Running Excuses and Tuesday's Mile Repeats and a tough 800

For many different reasons my Tuesday/Thursday running workouts have been tough lately. Tough enough for me to up my game on Saturday and Sundays running in the morning while Wylie is at fencing (2 to 2.5 miles) and Burke Lake (3 to 5 miles) with workout members. Before I get to the workout last night I thought I would share all the lovely excuses as to why the workouts and runs have been so tough. My reason for writing them down is that once here I will de-rationalize them and point out to myself that I have indeed beaten and run through each one.
NOTE: I do not push through injury or severe pain. I also admit fully to taking 10 to 30 second mental breaks to talk myself back into the game.

My excuses/reasons/rationale for tough running:
1. Stress-Work related, parenting related, life related, general. This is my first go to excuse that I am just stressed about something and everything and makes the thought of getting out there and running less desirable. The reason I do go run though is that I know it burns through it pretty quickly and that stress level goes down just a tad.

2. Exhaustion/Tired--Everyone is tired right? But when I want to take a nap and sometimes DO take a nap before running it seems like I have the right excuse for not wanting to run and that when the run is really tough then I truly am tired. Again though, I still seem to make it through and go to running because for some reason I show up and run, maybe a bit slower but I still push it and try hard and some of the tired goes away but sometimes I'm still really really tired. 

3. Attitude--I SUCK AT RUNNING. Yep that is what I think, along with I"m fat and it's not really helping with the weight loss so why bother and what do I stand to gain? And when I'm out there still running and trying and feeling really loseresque about my running this is what is going through my head. Ultimately I'm whining. This is the hardest to de-rationalize. I tend to think "Why is it awesome and okay for someone who just lost 100lbs to be proud of running a 16 minute mile but not okay for me to run an 11:20minute mile?" "I'm the only one judging myself and really who is competing?" THIS is what makes me stop and do the 10 to 30 second mental break to talk myself back into the game. So when I do the run I try to put the idea of time out of my head and just move forward at my pace and focus on good form and finishing. My goal is to try to get rid of the bad attitude. 

4. Lead in my Legs and Wanting to just Quit--This is when we are to jog around the center or jog to the lake or Adare road and that is daunting to me and just starting or getting there is causing me to go super slow and feel yucky. Or in some cases by the time I finish just the warm up jog I'm utterly exhausted or feel it and just want to walk. De-rationalize this one is really tough. I tend to move through this keeping in mind my coach's motivation which is "Even if you don't want to do it, show up, plan on walking and then see what happens. Just showing up sometimes helps"

So our Tuesday workout was doing a Mile repeat and an 800 sprint repeat.
First: I really didn't want to go and spent the entire warm up and then the jog to Adare road thinking about just turning around and going back to the car and giving up. I even said this to one of the women I run with who had asked me how I was doing. She laughed and basically pointed out that every day she sat in the car wondering if she was going to get out or not. I kept running.

We got to Adare Road to the start line. Our workout was as follows:
We were to start our run at modest pace and when we got to the first cone pick up the pace by a gear (imagine going from first to second).
At the second cone pick it up another gear so that we are working hard and conversation is almost not possible.
At the third cone KICK IT HARD meaning no talking, no thinking but running hard without a full sprint.
At the fourth cone we were to slow to a jog and continue the jog through a brief turnaround and back to the fourth cone.
I finished a 1/2 mile in 4:22 doing that and HATED every moment of it up until the 3rd cone for some reason.
The fourth cone became our start line and we repeated what we had done on the way out back to our initial start line.
My legs were sore and my lungs were not as sore as I thought but my brain hurt because it took a ton of mental stamina to talk my way through it BUT I did pass a few people just motoring on as I ran. Sadly I didn't see it as a good thing.

We had a 3 minute break in which we continued to walk around and keep moving before starting our second mile.
The 800 was brutal. I walked several times for a few seconds here and there but I started harder and finished harder.

We then were expected to jog back to the store. I walked. I fully admit I walked. I had just run 2 miles incredibly hard and jogged almost 1 mile to the 2 mile run. I wanted to walk and honestly couldn't force myself to run. I had company.

We then did our fun 7 minutes in "HEAVEN" core workout. IF you think it's heaven try it. I dare you.
Start with basic crunches but make sure you engage your core muscles prior to starting (this doesn't mean suck your gut in, it means making it feel like you are spreading your abdominal muscles out). Follow with the following switching every 45 seconds or so...
Crunch that you reach up to the sky with your arms and then clap
Zombies--take your arms from behind your head all the way up and touch your toes and back down
Knee Circles--knees at 90 degrees and then with core engaged make wide circles with your knees together in both directions.
Ab Twist--cross one leg over one knee and raise opposite elbow to opposite knee
Bridges-USING CORE raise bottom off ground and hold for 2 seconds then release and repeat.
Planks
Side Planks--both sides
Russian twists--bring your body up with knees bent and twist your body side to side only use abdominals
Knees Crunch--Knees at 90 degree angle and do crunches.

You should be in heaven by then.

That was Tuesday's workout.
Amazingly I felt good after. I had to put on a long sleeve shirt because I started getting chilly but I was still cooling down.