Motivation

Work is kicking my butt right now.  I've got meetings back to back the only three days I'm there this week.  Monday was a holiday and Friday the kids have off school for some reason that escapes me now.  Since I'm in meetings all the time, I have no time to actually do work.  Also, at many of the meetings, I get more work.  I did a little on Monday morning, despite the holiday.  I may need to work some of the time on Friday, too (from home, fortunately). 

The kids are old enough to not need constant guidance, or any intervention at all for hours on end now.  So I may need to use at least half the day on Friday to dig out from under the hole.  I'm lucky I've got a place to work with flexible hours and the ability to work from home.  Otherwise I might let this week cause a bunch of stress I don't need. I guess I just need to manage my expectations and ensure I'm being realistic in what I can do by when.  All will work out fine in the end.

I haven't done great with exercise lately.  Until today, I've had nothing to report since my mediocre run on Thursday after my "fill."  I did a lot of standing and walking around all day on Sunday when I was officiating a swim meet for about 8 hours, but that was not cardio, certainly.

Today I ran again, though.  The kids were at swim team practice and I went to RPAC to take advantage of the track as has been my MO the past few weeks.  I thought about running outside since it wasn't too cold today and the rain over the past week has expedited the snow melt.  However, I decided against the outside workout when I was reminded of my doctor's response when I told him I was running . . . "Not outside, right?!?!"  I guess he didn't want me to slip and fall on ice, black or otherwise, and make more troubles for myself by ripping his beloved stitchwork.  We certainly have the same goals about his stitchwork, so I decided to play it safe.

I ran 2 miles but stopped for a quick water break off the clock after each mile.  Then I walked about a half mile (on the clock) and ran the rest of the 5K distance.  If I ignore the water stops, I did the 5K in 36:40, and that's not too bad considering my half mile of walking.  My miles were 10:26, 10:24, and 14:37. 

My right knee was acting up during the run.  It felt like it needed to pop or stretch or something.  I tried a quick stretch at the 1 mile water stop, but it didn't help.  It got a little better as I went along but never went away.  Strange.  I don't usually have knee issues.  Usually it's a calf or hip acting up.  Oh well.  I'm going to treat it like an anomaly and ignore it for now.  Hopefully it won't recur when I run again.  Hopefully I'll run again before 4 more days pass. 

Today I also had a nice lunch with a colleague and friend.  She was keeping up with the blog so I didn't need to give an update.  Instead, we talked about exercise motivation and as we talked I reminded myself how much easier it was when I had a training plan and I knew which days I had to run and which days I didn't have to run.  On the days I didn't have to run, there was no guilt.  Just a piece of mind.  And on the days I was scheduled to run, I had less procrastination and arguing with myself because I already knew it was a day to run.  I should try that again.  However, that much structure would necessitate running outside sometimes since I can't always get to RPAC on a regular schedule.

Only 9 more days for me to decide whether to have my surgery before or after the implant surgery.  Get your vote in now!  It's on the top right section of my blog.  Of course, I'll do whatever I want anyway, but it's fun to use the cool vote feature to engage everyone in playing along.  I know . . . what a geek I am.