Back to life, back to reality
Is Post-Disney-Depression a thing? If so I definitely got it. Easing back into working early early mornings has been tricky— 4am wake-ups are rough! I felt so rusty my first day back at work answering phones, but I’m finally easing back into the real world.
Sooooo I’m signed up to run my first 10k this Saturday. When I signed up to run the Oakley Women’s 10k in New York I was super excited. At that point I had only ever run a 5k and felt determined to double my mile. I mapped out my training plan for the 10k and felt confident that running 6.2 miles was doable. I hadn’t run all winter but I was happy to realize that becoming an avid spinner had increased my cardio endurance tremendously which made jumping back into running easy breezy.
The thing is I started to realize I don’t exactly love running. Sure, I like it, but if I had to choose between a spin class and a run more often than not spin would trump run. I look at exercise at a form of therapy and try to match my workout to my mood. Don’t get me wrong, I also strive to have a balance workout schedule that mixes strength training, cardio, barre and yoga, but I often times pick my sweaty activity of the day based on how I feel. Sometimes I prefer a solo workout with a Jillian Michaels podcast and some dumbbells. Other times I crave the energy of a group fitness class. Sometimes I just wanna let loose and dance it out and other times I want the intense focus of a hardcore spin class.
And sometimes I need a good run, especially when I’m stressed out and want to get lost in my thoughts.
Over the past few weeks I have struggled with motivating myself to complete all the training runs for the 10k. I can motivate myself to get to the gym or take a barre class, no problem, but something about lacing up my running shoes because I had to run took the fun out of it. Instead of running 3 miles I’d skip it and go to a spin class instead. My training schedule soon dwindled down to 1 long run a week, if that at all.
At this point I’m not sure about running the 10k Saturday. The weather is iffy and I have not trained nearly as much as I would have wanted. I am concerned about the humiliation of not finishing or worse- injury.
I think I felt pressure to be a runner. I love working out, I’m a fitness blogger and a personal trainer so that meant I had to be a runner who was training for a race.
Maybe I’ll end up running the 10k on Saturday and do perfectly fine, and maybe it will give me the boost I need to kick into half marathon training for October. However if I’m not going to enjoy the training process and look forward to those runs, what’s the point? If I don’t want to be a “runner” I don’t have to be. I can continue being a group fitness junkie who would prefer to spend her time taking spin, barre and bootcamp classes.
I guess we’ll see what happens on Saturday… or if the weather has other plans for me.
Now it’s time to sit back and relax before I go to bed super early. I was supposed to take a 2 hour trapeze class tonight but class got cut short because of this cold and rainy weather. It’s actually a bit of a relief– I could use the rest!
Do you feel pressured to love a certain type of workout?
It’s funny, I actually used to loathe spin classes but kept going back because everything else loved them
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