Making Up for Monday

Monday just didn't start out so well for me.  Not that the typical Monday is on the top of the list of "feel good days" for most everyone.  After lamenting about not having a solid training plan after the KDF marathon (see prior post here), I came up with what I thought was a pretty good plan.  I was returning to serious weight lifting, which I hadn't done in quite some time, and I was going to dial my running mileage back and begin to focus on form and speed; both of which I'm sure are atrocious to the experienced/professional runner, which I am not.

Last week started really well.  I hit the weights three days last week and alternated with decent runs on the other days.  Monday I just couldn't pull my butt out of bed at any meaningful time and I ended up getting to work later than I had planned (I've been using the gym at work on a regular basis).  Needless to say, the later I arrive at work the more potential there is for me to be pulled away from any personally productive direction and pulled into something that will consume more than its fair share of my day.  Such was the case Monday.  I consoled myself by believing that toward the end of the day I would have an opportunity to get my workout in.  Realistically I knew that wasn't going to happen, but sometimes it is better to have some hope than no hope at all.  And, of course, at the end of the day I was mentally and physically drained.  So I simply went home and immediately felt like a loser the rest of the night for having failed myself.

This morning I refused to allow myself to fall back into the bed and pushed my way to the office at an hour that I assumed would be safe.  Despite being delayed about 40 minutes, I managed to make my way to the gym to begin getting my missed workout in.  I had a scheduled run today so I knew I was going to have to double down.  The weight lifting felt somehow unfocused, and I worried that I might be out of juice for the run after.  I very nearly packed it in after the lifting session.  But instead I climbed on the treadmill for a 3.1 mile run that turned out to be one of the fastest runs that I've had in a long time.  I intentionally cranked up the speed (maybe as punishment for missing yesterday's workout) and really focused on staying more on the balls of my feet.  My gait felt a little strange at first, but eventually I settled into a comfortable stride.  That now has me thinking that my next lower mileage run, I might begin to experiment with minimalist/barefoot running.  Just like my daughter and her first 5K, maybe I need to remember what it was like to run as a kid.  I've been considering the minimalist running for some time now, but never wanted to become engaged with it during my marathon training.  So with no clear racing schedule ahead, this might be a good time to give it a try.  Regardless, today's workout made up for the lousy/loser feelings I had yesterday.

Gold member, Baby!

On a lighter note.  I was flipping through my iPhone pictures, after updating my phone's OS, and I found the screen shot of my congratulatory message from Starbucks after reaching the coveted Gold level!  You'll remember that I thought that I had forgotten to take a screenshot, but apparently that wasn't the case (refresher post here).  The picture was right there in my phone's camera roll the entire time, but didn't show up until after the update.  Guess I'll need to be careful about the kind of pictures of I'm taking.  Thanks for the confidence shaker, Apple.

But my Gold Card is on its way and, as the message says, will arrive in 6 to 8 weeks!  I'm on pins and needles just waiting. </sarcasm>  Until then, my mocha addiction had increased from a triple to a quad.  All things considered, I'm not sure that is a positive thing.