Baby steps

It’s all about the baby steps

For a few weeks now, I’ve had serious trouble staying motivated and getting out to run.  Mostly, it’s been the hard days that I’ve skipped.  Which is so silly, bc the hard days are the ones that get you the PRs! Anyhow, I realized last week, that a great motivator for me is new things.

New shoes?  Sure, I’ll go for a 6 mile run to come back to that!

New compression socks? Well, I’ll go for a run to test them out!

I clearly like receiving things in exchange for a run.  So, if it’s not broken, why fix it?  Just work with it! And work with it, I did! I promised myself, that if I did a speed day AND a recovery run this week, I could earn a new pair of compression socks.  I did my tempo run yesterday.  Although it sucked (ALOT), I powered through, thinking about my new sweet socks.  So this afternoon, around 4:30, when all I wanted to do was fall asleep, I quickly thought of those colorful compression socks.  And then I went out for a run

And now, a new pair of compression socks will be mine! Which color should I get? Blue? Green?

So you see, that simple step has me one step closer to my race goal.  Which, btw, has been altered a bit.  Originally, my goal was to get a PR for the GW Parkway Classic.  Last year, I finished in 1:27, so this year I wanted to go under that.  Since I don’t think my body is where it was last year, I’ve changed it to just go under 1:30, which is about a 9min/mile pace.  1:27 would be great, but I’m not willing to hurt myself for this PR.  I still have MCM to look forward to!

AND, if I go under 1:30, I will have earned myself a new running watch!  I’m already doing lots of research in preparation!

Granted this new method of motivation will prob make me poor really quickly, but it will also make me run! And a running Daphne is a happy Daphne!

Let’s get motivated!

Today was a very long, slow, boring day.  Around 3pm, I decided that I was going to take a nap after work, and then maaaybe go for a run (read: probably not).  After chatting with this lady for a while, we decided to challenge each other to work out.  She promised to go to the gym and I promised to hit the roads.  So when I left work this evening, I knew what I had to do.

I arrived at my building, stopped to get the mail, and was greeted by this little guy:

NEW SHOES! I had ordered some shoes from DSW and they came! Nothing fancy, just new black pumps (my old ones look tired), but I was still SUPER excited to try them on!  I immediately told myself that I had to finish my run first, before I could open the box.  Motivator #1

Already super pumped to get this run over with, I walked into my room, and was promptly greeted by this sight:

That would be the clothes I set out for my Tuesday morning run.  Yep, the Tuesday morning run that didn’t happen.  That was motivator #2.  Make up for my Tuesday morning failure.

And then I remembered about this beauty!

I finally found the infamous Cookie Butter that everyone has been raving about! I can honestly say that it IS as delicious as everyone says! And I promised myself, after my run, I could enjoy a small spoonful of Cookie Butter.  Motivator #3

And with 3 things to get me out of my apartment, I was off! Since my watch is dead, I had no time/pace/anything.  Just me and my trusty iPod.  I’m pleased to say that I had a great run.  I just ran at a mildly hard pace, and I felt strong the entire time.  The last two miles, I really dug deep, and tried to push the pace.  Unfortunately, since I don’t have time, I don’t know if I was actually going fast, or if I was just working waaaay to hard.

(Let’s just say it was fast )

Originally, I was planning on doing some speed work on Thursday, but I’m not sure my legs will be ready for that tomorrow.  So I’ll just take it as is.  Maybe go for a short relaxed run and see how the legs feel.  If things feel good, then I’ll do some hills and striders (can’t do anything timed, whomp, whomp), if not, then I keep it easy.

SOMEONE MAKE SURE I GO FOR A RUN TOMORROW! Thanks!

p.s. totally enjoying some Cookie Butter and admiring my shoes right now

How do you get motivated? Shoes and food seem to work great for me!