I'm Baaack!

I admit it. 

For a while there, I wasn't sure I was ever going to run again.  

I'm the queen of excuses when it comes to working out.  I'm too tired. It's too cold outside. It's too windy. I don't feel like it. I don't like running. Blah, blah, blah.

Of course, I felt guilty about these excuses, but even the guilt didn't make me feel like running.  I figured I'd just give it up.

But then I was thinking about it at the end of last year, and realized that I'd never felt so happy with myself as when I was running regularly.  Seriously.  It's a great self esteem booster and the endorphin rush is awesome.  

So I told myself I'd start running again.  Of course, I told myself that in November, and here we are, February 14th.  My motivation has really been at an all time low lately.  Plus, it really HAS been cold and running on ice is just not my thing.  But living here at the beach, where the milder weather means that the snow doesn't stick around for long when we do get it, I realized last week that I need to stop making excuses and JUST. DO. IT.

And so last night, I laid out my running clothes, set my alarm a bit earlier and went to bed early.  But then I didn't fall asleep until after 3:30am.  Super.

I didn't get up early and run.  But I did put my running clothes on. And I told myself I'd start the Couch-to-5k today with a lunchtime run.  It's 63 degrees here today, people.  I am out of excuses. And if I'm being honest, I need to drop a bit of weight.  And surprise, surprise, it turns out that diet and exercise is the way to do that - who knew?

The long and the short of it is, I ran.  Well, I did the first workout in the program, which is five minutes walking warm-up, followed by alternating 60 seconds of running with 90 seconds of walking for 20 minutes.  And it was so beautiful out that even though I realized how far I have to go to get back to running 3 miles regularly, I still felt pretty good.

My legs are definitely sore - but they were sore when I woke up because I was doing a lot of squats yesterday while painting the doors and trim in my upstairs hallway.  I really wanted to use sore quads as an excuse today, but the truth is that I can find an excuse any day, and I just need to suck it up and do it.

So I'm hopefully back to running.  I rested and slept a lot this weekend, and ate a lot of junk food, and I'm basically sick of myself at this point, so I think that's been motivation enough to get back to working out regularly.  I'm hoping to get a bike stabilizer so that I can ride my bike inside (then I don't have to wear an ugly helmet :)) - I think that would be great for watching tv!  And I really REALLY need to start doing yoga again.  I love the way it makes me feel, it's a great thing to be doing while running, and with a variety of yoga videos available streaming on Netflix, I have no excuses - I can't get bored!  

We'll see how it goes!  I'll let you know how my motivation is holding up so you can yell at me if I need it!