It’s Tuesday of week 2 of the Riverplex Reset, and I’ve switched up my groups! That means this week, I’m working out Tuesday/Thursday at 4:15. So I arranged my running schedule around it and Monday was supposed to be Week 2, Day 1 of Nike Run Club Half Marathon training!
Naturally, I pounded that pavement to get that 12 minute recovery run done…
Oh, wait, that was eager, honeymoon-phase, week one Kristin.
Week 2 Kristin decided to nap and be lazy instead of run. “It’s too cold to run outside, plus it’s dark” was one excuse. “Treadmills are boring” I told myself when I remembered the apartment gym that is literally 100 yards away from me. “I’d have to go ALL THE WAY BACK across town to go to the Riverplex to run the track” by brain complained when that option popped into my head. (“all the way back” is only because it’s next to work, not because it literally takes me that long to get there. 10 minutes, tops.)
Today I woke up, pretty annoyed with myself for not running. TWELVE MINUTES. That’s basically nothing. What did I even DO last night? I didn’t clean or do anything productive. I don’t even think I Netflixed! I was on Facebook all. darn. night.
Whatever. Moving on. There are still plenty of days this week to get EVERYTHING done in. I brought workout clothes today, because after I have a meeting with the bank (nicely, they call every year just to review my account and make sure I’m getting all the right benefits I can!) this afternoon, I’m going to the gym early to get that 12 minute run in before personal training at 4:15!
On another note, did you know that there’s actually anaerobic running and aerobic running? I thought it was all aerobic because it’s all cardio, but turns out, I guess I didn’t actually know the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise. I just knew, cardio burns calories fast, so let’s go CARDIO!!
Aerobic exercise is when your body is able to power your muscles with the oxygen you’ve breathed in. You inhale, your body rushes it where it needs to go, then you exhale the remains. Power walks and easy runs, the type you could do while having a conversation with a friend, are aerobic exercise. It gets your heart rate up and burns calories.
Anaerobic exercise, then, is when your body is not able to breathe in a sufficient amount of oxygen to power your muscles. This is when you feel fatigued. Your muscles get sore fast, because lactic acid builds up and your body isn’t able to clean it up at the rate it’s getting produced. This is the kind of exercise you’ve done when you have sore muscles the next morning.
Here’s why it’s important to me as a runner: If you run anaerobically early in your run, you’ll lose energy faster, slow down, and never be able to catch up on momentum the rest of your run. OMG. Life makes sense now. I have a lot of learnin’ left to do when it comes to running!
If you want more information on it, I got it from THIS awesome article!
But back to the struggle bus I’m currently on. I ask you, my Nashies (and yes, I did just name Nash listeners Nashies. I’ve wanted to do it for a while, but here it is), what do YOU do when you lose your initial motivation towards a goal? How do you keep pushing yourself to make it happen? Let me know on Facebook!
Oh, and as a milestone, I’ve lost 20lbs officially as of this morning since I started my #PathOfTreatment in Mid-December!
Thanks for your continued love and support, Nashies!
