Encouragement From the 500 Festival E-Trainer

Every week I get an email with training tips from the 500 Festival e-training team. Do I read these emails...not so much. Until yesterday! Good thing too, because I was having a horrible rotten morning. Here are some little tid-bits of encouragement from the email that pretty much spoke right to me.

"If you've had a hard time getting motivated to train for the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon with the ice and snow, you're not alone."

Oh my gosh! No kidding! Everyone I talk says that the crappy week of snow and ice pretty much killed any motivation to work out. You were pretty much screwed unless you have a treadmill in your house. There was basically no way to run outside without risking a treacherous fall and we were under a travel warning, so no one could drive to the gym.

" If you've been running or walking pretty regularly through the winter, you should be OK if you're just getting started with your training." 
Good thing! Because um...yeah...last week was basically when I started the training program. Before that it was pretty sporadic. So basically there is still hope that I can run this thing. I mean really run this thing! So many of my professors are running and it would be a bit embarrassing to get beat by them.

"Don't be afraid to do a little walking, ... You might even find yourself feeling better after a few minutes of walking and be able to start running again."
Whew. Sometimes I feel like a loser when I start walking. I wonder what the people driving by think about me when they see me start walking. Reminds me of a funny story. My brother once told me something to the effect of, "You look like a runner! You're really going to surprise them when you can't even run a whole 5K."  This happened right before a 5K that we ran about 4 years ago. I went out a few days before the race and bought new running shoes and a cute pair of Nike running shorts. I think my training was 2 runs about a month before the race. I ran the whole dang thing and now my brother and I have this little tradition that we sign up for 5Ks and just run them without really training. He works out a lot, so he has the muscle to overpower any endurance he might be lacking even though he isn't lacking it. I, of course, have neither muscle nor power and even though I can up and run 5K I usually feel like death when I'm done. It's our version of fun. We're obviously crazy.

"As long as you are on your feet and moving your body, you are training."

I think someone once explained to me that you just have to get up off your tush and that 80% of a workout is better than no workout at all. That's basically going to be me tonight. I'm stuck working till about 10pm tonight, so I'll do a Nike Training Club workout at home. And I probably will pick an easy one. But at least I'll be on my feet and moving!

I will be keeping these encouraging words in mind the rest of this week. And I will read my 500 series e-training emails from now on! Who knew a mass email could be so personal!