Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Mojo CPR - STAT!

You may not have noticed, but I seem to have totally misplaced my running mojo.

I know, I know.  This is completely out of the blue, isn't it?  Clearly I am not one to talk about my problems.

Well, now that we've all had a good snort over that one....  My running mojo.  She is gone.  Last seen around mile 15 of the 2012 Portland Marathon.

I pinpoint it back to that day for several reasons.  One, that marathon experience sucked.  Getting sick on the course from the sports drink was not pleasant.  Two, when I got home that day after the marathon it was to the realization that the time was now for my Maggie to leave us, and she crossed the Rainbow Bridge the next day.  Three, from that point forward I was just hoping to make it past the first of the year before it too was Ginger's time.  Almost three months to the day after Maggie, Ginger followed her across the bridge. 

Four, on top of all of that was the usual year-end craziness at work, which took a radical turn into insanity when the only other full-time employee was abruptly fired two weeks before year end.   And five, on top of all of that was me working six and seven days a week yet not having any money to show for it.  Last, but not least, it was around October 2011 that I last read an issue of Runner's World.  I realized that when I hauled them all up to my parents' ranch on vacation last week.  Where I managed to read all of one issue and a half. 

So.  What now?  Obviously I need a reverse mojoectomy.  Which is extremely relatively easy to type say but a bitch to actually do. 

I guess it's once again back to the basics and rebuild my mojo from scratch.

EAT:  I've mentioned before that in the latter part of last year my appetite changed.  I was able to eat large quantities of food, often at binge levels.  Then it was like flipping a switch; I got fuller much faster.  Yet, I still attempted to eat more.  Because surely, otherwise I wasn't eating enough, or I would be wasting food, or whatever stupid reason I had at the time.  Now, I need to plate normal portions.  On vacation I cruised a few antique stores and found some cute salad-sized plates to add to the other cute salad-sized plates I already have.  I'm going to plate portions that fit those sized plates.  Maybe not a 3 oz. portion of meat, more like a 5 oz. portion, but definitely not 8 or 10 oz.  If I'm still hungry after I'm done, I can have more -- but only if I'm still hungry, not because that's how much I used to eat. 

RUN:  I was doing okay with my plan to rebuild my base mileage, at least as far as the total weekly mileage went.  However, I wasn't always running three times a week; often it was only twice which meant I was bumping up the miles for each run.  Not the way to stay healthy.  I didn't run at all during my vacation after Bloomsday, too exhausted from puppy wrangling and horse feeding.  This Sunday is the Portland Rock 'n Roll Half, which will not be pretty.  My A goal is 3:15.  My B and C goals are just to finish without getting swept.  Starting next week, though, it's back to rebuilding my base mileage, and I'll post my weekly mileage goals here.  But...

SLEEP:   I have to get enough sleep so that I don't get overly cranky and crap out on myself.  Ten hours a night is my preference, and I can't function without at least a solid eight.  Since it's challenging for me to work out after work, I need to shift back into an early morning exercise schedule.  Therefore, I need to be in bed by 10:15 at the latest (that factors in teeth brushing and all that jazz).  On the nights before a rest day, I can be a little bit more flexible with my bedtime but I want to get into a routine.  I think I'll also plan to get up earlier on my rest days -- usually I roll out of bed by 8:10 since I live so close to my office -- and make myself breakfast, stretch, read, watch the news, etc.  Pretty much all the stuff I'm not doing in the evenings. 

What do you do to get your mojo back?

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

8 comments:

  1. Hey! I am visiting from Fruit Fly's blog since she said that you would also be running the PDX RnR this weekend! :) I am going to be running it as well

    I also see that your A goal is 3:15 for the half, mine is hopefully to beat my PR 2:51, but will see how that goes, the last half I did was like 3:30 because I barely trained. Anywho, drop by my blog sometime. It would be neat to catch up with some of my fellow bloggers on Sunday. And who knows, maybe we'll end up running together out on the course! :)

    http://lawyergirlruns86.blogspot.com

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  2. Maybe you need to eat more vegetables? Hehe.

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  3. I hope you are able to get your mojo back to normal levels soon! :)

    I like your salad plate strategy. That's a great idea!!

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  4. Lets set some time to run together in the next few weeks. We can help each other :) I work in Hillsboro so can be flexible on times in evening or weekends! You will get it back SOON!

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  6. Wait .. do you live on west side? I dont know why I thought you did ha! At any rate I live in McMinnville and work in Hillsboro so even more convenient in locations througout the state ha!

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  7. Michelle, I am on the west side -- I work in Lake Oswego and live close by as well. My place overlooks I-5, even, so if you take 217/I-5 to get home it's really easy to swing by me. It was great to get to meet you this weekend!

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  8. While searching for your mojo can you look for mine as well? It is nowhere to be found. :-(

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