Getting Pumped Up - No Matter What the Weather

So the weather in Atlanta this weekend has been like hanging with a meth addict.  It is incredibly unpredictable, swinging from wild extremes and you wish you could get it to sit down for 5 minutes and tell you why it is acting like that.  We started the week with weather in the 70's.  For those not from the south, Atlanta is not that south!  We are not a more urban version of Miami Beach.  As we say in the Bible belt, that is not what God intended.  Then as typical for the south, of which Atlanta is definitely a part unseasonable warm weather brought tornadoes and the obligatory victim with missing teeth and a dirty wife beater.  How I wish I were kidding!  It is amazing that I know dozens of highly educated water professionals with PhD's, Masters degrees, hydrology degrees, etc. you get the point.  As odds would have it, no one with an advanced degree has ever been affected by a tornado in the south, or maybe they just aren't looking to get their 15 minutes of fame via the poor man's version of Jerry Springer.

Anyway all of this makes running a challenge.  Not just for the obvious reasons, like running when your neighbors are boating past you on the street makes you seem like the crazy neighbor.  I mean when it is 70 on Monday and Tuesday and then apparently Noah was in town on Wednesday and we wanted to make him feel at home and then temps plunge on Thursday.  Today when the alarm beckoned it was a balmy 34 degrees.  It is enough to zap your enthusiasm.  So I know snappy quotes like, " what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." is all the motivation most of us need.  Right!  I think that is actually pop song.  For real how do you get pumped up especially when it seems all of the natural world is conspiring against you?

For Me:

Good music.  I love Rock My Run. (I may border a little on the Meth addict side)  If I am up at 4:30 AM and running with only the rabbits and the nocturnal Opossum for company I am going to listen to a run mix that gets me going and hopefully has a little Beyonce. 

Running Clothes out the night before.  When I step in the bathroom there they are taunting me.  "I dare you to go back to bed.  We will be right here waiting for you."  Really can you let running clothes talk to you like that especially at 4:30 AM?

This may sound pretty technical, so I hope you are paying attention.  Get out of bed without thinking.  It is 100 times easier to get out the door for a run if you actually get out of the bed.  There is also less chance you will get back in bed than if you stay in bed and rationalize the benefits of the run vs the extra sleep, warm pillow, the list goes on and on.  (For those who are scoffing.  This is science.)

Schedule it.  When I started really being consistent with my running was when I made the decision to treat it like I do anything else that is important.  I treat it like a meeting at work.  I mean think of using the excuses you tell yourself about not running with your boss, one time.  It will change your life.  For example:

Your boss:  "We had an important meeting this morning and you missed it.  Where the @#$% were you."
You: "Yeah I was totally going to do that, but it was cold out and my hamstring felt a little tight so I bagged it and went back to bed."

You will have a lot of time for running once you clean out your office.  It will be important to make those running shoes last, because you probably won't have a lot of extra cash.

It does not really matter what gets you out.  It will be different for everyone.  Just get out the door.

It is Your Choice

A friend on Dailymile posted this, and I stole it.  I stole it because I can relate to it.  It is not just obesity, we have some of that in my family, but alcoholism, bad nutrition, and a sedentary lifestyle.  Now my family members pay the price.  Some people think it is a tough decision to get up every morning and run or workout, to eat the salad and pass on the burger. I guess it might be if I did not fully realize all choices have consequences. 

The friend who posted this also stated she had not been raised to be healthy, but she was the adult now and in charge of her choices.  How true.  We are no longer the sum of how we were raised, as if that predetermined our health destiny.  We are the adults now.  The only person our bad habits punish is us.  I don't know about you, but I want to be able to enjoy my life.  I want good health.  I don't want chronic pain and disease.  It may still happen, but things happen we can't control.  What I can be sure of, is it won't be as a result of my choices. 

I used to take pride in being the girl with the Straight A's who almost flunked P.E.  On Saturday I finished third in my age group at the race we ran.  I think I will take pride in that.  Only you are in control of the decisions you make.  Since it is your body and your life, why shouldn't they be good ones.