Hump Day Motivation

Huuummmmpppp Day!  Another Wednesday in the books and we're almost through the work week, people.  The past two days went by pretty quickly and I'm excited that tomorrow is Thursday because that means the next day is Friday and after that I will be home for a fun weekend with the friends!

Yesterday after work I did a quick 3-mile run trying to get a little bit of speed work in.  I have never done speed work before and I had no idea what I was doing, but I gave it a try.  Tuesday isn't usually a run day for me but I really wanted to get some sort of workout in, and I ended up having dinner plans so I still feel like running is the most efficient work out.  Plus, it was nice to just get outside.

I did a one mile warm up and after that I ran hard for 2 minutes, followed by a 2 minute recovery.  I repeated that 3 more times followed by finishing with about a one-mile cool down run.  My time ended up being pretty good overall.  I thought you'd be able to see this a little better where I sped up and slowed down, but I guess I wasn't very consistent with those speeds.

The big drop in pace is when I had to wait for the light to turn so that I could cross the street.

Afterwards I met some friends for dinner at The Lighthouse in Schenectady where we enjoyed an incredibly beautiful night sitting out on the patio eating dinner.  I had an arugula, beat, goat cheese salad that was so yummy and delicious, plus, the restaurant has a great view of the river.

When I got home, I watched an episode of Orange is the New Black and snacked on one of my favorite desserts of a cut up apple with some cinnamon and Splenda on it.  I'm trying really hard to "redefine" my notion of dessert and really only allow myself to have one dessert a day.  So far so good.  I want to be really good during the week, so that I can be a little more lenient on the weekends when I have big plans.  It may not seem like much but the apple and a good TV show was one of my favorite parts of the day!

This morning I was up early for my Hump Day Hill run with Jess and my legs just did not really want to run today.  I kept us running a pretty slow pace, but I was sort of happy that we did get 4 miles in, because I really did not want to run and it was sort of drizzly and wet out.   It wasn't anything spectacular but finishing the run made me feel pretty happy, knowing how much I didn't want to get out of bed that morning.

I actually had planned with a friend for an evening workout too and both in the morning and in the PM proved to me how important it is to have workout friends.  I would not have had any sort of run this morning if it weren't for Jess and I wouldn't have had the workout I had in the afternoon without my friend.

I've been wanting to get more into doing strength and weight training, but I struggle because I don't know what to do.  I was lucky enough to find a friend looking for a gym buddy who doesn't mind being patient with me and teaching me.  Today was day 1 and we did arms and shoulders.  I have a feeling I am going to be sore in the morning!

After our workout we went to dinner where I just threw on a hoodie over my Paris Marathon Finisher t-shirt that I'd worn for our workout when we went out to dinner.  My friend made the comment that I was wearing all my trophies for my proudest accomplishments, which was kind of true!  So I made him take a pictures :)

It makes me quite happy to have these memorabilia to be remember my accomplishments.  Having goals and celebrating them, as well as having gym buddies, helps keep me motivated and moving forward.

What keeps you moving forward?