 1/2 of my run was much easier.  So today when I started my run I went in thinking I would re-do week 5 day 2 since I had a hard time getting through it Tuesday.  Well when my first 8 minutes were up I felt great.  I was running at a 5 mph pace with an incline of 1.0, and decided to just keep running.  I knew that the week 5 day 3 schedule was for me to run 20 minutes without stopping so I did that.  Then when that was over and I didn't feel like falling over and throwing up I kept going!  I could have gone until 25 minutes, but the 2 high school boys next to me were being high school boys so I decided to start walking until I hit 3 miles. I did this is 42 minutes tonight as opposed to 45 minutes on Tuesday.  So we will see what I can do Saturday morning!

Is anyone else out there training for a race?

Cross training day

I attempted to go to the gym again this morning.  I set my alarm for 5 am... stayed in bed until 7:20! So I went to the gym after work again, it was a little less busy and I was still able to get in some good cardio.  I haven't actually joined my gym I'm just doing a free week first.  When I join I will get some actual training sessions, and until then the weights are INTIMIDATING!  So I haven't touched them yet.  So today I did cardio, 45 minutes on a crossramp.  I burned 310 calories too :)

New goals!

So I have decided that this will be the year that I run.  I started running last year, and right before we bought our house was able to run about 5 miles at a time. Then we bought our house and all that running went out the window, and the place we moved to isn't the best neighborhood to run in.  But we do have a gym about 2 minutes away, so I went in today and signed up!  I have this grandiose idea that I will run a half marathon this year, but would be happy with a 10k.  I just hope that I can keep up this motivation to run and actually do it.  I always seem to loose track right before I hit my goal.  So today I ran/walk 3 miles in 45 minutes.

On a totally different note, I found out this weekend while visiting some friends that my husband has baby on the brain!!