Motivation

It has returned. My old self!!! I don't know where it has been over the past several years, maybe my kids stole it from me, but alas it has returned! I use to push myself to complete things, stay up a little later to get something done, or just plain cared that all my ducks were in a row before bed. Somewhere along the way I had lost that. I knew that I had lost it. I would wonder why it didn't bother me that I had clothes on the closet floor or that there were left overs sitting on the counter when I went to sleep. I secretly wished for "me" to return, but it was waiting for the right moment. Somewhere around a couple of months ago, maybe it was the move, that did it to me, I started to realize that I cared again. I missed me. I missed my motivation. You know what else has returned?? My motivation to start running again. For those of you who know me I am sure you are surprised that I ever stopped working out. I ran track competively in college and was a polevaulter that required at least 3 hours a day of training and competing throughout the year. I was physically and mentally tough, but when the rigors of the working world got ahold of me after graduation the working out fell to the way side. Then there were kids. They are a great excuse not to workout. For all you Moms you know what I mean. Chasing after kids all day is a workout in itself. Then I looked at the calendar and realized it had been 6 years. No working out.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to return to the gym. I use to be a distance runner in junior high, that was light years ago, and could run until the cows came home. As I got older I became faster so there was no need to run very far. I realized then that I lost my mental toughness for distance. Over the past couple of weeks at the gym, I've decided I want my mental toughness back. I don't want to lift weights like I did in college, I want to challenge myself to distance. So, I started off with walking/running 5 miles and by this past Tuesday I ran 6 miles in 61 minutes. Now, I did take a couple of quarters to walk, but jumped right back into my pace so that I could complete my workout in the hour I alotted. I felt great!! I'm motivated!! So, I finally pulled my Nike+ gear back out and decided to get serious. I spent last night downloading more inspirational running music, aka, loud, fast music, and a great treadmill workout by the cycling superstar Lance Armstrong. He is suppose to tell you when to speed up, slow down and not to quit when you're on that last mile. I'm excited. I'm also excited about the Nike+ website. If you're not familiar with the Nike+ product, it is a little gadgit that fits into your shoe and then it is linked to your ipod. You can sync your pace with the ipod and it will keep track of your workouts, distance, time and imix for your workout. When you're done you come home, upload the data from your ipod and Nike+ keeps up with the info. They graph your workout and keep track of your pace and mileage. It is AWESOME!! They even put a widget on your desktop that has a little runner that tells you how far you've gone and how much further so everytime you sit down, you think, I really need to go run. I'm on a high right now. Mark bought this for me last year after Hayden was born, but I am just now using it. I set some goals on my personal page and I'm hoping to run 100 miles in 4 weeks. Jumping into you say??? Yep. That's me. I'll probably get burned out or injured, but for right now it has been a great release at the end of the day when the kids have gone to bed and I can have me time on the treadmill and the sweat pouring down. It feels terrific!! Someone join me!! You can set up challenges with your friends and even enter competitions online. If you are not a treadmill person they even have a map that you can locate other runner that use Nike+ and have mapped milage routes. If you need a 2 mile run in your area, go online and see if anyone in your area has mapped one out. So, who's with me???? It could be fun!!!!