The Turn Around: Positive Self Talk

Our life always expresses 

the result of our dominant thoughts.

~Soren Kierkegaard

Wednesday HUMP day sounds funny, but like an out and back run it marks the turn around to the work week. I am so ready for a change and it starts with my mind set. Positive Self Talk. I hope, I'll try, and Maybe replaced by "I Will." That is a little extreme, but generally the idea is to just be more glass half full. Monday I put it out there on my FB that this was going to be a great week, Tuesday I said it would be an awesome day and today...well it really was an awesome day. This week is my first full week of work in 7 weeks. Yes I am employed, but I have had one thing or another leading to one day or a few days off each week for 7 weeks. Days off for this and that make it hard to do 40 hours or work in significantly less than 40 hours a week.

As most or you know it has been pretty crazy around here and I am not the consistent athlete I want to be. To continue this trend, I stayed up too late Sunday night eating Piroshki's from the Jewish food fair and skipped my "first day back" to Master's swim Monday morning. I stayed up late again Monday night and did not go out on a solo AM run Tuesday. Do not fret faithful readers, I did go to my TRI Club monthly meeting Tuesday night. It was just the motivation I needed. Now before I shift gears into my attempt at more consistent positive self talk, I will tell you that I was the fattest person there. People were wearing shorts, showing off muscle tone and tans, cute sneakers and chatting about last weekend's TRI events. I have not raced a TRI yet this season, I am not tan, I showed up in my work clothes and flip flops. I did have my purple glitter toenail polish going for me, but my outfit and fitness level was not screaming athlete in this crowd. While this sounds like I am putting myself down, actually it really reminded me that I like muscular legs, a litte tan and an overall athletic presence.

The other thing I did at this meeting was...wait for it... I.ASKED.FOR.HELP. OMG, phew, glad I got that off my chest. Seriously, I felt like I was checking myself into rehab and felt slightly humiliated to admit I needed help. I was also so excited that I was going to get it. I basically told one of our senior members that while I didn't need a mentor to push me in specific workouts (I am currently schedule challenged), I do need someone to check in with. Someone who will ask how my week went, high five me when I am on track and help motivate me when I start to fall off track. I also wrote my check for Master's swim for the month of June. I kept saying to myself the whole month of May, that I would pay when I went to swim and what happened? I didn't not swim at all in May. I figured writing that check would increase the odds of me showing up to swim this morning. I was also so motivated after the meeting last night that I hooked up my iPhone Netflix to the TV in my hubby's man room, aired up my bike tires and jumped on the trainer. I jumped on the bike trainer for 45 min at 10PM. What was I thinking? Then, I had so much exercise adrenaline that I foam rolled and stretched before bed. Again, went to bed way too late.


It was crazy hard to wake up this morning, but I did and went to swim. I was 15 minutes late, but was still able to get in 1700 yards done. 200 start, 200 form, 40x25s, 300 cool down. Tonight I tried to hit the track workout, but apparently the high school track that we were at also dubs as a helicopter landing site for medical transport. I was late of course, got one lap in and then we were locked in the track area when emergency vehicles arrived and moved to the stands to keep the track and field available for the helicopter. I ran some stairs, did step ups, there was a concrete area where I did some dynamic warm up stretches, then more static stretching. By the time we could leave, I had no more time for the track. Some work is better than none I guess. On the schedule for tomorrow: 3 miles at 5:15am, work and hopefully the evening farmers market. It will be a good day.

Monday is the official start to Marathon training, I am super excited. I am nailing down some trail runs to register for to ensure I do my long runs and that the mileage is on quality, hilly, challenging terrain. The Nike Women's Marathon SF has a few little climbs so long runs on hilly trails will definitely do the trick in training.

Why I Kick A$$: 2 work outs today...ok more like 1 and a half, but I'll take it.

Thankful Three

1. Piroshki's
2. The New Runner's World
3. My health