A new mantra

I'm working with a new mantra. "Exercise every day." It's helping to keep me motivated. Last year I had all those races to motivate me, but this year, so far, with the injury, I won't be racing for the near future at least, and perhaps for a few months ... and who knows when I can sign up for the longer races I'd really like to be doing. (I am signed on for the Toad, but that's not til the end of September, and I remain optimistic about being fit to train over the summer for that one.)

Anyway, in the absence of races, I need another reason to get out of bed.

Exercise every day seems to be working well.

Ideally, I'd like to keep track of what exercise I'm doing every day, that hope to get on this blog more often to note that down. But practically speaking, my other life -- as a writer launching a new book -- has taken over, and I'm finding it difficult to find time to post here too.

Here goes (only going back as far as I can remember):

Feb. 18 - yoga, 60 minutes
Feb. 19 - run (slow), 21 minutes (Bechtel)
Feb. 20 - yoga with family, 60 minutes; strength exercises 15 minutes
Feb. 21 - spin, 60 minutes
Feb. 22 - run (slow), 40 minutes; strength exercises 25 minutes; plus exercises with physio, 30 minutes
Feb. 23 - spin/weights, 45 minutes; strength exercises 25 minutes
Feb. 24 - yoga, 60 minutes; strength exercises 25 minutes
Feb. 25 - run, 23 minutes (Wloo Park); strength exercises 25 minutes
Feb. 26 - run, 23 minutes, as fast as I could go, plus hills (Bechtel)
Feb. 27 - swim, 2500m; exercises with physio, 30 minutes

:::

And that's up to date. I hope to post here once a week as a way to keep myself honest. I'm trying really hard to keep doing the strength exercises every day. And honestly, I'm already noticing a big difference in my glutes. I was able to run hard up the hills yesterday. That seemed to be almost easier than running on the flat, probably because my glutes engage automatically going uphill -- and that's how I should be running all the time. My physio strongly recommends that I not consciously try to change my stride, lest I injury myself in the process of trying to force change. She says all of this strength work will get me where I need to go, and will change my stride naturally. Here's hoping.

My cardio fitness has really dropped off, and I'm finding that frustrating. Just 20 minutes of hard running yesterday had me feeling very fatigued. And my swim this morning was a challenge. So slow! Because I know what hard work it takes to get well-conditioned for distances and speed (running, specifically), I'm sort of dreading all the base work that will need to be done in order to get myself back up to marathon fitness again. It's going to be hard!

No, it's going to be a challenge. And I don't mind being challenged. Not at all.