Crazy weather leads to limited workouts

It is no secret that Mother Nature needs some Prozac.  The weather here in Ohio has been ridiculously snowy and cold the entire month of January.  This of course translates into less workouts and more time spent indoors trying to stay warm.  Needless to say, I have seen a lot of zeros on my dailymile training profile.

Not so sure why he looks so happy.  Yeah, zero...we get it

Now I will say that the kids and I and some friends went to visit our friends in Chicago for a long weekend so that also contributed to my zeros.  Since one of my missions is to run happy and stress free, I refused to let myself feel bad for not doing one single workout while we were there.  It was about spending time we our good friends and catching up with everyone.

The good news is that I have managed to get some workouts in this month.  There has been a bit of running as well as a little bit of cross training going on in my world.

I did my first kettlebell/treadmill walk workout about two weeks ago and I really enjoyed it.  The best part was I got a fantastic deal on my kettlebells at the local Aldi.

Best. Deal. Ever

Tuesday of last week I did manage to get a hill repeat workout done on the trusty old basement treadmill and followed it up on Wednesday with a kettlebell/stair workout.  Man was that workout both hard and awesome all at the same time.  I definitely worked up one heck of a sweat in those 31 minutes.  I never realized how handy the 15 stairs in my house are!

Not my steps but very similar to the 15 in my house

Of course we must fast forward to today when Mother Nature again forgot to take her meds and I wake up to this love sight on my phone.

Brrrrr!!

Seriously??  Come on now!  Obviously I was anticipating cold weather because both my school and my kids school closed today but I certainly wasn't expecting to see that!!  I had planned to run seven miles today with four 1 mile repeats included and I knew after seeing this that this workout would have to occur on the treadmill.  I quickly checked out the TV guide to see what was going to be on today.  The Bucket List at 11:00 AM.  Okay, I think I can tolerate the treadmill and not have the urge to rip my eyes out if I run while this movie is showing.  Overall it was a great workout.  I feel short on the last mile repeat as I was listening to my body and didn't want to make any stupid decisions  that would result in injury.  Afterall, it goes back to my mission of running happy.  If I can't run because I am injured then I certainly can't run happy! 

Very thankful for my Vision Fitness Treadmill when it's crazy cold out

Here's hoping that Mother Nature gets her meds figured out very soon.  I want to be back outside taking in all the beautiful scenery on a run instead of staring into the face of my flat screen TV in the basement.  There are only so many shows I can watch!!

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!

2014 Missions

In my last post, I asked for a new word for goals because quite frankly the word goals stresses me out.  I took it to Facebook and after reviewing the suggestions, I have decided to go with missions.

Now that I have covered my reason for not having "goals", I give you my missions for 2014 in no particular order.

Mission #1:  Make an effort to eat more fruits and vegetables.
Action Plan:  Always have fruits and vegetables cleaned, cut up, and ready for consumption.
Action Plan:  Choose healthier options when snacking.

Mission #2:  Accept and embrace that my best is good enough.
Action Plan:  Stop comparing myself to others and compare myself to the person I was yesterday.
Action Plan:  Define my own success and measure it by what I am able to do.

Mission #3:  Run 1400 miles in 2014.
Action Plan:  Run.
Action Plan:  Run some more.

Mission #4:  Run happy.
Action Plan:  Run training runs and races with friends as often as I can.
Action Plan:  Listen to my heart and not the beeps on my Garmin.
Action Plan:  Be thankful that I have been blessed with a healthy body that allows me to run.

Mission #5:  Do other workouts in addition to running.
Action Plan:  Find workouts I enjoy and actually do them.
Action Plan:  Participate in some monthly fitness challenges.

As this is my mission list I am giving myself permission to add, delete, or change them at any given time.   I will update you on my progress when I do my month in review posts.  Here goes nothing...

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!