Where's the Beach?

You often see Motivation Monday posts. I wanted to talk about motivation today, but maybe not quite what most people would expect.  I was thinking about motivation a lot over the weekend. Where it comes from, how it inspires, and also how it can be taken too far. Just take a quick gander over on Pinterest and you'll find more motivational quotes and images than you could use in a lifetime. Then check out your Twitter or Facebook feed. Again, posts about PRs, crushing workouts, miles run, weights and reps lifted. Now visit Instagram and tell me what you see. Yep, more of the same. That's all well and good. It's inspiring to see others out there pushing hard, achieving goals, hitting PRs. It's great to see an image or quote urging us to not quit, to keep going, to push on through the pain.  However, at what cost? One of my least favorite images/quotes I see is the one about never regretting a workout. I'm sorry, but I've regretted a workout before. W...

I posted this picture on Instagram after our 21-mile ride last night. And it sort of got me to thinking about how lucky I am that my spouse does exercise and we can work out together. Poor Jason had to duck down to take this so I didn't cut his head off When we belonged to a gym, we would sometimes go up there together. Maybe do spin class together. We never did weights together though. When I first started running outside, we always ran together. But now? Maybe once a week for 3-4 miles. We do ride together. I'm not brave enough to venture out on my own yet. And, I enjoy the time we do spend together biking. Even though we don't talk much, it's just nice being together, enjoying the outdoors, enjoying life really.  I know that many people don't have the luxury of working out with their significant others. So, I try not to take it for granted that Jason will get out there with me, sometimes begrudgingly mind you ;-) He's not usually so eager to ju...

Working Out I haven't really talked a whole lot about my workouts lately. They're getting done though. My mileage has dropped back considerably from 35 miles a week to only about 25 right now. This is really due to my plantar fasciitis not a lack of desire to run. Prior to my half marathon March 3, the plantar fasciitis issue was acting up. But it wasn't a show stopper. I was still able to get out there and run my miles. After the half? Total show stopper. So, while I baby my foot, my miles are down. I am getting in more cross training right now. And that's not a bad thing. I do enjoy lifting weights and doing a variety of DVDs (typically Cathe Friedrich workouts like MMA Boxing , MMA Kickboxing or her new XTrain Tabatacise ), or taking a spin on my bike (on it's trainer still). Variety can be a really good thing. But, I still love my running. I miss being outdoors when I'm doing some other workout. And, even with the pain in my foot, most of my runs ha...

Background for Post Today is going to be a super hectic day for us in terms of two events in two cities. My nephew's birthday was Thursday, and his party is today in one city (an hour away). It's supposed to be from 12-2. Then we have a wedding to attend back in our city at 4. So, I'll pretty much be gone all day today. Alison had a post recently ( Just *move* ) that sort of got me thinking about why I (or we) workout the way I (we) do. I have had chats with my friend Jessica talking about concerns about people maybe thinking I'm too over the top with workouts. I get comments about being a machine or hardcore. Sometimes that can sound more like insane and over doing it. She thought maybe I should do a few posts on over-training syndrome, because I mentioned I've been there and never want to hit that spot again. I've posted about it in the past, and maybe I'll revisit that again. But, then Alison replied to my comment on her post and that ...