Week 41 Wrap Up and a Lit Fire

I'll be honest, I've felt stagnant lately. The past few weeks, heck...the past two months or so, I've just felt stagnant. Workouts haven't been fun. I've felt like I've been losing motivation. I don't know why. Nothing has changed....but maybe that's why I've been losing motivation; nothing has changed. Since a week before Christmas, I've been working a temporary/side job (it finished up last week) that has been somewhat physically demanding and requiring more time than usual, lately. Because I was working all day, I was unable to go to my yoga classes (they're at noon) and I really missed those.

Last week, I was asked to go to a meeting with 10 women looking to lose weight and get healthy. I was asked to go so I could share my personal journey, as well as nutrition tips and extra motivation for the women. They paired up so they would each have an accountability partner. A group was also started on Facebook so we could all stay connected, talk about issues anyone may be having and encourage when needed. While I'm not actually one of the women that are participating in the group, it's nice to know that my journey, [limited] experience, and knowledge are helpful. I want to do what I can to help others that are looking to better themselves.

I went to the movies with some friends last week (this and the past paragraphs will all tie together, I promise). We saw Grudge Match, with Sylvester Stallone and Robert DeNiro. It was a cute movie, but I honestly wouldn't recommend even paying matinee to go see it (it would be a decent Redbox rental...pay the dollar). It's about two old boxers that want to fight each other again in the ring. Anyway, there was one of those classic workout montages. Watching this, it lit a bit of a fire under my butt. Sylvester Stallone is 67 years old. I know he's been fit for pretty much his whole life and can do way more than I ever could, but there was something he did during that montage that I now REALLLLY want to do.

It took a stagnant few weeks with a few seemingly unimportant events to get that motivation back. I was finally able to get back to yoga yesterday and it felt WONDERFUL! I missed it so much! Last night, my yoga instructor friend and I hit the sauna and I can't believe how much I missed that, too! We're going to make it a weekly thing. This group of women that are looking to get healthy remind me of myself when I was at my day 1, which helped with the motivation to get back to pushing myself (I should add a disclaimer, it's not that I haven't been working out during this "stagnant" period, I was just doing what I needed to do, I guess. I did the cardio just to get it done with. Heck, I even missed a few weeks of weights on my own) and working harder towards progressing even further faster. K and I got back together and climbed stairs this morning. I haven't done stairs since she and I did them back in the spring. We did 50 flights, up and down, in 19 minutes and 51 seconds, which is a pretty good time seeing as we did less than that the first time and it took about 45 minutes. Our average time per set was less than 6 minutes. My best time back in the spring was over 7 minutes. My new goal since watching that movie last week is to pull a truck. I want to get a harness on and pull a truck. You read it right. So J, if you're reading this, work on making that happen :) I want to pull a truck. And not just move it. I mean, I want to pull it....a quarter mile, a half mile....I want to pull a truck.

I put a list of races on Instagram that I wanted to do for 2014. While I still hate running, I had an initial goal of doing a half marathon by May when the Cleveland Marathon comes around. As I was thinking realistically, I realized that I am not going to be ready by may to run 13.1 miles. But the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon is coming up in October this year. I'll be ready by October. So, I've start pushing my cardio and preparing for that already. My goal is to do a half marathon in October and finish in 3 hours. That would be less than a 14 minute mile, which I'm already surpassing (but not long distance yet). I have some work to do, but I'm going to do it. I also have already registered for another 5k in June, and the ladies in the fitness group will be doing a 5k in April or early May, in which I will also be participating. K and I are also trying to find 2 more teammates to do Tackle the Tower next month, where you run up 38 flights of stairs as fast as possible (the best 3 times out of the 4 team members are totaled and then the top 3 teams win something). I also plan on getting in a 5 miler and 10 miler in at some point between now and October. If I actually register and pay to run in an event, it keeps me accountable. So, if anyone else is interested in doing a 5k or 10k at any point in time, let me know and I will try to join you! :)