Alarm, Coffee, Run, Repeat

Some of the many benefits of running outside in the early morning are the quiet, restful, and traffic free streets in my neighborhood. People don’t start to mill about until 7:30 or so and this gives me time to enjoy my longer runs without the harried feeling of cars whizzing by or someone’s dog bounding across the road to say hello. This morning offered another surprise. As I was huffing my way up Johnson Lake Road from High Ridge, I heard the familiar sound of red tail hawks. They have a familiar screech …we hear it in movies and TV shows as the sound effect for nearly every bird, raptor, or fowl…and today it seemed to be coming from everywhere. I took pause and looked up into the nearest eucalyptus tree and there was a fledgling, on a branch, calling to another fledgling on the power pole across the street. You can tell a fledge from an adult, they are far more visible and closer to the ground and they have yet to acquire their signature red tail but they have their parents’ voice...

The last half marathon I ran was in January of 2007…the Carlsbad Half Marathon . My first sub 2 hour half and I trained for six months to prepare. Part of my training was the America’s Finest City Half Marathon in August of 2006. I had a safe neighborhood in which to run, drove to Spring Valley to trail run near Sweetwater reservoir, and did my long runs around the Bonita Golf Course…6 mile laps! I had two small kiddos then and I was a stay at home mom so I had, “all the time in the world,” (compared to now, as a working mom of two larger kiddos) when my time is significantly more limited and planned! And so I am once again preparing for my half marathon adventure(s). I have roughly 8 weeks to train for something I signed up for almost a month ago. I have been running but not with any half marathon purpose. Why does that matter? Because, silly heads, I ran a sub 2 hour half in 2007…I have a PR to protect!! I  would love to match that time in the AFC half, but it is a rather chal...

Motivation is a tricky thing for some of us. We wax and wane with the moon at times; increasing and decreasing our running, exercise, chore completion, you name it! I am constantly asking myself why I can’t be committed to a routine; a regimen if you will, of running and cross training. I have all the right reasons, I love to do it (once I am out or into it) and it makes me feel infinitely better mentally and physically. So why do I stop? Why do I rebel against my alarm clock and tell myself it isn’t the boss of me ? Why is the sheer act of getting stronger and being strong enough to get up not more powerful then my mind saying, “No way! I am not getting up just because you tell me I have to.” Maybe it’s a vestige of bucking parental authority? Maybe it’s that free will thing creeping into my mind, when I am half asleep listening to the crickets of my alarm clock, reminding me that I always have a choice: bed is good, cold and dark living room is bad…can you relate? What do you do to ...