Words to Live By

Lately, my feelings towards running can summed up by the Tweet below. For me, frustration with my running has led to lack of motivation, which leads to more frustration - and the vicious cycle continues. In an effort to dig myself out of my pity party hole, I've been doing a lot of inspirational reading, hoping to get struck by the motivational genie. And, finally I came across some words that struck a cord.

"I want to challenge anyone who's had an injury to remain hungry. I know your pain. I've been there. Stay focused. Surround yourself with positive people. Work as hard as possible and picture where you want to be, not where you are. Who cares how good you were before the injury. Work to be better. Don't get discouraged. Control the things you can control. Pick up your bible and keep the faith. Adversity doesn't build character, it reveals it. Once you have wrestled, everything else in life is easy. Stay strong. I did it. I never looked back. You can too." -Jordan Burroughs, Olympic Wrestler

A-freaking-Men. Belief starts from within.

MIA

Uh, hello? It's been awhile. Not that anyone has been sitting on the edge of their seats waiting to read my ramblings, but I'll explain my absence anyway. I've been on what I call an extended off season.

January is always my busiest month at work as I am the race director for an event the first weekend in February (it's done now, hooray!). I started off the year injured, then got sick and missed several days of work, got back to work and was slammed and behind the eight ball preparing for said event this past weekend and just didn't have (make) time to blog or read blogs.

To be honest, I don't have much to write about on the running front anyway. I've not been doing much spectacular on the running front lately, and in actuality most of my running has been quite lackluster. I put together a string of about a week and a half of decent training, but only managed to workout 3 times last week for a whopping total of 20 miles. I think I mentioned before that I decided to pull the plug on a Spring Marathon in early January when my hip issue began flaring up again. As bummed as I was initially about not chasing down a PR this Spring, I honestly think it was a blessing in disguise. With injury + sickness + work, I would have really stressed myself out trying to stick to an aggressive training plan. But without anything on the horizon, if I missed a workout or 3, it's no big deal.

The weird thing is that I really haven't missed training for something big. I guess after being go-go-go for years, my mind and body has enjoyed the break. It's been really nice to do whatever workout I feel like doing (or not doing) for the day. It's been nice to stay up later, sleep in when I feel like it, and spend more time saying "yes" to invitations that I would normally turn down because I need to be to bed early for a big workout in the morning. There were times when I would start to feel guilty (and bemoan because my pants are fitting tighter) but I always reminded myself that I would get back to training when the time was right, and when I was ready. On my terms. As much as I've loved not really training, I know there will come a point where it gets old, I get bored, feel like a fat & lazy slob, and a fire will light under my ass and get me excited again about chasing down a big goal. I am not quite at that point yet, but I know it will come.

So, for now, I'm coining one of my husband's favorite sayings when I ask him what his running goals are:
"My goal is not to have any goals." There you have it folks; my goal for Spring.