my fear of the acronym D.N.F.

I struggled with consistently working out this week and finally got my butt in gear and did a 10 mile run this morning.   As I acended the hill on Coalton Trail I was riding myself pretty hard about why I elected for the past 3 mornings to stay in my warm and cozy bed rather than head off to masters swim or spin class.   Then I came to the realization I was really worried about being listed as a DNF in my race in 2 weeks.  For those that are not up to date on racing acronyms DNF stands for Did Not Finish, or in my mind Definitely Not (gonna happen) =Failure.  Okay so I have a tendency to over emblish things.  So why would I self sabotage my ability to finish by not getting my work outs in?  I have hundreds of self defeating reasons, but the bottom line is I am afraid of being able to really handle the length and mental challenge of the race and that I am not sure what I will do with myself once I finish it.   I had a similiar fear last year as I came in the home stretch with my marathon training and I will admit that post race I felt lost and not sure how to best redirect my "need to train energy".  I am not one of those people who loves to exercise.  If I am running, biking, or swimming I do it with a purpose in mind, rarely because I just felt like it.

Its also worth mentioning that I run with an ipod full of music from "Disney" peeps and Glee and that this alone is like mental therapy.  Its hard to be down listen to any of this stuff.  About 5 miles into my run I realized part of what I really do like is the challenge of the training and then racing was just to prove the point that all of that training was worth it. I would like to thank Miss Miley Cyrus and her song The Climb to remind me of this point.

And then I got a lil more inspiration from the Biebs to stop all that negative self talk.

Okay you can stop laughing your ass off at me now.    I have plenty of normally kick me in the ass running music like 3OH!3, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga and the like.

The net is I came out of the run refocused to just do my best and not worry so much about finishing, because what matters more is the doing and the trying in the effort to finish.  If the finish happens great, I will just start over again with something else new.

I closed out my run to one of my favorites - 

Tomorrow is a 56 mile ride of the bike course.

the importance of Body Glide on your Attitude

I discovered Body Glide last year during my marathon training.  I came to realize quickly how important this can be when you need run 6+ miles and want to avoid blisters in all sorts of places beyond your feet.  Trust me when I say a heart monitor can cause the mother of all blisters.

As I ran my miles this am on the treadmill  I was annoyed I forgot to pack my mighty stick of body glide. I did knock out 4 miles, but ended up with a blister, but I can't tell you where.

Then as my day progressed I found myself wishing I had body glide for all of me.   Like a ultra layer that keeps all of the annoyances of the day from really bugging me and festering into a blister.  How cool would that be if someone could invent a pill that gave you that state of mind to not get annoyed and with no side effect on your brain allowing you to make rational decisions? 

I realize that all that wishing can be redirected to my attitude and my choice of how I elect to respond to everyday annoyances.  I can't stop the fact that the blister is going to manifest itself, but I can choose how much I want to focus on it, and bitch and moan about it.

A good quote that recaps this is by Charles R. Swindoll.  “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

So I have a bandaid on my booboo on my boo**, and pressed the reset button on my attitude.

Excuses, excuses, and other general BS....

So the summer has flown by.   I have been through summer swim team, an Olympic Tri (which completely kicked my ass), quarter end, and now back to school. 

My goal for the fall is not to be completely crushed/humiliated by the half iron man on September 11th.   I will do my best to hang tough with my swim/bike/run regime for the next 30 days.  I am kicking around the idea of writing the names of some people who lost their lives on 9/11/2001 in remembrance during the tri to help keep me motivated and focused on what I am able to accomplish. 

I had someone ask about my blog last week.  One of my (5) followers (wow I rock) and I realized  have been completely neglecting my accountability factor in my training from what I did last year and blogging and FB updates as  I trained for my marathon.

Here is my commitment to the world out there.  I will at least post once a day until 9/11/2011 on how my training is going.

Here is a quick recap for this week.  Sunday, I did a swim/spin brick-  30 minutes spin (with sprints) on my own + 30 minutes in the outdoor pool.  I felt lazy on Sunday.   But that is because on Saturday I did a 90 minute outdoor ride and then ran 6 miles and I felt GREAT during the workout, but needed  nap in the afternoon to recover.

Monday, was the first day of school.   I was very too focused on my girls in the morning and did not work out.  However,  I did a quick outdoor bike (45 min) for lunch.  It was freakin hot!  It over 85 degrees and a sh**load of traffic at 11am, which completely freaks me out.    I completely smoked Alan-( my husband) small personal victory, but I think that is b/c he had worked out earlier that day and was riding an antiquated bike.  But, hell it felt really good to be faster than him for a change.  Sorry hunny, love you though.

Today (Tuesday) I got a late wake up call  so I worked out for 17 minutes, exactly. I ran sprints.   I am in San Diego and I have to say I friggin love running at sea level!  I should have worked out when I came back from meetings today, but I elected to drink wine and catch up on email.  My bad. 

I do have an early wake up call and plan on running BEFORE I get on the plane tomorrow.  The flip side is to see if I can squeeze a bike or swim tomorrow after I get home after work.  Really need to squeeze in some type of double/brick.

I have to admit I hate working out in the afternoon, in fact my brain is way happier working before 3pm.    So an afternoon workout is almost like brain damage.

Here are the best excuses for not working out that I have found personally and/or posted on line:

1. I don't have the time.  Well, no one does.  Therefore you must make the time. So wake up 30 minutes earlier and go a for a walk/run, bike,etc , its that simple.  Get your ass out of bed and just get it done.  You will not die by waking up 30 minutes earlier.  Or exercise in 10 minute intervals in between calls or meetings.   I know you can find 30 minutes.

2.  I don't have anyone to work out with .   Ya know what you are your best company.  Hanging with just you, yourself, and I is not a bad thing for 30- 60  minutes.  Enjoy the solitude and time to hash out all of those self discussions.  You might just decide you really like yourself and want to kick some ass.

3.   I would rather spend 30 more minutes sleeping.  This one is  hard one for me to argue.  I am a huge advocate for sleep, BUT the upside on exercising is so monumental that the benefits for exercise, even just a walk far out weigh the extra 30 minutes of sleep.  So, put your work out clothes and tennis shoes RIGHT NEXT to the bed.  Let the alarm go off, change clothes in a blur and head out the door with some rockin tunes.  By the time you get back you will be awake and in a kickin mood to make a positive difference in your life and the lives of others.

off to bed now, I have an early wake up call to run then FLY!