Dad used to say that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
I was determined to get up and ride yesterday, but the muscle relaxer that I took the night before had a different plan. I did however, get up today and do 3 miles (3.3 if we're being exact). It was a good run and I was relatively happy with my pace. I started out slow and was able to run negative splits rather easily; I didn't have any specific pace goals in mind when I started other than to make each mile faster than the last and I accomplished that. As a matter of fact, the last 1.3 miles was at 8:32. Certainly not fast by most standards, but a pretty good pace for me nonetheless.
On a non running related note, looks like we may actually have some decent movies this summer. 3 at least. The new TMNT movie is out soon, Transformers hits in July and I just saw the Underdog trailer the other day. I'm really hoping that they don't screw that one up, it would be really depressing. I used to love that cartoon as a kid. It would be ideal if the local drive in gets all 3 of them at some point, because I'm sure that Jack will love each of them, but I have no desire to take a 2 year old to the movie theater. I'm sure that my fellow movie-goers will thank me for that.
Getting ready for: 6th annual Bolt Run 5k in Downtown Tampa, 31 March 07
ARRRGGHH!! I was all ready to just get up and head out for a couple of miles this morning, but I turned the alarm off instead of hitting snooze. That's so frustrating! Here I was ranting about my consistency yesterday and then blow it again today. I guess it's like that guy in the movies; the cop that's days away from retirement who gets killed right after laying out what he's going to do when he's retired, or the private in the war movies who buys it days away from shipping home to his high school sweetheart to get married. Tomorrow, I get up and head out for a ride. No excuses, no B.S., just consistency.
Then, to top it all off, it was a really busy morning at work today. Non-stop calls for about 3 hours... it sucked. I have got to get off the phones; I've been taking calls for 7 years now and I think it's time to be done. The only problem is that we're currently in the middle of busy season, and they've implemented a freeze on all new positions and transfers. Oh well, keeping my eyes open for anything that might come along. I've just got to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Too bad they don't have a "get paid to stay at home and ride your bike or run all week" position. Pretty sure that I could master that one pretty quickly.
Well, it's been a busy week and it's kept me from posting. Only ran once this week aside from today. Today was a pretty good run; 6 miles, decent pace (for me), nice weather and a nice sunrise. Mornings like this are what make me want to keep at this. I need to make a more concerted effort at consistency. If I can only manage to run 2 times a week, I'll never make any kind of improvement in my pace/distance and I'll be stuck at 209 pounds. Maybe I can use this morning as motivation; if I was able to get up and run after early daylight savings time, I should be able to get up and run/bike on a normal day. If I can do that for a few weeks, it will become a habit and easier to do every day. So, that's what I'm shooting for.
Getting ready for: 6th annual Bolt Run 5k in Downtown Tampa, 31 March 07
So, I got enough sleep last night and didn't really have any problem getting out of bed today to ride. Although, I was a bit disorganized and took a while getting out the door. The ride itself was fine and fairly uneventful. It was overcast and a bit chilly so, no pics of the sunrise because there really wasn't one.
Well, I was supposed to ride today, but didn't. There was a bit of a situation last night that resulted in a late night "we need to talk" session that had me up until 1am and then I didn't sleep well after that. There was no way I was rolling out of bed 3½ hours later when the alarm went off. Oh well... tomorrow, none of this should be an issue and I'll do a longish ride then. A couple of hours alone on the bike in at daybreak will probably do wonders. Maybe I'll bring the camera along and try to get some pics of the sunrise or something.
So, last summer my bike was stolen and I had to replace it. It was a second-hand, mid-80ish Peugeot in pretty decent shape and may not have been anything special, but it was mine and after much trial and error, I had it fit to me perfectly. When I replaced it, all I could afford was a Schwinn Varsity from Wal-Mart. It's a decent bike, but I've been tweaking it for months and it simply is still not as comfortable. It's really a drag.
So, basically, I had a rather disappointing ride yesterday. The whole thing just felt "off", so I cut it short. Then this morning, about 2 minutes into my run, my knees both made it known that they were not on board with my choice of activities. Perhaps if I'd gotten a little more sleep, I'd have been a little more motivated and able to overrule them, but they shouted me down. Maybe tomorrow will be better.
I ran the 15k in the Gasparilla Distance Classic on the 17th and took a week off after. (read: was too lazy to drag my ass out of bed) Today, I finally mustered up the will power to get up and go for an easy 2½ miles. As tired as I was when I rolled out and then hit the road in the dark, I felt really good walking back up the driveway when I was done. Felt like I finally shook off whatever malaise has been hanging around me for a few weeks. I definitely feel more motivated and am eagerly anticipating getting back on my bike tomorrow.
