Bad run

I had probably one of my worst runs ever yesterday. We were in San Antonio for my hubby's umpire meeting and I decided I'd get my 7 mile run in on the treadmill in the hotel's fitness center. I had thought about running outside there, but I was afraid of running alone in an unfamiliar place. It ended up being rainy and cold anyway, so treadmill it was. The fitness center was hot, but at least it was dry. I was scheduled to run 7, but I did good to get 5 miles done...and even then I had to walk some. Walk some! It has been a long time since I've had to walk on a run. I have no idea what was going on. I know so much of running is mental, but I don't think that explains it.

So, back on track for this week we go. It's a no-brainer. I have to hit my mileage and my strength training...no options here. It's not like I have some big complicated training plan for strength training...for now, I'm sticking to the plan I saw on runlikeamotherbook.com. It's Dimity's plan (I think) and consists of just 6 moves. Why is this so hard for me?

I think the only way I'm going to get this done is some serious planning/reward/schedule deal with myself. I'm thinking an old-fashioned reward chart is going to reach the kid in me. Two stickers a week gets me a chai latte on the weekend. A month of two stickers a week gets me new running gear. Hmm....maybe I'm on to something.

Speaking of gear, I found these running tights at a Nike outlet this weekend. And passed them up. I'm cheap, what can I say? But now I wish I'd gotten them. They had vents behind the knees and zippers up the back of the ankle. And they were gray, so I could break out of my black rut. I also found a cool running top at the Nike store in Grapevine. I loved all its features but it didn't fit quite right. I'm quite short-bodied, and it was just not made for that. It has a vented upper back and underarms, a zipper pocket across the lower back, a slide-in pocket (perfect for gels or chews) on the back, a half zipper front, short sleeves and a mock turtleneck neckline. If only it hadn't been made for tall people...

Ok, back to the idea of motivation. Maybe a calendar really will help, but something I've been meaning to do, and maybe I will get around to tomorrow since we have a day off, is make some posters or cards of quotes that keep me going. Some of them are Bible verses and others are just phrases. If I get around to it tomorrow, I'll post them here.