Old habits die hard

So I've been lamenting about my seeming inability to get my workouts going again. Last week I was sick and gave myself a bye week, but now I have no excuses. I planned on doing something over the weekend but both days I had things going on and the workouts didn't materialize. I planned on getting up at 4:30 this morning to workout. That didn't happen. Then I figured I'd workout now between work and class. That is very much not going to happen. But, in spite of these apparent failures, I've had 2 revelations over the past couple of days that might help me in the long run.

The first one occurred this morning. The alarm went off at 4:30 and I did not get up. I'm not sure I even heard it. I did get up at 5 though. Fairly easily. I've thought about this problem before and thought I had a solution but that just didn't work. The real problem is I don't like to feel rushed in the morning. On the weekends when I can get up, have my coffee, check my email, then go workout, it's perfect. But on weekdays when I have to get up, get the bird food ready, work out, shower, feed the birds, get dressed, get out the door. No.... I usually end up forgetting something and I feel rushed the rest of the day. When I got up at 5 I knew I wasn't going to workout so I just took my time. Got things ready, sat and drank my coffee for a few minutes, fed the birds. I was calm and relaxed when I left here. That's good. Since I have to be out of the house by 6:30 and I have a passel of animals to feed, working out in the morning just isn't working for me anymore.

The second realization came as I was sitting drinking my coffee this morning. I was looking through the Women's Running magazine that came weeks ago. In it they have a column written by a lady who has lupus and arthritis. In spite of both of these she still runs but as she says, problems with these have forced her to restart time and again. This got me to thinking. I've been a runner. A number of times. Currently I'm not but I would like to be again. In another month or so all the fun races will be starting up here. I don't know about doing a marathon again, but I'd like to do a half. So this all started my mind working and a few things came out.

I want to run. I love to run. The times when I was in the best shape of my life were always when I was training for something. Even if they were only the local 10ks, training for something really motivated me. Also, I used to work out in the afternoons. Before I got a job that went until 5 pm, I would always work out in the afternoons. Afternoons are when I'm strongest and most energetic. When I lived on the mainland I had my 3 pm bike rides. When I moved here it was my 4:30 5 mile walk. Then it was things like running, swimming, weights, always in the afternoons. When I got the job at the lab I had to work until 5 and by the time I got home it was 6. That kind of shot my afternoon/evening workouts. But I didn't have to be to work until 8 so I had time in the morning. It was then I switched things around. Now my schedule doesn't support morning workouts and it looks like it's not going to for a while. So I think it's time to go back to afternoons.

So here's my plan. I'm going to start running again. One mistake I made in the past (recent past that is) is that I would either start too hard or not hard enough. I'm not in the shape I was where I could go run 5 miles. But I'm also in better shape then I used to be and a leisurely walk just doesn't quite cut it. So I'm going to be incredibly realistic about where I'm starting from. I'm going to work out a program that fits my life and my schedule. I'm going to run in the afternoons when I get home (or actually before I get home). I'm also going to do my strength training while watching TV at night. The DVD's I've been doing are too hard at this point so I'm backing it down a little. This feels right. It feels like it will work for me.

There are a couple of running events I want to do in the next few months that should get me motivated and out the door. Do you think I could do a 10k in 4 weeks???