Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Motivation?

I don’t know what has happened to me this summer but I’m suddenly feeling so lazy. I haven’t run the last two days and tonight might not happen either since I’m seeing the dentist at 5:30 to have a filling replaced, which I think is totally unfair and sucks, why do I have to go be drilled on when I don’t have a cavity? I’ve been doing all things right, but since the thing is over 20 years old and is an old metal one, it needs to be replaced…sigh…oh well. I haven’t been under the drill in a really long time…I don’t know if this dentist is big on use of Novocain or gas or both either….hopefully more on gas. I hate Novocain. But I digress….I’m not sure if a run will happen after the dentist or not. We’ll see how I feel. I also need to run a few errands and might do that after the dentist. Namely I have to get to Trader Joe’s for a few things and tonight might be as good a night as any to do that. Or is it an excuse again to not run? I know part of ramping up a training plan is you need a focus race to ramp up, and I haven’t chosen one of those (although might do the City of Lakes 25K in September). It’s a month away, I have plenty of time to even get some speed work in…but I’ve still got the hamstring/glute problem going on and I don’t feel the motivation to deal with that. I don’t mind the running, but it has been so lackluster. I can get out and do it, but since I don’t get that “wow, I can run forever and why don’t I?” feeling from it anymore, or at least I haven’t in quite a long time, there doesn’t seem to be much point to it anyway. I go out, I run my 4-5 and that’s that. It’s mainly to keep from gaining weight anymore that I do it either and I’ve noticed my running dropping too. I need something…anything…to help me out…I didn’t even have the ambition to do that half this Saturday that I have done before and enjoy…I’m so tired of this and I’m gaining weight because of it too.

I also need to get focusing on the GMAT. I really do feel the interest and motivation to start classes. And I don’t want to wait a year on taking classes. Which means applying for and getting accepted (which is not a guarantee) for Spring Semester. This means application being filled out and sent in by October 1. This means taking the GMAT within the next month, month and a half at the latest to get scores in by then (that shouldn’t be too big of a problem since scores can immediately be sent to schools and I think are then sent in a paper format within a few weeks). They also apparently take later applications as I saw something about late acceptance for this fall, so I’m probably not horribly stuck on that deadline…maybe I should start on my essays at least. It’s funny, as I was home over the weekend and talking to my mom a bit about the GMAT. I mentioned how I was pretty bad with grammar and that was a section…she said she was good at it…I showed her the examples from one of my books…she could see my frustration then! I think it’s almost all luck in getting good scores on that thing honestly!

My last week was pretty OK. I was home over the weekend as I mentioned. My aunt and uncle were home from Alaska. They come home once a year and it was nice to get to see and visit with them. The family went out to dinner on Friday night to a nice little dive kind of restaurant/steakhouse that has excellent food and good prices (8 ounce really good filet mignon, potato and salad for $16.95), froze sweet corn (long process for those not familiar with it by blanching and then cutting the corn off the cob and putting it in the freezer for scalloped corn…so yummy!), and then had dinner, courtesy of my aunt and uncle, salmon shark, halibut and salmon…I’m not a seafood person, but was conned into trying it all and had to admit it wasn’t too bad. Sunday I was on the road back to the metro and then Monday L was back from his race out east so I picked him up at the airport and we had dinner and hung out that night. Nothing major. I hadn’t seen him in a week though.

This weekend I have a big family thing again. My dad’s mom turned 90 last December, they are having a family reunion kind of thing (just the siblings and their families) at a cabin on a lake just outside the city (about an hour drive I’ve been told) and at first significant others weren’t invited but now it’s been deemed OK, so I invited L, this is scary because it’s pretty much all the immediate family on my dad’s side…we’re talking probably 30-35 people, give or take a few…he has met my parents and briefly met my sister and her boyfriend, but that’s it. Unfortunately with some other races coming up and his being out of town for them, and needing to do business related construction work, it’s likely he won’t be able to make it. Which is disappointing but what do you do? Unfortunately looks like another year of wanting to camp is gone as well as weekends have just disappeared…I might just have to head out on my own if I really want to go camping again ever. I’ve said that before and had people talk me out of it because they were going to come with…guess what, that never seems to happen! Ah well.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We all go through those low motivation times. Maybe it's because our body is tired or maybe it's just boredom for doing the same thing over and over. Anyway, let yourself rest a little, then pick a race to start working toward. Your motivation will come back eventually. Even if you have to force it for awhile. :)

JustRun said...

Don't let that running slump get you down too much. Just give yourself permission to take a break or only run when you feel like it. I didn't run yesterday, went to a concert last night and didn't get enough sleep so I won't run today. I will run tomorrow and Friday and a long run on the weekend. No big deal.
You run so much, dropping down to a 3 day/week schedule for a while will be no big deal for you and the best part, you'll still feel active.
Anyway, the unsolicited advice portion of my comment is over now. :)

I know what you mean about the summer going too fast and no more chances for camping soon... why is that stuff so difficult to "coordinate?"

Andy Emerson said...

I'm not sure where the time has gone in the past month. I can understand lack of motivation, but I'm sure you'll get it back. You have a lot of good things going on in your life right now so that's a positive.