Posts tagged as:

Motivation

Six-Mile Sentiments

by Natalie on June 17, 2009

j0150073I’ve found a sweet spot lately with a five mile loop. It seems to take just the right amount of time, it has the right amount of hills, and each time I finish the five miles I feel a little better about it than the last time. As nice as it’s been, you might say I’ve been in a five-mile rut. If I weren’t planning to run a half marathon the first weekend of August it might not matter that I’ve been stuck at five miles, but I am. So I finally upped my mileage and it’s been several months, since the Cooper River Bridge Run to be exact, since I’ve ran more than five miles.

One of the reasons I love MapMyRun is for my archived running routes. I think I could do my five mile loop with my eyes closed but I needed a quick refresher on my six mile route. I “dusted off” the routes and looked it up. For some reason, those six miles looked a lot longer online than I remember them being. Knowing I wasn’t going to give myself a chance to get out of the run, I switched mental gears and focused on how nice it would be to run a little longer than normal and planned to let my mind wander. [click to continue…]

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You, Your Dog, & the Gym

by Natalie on May 29, 2009

One happy chocolate lab! Photo by melissambwilkins

One happy puppy! Photo by melissambwilkins

For many of us who are dog owners, there is no question about the motivation a dog can provide to get you out of your seat and out for a run. They need exercise just as much as we do. But what if you’re really not a runner, never were, and never plan to be? But your dog is, or easily could be. I was discussing this exact scenario with a girlfriend of mine who is queen of the elliptical machine at her gym and a proud new puppy owner.

As a dog owner, she is well aware of the dog’s need for exercise and walks him regularly, but the walks don’t do for her what her regular gym routine used to do. It’s been weeks since she’s been in the air conditioned gym, bobbing along to her iPod, and sweating it out on the elliptical. While she wouldn’t trade her new pup for the world, something about dog walks that involve lots of stops for training and ‘doing business’ just isn’t cutting it for her own exercise.

What to do? [click to continue…]

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It’s All Mental

May 27, 2009

You know that feeling when you’d rather do anything but put on your running shoes? You’re tired, you’re busy, it’s drizzly, it’s too cold, it’s too hot, you have to write thank-you cards, the excuses you can come up with are endless. And yet, you love running. You know you won’t skip this run, because [...]

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Weather Window

May 6, 2009

When it comes to morning running versus night running, winter running versus summer running, or running in the rain versus running in full sunshine, there are many schools of thought about what circumstances make the conditions perfect for running. I tend to prefer morning running as it always allows me to start my day fresh; [...]

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The Puppy Power Walk

April 1, 2009

A key element to living a healthy lifestyle is simply getting in some form of exercise that is enough to raise your heart rate and which is typically recommended to be 30 minutes per day. It doesn’t sound hard, but for some reason, sometimes getting in 30 minutes of heart pumping exercise is the last [...]

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Energy Cheers

March 19, 2009

Usually whenever you are most tired, least motivated, and want to do anything but exercise is when you really should just strap on your running shoes and do something to get your heart rate going. I can think of many a run I dragged myself out to do and at the end I was always [...]

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Spring Fever Inspires Running

March 6, 2009

There is no question that March came roaring in like a lion for Annapolis and much of the rest of the East Coast this year. This week started with freezing temperatures and more snow than we’ve seen in a couple years. While it was all pretty at first, it sure would’ve been nicer a couple [...]

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Post-Race Recovery

March 5, 2009

For many years, the longest run I ever trained for was a 10K. I usually ran consistently, but would really ramp up a training program about 2-3 months prior to the 10K. Inevitably after the 10K I was always likely to fall off the running bandwagon, sometimes for a week or two, sometimes for a [...]

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Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say

February 26, 2009

For the last two weeks I’ve been at my local gym using the stationary bike for my cardio work-out to give my IT band a rest before my first marathon. I love to people watch and the gym is definitely a great spot for that, especially when you’re pedaling for all you’re worth and going [...]

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The Buddy System a la Texting

February 18, 2009

Last summer a girlfriend and I realized we were both in a work-out slump. We wanted to be exercising regularly and we knew the exercises we wanted to do (mostly running, Pilates, Yoga, and a few weight routines) and we both categorized ourselves as morning exercisers. However, we were severely lacking the motivation to actually [...]

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