Missing My Motivation

I'm finding it extremely difficult to keep myself motivated lately with my workouts. I've been totally random on when I do work out and I can't seem to get myself excited about doing my hip stretching and range of movement exercises for my hip. I know it will only help me with my running and get me all healed up, but it's just not the same as going for a run because I'm signed up for a race or following a training plan.

Any tips on keeping the motivation up? What do you do in order to keep your cross training items fun? It just feels like I'm going to the gym and going through the motions. Maybe it's the winter blahs creeping in on me since my dreams of running a marathon this year have been washed down the drain :(

On the good news side....I've actually avoided gaining weight with the cut back on my workouts due to my little injury! Trying to get under the weight I was since I graduated college now.....WooHoo!!

Getting Over the Hump

Wednesday is now known as my PT days and I'm always looking for good news to get me over the hump of the mid-week blah's. Unfortunately, not much in good news on the injury front :( Still a little soreness above my ankle and I have to wait one more week to get back into running. Been out for a few weeks now and was really hoping to get back into it, even if it only meant 1 minute of running after 4 minutes of walking for 30 minutes. It really is the little things we look forward to!!

Hoping for a great week of working out and getting myself back into working out on a regular schedule. Work hours have dropped a little and I can actually have some semblance of a life again! Off to have Jillian Michaels kick my booty into shape.

 

PEP Talk to My Arse

After seeing the sports medicine doctor and the physical therapist, I finally know what is wrong with me! I know, it's a lot and will take years to discover.....

BUT the physical issue is my Left Gluteus Medius (aka my left butt)!! Due to my lack of strength in my ass it's causing my shin splints in my inner leg due to it not absorbing the impact when striking with my left foot.

So it's on to my training plan, which i am dubbing "BUNS OF STEEL". I will not my lazy ass win!!
Here is the plan:
3 types of leg raises working the hips - to be completed 3 times a week (2 sets of each)
Stretching: Calf and Quad stretches -  2X a day (hold for 20 sec. each)

I will need to occupy my time at the gym now with swimming and biking and I'm thinking about getting a Jillian workout DVD to work on my overall strength to keep that up as well.

I will come back stronger from all of this in March and looking forward to getting back into racing and smashing some of my PR's.

Darn you left leg!!

This week started off great and then the pain in lower left leg starting showing up towards the end of my runs and hurt extremely bad after my strength training on Tuesday. Needless to say, that has been the last day I've run as the pain just worsened. I've been icing and resting for the last few days and I plan on doing a 2 mile run to test it out tomorrow as I'm feeling pain free right now.

I will be really disappointed if I'm not able to keep going as that will mean no marathon for me this year. Training is supposed to start in a little over a week and if I can't run for a few miles with no pain it means I need to take a layoff for a few weeks. Really holding out some hope that it's just a minor thing or maybe something wrong with my running form that is correctable.