Coffee Date: Digging My Way Out of a Fitness Funk

Hi guys!

It’s been a while since we sat down and chatted and given that I’m sitting at a coffee shop right now drinking a latte, I figured it was time to catch up with a coffee date (PS if you’re not already, please follow me on Instagram because I post a lot more there now – and send me a direct message to tell me that you’re a blog reader and introduce yourself and I’ll follow you back!).

You know me, I am honest with you guys. I’ve been in kind of a running funk in the sense that I haven’t felt the urge to train since the Carlsbad half marathon (and that feeling actually came on mid-training for that race). However, in the new year I did Transform:20 and its as incredibly motivating. I loved the high energy, yet short workouts, I re-commited to nutriton, and I completed the program in full and had great results. Then, I had the cruise to work toward – it was an aesthetic goal, but I wanted to rock that bikini! I didn’t do anything extreme to get ready for it, just kept up with mostly healthy eating and exercise. And I did rock that bikini and it felt great!

I’ve come a long way with my emotional eating, as I’ve shared before, but one thing I still struggle with is vacations, weekends, and the general idea that parties and celebrations should involve alcohol and unhealthy food. I don’t go nearly as overboard as I have in the past because of the way the food makes me feel – the unhealthy food affects my body way more now and with trying to keep up with 3 kids and work on my business, I simply can’t afford to feel like crap – but, I’ve been making a lot poorer food choices since the cruise.

I’ve also struggled to find excitement for me workouts again. Beachbody re-released 21 Day Fix and 21 Day Fix Extreme in a “live” format and I did those (modified a bit for my running) and did enjoy the new format (basically each week’s workout is different and gets harder! She also switches up the order of the workouts which is cool), I just didn’t find myself excited to push play.

And yes, I know – it’s not the end of the world. In fact, I don’t care about the couple pounds I’ve gained and I’m not beating myself up about missing workouts or not fully completing the programs.  If you have been reading this blog long or know me, I am happiest when I’m working toward a goal. When I’m growing, I am happy! So, to be stagnating doesn’t make me happy. And, like I said, the poor food choices make me feel run down and lethargic.

I started to get the itch to run faster again – to focus on serious training and to do some speed work. This itch, combined with knowing that a new Beachbody program won’t be coming out until the end of July (Morning Meltdown 100 – I am SO excited for this!), gave me the inspiration to sign up for America’s Finest City half marathon, which takes place in San Diego in August. I reached out to them about partnering up so I can offer you all a discount on the race so you can join me – use discount code NICOLE10 for $10 off the half marathon and let me know if you sign up!

I’m going to be re-joining my old running club, the Seaside Striders and working with my coach Jim O’hara again. He offers a group coaching program along with weekly individual training schedules for a really reasonable cost. We meet at various places along the coast in North County San Diego on Saturdays for long runs and on Wednesday nights we do speed work. I’m going to my first speed work session tonight and I’m a bit nervous! Because this is a big disruption to our nighttime schedule with the kids, I plan to only go to Wednesday night runs every other week and will do a speed workout on my own instead. Mike and I agreed this is a good compromise.

And while running will be my #1 priority til August, I am going to be doing LIIFT4 again along with it. I truly think this is the best program for runners. I am going to run 4 days a week and the goal is to get in all 4 LIIFT4 workouts (if not, I’ll probably just extend the program by a week or two). I also need to listen to my body and realize that rest is just as important as training – if I’m feeling run down, I’m promising myself to take rest!

So there it is – an update on where I’m at with training and fitness. I’m feeling excited to take on a serious training cycle. I have no idea what time I can run at AFC – it’s not exactly an easy course and it’s August so it’ll be warm – I just want to put out my best effort. That being said, I am hoping to chip away at my half marathon time and get closer and closer to a PR in the somewhat reasonable future. That being said, my family and my coaching business is high priority for me than a PR right now, so whether that happens will depend on those things.

Training while being a mom of three is a super delicate balance. I have a lot of things to consider and sometimes I feel selfish for doing it. But then I go back to what I said earlier – working toward fitness goals makes me HAPPY! And happy mama means I have more to give back to my family.

What do you do when you’re in a training funk? 

PS my next accountability group starts June 10th! Do LIIFT4 with me or any other Beachbody program (with running or not!). More info here.