Eight Days out from First 10K

I look forward to running in Colorado in about a week for the annual BolderBoulder which takes place every year on Memorial Day. While I have been running and training for this event, I do not feel as though I am ready. I did have one of my best runs so far this year this past Thursday, but the others have not been great. Feeling lousy with breathing or following a run have all been part of the process. I am very excited to be running in Boulder, CO and to run in my first 10K.

The training and motivation has not been very strong at all this year. While I am putting in the effort to run at least three times a week, I have often times found myself having to talk myself into running. Tonight, we are having storms and so I would need to run inside, well, I made the excuse that I do not want to run as the power might go out. A new workout I have been doing is spin class. That is helping me to build endurance and push myself on days where I would normally not be doing anything at all. Still, I find that I am struggling as I go for runs.

We will arrive in Boulder on Saturday which will give us Saturday to get use to the altitude. I plan to do a light run on Sunday and then Monday is the big day for the race. I have not checked the weather yet, but I am hoping for nice weather for our run too.

My goal for this first 10K is to run the whole thing and not walk. I want to go at a moderate pace with it being somewhere in the neighborhood of 10:30 - 12:00 minute miles. I know that I often times am sucked into the start of a race and go very fast, but I know that I will not be able to maintain a 9 - 10 minute pace if I do that type of pace... especially in the altitude. So, I am hoping to target about a 11:30 minute pace and stick to it. If I can stick to that pace, I will finish the 10K in about one hour and eleven minutes. While this is a much slower pace than what I normally run for 5K's or even when I am out running in the neighborhood, I do not think I can maintain anything faster for this race.

The other part of the running is my diet. I have been very steady with my weight for the past year. This year, unlike last year, I have not cut out alcohol from my diet. This helped me lose weight the fastest and kept it off. I love the cold beer in the evening or following the mowing of the lawn, so I made the decision I would not cut out drinks. They taste good and gives me a reward following a workout or working in the yard.

I continue to use MyFitnessPal to track my calories and also my workouts. I have been using the site for the past three years. Great site! This site allows me to record my weight daily, weekly, or whenever you like. I was tracking it daily, but now it is randomly throughout the month. My weight stays right around 220. Yes, sometimes I dip down to 215 or go up as high as 225, but I usually fall right back down again to the 220 mark. That seems to be my constant.

I hope that following the race in Colorado, I will have another post. A post with additional pictures and of me smiling at the finish line with a respectable time. Until then, I hope you have a great spring and I do plan to post more over the summer.

 

Things Out of our Control

As we progress through life and our every day tasks we come across many different things that we have absolutely no control over. A couple of items come to mind right now.

We are trying to sell our house. We think it is a hot item on the market and we had a lot of traffic from people when it first went on the market over a month ago. Now the traffic has dwindled to one or two people a week... if that! We have a limited ability to get people into look at our house, but ultimately it is up to advertising and word-of-mouth to get them in our house. To get a offer on our house that is a completely different story. So far the planets and stars have not lined up for us to get that offer on our house. Will it come eventually? Sure! Will it come soon.... we do not know nor do we have control over that fact.

The Kansas City Royals had a horrible season last year... one of the worst in MLB history. While they have not started off bad this year they did lose a game against New York yesterday afternoon that they should not have let slip away. Just as I pull for the Royals I also pull for Kansas basketball, Washburn sports and anything else that is relevant to a sport I follow or a event I am dedicated to. Do I have control over the outcome of the Royals or whether Kansas wins the National Championship? Of course not! No matter how I feel that wearing my "lucky" shirt or doing the same routine will help MY team advance to the ultimate goal of a title... You and I both know it does no good but make me feel good when they do succeed. Again, completely out of my control no matter how hard I cheer... no matter what I wear... or how distraught I am with the team... no changes.

The last item that while I feel I have control over I ultimately do not have control. That is major decisions at work. Purchases, leave time and other related items. These may be simply for employees that work for me or for ISS. I am certainly not in a vacuum and I do feel I should check with others before making decisions. It simply feels like making decisions at work requires many hoopes to jump through instead of simply making the decision. Instead of taking a day or two to make a decision it takes weeks or even months to make a decision. I am all for gathering the facts and basing the decision off of those facts... This can be frustrating not only for the person waiting on the decision, but also for me who has to relay the information to who ever asked for that process.

The joys of selling a house, cheering for a sporting team and being in a work environment. It can be a lot of fun for all areas and it can also be frustrating.