October Excuses / November Goals

Oh October, you do it to me every year.  Shorter days, allergies that almost always leads to a sinus infection, a need for an excessive amount of sleep - it all leads to a major lack of motivation.  I have been unmotivated to blog.  My first age group win didn't even motivate me to write a race report!  

The other issue this month is that my right hip started bugging me.  This is how my last injury started so I decided to back off spin & to stick to short runs only.  So far that is keeping the pain at bay.  Maybe I will never be able to go long again.  That thought bums me out too.  

This is also the second month in a row that I didn't get a N2U challenge in.  I just couldn't get motivated for this one either.  I think the reasoning for this is because my new job is pretty much wiping me out - there is so much new stuff to learn & people to work with that at the end of the day I need to decompress.  I need activities that I can do on autopilot.  I don't have the mental bandwidth or desire to learn a new activity.  I realized this the last time I went to the West Sixth Run club.  I usually love running in groups because of the social aspect.  All I wanted to do was run on my own.  So instead of the beer run I have been hitting the Arboretum on my way home to get in a solo run after work. 

The Run to Remember kicked off Firefighters week in Lexington.  This run was 4.03 miles honoring the 403 New York civil servants that lost their lives on 9/11.   I never saw my official time since the results were never posted but my Garmin time was 38m06s.  Below is a picture of me coming into the finish.  I was more thrilled that Steve got a picture of me that looked like I was really running as opposed to walking than winning 1st in my age group.

Run to Remember - 1st AG

I did start back up with Masters Swim in October.  I joined Sundays only for now.  It is so nice swimming in the UK pool again.  It is great having someone watch me swim & giving feedback for improvements.  I have been swimming alone for over a year now & although I have made good speed improvements on my own I need additional coaching to get me to the next level.  What that level is I have no idea but I know I can't get there without help.

Below are the numbers for October.  They aren't terrible but not great either.

October Stats:

• Swim (Goal/Actual) - 8 / 7 miles
• Spin / Road (Goal/Actual) - 100 / 32 miles
• Run (Goal/Actual) - 40 / 36 miles
• Pilates Reformer (Goal/Actual) - 4 / 3
• Yoga (Goal/Actual) - 4 / 4 
• Xtreme 30 (Goal/Actual) - 0 / 2
• October N2U CT Challenge - Nada 
• Races (Goal/Actual) - 1 / 1 - Run to Remember 4.03 miles - 1st in Age Group!
• Rest Days (Goal/Actual) - 4-6 / 8  

Total Miles = 75

Total Time = 22.5 hours

2012 Nike Go the Distance Challenge (Goal / Actual) - 200 miles / 92 miles - At this point I will be thrilled to hit 100 miles in the pool!

In order for me not to get too out of control this holiday season I decided to join the 2012 Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge.   I saw a lot of bloggers participate in this last year & thought it would help me with getting / staying motivated throughout the holidays.

Here are my November goals:

• Swim - 8 miles
• Spin / Road - 60 miles
• Run - 40 miles
• Pilates Reformer - 4
• Yoga - 4
• Xtreme 30 - 4
• November N2U CT Challenge - Who knows?
• Races - 1 - Probably a Thanksgiving 5K
• Rest Days - 4-6

Have a great November, a Happy Thanksgiving and Remember -