These last few days, I've been so overwhelmed with everything going on in my life. I mean, I understand that I have a lot going on compared to other people. I have three jobs, two in ice cream. It's getting warmer outside now, so that means more hours at work. My other job is at Ball State Dining, so my hours are the same every week, though I just dropped one shift today for my own sanity. So my hours are going from 40ish to maybe... like 50+ a week for the rest of the semester. (and I drive home every Friday to work and come back Saturday night. Ugh.) I also have five classes, most of which are 400 level and overwhelming... lots of projects & papers right now. It's overwhelming. I'm trying to find a home in Orlando for graduate school, because that's coming up really quickly. Then I'm trying to run 20-30 miles a week on top of everything else, which needs to increase. It's just really hard to stay motivated right now. It is important that I do stay motivated, though. I did notice that if I make a to do list, I stick to it, as long as I pull it out of my planner every once in a while.
Anyways, like I said in my last post, I officially registered for Goofy's Race & a Half Challenge in January. That's 39.3 miles in 2 days... a half marathon one morning and a full the next morning. So I officially am going to start training. My first goal is to complete 39.3 miles in a week, which is completely doable... if not for time constraints. I had a pretty good run today, it was a little over eight and a half miles and I'm not feeling it too badly. I'm relieved, because my first half of the year is in two weeks. I was worried that I wouldn't be prepared for it in time, but I think that I will be. (and my run today was outside, which was sooo wonderful and the weather was nice and.... mmm...)
I have read a lot of running stuff, but I haven't found a lot of information about staying motivated in running... or what to do if you're not longer motivated. That's a serious problem for me, so I'm going to have to work on it. I think that I need to outline some of my motivators. I have a lot of them, so this time I'm going to start with writing about my roommates.. and then next time I'm going to talk about my family a little. (if it weren't for them, I'd only have four followers on my blog, so this is a big deal... haha.)
Katherine is my rock. She's been my best friend for a long time & has been there for me through a lot of stuff. I've officially coerced her into running in two half marathons with me so far and I'm 99% sure that she's running the half in two weeks with me. (only 99%, because we haven't registered yet.....lol.) I could go on and on about things she has done to help me out during some of the biggest struggled that I've had, but I won't bore you. She motivates me, though. Lately, it's been hard, because we have both been busy and we haven't been able to run together a whole lot in the last month or so, but she's one of my biggest motivators. Seriously, who else is going to listen to me when I whine about how much my life is stressful... & she's always the first to tell me about how I'm doing too much at once, but that she understands why I'm doing it. When I ask her if she thinks that I'm crazy, she tells me, in nice words, that I'm borderline insane. haha. I honestly don't think that I would have finished the Fort-4-Fitness in September if it weren't for Katherine running with me pushing me along. I did start crying when I was racing the Fort-4-Fitness and I thought that I wouldn't be able to keep going. She was there. We didn't run together in the Monumental in Indianapolis in November, so she finished like a half an hour before me, but when I crossed the finish line, Katherine was right there congratulating me. She has shown me a lot of support during all of this and when I'm chosing the most insane goals, she rolls her eyes a little, but she supports me all of the way. When I decided to eat vegetarian, Katherine and I picked out some recipes together. When I decided that I was going to run a crazy amount of miles, she decided to support me all the way. When I decided I was going to run a half marathon, Katherine, eventually, decided that she would do it with me. When I got mad at her for being more in shape and fit than me... and faster, she took my mean words without letting them get to her too bad. When I get stressed out and, sometimes, lash out, she's always the first to forgive. I don't know how I'd do this without her support.
Josh motivates me, too. He doesn't really run a lot, but he does use the elliptical down in the gym. We've used the treadmill a couple times together, but running is uncomfortable for his knees, so we don't really do that. He listens to me bitch about my running goals and how insane I feel like I am... and genuinely seems interested in what I am doing. He's someone that I can talk to about my running and my other goals in my life and, usually, at least pretends to want to know about it. haha. I have also convinced him to try to run with me outside at least once. Now that it's nicer out, we're planning on running soon. Actually, I wrote in my calendar that we'd run together April first, which is next week. Though, that's going to be a little bit tough, because I'm going to be doing serious half marathon training then, so I don't know how that will work out. Regardless, we've been planning this since the end of December, so it will happen and it is going to be a big deal. Josh always seems to know whether or not to talk to me when I'm overwhelmed. I think that he can read my emotions pretty well, which is important. I've known Josh since I was a junior in high school, so it has been almost seven years now of our friendship, so we've known each other for a fairly long time. Our friendship dynamic is definitely interesting, but he is pretty motivational when he needs to be. Even though he's not really a runner, he understands what it is to have something important in life and that's what this running is for me. It's important to have that.
I'm glad that the people that I live with both are supporting me in this. (this is not to say that they are the only ones who are, because they aren't. I just don't have an unlimited amount of time to write about everyone. I'll write more tomorrow.)
Goal: 1000 miles/365 days
So far: 243.1 miles/138 days
To go: 756.9 miles/227 days
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