A story of going from being a non-runner to planning for a marathon in three years...

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Those Evil Excuses

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I haven't used this photo yet, have I?
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Last night was just a short, easy 2 mile run on the treadmill. Nothing to it. My adductor area wasn't hurting, I had some soreness in my right quad but nothing that would stop be from running, Jason was working late so I didn't even have to make dinner. And yet, I procrastinated like it was going out of style.

My first excuse was that I was cold. I got chilled walking home from the train station and didn't want to change out of my work clothes into my running clothes let alone go down into my cold basement and get on the treadmill. I wanted to shut the door to my office and sit in the warmth.

My second excuse was that I had forgotten to transfer more episodes of How I Met Your Mother to DVD and I was tired of listening to music. But Jason wasn't home to help me do the transfer and I wasn't sure if I remembered what to do or how long it would take.

My third excuse was that it was JUST two miles! Who needs to run just two miles?

My fourth excuse was that I still hadn't figured out the incline on my treadmill so I had no idea what speed to set it at. Nevermind that I've been running for six weeks with no clue as to the treadmill's incline.

But, in the end, I sucked it up. I figured out how to start the transfer process. I changed into running clothes (after having a mild tantrum about not being able to find an appropriate sports bra). I guesstimated (like always) as to the treadmill's incline. And, with DVD in hand (and a sweatshirt on!), I headed to the basement where I did my two mile run.

Wednesday night is a tempo run (ugh) and then Thursday morning will be my next challenge. This weeks starts an additional two-miler on Thursdays. Normally I would just do this at the gym after my Pilates class but I'm skipping Pilates on Thursday to attend a small thank-you party being hosted by our realtor. This means that I'll have to run before work. Double ugh. I can see plenty of excuses that will need to be overcome in the near future.

What about you? What are your usual excuses for not doing something? How do you overcome them?

3 comments:

Aaron Cunningham said...

And since I'm a new reader who hasn't worked my way through your archives, I was curious so I found this article on physically calculating the incline of your treadmill. Don't know if this will help solve your problem, but here you go. :)

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Advanced-Math-1363/Calculating-percent-incline-treadmill.htm

Keep up the great work!

As far as excuses, I really try to be a slave to my schedule so I can't make any excuses. Most of the time it works. My biggest, especially when it comes to core workouts is time. "I don't have time to do both a workout and run, better just run."

Bayjb said...

My go-to excuse is that I'm too tired. I really try to overcome it but sometimes it's tough. The gym is connected to our office building so that's a plus, but a minus too.

Anonymous said...

It's always the "no time" excuse with me. Which is why I coach and join groups that are at a set time so I HAVE to go at that scheduled time. Otherwise it would never happen (like the strength DVDs I keep skipping lately).

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