I have done the Goofy Race and Half Challenge 3 times now (one of those times I was actually in shape) and judging by some of the stuff we will be doing this year I’m not sure #4 is in the cards for January 2014. I may have to shoot for 2015 for my next one instead….but what to do to get my motivation back and get myself over the plateau I seem to be stuck on right now.
Since I finished the Goofy in January my weight seems to be sticking in a 5 pound band and I appear to be having trouble focusing on getting my training runs in for the WPS Half and the Manitoba Marathon. I need to drop another 20-30 pounds (at least in my head) and I want that weight off going into the Manitoba Marathon – I would love to take a shot at my personal best and bringing the weight off would play a big part in that.
But I can tell I am getting bored with the constant training, or at least with the constant pressure to train. I need to find a way to break out of the feeling of pressure and get the miles in and the weight off.
I see a few things I need to do:
- Get the protein breakfasts working again – I still haven’t gotten myself back to adding the eggs in so I need to get that rolling regularly
- Take a better lunch to work – back in October and November I was taking ham or turkey wraps with me along with other snacks like fruit to work but I have backed off now to basically cheese and fruits. I think I need to start bringing wraps again as well to give me more small meals during the day so I don’t eat too much at supper.
- As above stop eating as much at supper – impacts how I am feeling on the runs and makes it more likely I will skip scheduled runs. Plus if it is too much I feel a bit dopey or tired after and I end up having more Coke than I should to try to stay awake.
- Cut down on the Coke – a little isn’t too bad as it is how I get a bit of caffeine in my system but I have been drinking too much of it lately.
- Ensure all the weekly runs are getting done as they should. All the runs are getting longer now and getting them in will be essential to getting me to where I want to be in terms of endurance and speed (and weight).
- Start doing some resistance exercises – I will write more about this separately but I will trying to do daily chin ups, dips, arm curls, shoulder extensions and pushups – this will be to try to help kick in more motivation and get more energy as well as try to head off too much loss of muscle mass with the hoped for weight loss.
- Get more sleep
- Get running outside – looks like the weather is finally going to turn and I can start doing my weekend runs outside – that should help things out a bit.
- De-clutter and clean the house – if I can do this regular it will cut down on any perceived guilt in my own head of not doing my part around the house and exercising instead.
- Plan out backyard work for the summer – we have a pool going in this summer and this will require redoing of a bunch of our landscaping in the yard and I would like to have a plan of what we want to do to cut down on any distractions worrying about what we want to do. It will be interesting to see what the landscaping work does to my training and my weight – it will all depend on when they are able to get in to do the pool (supposed to be early in the spring).
- Start hitting the hot tub more – stiff and sore legs and back lately – the hot tub should help with that.
- Look at the weight loss plan again and get myself excited about it – own it and work it – new goals are set now I need to make them happen
- Start looking at other challenges – should I look at something bigger for the next running challenge? Triathlons probably won’t work for me as I really don’t float and the swimming portion of the races would not be good. Maybe I can see after we have the pool to see if I get better but I suspect not (if I can get the weight to come off I will be even less buoyant) – I can swim ok but I am not efficient and that would probably kill me before I even got to the biking or running portion of the races. Tough mudders? I don’t know about these – they would definitely be tough but I run against the obstacles in my own mind not against the obstacles on the course and I hate the idea of maybe getting hurt and getting derailed on my training (one of the reasons I don’t like trail running). Does an ultra-marathon make sense? The only one in Manitoba that I know of is a trail run and is in late May – there wouldn’t be enough time to train for that starting now and it is only a few weeks prior to the Manitoba Marathon and the risk of injury is too high.
I have to think about this some more.
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