run out of excuses.

lets be honest, just when i feel like i’ve got a grip on this workout thing, motivation drops, life goes crazy and then POOF, an excuse appears. its like magic, really. just when i need a reason not to get that run in, life almost always throws me a bone and gives me a solid reason not to.

take last week for instance. in a normal week, we operate at the level of busy, which is manageable, but much easier when you are firing on all cylinders. but then the stomach flu hit me. i had no choice but to sit life out for a day and do my best to recover. losing a day out of your week is hard and then trying to make up for it while you still aren’t one-hundred percent is even harder. 

so with 2 weeks until the colfax half-marathon, this weekend was supposed to be my longest training run, the grand finale, final push of training, if you will. but i was dehydrated and weak from being sick. i didn’t want my last big run before the race to be horrible and possibly injure myself or even get sick while running (no one wants that!). so i didn’t do it. 

but then i started feeling bad. excuses are so easy. and while this was a pretty good one, nothing about training for a race is supposed to be “easy.” and while the stomach flu wasn’t a part of the training plan, excuses aren’t either.

20,000 steps before 8:00AM!

so i found a way. it involved waiting an extra day to know that nasty flu was behind me. it meant getting up at 5:15am and starting my run in the dark so i could be home to be with mason in time for dr. chris to head up to adjust his sunday morning patients. it wasn’t the easy way. or the way i wanted to do it. but the satisfaction i got from pushing myself beyond the excuses was more than worth it. it wasn’t the 11 miles i was supposed to do this weekend, but 9.5 miles felt far greater than doing none and letting the excuses win. 

i’m not saying this is how it goes every time i want to sit one out. but this is a great reminder for me that the easy way doesn’t feel so good. and when the calendar is full and it doesn’t seem like there’s time to squeeze that run in, take a second look. 

but i’m not gonna lie, the nap i’m about to take is going to feel pretty amazing too!

- kristen