Lauren Tucker discusses how to motivate yourself when they weather is trying to convince you to curl up on the couch!
/ Courtesy: Lauren Tucker
I don’t know about you guys, but I am so over this winter. I know, I know, we live in Northern Michigan, quit whining! And I admit that I love the winter, but seriously, this rollercoaster is ridiculous!
Last week, I was talking with Marc and he said, “Hey here’s to next week, how can the weather be any worse than this week?” Marc, buddy, I think you spoke too soon! I am so sick of the slush, the rain, the deep snow, and the uneven road conditions (when along your route you encounter: puddles, slush, ice, snow and exposed pavement…it can’t be planned for). It’s a recipe for disaster; in some cases blisters, in my case aggravating my lower right leg.
I don’t mind the cold. In fact, I like running when it’s cold out. I think it is a better work out, and truthfully, I hate being TOO HOT. I recently bought an awesome tech coat from Running Fit. If you are a runner in Northern Michigan and you run outside in the winter…you need a tech coat! I’ve been running in the snow for years, piling on turtlenecks, long underwear, and fleeces. That is just silly. All you need is a tech coat. It will change your life, I promise. Plus, if you’re like me it will help feed that addiction to workout clothes that you have!
Wednesday was especially slushy. I ran my four miles, pretty close to pace. Ok, not so much. I ran a little faster, it was crappy out and my leg hurt. Thursday morning I was in a lot of pain, I thought to myself, ‘how am I going to run tonight?’ I almost left my house without any of my running gear, but grabbed it just in case. Due to the inclement weather last night I made the executive decision to treadmill it. I made sure I did all of my dynamic stretching prior to my run, paying close attention to the heel sweeps to really stretch my right calf and shin muscles. When I started running, I’m not going to lie, it really hurt. But two tenths of a mile in, things started to loosen up and I had a great run.
The moral of that story is: don’t let your mind tell you that you can’t, because you CAN! And I did.
