I'd rather be running...

Life gets in the way of my running. Let's be honest. Work sucks. I sit on my butt all day thinking about how non-productive my body is being. We’ve all thought that at some point or not. And if you haven’t, please email me and subsequently hire me immediately.  And really, isn't work being a little selfish saying that just because they pay me, they expect me to work?  Knowing that I COULD be working out during that time. uh-huh. I agree. 

So needless to say, a frustration of mine has been finding the time and motivation during the day to get my run in.

I WISH I was a morning person. And I am....after I have sufficiently woken up either with a shower and/or some type of caffeine and about 2 hours....which pretty much means the morning is gone. So basically after I am ready for work and on my 30 seconds to 1 minute walk to my car... I think, wow, it would be great to go for a run right now. Especially on those mornings when the air is crisp, the sun is just starting to come out (and, lets face it, it sounds a lot more appealing than what’s waiting for you in the office). But no...I most definitely hit snooze at my 5:00am alarm and laughed at my optimistic me the night before who set the alarm envisioning a run, yoga, and ab workout all before getting ready. Oh silly optimistic Nadia, so naive.

On to the next opportunity!

Next is the mid-day workout. Now this is something I am actual partial to, it is just a matter if you can operationally pull this off. First, you have to have the time. Second, you need a gym, trail, or some sort of workout place geographically nearby. The closer, the better (see point one). And finally, after you get in a nice quick workout...you’re pretty much going to smell really bad and probably be sweating. This leads to some sort of clean-up area, so even a trail isn’t sufficient. And trying to clean yourself in work bathrooms gets a lot of weird looks (so I’ve been told). It is also hard to come down after an intense lunchtime workout. My body has the inability to stop sweating. I also tend to stay red for the rest of the afternoon, which minimizes my clean-up time since attempting to put on make-up is an effort in futility.

I used to lift over the lunch hour and run after work and that was fantastic, but then you have two get-ready/clean-up transitions (again, point one of limited time).

So, like me, you probably didn’t have the time/facility/opportunity to workout during the day...moving on.

I break up after-work runs into two kinds. Those immediately following work, and the late-evening workouts. Immediately after work is pretty much a horrible idea at a lot of gyms unless you want to watch other people workout. Also, since I’m basically revved up and raring to run at either 10:00am or 2:00pm.... I’m pretty much half-asleep and drooling at my desk come 4pm (j/k work if you’re reading this). Okay, but I’m not kidding.

If I can get my workout in immediately after work, I’m pretty darn proud of myself. A more likely occurrence: I am tired, crabby, and hungry so I end up going home, eating a “snack”....which turns into a 5-course meal...then I sit there and feel guilty and get mad at myself. Then I have to “wait for my food to digest”, which usually means napping, watching tv, messing around on the computer, maybe a bit more snacking (to aid the digestion)..all around general laziness. And now it’s really late. Oh shoot, I was going to go to bed at 10pm (after my workout, preparation of healthy meal, and a decent portion of War and Peace comprehended-maybe work on my about to be published article regarding same).....but anyway, now it’s 10:30 and I haven’t run yet.

Now is when I get motivated! (Way to go body-it only took you over 16 hours to get motivated to run 3 miles!). *run* This run might feel good because I finally got to it...or it might feel kind of crappy since I have a bunch of food sitting in my gut (hint-it’s often the latter). Back from my run lets say around 11:30...sit around some more (snack, because I was obviously waiting to workout to eat), shower...and have started to come down from the excitement of achieving my very modest goal by midnight.

So overall, a pretty typical successful running day!

Time for bed to start the process all over again the next day....sweet dreams.