Aint no sunshine when she runs

I'll start by apologizing for "forgetting" my blog. It's not so much forgetting as being distracted.In truth, I've run a couple times since my last blog. All around a mile in just under 10 minutes a mile. Is that great? No, not really. Can I do better? Of course. And is this post really about running? Not at all.

I've mentioned in an earlier post that I am a mother. My son turned 1 a month ago. So as you can imagine, I was extremely busy planning his birthday party. I took it to the next level and ended up with a miserable kid who was way too overwhelmed and a ton of presents that I have yet to find place for! After my son's birthday party, I threw my best friend's baby shower. She's an event planner so I had to make sure the event was to her taste. I spent most of my evenings, after my son fell asleep, planning the baby shower. With all the event planning, I didn't make time to run and wasn't really focused on fitness at all. I was focused on the diaper tricycle I made - yes I did make one and it came out fantastic! Thank you Southern Fried Girl for your very easy to follow directions.

After all the event planning, I felt a void again. I realized how bored I was with my job and how that boredom translated itself into my personal life. I started looking for other jobs. I felt like I needed more Me time so I took one night a week "off" in order to go to a Bikram class. The Bikram class (it's only been one so far) was fantastic and I fell in love with my old hobby again. In fact, I fell in so much love that I have decided that I want to open a yoga studio!

If you know anything about me, you know that I am constantly coming up with new ideas and never following them through. Last week, I wanted to be an event planner on account of throwing two fabulous parties, this week a yoga studio owner. The bottom line is that I'm not satisfied with some aspect of my life. In fact, I actually think I had that epiphany right now.

The truth? I don't particularly care for my job. It pays our bills and my son's daycare expenses and for that reason, I work. But am I fulfilled from what I do? Not at all. Do I like the time away from my son and family? Another no. I want to do something that gives me time with my family and gives me the ability to work for myself. I've never really been motivated to make money for someone else. My current job gives me the flexibility to work from home a couple days a week so it's really difficult to leave at the moment.

I do know that one day I want to be the owner of something. Whether it's a yoga studio (I'm still learning towards this idea), an event business (eh, I'm kind of over this one), or a wedding dress designer (we can all dream right?), I have no clue. But one day, I will own something, I will be fulfilled and I will be happy with my career.

So how does this all translate into running? It doesn't. It's been mighty cold outside and I have barely managed to go on one run a week. Asthmatic me uses her inhaler before and after my runs. They still make me feel great and with them as well as Bikram, I'll most likely lose the couple extra holiday pounds I've gained.

Until my next rant, run, yoga class, etc..
Renita

Secrets

Yesterday morning I had two cups of coffee, a couple glasses of water, left my son with my husband and went out for a run. I ran further than I did last time but my pace was a little slower (1.79 miles with an average speed of 6.02 mph and a max speed of 11.80 mph). I ran at just under 10 minutes a mile. Though my time wasn't great, I was really proud of my distance. I went from running 1.19 miles to 1.79 miles and didn't feel very tired after a mile. I'm sure that's partially due to the weather. Running in the Fall is pretty wonderful - the air was crisp, I wasn't pouring sweat and I actually enjoyed my run! 

When I got home, I took the dogs out for a quick walk and then took my oldest dog to the vet. We had an appointment at 10 am so I was wondering if I would get time to get a run in. The old me would have used the appointment as an excuse not to go. The new me decided I would just go on a run, cool down and take my dog straight to the vet. Who needs to get all showered and pretty for the vet anyways, right? 

On our way back from the vet, I got to thinking about some secrets for motivation. When I woke up yesterday, I certainly wasn't thinking about going for a run. I was hoping my son would sleep in and let me get some extra sleep. No luck there. So how did I get my motivation? 

Reward yourself. Doing something you enjoy but only doing it after you complete something else is highly motivating. We are motivated by rewards. I truly enjoy writing this blog but I know I can only write if I run so my motivation for running is to write another post. 

Plan another route. I realized that I constantly run the same route so I know when I hit a mile and subconsciously I get tired at the mile mark. My husband suggested another route to me yesterday and I was so caught up in running that I didn't even realize I was tired; I was just trying to run to the end of the route. If you spend a little time on planning your route, or just run a different direction until you get tired, you're more likely to go out running again.

Drink a coffee before you run. I like running in the mornings but there's no way I can get right up and go out. I'm just not there yet and don't know if I ever will be. So two cups of coffee helps me go...running. 

Women's Running Magazine. You'd think I work for them! I don't even have a subscription, though I think one day I will. I just liked the page on Facebook and read the articles posted and they motivate me. Reading about how a mother in her 60's started running 5Ks with her daughter is pretty motivating.

