Thursday, February 6, 2014

Finding motivation

I ran a whooping 10.5 miles in January, which is better than the mangy 6.5 miles I ran in December.  Working overtime and being sick for two weeks did me in.  I know, excuses.  I feel my best, my most productive, as the day plods on.  For years and years and years, I ran at night, mostly because of work but it did fit best with my body at the time.  Kids aside, I tend to function best as a night owl.  Now, maybe not so much.

If I could walk in the door at night, immediately change into my running clothes and go, I would be fine.  But I have three kids and I've been gone all day, so I can't do that.  Most nights, my first opportunity to hop on the treadmill doesn't happen until 8:15 or later.  And as of late, that's too late.  I've had some bad nights of sleep this week, mostly because of myself and not the kids.  I'm a painfully light sleeper and any noise at all, like someone else breathing, can keep me awake.  The other night, I missed out on an hour and half of sleep, mainly because of work drama and politics.

I'd been tossing around the idea of morning running as an alternative and if you know me, you know that I normally never consider mornings to be an option.  I hate running in the morning, especially during the week when I'm tied to a train schedule.  I've basically thrown out the idea for now for two main reasons: the treadmill (or the blaring music) would wake up Grammy early on the nights she sleeps over and it's too cold and icy out.  It doesn't matter to me if it's forty degrees or zero degrees; it's too cold.

febr6

Plus, I really don't have a death wish.  Maybe I'll reconsider when spring shows up and we have sidewalks again.

I normally hate "challenges" or projects with rules, such as the photography 365 thing. (I know, so strict: take a picture every day and post it.)  Maybe it's because I've been dealing with work "rules" for almost 20 years.  Wear this, don't wear that.  Say this, don't say that.  I like to keep the rest of my life easy and as rule-free as possible.  Anyway, I set up a little, easy running challenge for myself to get going again - run 1 mile a day for 5 days in a row.  I'll then take 2 days off and set up another challenge.  Today was the first day and I ran my mile.

I hope winter ends before I go into hibernation mode.  

4 comments:

Rebecca said...

Good for you! Motivation is SO HARD. Sounds like a really positive plan, good luck this week :o)

Have you ever tried a white noise machine for sleeping through little noises? My husband is the lightest sleeper and without a white noise machine, he can barely sleep at all (we live in an apartment).

Katie said...

Ugh, I feel your pain. I'm in a snowy cold area too and I cannot deal with the lack of running. Only a few more months!

Sarah said...

Rebecca - I used to sleep with a fan and still do when I'm able to catch a nap. At night though, I don't like to use it because I want to listen for the girls in case something happens.

Katie - It's just so cold, I don't even want to change clothes!

Sarah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.