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?