Motivational Mondays - Coping With Setbacks, Battling Doubts, & Drawing Inspiration

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1)  Setback.
Sigh.


I know, "Sigh" is not a good way to start off a new week. A minor setback from my long run this past Saturday.  The dreaded Plantar Fasciitis (PF) strikes back.  Darn left foot.  So I'm focusing on what I can do about it now.  Like icing my foot every 20 minutes 3x daily.  And massaging the bottom of my left foot.  It hurts a little when I'm barefoot and walking around the house, so tomorrow I think I'm going to wear my Keen shoes inside my house.  

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Oh and did I mention I have my first race of the year this coming weekend?  A 14K.  Ya, great timing.  Oh and my half marathon is in a month too.  Ya, lovely.  I'm going to see how my left foot feels today (Monday) and see if I need to skip my 5-miler tomorrow (gulp).  I'm not worried (yet).  I'm looking at the 14K race as a training run - a long run - for my RnR DC Half, so it's ok (deep down I'm feeling, no it's not ok!! why?? why?? why??).

So I'm going to focus on exercising patience this week and "will" this PF out of my foot.  Wish me luck! Gosh, wish me luck, please!

2)  Battling Doubts

You know how you have good runs and then bad ones?  I had good and bad ones last week.  It's the bad ones that I can't seem to get out of my mind.  Like my long run over the weekend.  Yeah, the one that brought PF back.  I did a 10K with a friend.  Only a 10K, so I thought.  But I felt awful.  During the run, I wanted it to be so over.  It was so hard!  And to think just 2 days ago I was sky high after 5 miles.  It got me thinking about the full marathon I want to do this fall.  OMG!  Am I crazy?  What am I thinking?  If I feel like crap after a 10K, I don't want to be ME when I do 26.2.  I have friends (runners and non-runners) who are telling me how HARD and miserable 26.2 is!

So the doubts are creeping in big time.  Sigh.  Sniff.

And then I saw these.....

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3)  Drawing Inspiration

Despite how crappy I felt during my 10K this past Saturday, I did feel good at the end.  I was grateful to have the company of a good friend whom I re-connected with because of running, after years of busy-ness between us.  Re-connecting with her through running was a blessing.  Not only does she run (she is training for the Virginia Beach Shamrock Full Marathon), she is also an artist and a mom to boys too!  I am so ridiculously inspired by her!  She is training for a marathon AND making art - two things that can't seem to co-exist in my world.  To see her actually making that co-existence happen is HUGE to me.  So I took this little pic of one of her pieces to inspire me this week.  Perhaps having PF won't be so bad, it will make me make time for a painting this week??!!!  

What inspires and motivates you this week?

Three Things Thursday - Why It's Been A Great Day!

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As always, I'm a day behind.  How do you guys keep up with your tweets, blogs, and FB pages?  My days are packed like sardines, like today.  No, it's not packed like stress-ful packed - more like fun-packed.  If only all my days could be like today.  Balance is good.  Finding peace is good too.  Here's why today is good:

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1.  Running In The Rain.  Started the day off running in the rain with my C25K ladies.  I'm so proud of them for getting their butt out of their warm and dry houses to meet me outside for Week 3, Day 2 of our training.  I am so hoping they'll soon understand why I run in the rain, sleet, snow, and heat.  The fact that they keep coming to our training runs is a good sign!

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2.  Running In The Sun.  After running with my C25K ladies, I went off on my own for my 5-miler training run.  In the Sun!  Yup, sun came up just in time for my 5-miler and it was nice while it lasted.  It got cloudy, then a little drizzly, but it's been awhile since I ran solo, so it felt really good to have that alone time, just me and my wandering thoughts.  I got inspired by the pages I read last night from Christopher McDougall's Born To Run and tried to run like a kid again.  Didn't look at my Garmin, just went with feel and it felt amazing!  I was landing on my forefoot, and wow did I feel light on my feet!  When I finally looked at my Garmin, I was surprised/happy to see I ran faster compared to my last 5 miler last Tuesday AND it felt like it went by faster too!  Hmmm...

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3.  Catching Up With Friends.  With non-running friends.  It's so easy to just stick to running friends when you're training - at least that's what I find myself doing.  I love talking about running.  If people let me, I would.  Today, I caught up with two non-running friends and it was refreshing (in a weird way) to talk about something else other than your first race of the year.  Shocking, huh?  I did sneak in a little bit about running and yoga, but only because they were staring at me, horrified at the amount of food I was eating!  Hahaha!  It's what happens when you're rushing after your 5-miler to get back for preschool pickup and then off to meet friends for lunch.  I was STARVING. 

Anyways, it's been such a great day.  The sun is finally all out and I think we're going to play outside today before my guitar and drum lessons for my other 2 boys.

Did you have a great day today?  What made it great?

Nervous About Tomorrow's Run

 So I'm a wee bit nervous about my 8 mile long run tomorrow.  Not so much about getting wiped out like what happened to me last Tuesday mid-run, but nervous because I am running with 2 friends whom I feel are way faster than me.

Don't get me wrong.  Running with friends IS fun, but for someone like me who is used to running alone and who is slow, it is nerve-wracking!  I'm feeling a little self-conscious!  Why am I feeling this way?

I think it's because I know I will be slower than normal since I am still recovering from being sick.  And maybe deep down I want them to like me and i want them to invite me to future runs so that they can push me to do my best, to go faster!  But i'm afraid that i'd be too slow for them, that i would hold them back.  Gosh I sound like I'm in junior high!   Am I really THAT insecure?

Has anyone much faster than you joined you for a run or do you stick with running partners with the same pace as yours?