Download a Running app on your phone. I like knowing how far I run, what my speed was and how many calories I burned. I downloaded a free app, AllSport GPS, and save my sessions. I actually use my husband's arm strap, start up the app, put my phone in the arm strap and go. The strap is pretty inexpensive as well, around $10. 

With these secrets having motivation is easy. Try them out on your next run and let me know how it goes. Feel free to post comments on how you get your motivation as well, I'm willing to try anything! 

I've posted a picture of me after my run yesterday!

Until my next run,
Renita

Unathletic Me

I'm creating this blog for a number of reasons including monitoring my running, demonstrating that  anyone, even unathletic people like myself, can run and that everyone can make time to exercise. My plan is to write a blog for every run with stats, feelings that day, and how I managed to make time to run. In order to follow my blog, I think it's important to give a little background. Pardon me if this blog is all over the place, it's my first time writing one!

I'm a 31 year old mother who has been pretty inactive most of her life. I was chubby until I went to college and then managed to drop weight because my parents weren't feeding me all the time. I continued to lose weight after college by dieting and eating a lot of salads! I hardly went to the gym and really didn't have much activity at all. 

Enter Husband. He's a very active, fit  person. We went on hikes, went to the gym together, took yoga classes together, boxed together etc. I can't say that I increased my activity for him because if you knew my personality you would know that I don't do anything I don't enjoy doing. But I did learn that there were things that I liked to do that I had never done before. For one, I really enjoy hiking. I have two dogs and the fact that I can bring them with me and enjoy nature is wonderful. I have realized that I really don't enjoy using cardio equiment at the gym, I'd rather do something outside or take a class. Since my husband, boyfriend at the time, always had things to do after work - a jiu jitsu class or going to the gym, I found a need to find things I enjoyed as well. All my friends and I did in our early 20's was go to clubs and drink. So the fact that there was other things out there that I could enjoy completely threw me off. Thanks to my husband and his active after work lifestyle, I discovered that I absolutely love Bikram Yoga. For those of you who don't know, Bikram Yoga is yoga in 105 degrees. It's intense. You sweat from places you never knew existed! Despite not being very active, I was surprisingly pretty flexible. 

Though it may seem like I went from being inactive to active overnight, it's definitely not the case. I still had periods on long hikes, where I would throw down my hiking pack and tell my husband, this isn't who I am, that I'm a broadway show loving, take me to the city for dinner and drinks girl, not a girl who wears EMS hiking pants, a hoody and a hiking backpack! All that changed however as I realized there was nothing like being out in the woods with my husband and our two dogs.

Enter baby. I got pregnant about 9 months after we got married and now we have a very smiley 10 month old. I was active throughout my pregnancy, still went on hikes for the most part and attended a couple prenatal yoga classes. I gained a total of 26 pounds which I was very happy about. After my son was born, I realized how hard it was to lose weight. There was just no time. The weight came off pretty slow. I came home with a little over 10 pounds to lose and I recently managed to lose it all. You're probably thinking I exercised like crazy but I watched what I ate and got some exercise in when I could. The thing is that my body is very different now than before my pregnancy. I never had a flat stomach but it is far from that now. So a couple months ago, I decided I needed to do something about it. I started taking my son on runs in his jogging stroller. To my surprise, he absolutely loved it. He was smiling and making noise the entire time. I didn't really like it for the run, I liked it more because I was spending time with my son but after the run, I felt fantastic. I say run but really it was a jog. I was jogging at a 5 mph pace for a little over a mile. And it took me a couple times to get there. I started at a mile. 

Enter this blog. I had taken my son out in the jogging stroller about 5-6 times in the last 2 months and then he picked up something from daycare and we both got sick and that was that. The jogging was all forgotten. Two days ago, my friend liked Women's Running Magazine on facebook. I checked out the page and read an article about a mother who didn't start running until 28 and started by running just under a mile. A couple years later she is running marathons. I felt inspired. I realized that a lot of the time I was using my son as an excuse. Yes its hard to find time but if another mother could do it, I could. Yesterday, I read an article about a mother who has a 3 year old and another one on the way and how she's still running. Truly inspiring. So yesterday despite my "no time" and having to work, I managed to go for a run. My son was at daycare so I ran without the jogging stroller. I didn't run very long, only 1.19 miles but I did manage to run faster than I usually do, around 6 mph and my fastest speed was 10mph! I went from running a 10 minute mile to a 9 minute mile. I felt like I would throw up after my run but I was happy. 

This morning I woke up thinking that there's got to be other women out there like me. Women who read articles about people doing things and think that can't be me, I'm not athletic enough. Well this blog is me proving that we can do what we set our minds to. I'm not promising weight loss as that's not really my goal. My goal is to be consistent with running, be it solo or with my son in the jogging stroller and to increase my distance and speed. I want to one day run a 5K and if I could ever manage a half marathon, woohoo!

Until my next run,

Renita