Self Talk- the Good, the Bad and the SHUT UP and Run!

Sluggish days - we all have them.
I've got 2 kids who never seem to both sleep all night on the same nights - so sluggish? yeah, I got that.

Monday was one of those days- we'd had a rough Sunday night with the teething 10 month old and then the subsequent waking of the near 4 yr old by that 10 month old. I think I was up 3x between midnight and 4 a.m. I finally got a little rest and got up at 6 for work.

By the time it was 3pm, I had hit a wall - hard. I was so sleepy and tired and then the voices. You know the ones:

"Don't run, just eat cake" or "You are so tired, you really should rest (and eat cake!) or, my personal fave "You'll never keep this up- just eat cake and give up already!"

So- at 3:45 I told myself to SHUT UP. Really. I said it out loud - "Emily, SHUT UP and GO". I knew it was supposed to be in the mid to upper 80s outside, but I had not been out of my office all day. So I wasn't sure if I would go run outside or do the treadmill or maybe spin bike for awhile. Once I had my clothes changed and stepped outside- it was warm but there was a wonderful, consistent breeze that made it very comfortable and I KNEW this was a run outside kind of day.

I told myself I'd take it easy, start off walking and run when it felt right and walk just the same. Sometimes- the music just really moves you - you think you're just going to stroll along until THAT song comes on, that one that makes you just have to pump it- have to boogie- have to MOVE! For me - that song has recently been Eminem's "Till I Collapse" - it's kind of my own personal running mantra.



This is not an official video- but wanted to share it if you're not familiar.

So I started running- then I walked and then I ran and then I walked - back and forth like this. But I was running - and then I'd get out of breath and start to walk for a bit to recover. I really tried holding myself back on pace so that I wouldn't be out of breath- but I think, as I've been cross-training, my speed has naturally picked up and my lungs are still catching up. It turns out- that even with lots of walk breaks- my pace was under a 12 min mile - and most running portions were about 9.5mm pace - I can hardly believe that I'm building towards being able to run a sub-10 minute mile. There WILL be a party when that happens.

One more thing - we took progress measurements at the gym this past week (it's been 6 weeks). I've lost greater than 6 inches total - but more importantly, I lost 2 inches in my waist and 2.5 in my hips. The scale has started to move (albeit slowly) again - so things are starting to go the right direction again!