Motivation Monday- Hoppin' Back on Track

This week I am motivated by thankfulness. I'm thankful for my health, although I've had some pain recently I am still a overall very healthy person. I'm thankful for the support and love of my family and friends. I'm thankful for my awesome job and coworkers that I love. I'm thankful for the hottub at my gym... :) 

I am trying to hop back on track this week, post-injury, with my workout schedule. It's a bit lighter than in past weeks, but still trying to make it to 300 minutes of exercise, not including yoga. I ended up knocking my long run out of the way early this week; I didn't get one in last week (was supposed to do an 8 miler) and I have the Corktown 5k this week so I wanted to get my long run out of the way well before the race. I ended up pulling out 8.5 miles, which is my longest distance to date. I still look back and think about how I used to HATE running- I wasn't able to run 1 mile.

I'm still building up my mileage- I have been running for 10 minutes, pausing the treadmill for about :45 seconds to take a water break, then repeat. I'd like to space out my break intervals eventually but I can do that once I get to 13.1!

Workout Plan for the week of 3/4-

• Monday: Long run 8.5 miles (78 mins)
• Tuesday: StrongLifts & Upperbody weights & Yoga flow class (135 mins)
• Wednesday: Bootcamp class (60 minutes)
• Thursday: Hill reps 3.5 miles (50 mins)
• Friday: Practice 5k  @ race pace (8:30/mile) 3.1 miles (25 mins)
• Saturday: StrongLifts & Upperbody weights (45 mins)
• Sunday: Corktown 5k! (25 mins)

What's keeping you on track this week? :)

Fitness Friday

I'm finally getting back into the swing of things after a week-long 'hiatus' of sorts. Last Wednesday I somehow re-aggravated my neck injury (it seems to re-appear every March anyway), and that was FRUSTRATING! I spent several days feeling sorry for myself and beating myself up, along the lines of, "What did I do wrong?", "Why is this happpening to me?". Then I got over it. Although I did sort of whine like a baby, I am proud of three things during this week:

• I did not turn to emotional eating to comfort myself, & constitently logged my calories & exercise
• I continued to work out, even if it was just walking/slower running vs. my usual StrongLifts routine
• I took the injury seriously- I iced my neck/back almost every day, as well as spent time in the hot tub

These are three things I would have had a hard time doing 6 months or a year ago, and it feels great to know that my habits have changed for the better.

I also had a realization, which I shared on Twitter this week:

Kinda goofy, I know! But after taking a 5 day break from pushing it hard at my workouts like I usually do, I couldn't resist- on Sunday, I ran at an all-out pace for 6 miles. It felt AWESOME! I didn't realize how much I has missed running, and pushing myself that hard, but boy did I! Realizing that was probably my high of the week!

What was your high of the week?

Race Schedule- My Plan for 13 in 2013

As I've mentioned, I'm planning to run 13 races this year, or 1 per month, with one extra! Why did I decide to do this crazy thing? Two simple reasons: Motivation. Accountability.

Here's my race list for the year. I've registered for some of these, and others are just races I'm interested in.


It's been fun and exciting to searching for races in the area, decide what distances I want to run, and even set some "stretch goals" for myself. The big GLARING stretch goal on that list is a HALF MARATHON- WtF?!?! The fact that I registered for the Freep Half Marathon is probably a good indicator of two things: 1) I'm crazy! and 2) I have really changed my habits in the past 5 months! As my hubs pointed out, "Last year, you would have been like, 'Run one mile? Nooo!!!'"

I'm scaling up in mileage accordingly, both trying to grow my weekly base of miles run total, as well as building up to be able to run 13.1 miles in. a. row. This week, I ran 12 miles total, and my longest run was a 6 miler, aka 10 km, which is my longest distance run to date; I still have some work to do! Luckily, I have 8.5 months to train. Oh goodie!

Here are links to some of the races I'm thinking about. If you're a fellow Southeastern Michigan runner, or a #runchat buddy from afar who'll be in town, I'd love to run with you- let me know!

Join Me!
Commitment Day 5k
SuperBowl 5k
Shamrocks and Shenanigans
Falcon 5 Miler
Run 4 a Reason
Girls on the Run 5k
Dexter-Ann Arbor Run
MOTTEP Life Walk/Run
Island Lake Sprint Triathlon
Birch Run Charity 10k
Detroit Free Press Half Marathon

I'm still deciding on a training plan for the Freep. 
Any Half Marathon training suggestions, or tips for a newbie?