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No Excuses

April 20, 2012 · by Ari ·

A few years ago I was the *queen* of excuses.

“Everyone else just eats what they want. My body just sucks. Wahhh.”

“I can’t run. I have really short achilles. Waaahhh.”

“I can’t, I can’t, I can’t…”

This morning I had every single excuse to bail on my long run. Some of them were even legit.

I have a race tomorrow
   Pretty legit reason right? Tomorrow, I’m running Pat’s run with some of my favorite ladies, and I really want to kick ass and run fast. Scheduling a long run the day before was not my brightest move, but there wasn’t really an other time.

My body feels…off.
   I don’t know if that makes sense, but yesterday I woke up with every single muscle in my body feeling tired and sore. Chances are, that just means I’ve worked hard this week, but I just kinda felt like I needed a break, even though all I did yesterday was an easy bike ride.

But many of them were BS, and I knew it.

I have no one to go with.
   Suck it up.

I’m tired.
   Again, suck it up. Try not staying up til midnight all week when you know you have your alarm set for 6am.

I have a long day ahead of me.
   Which will only seem longer if I spend the entire time regretting my laziness.

It’s 5:45am and already 70 degrees.
   It will only get hotter later.

I’ve stopped for the bathroom 4 times in the last hour and my stomach is still tied in knots.
   Okay, this was almost legit. I woke up with my stomach feeling off, and then proceeded to have the most unpleasant first hour of a run ever.

The first five miles of this run were ridiculously mentally challenging. I came back home after the first half a mile for a good 20 minutes (sorry, I’m trying to keep this not toooo descriptive) before heading back out, had to stop at Cindy and Jacob’s (because stopping at someone’s house and begging to use their bathroom because it’s an emergency isn’t at all embarrassing), then again not even half a mile later. I came up with every reason I should just go home, or ways I could cut my run short, or the minimum amount of mileage I was okay with for that day. The truth is, the minimum amount I was okay with, was the amount freaking scheduled.

11 miles done. No excuses.

The thing is, it came down to 2 things.

  1. This is my last long training run before Whiskey Row. As much as I want to keep up with Nicole tomorrow and run super fast, training for my half marathon is more important and has to come first. I’m feeling a little under trained. I took like a month off from long runs after the Lost Dutchman, and this is only my 3rd double digit run this training cycle.
  2. I needed to run for my sanity. That’s dramatic. But seriously. If I skipped on a planned workout, especially an important one, I would feel guilty and bad about myself. And maybe that’s not the world’s healthiest mindset. I can accept that. However, it’s where I personally am at right now, and I would rather feel good mentally.

All that being said, please know that if I felt injured or like running was really going to cause more harm than good, I wouldn’t have done it. Maybe I’m overly confident, but I feel like I know my body. I’m proud of myself for getting to the point where no excuse can bring me down, and knowing what I need in order to feel good. A lot has changed.

After my run, I was thrilled to be back at home and have some time to stretch everything out.

To the man who found my blog by searching "hot wife stretching legs", perhaps that lead you to something like this? I am very sweaty and I am stretching, but somehow I don't get the feeling this is quite what you were looking for....

Clementine is the best helper. If you need help stretching, or foam rolling, or licking sweat off your face, she is your girl.

And lastly, because I need some positive quote-age today, I leave you with this.

 

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What excuses have you kicked to the curb lately?? What motivates you when your brain is full of reasons why not??

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged: fitness, half marathon training, motivation, running

Motivation

October 5, 2011 · by Ari ·

Good morning friends! Today I slept until 8:00 which is so unusual for me! I’ve been feeling really tired and a little worn down and I guess my body just really needed a good 9 hours of sleep. I totally could have laid there longer, but I knew I wanted to get my run done and over with. Yesterday I woke up super sore. I hadn’t really felt any pain from my long (for me) run on Sunday, but then I think yesterday the combination of left over tiredness from the run and soreness from jumping lunges and one legged squats in bodyworks finally caught up to me and in spin class, my legs felt like lead. I had to drop my flat road gear down to an 8 and even still I just could not get my cadence up to where we were supposed to the entire class. It’s not that I wasn’t trying, I was dripping sweat all over my bike (cute, right?) and my legs were on fire!

About 2/3 the way through class I started to feel really frustrated that I wasn’t able to give the kind of power and energy I expected of myself and I kind of wanted to quit. I had this whole battle in my mind about how I was failing and I should just give up, and I knew it was counter productive, so I tried playing the devil’s advocate with myself–reminding myself that I did just start training for a half marathon after what? a month of running? And not only that, I added it on top of my gym schedule, not instead of. Then I remembered some things I’ve read on other blogs about how I don’t HAVE to be there exercising, I get to. Then I thought of Ashley’s bike accident and how she is now struggling to even walk and I am acting like a bad class is the end of the world and worth quitting over.

So then I started thinking about all the people who don’t get to do what I do. People who can’t afford a gym membership, or want/need desperately to make a change in their healthy, but haven’t found that spark in them to be ready to conquer their fears and make a change. I stopped thinking about all the people in better shape than me and how I have so far to go and I realized that somewhere in the world there is probably someone who wishes they can do what I can do. That is something that’s really hard to imagine for me, but I’m hoping that it does exist and that maybe I am an inspiration for someone out there the way so many are for me.

I ended class not super fast, but knowing that I tried my hardest and focusing my energy on being okay with that.

When I woke up this morning, I just didn’t want to. I felt totally unmotivated, and contemplated laying around and then just going to yoga at 11. This is where having something to train for comes in really handy. I am not a great runner. Yet. The longest I have ever run is 4 miles, and January 15th, I have to run 13.1 and that scares the crap out of me. I definitely do not have time to be lazy and skimp out on my run days especially considering I am only planning on running 3-4 times a week. So I thought about it and decided I would go out and try the Galloway Method. I’ve heard other bloggers talk about using it, and that is actually where I found what I’m using as the base for my training plan. So I ran for 3 min, walked for 1, repeat. I was really surprised that it didn’t totally kill my time! I actually found knowing I had a walk break coming, I was way speedier during the run sections. I saw my pace down in the 8’s a few times and at the end when I went to finish strong even dip into the high 7’s (for like 2 seconds haha, but still exciting!) I ended up finishing in about the same amount of time as if I were to have run the entire time, and I felt better. This guy knows what he’s talking about! I think it’s a really good tool for me to use to help with speed, and with motivation when I’m not feeling it, but I definitely still want to have runs where I just run the whole time.

Now I’m going to make some breakfast, and head to yoga! Have a great day everyone!

PS: What helps you get on the wagon when you’re just not feeling it? I feel like this has been a pretty popular topic lately, and I’m curious to see how others deal with the motivational dips we all experience!

Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged: half marathon training, motivation, running, spin

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