January 16, 2012

Runday Monday: Making Time

With D off to Montreal for a boys hockey/cigar/dining weekend, I headed 'round the bay to Chez Nanny. Knowing I had a long run to do, I took my outdoor running gear so I could get that run in. But I woke up Saturday morning to a gale force wind and a similar forecast for Sunday, and that inner fairweather runner immediately came out.

You see, when it's windy everywhere else, at Chez Nanny's it's near 'bout hurricane force. No joke. And as I`ve said before, that sort of weather does not make a runner out of me. Nope, instead it turns runner me into couch potato me. A little while later, my parents made mention of how I should have gone over to me sister`s and used her treadmill. I had totally (conveniently?) forgot that she had one. In fact, she has a mini-gym set-up in a spare room complete with treadmill, elliptical, gazelle-thingy, and hand weights.

But as my sister lives about 40 minutes away from my mother, it seemed a long way to go for a short long run. I hemmed and hawed for a bit and then remembered if I didn't make time for the run now, I won't make time in the half marathon four months from now. So I packed up my sneakers, my mother, my son and headed to my sister's. Now if you know me at all, this is a generally unlikely scenario. I try my best to exercise, but generally only when it's convenient and comfortable. Packing my bag, a baby's bag, and driving 40 minutes to a treadmill for a run only to have to turn around and do it all again to get back home after I was done - all when I'm enjoying some R&R at my momma's - does not meet that criteria.

Nonetheless, I did it. I guess it's the accountability factor after tellin' y'all about my half marathon plans. Was it convenient? Nope. Was it what I wanted to be doing on a Saturday afternoon? Nope. Was it worth it? Hells yeah. I made time for it and so glad I did. It turned about to be an easier than expected run. I ended up running a half km longer than my training plan required. I even ran a slightly faster pace than I normally do. Better than all that, I felt really, really good after I was done. Whatever your current goal, make time to make it happen. I'm sure you'll feel the same.

Oh, and thanks momma for accompanying me on the drive and for looking after HP while I got 'er done.

3 comments:

lehogan said...

Yay you!!

Katie said...

I'm so impressed. Now back to my couch with a cookie *shame on me*

Jennifer Wellsman said...

Great job Colleen. My blog today is pretty similar. It's so easy to not run, so difficult to make the time to do so. But, when it's over, don't you feel like you've accomplished so much? I'm doing a program at the moment to try and build up my distance. Maybe once I'm back up to a good speed, I'll take you up on a Sunday run.... if you don't mind my lagging behind a bit. :)