Dead Last Trumps Did Not Start

If you run without any reason, you are just chasing the wind.
Wesley Korir, 2012 Boston Marathon Winner
This weekend I biked down to the boardwalk and tried to run. After about 3 miles, I was exhausted. Do you guys ever feel that way? Thus, I found this picture extremely inspiring… because I’m proud of myself for getting out there. After beating myself up, I biked back and worked on my strength training routine I’ve been working on. Surprisingly enough, I was able to hold my planks and V-sits for longer than I’d ever done before! I may not be running my best right now, but I’m about to have some ripped abs :)
I’m really thankful that the weather is cooling down this week, and I’ll be able to get out and do a longer run! I’ve got to get some training in to be able to run in the Wicked 10k at the end of October! I’m planning on running it with friends, so we’re going to start our hard-core training soon (yes, I’ll still need to train for this race since I’ve been taking it easy this summer)! Here’s my post from last year: Wicked 10K, which I did in 59:24. My goal this year is to shave at least 10 minutes off that time, and get a time of 45:00 or under!

Motivated to Run

I had a question from one of my friends on Facebook, and thought I’d tackle it on here!  One of my friends Ashley asked:

How do you stay motivated to run? It seems like I am always starting, run for a few weeks and then I stop.

We are all motivated to run for different reasons. Some of us run to clear our minds or get out of the house and others run to lose weight or other athletic reasons. Many enter races in order to have events to train for, and others are motivated to simply run daily. I can’t tell you how to be motivated or how to fit it in because I don’t know all the details of your life, but I can let you know what works for me.

I love entering races with people. I have a few friends who are runners and they inspire me to keep training, and to get those long runs that must be completed on the weekends. Sometimes we even go out together to make sure we get the 10 miler run done in order to prepare for a race. It’s easy for me to get the long runs in, but a 2 hour run on Saturday with homework crushing me isn’t always the most motivating. So entering races with friends keeps me on track!

My whole life is written out in my planner. I’m not a control freak as much as I can’t remember when and where I’m supposed to be, what’s due, and when I’m supposed to go grocery shopping. So I write in my runs, my mileage, and treat it like everything else in my planner. Mandatory. When I finish, I enter them into my Runkeeper App, and track my total mileage for the month. I’ve been averaging 50 miles of running/month since February, which is great for me! Finally, I celebrate all the small successes and take pride in my runs.

As much as I like running with people, it’s hard for me to match their pace, so I usually run alone. I still go to running groups, and still meet up with my girlfriends, but we usually end up splitting up so we can all meet our running goals. It depends how you like to run, but sharing my running goals with a running community has been the best motivator of all!

I also thought I’d share some of my blogger friends blogs I stalk, since they’ve really motivated me to run: Running in Heels, My Pinky Toes, and of course LuluLemon.

If you have questions for me, feel free to put them in the comments section or post them on my Facebook wall. I’d love to do some research and respond in a blog!