I saw this quote on Tumblr the other day and thought it was the perfect quote for where I am these days. It’s a mindset that I need to maintain as I find it very easy to get into the doldrums of exercise. Meaning I will do my workout but not even be present while working out. My body is in it, but my head is not. So in the end my workout was not that great, and I didn’t get much out of it as I was thinking about something else, like the laundry, or when I’m picking up DS or..or…or. So when I saw that quote I realized I needed to work on being more present in the workout to get more out of the workout. I needed to challenge myself more so I can see the changes I want to see.
I think part of the issue is I’ve been doing the same workouts for some time, and I really need to mix it up to see results. My body has gotten so used to my daily 5 mile run, the same course, the same trees, that I need to either change the course up, run at a faster pace, or just completely change everything to keep my body guessing.
There is a nice nature trail near my house that I used to run all the time but haven’t done so since last summer, or it might have been 2 summers ago. I think I’ll starting running there. It’s a pretty woodsy trail with some inclines, which will be great for me as I won’t be used to the trail and every once in a while I can work on intervals by sprinting to a tree and jogging to the next tree. I need to be more focused so I can get more out of these workouts and I think this will do the trick.
I signed up for a 10 miler in July that I’m really looking forward to. It’s a fun race that I’ve done before called “Run for the Hill Of it” which for one is the best name ever for a race and two it’s pretty tough as the last mile is on a pretty steep incline. While 10 miles is a long run, my cardio should be fine, I just need to work on my speed as I really want to beat my brother who seems to always beat me. Yes he’s older and has usually beaten me in most races since we were kids, but a 10 miler would be the ultimate place to get a better time than him. So I have 4 months to really tune up and get faster.
Part of my plan will also focus on nutrition, I am usually a pretty healthy eater but for this I’m going to start logging the foods I eat to make sure I’m getting enough protein and carbs. I’ll be burning through a lot of calories and if I want to recover well I need to make sure I’m eating the right percentages of each. I’ll post more on this topic at a later date.
