I am Back: Re-Motivated after a 4-6 week slump!

I have been out of touch for WAY to long here!

My 12 week BFL challenge ended 3 weeks ago. I took my final pics with my cell phone because I let Ellen's cousin borrow my camera and tripod for a college project.  

Here are my stats:

Week 1:

Weight 168

Body Fat 13.4%

Week 12:

Weight 170

Body Fat 12.9%

I gained 2 pounds and lost  just 0.6 pounds of fat. I really lost my motivation after 8 weeks but it was good maintenance challenge. No matter what I do I will always go back to BFL for motivation.

During week 8 I took a vacation. During my week off I was on fire with my workouts and set new PRs at different distances 5 weeks in a row. In week 9 I just fell apart. I could not get myself out of bed in the mornings so I started running after work in the 99+ degree heat. I missed my Monday workouts for the rest of the challenge and started eating fast food on the weekends. I started just going thru the motions without joy or excitement. I stopped posting on this blog and only had 3 posts in August instead of the 25-35 a month I had been doing since November 2010 (when I started training for my first 10k). I thought I was just out of steam after 3 months of not missing a single training run and 6 months since my last week off from running.

Recently I have become more motivated. I think the turning point came the week after my BFL challenge ended. I completely missed a 6.2 mile training run on September 5th and was unable to make it up. One of my biggest motivators is following a training plan and doing my best to keep from writing a big X on my calendar. Not to mention it set me further back from goal of running 1000 miles this year in honor of my Uncle Jack who passed away last November.

I decided to call up my friend TC to run together. He is in the Army and does CrossFit 3 times a week. We had been talking about running together since he moved back from Iowa in June. I had convinced him to run my next 5k with me and told him 3 months ago my goal was 21 minutes. A week ago we met up and he is FAST. We ran the first two miles in 14:55 tying my best two mile time and I could not keep up. I had to walk twice and ended up finishing in 24:14. This re-ignited my spark and I found my motivation. The 5k was only 3 weeks away I had I gotten slower than my peak time of 23:24. 

The next day I ran 10k after work with a renewed since of excitement. I beat my long stand PR I set 11 months ago by almost 2 minutes and finished in 52:59. This past Tuesday I beat my 4 mile PR by 43 seconds. This morning I ran with TC again and shaved another 46 seconds off of Tuesdays time while having a nice conversation during the last 2 miles. Now that I have someone to run with I am no longer just trying to compete with myself and can take it to the next level. Last week after our run TC did 5k in 21:13 by himself. Can I cut 2.5 minutes off my best 5k time by September 29th? That question is my new motivation. 

I have not had this big of a spike in motivation since Memorial day weekend when I set a goal of a 21 min 5k the day I hit my 1000th mile while running in a lightning storm. http://thisisbryanok.blogspot.com/2012/05/barefoot-day-2-week-7-1000th-mile.html 

I was in Week 7 of my "barefoot " training and right now I am in week 7 of my Marathon training. Lucky number 7!

mo·ti·va·tion /ˌmōtəˈvāSHən/
Noun:
The reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.
The general desire or willingness of someone to do something.

stub·born \ˈstə-bərn\
Adjective:
Justifiably unyielding : resolute
Performed or carried on in an unyielding, obstinate, or persistent manner

Motivation plus Stubbornness = Unstoppable!