FOCUS Grasshopper...

Ya'll know that I've been working with a running coach for a little bit now - Coach Tiffany with Thoroughly Thriving. And I absolutely LOVE it!! Having the guesswork taken out of the equation is so nice. And I really do feel like I push myself at least a little harder because I want to make my effort worthwhile. BUT at the same time, I know that I still slack off way more than I should. Sometimes there might be totally legitimate reasons for it, but really, 90% of the time that I slack is just because I'm losing the battle of the lazy brain. I know that. But you know how when you see some cold, hard facts it brings it all into FOCUS just a little more???

This morning I looked at my new week training report and this is what I see: Looking at October so far you've skipped about 28% of your workouts and modified 15%.

Just a bit of a gut kick on that one. I shouldn't be surprised that the hilly half marathon last weekend was so tough and I shouldn't be surprised that I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck for most of this week. Not when I look at the fact that I've totally and completely SKIPPED 28% of my assigned workouts. More than a quarter. And of the 72% that I have done, I've modified 15% of those.

So in other words, I've nailed 57% of my workouts during the month of October. Sure, sure - that's a little more than HALF that I've done. And that's not necessarily bad...BUUUUUUTTTTT, if this was a test, only a little more than half is definitely failing.

Why, thank you Dwayne - there are not truer words you could speak to me! And thank you for that dazzling smile while you're at it. ;-) haha

What it all boils down to is this. If I want to run a personal best at my goal race in January 2016, then I'd better focus and I'd better put in the effort. I can get to that finish line feeling like I got thrown down by The Rock in an epic wrestling match, or I can get to that finish line feeling like I just ran a hard race but that I just ran a race that I was totally prepared to run. And whether I meet my time goal or not - the real goal is just that - I want to KNOW that I put in the effort during training and that I really did leave everything I could on that course.

I will get there...and the effort and the focus start now!! My goal from my coach is to hit at least 90% of my workouts going forward. Okay, okay - game on, Tiffany!!

Question: How do you keep your focus on the goal?

Monday, Monday...

Well, hellllooooooo new week!!! I have to say that I'm really working hard at faking my enthusiasm for Monday today. But sometimes, it's all about just faking it 'til you make it! Let's talk training updates!

Last week started out kind of rough! I had some fairly basic workouts on the plan from Coach Tiffany and the week before these workouts felt, dare I say it, easy! But this past week they felt close to impossible...I just felt like it was way harder than it should be.

Monday: Easy 3 mile at whatever pace felt good was the plan. How I felt was crummy...it just felt ridiculously hard and I ended up cutting it short.

Tuesday: 3x1 mile repeats on the plan. I did the entire workout of 4 miles, but it didn't feel easy a single time and I stepped off of the treadmill a few times to boot.

Wednesday: We switched it up a little thanks to my added fatigue so I just had easy intervals on the plan - warm-up for 10 minutes and then do 3 sets of 9:1 intervals at whatever pace felt good. I completed this workout and it felt pretty good mentally and physically to finally not feel like I was struggling to even move.

Thursday: Same workout as Wednesday (although I was supposed to do 4 sets of 9:1, but I missed that part and only did the 3 sets. Oops...that's what I get for not fully paying attention).

Friday: 20 minute walk. I loved this. Fridays are becoming one of my favorite days because I get that extra cushion in the morning and can actually go outside. I had an awesome walk and enjoyed being out. I finished the workout looking forward to my long run on Saturday.

Saturday: 1 mile warm-up followed by 7 miles at whatever pace felt good for 8 miles total; I could walk at the mile markers for 1 minute if needed. I headed out with Sally at 6:00 AM to beat the heat since we are still having above-average temps here in SoCal. I felt great for the first 4 miles and then it just felt like I hit a wall. I walked for a bit and felt a little wobbly like I had run for much further than just 4 miles at a very easy pace. I did 8.6 miles total, but walked a LOT of them after those first 4. I thought at this point that maybe my dinner from the night before was coming back to haunt me, or that perhaps it was Aunt Flo being the major PITA that she can be since she was here for her "visit". Wasn't really sure which of those was the culprit though...maybe even a little bit of both?

When I got home after running I did 15 minutes of stretching, ate a couple pieces of French Toast since my DIL happened to be making breakfast (runner's dream right there - coming home to breakfast!! Woot!) and then started up some coffee. And then I got hit with a wave of nausea...I thought for sure I was going to toss my cookies. I didn't but I got those cold sweats and weak feeling. It was not fun, but it did pass fairly quickly. Thought maybe it was just from the exertion of running or something and continued on with my day. I ended up getting a really bad headache and having a few more isolated bouts of nausea on Saturday and Sunday. So I'm thinking I must have gotten a mild flu and that's probably what was going on with me the entire week...my body was fighting something. I can't say for sure, but that's my best guess. I never did get physically sick, but my stomach and body felt "off" the entire weekend.

And today, everything feels fairly good so far! I really do think that I got a stomach bug. A couple of my co-workers had stomach bugs a week before, so I think they probably shared the "love" with me. Thanks, girls for sharing your germs!!! :-| But whatever it was, I'm hoping it's moving on now because I was really loving how good my workouts were feeling the week before!! I don't have time to deal with that kind of fatigue. LOL

My philosophy for this week is to beat the mental game. Coach Tiffany has me do a little reflection at the end of each week and this past week one of the questions was "Where do you want to be with your running in two months?" My response was: "I would really like to be mentally stronger in two months even if it isn't reflected in faster times. Faster times would be great, but I would love even more to be able to say that I'm comfortable pushing through discomfort."

So that's my push right now...I've got to find a way to break through the mental barriers.

Don't forget to enter for your chance to win a Skirt Sports Vixen Capri Skirt! You have until October 7th and can earn additional entries by tweeting daily! Have a great week everyone!