Sometimes It's Hard To Plan

Here we are folks, Week 7, the penultimate week of pre-training. I should be feeling like a rock star, doing a 60 minute run (guys... that means an hour. AN HOUR!) and feeling groovy. 

I bet you can sense where this is going. I am not feeling groovy or rocking it out. This week was a miserable failure. Here's why:

As many of you know I worked for a popular retailer that we'll call the Plantain Democracy, whose mascot is an elephant. I love getting people all gussied up and showing them trends and what not, but I don't like pushy salesmanship, terrible pay, or stupid hours. And this week I worked *stupid* hours. I also got to quit my job at Plantain Democracy, and spend the weekend working a street festival for my new job. New job = better pay, working as a teaching artist, playing/learning with children about theatre and life. Oh, and regular hours. Jackpot, right?

Eee, except here's the way the two schedules worked together:

Monday: Day off (rest up, my friend, you're in for it later)
Tuesday: 6 am - 3 pm (Ugh, what?)
Wednesday: 11-4  (Normal, but followed by a ribbon cutting ceremony for the New Job and a birthday party.)
Thursday: 6 am - 3 pm (Double ughs in one week? Ugh!)
Friday: 4:45 - 10 pm (Last day! Not bad right? But look at tomorrow...)
Saturday:  Street Fest! 8:30 - 7
Sunday: Street Fest! 9:30 - 8

What a beast. I had the best intentions, started off Monday right with a 40 minute run, leveling up in my intervals and that went pretty well. Tuesday, I was going to skip my walk, go next door and get a slice of pizza (oh no, Kel, don't do it!). I didn't! For some reason my tired feet kept right on walkin' and I boogied around the block a couple times for my walk. I'm doing it guys, I'm doing it!

And then Wednesday happened, and I couldn't get out of bed. And then Thursday happened, and I meant to take a nap after my monster shift and then go for a run around 7. Instead I slept from 4 pm to EIGHT A.M. Right on through. I did manage my run on Friday, and had the foresight to make it my long run. So I ran twice this week. Once for 40 minutes and once for 60 minutes. 

Saturday and Sunday weren't as trying as I thought they'd be. I didn't run, because they looked like stupid long days. But we got out early both nights, and I did a total of 60 minutes of "dance party" time with the kids each day. So I got a hefty amount of cardio in. (I even tricked the kids into doing high knees and jumping jacks, 'cause they don't know they're not dance moves! Buahahahahaha!)

I don't feel great about how it went. I could have tried harder, scheduled better, or gone home instead of being social. When I agreed to this whole shenanigan I thought the difficulty would be the running and the more running and oh wow we're still running. But it is turning out that scheduling it in has been the most difficult aspect.

The New Job will be awesome, because it has set hours and I can have a routine. (And for a lot of other reasons, but this blog isn't about that!) It will get easier from here on out. Your take-away this week?  Discouraging weeks happen, we all fall off the fitness wagon (or whatever wagon you're goals have you riding). But wagons don't go very fast! If you run and climb up, you can get right back on. 

And if the wagon seems really far away, here's a little reminder from our graffiti artist friend:

This week's big shout out goes to the wonderful Chris for her donation to my marathon fund! I am now fully sponsored for mile four, and I love having her on my team! (She's been on my team since I was little. It's great!) Who's going to get me through mile five?