Lose the Battle, Win the War

Today's Workout:
 - Ride bike 30 mins

Like I mentioned yesterday, the focus of this week is motivation. It is definitely a good area of focus based on the struggle I fought this morning.

First, I set my alarm for 6. Yes, it is not that early, but without a meeting or work requiring me to be somewhere by 7, I find it easy to hit the snooze button for a while. Which is exactly what happened today. After blogging about Lucid Dreaming yesterday, I decided to listen a YouTube meditation guide to maybe try it out. MISTAKE! I was up stretching and breathing for about 45 mins with the recording. This was intended to trick my mind into sleep while renaming conscious, but my limbs ached from lack of movement to a point I couldn't drift off. Once I decided to stop and just go to sleep, I was still awake till about 12:30 from the general discomfort. However, this morning I was awake and studying by 7:30, so I call this a win.

After some productive learning, and even better Mitten snuggles, I decided to ride bikes at 9. Unfortunately, I didn't get out of bed to start hydrating till about 9:15. Because of that, it seemed a better idea to wait a little longer and digest. Possibly a loss, but a small one.


During my water digestion, I tried perfecting my shoe mantra. I still am filled with motivation when I see that cross country spike regularly, but my catch phrase is lacking ... catch. So far my thoughts are kind of negative or inhibited. I am thinking something like "Get up and get  out" (homage to the L Word), but I also want it to include something about being a strong and capable runner. Realistically, I'm leaning towards:

Go! And Run Well. Be an Athlete!

Oh! That's why my fridge is empty.

Finally, I walked across the courtyard to use one of the bikes in our gym. I know it was a beautiful day and exercise equipment doesn't work as many muscle groups compared to real equipment, but I wanted to control the effort at defined intervals. Sadly, the only bikes available were more recumbent style instead upright like I wanted. I rode about 5 miles but had to stop before I wanted because my toes were falling asleep. Not a huge fan of the practically horizontal pedaling.

Coming back to the house a bit dejected, I made lunch for me and Jake out of some freezer burned bratwurst and potatoes wrapped in the last flour tortillas from the fridge. We are in desperate need of grocery shopping. Oh well, nutrition is the focus next week, and Jake bought some pasta for dinner. I will survive at least another day.

This disappointing lunch and sleepy toes made me want something enjoyable. The reward was to finish the anime series Jake and I had been watching since he moved in. Kill la Kill, about alien, virus clothes trying to enslave humanity. Sounds absurd, but for the first many episodes it was about battling high schoolers in skimpy outfits. Reading the subtitles made me tired, and I fell asleep towards the beginning of the finale. Nother loss in the day's column.

The nap was just what I needed to turn the day around. I woke up and studied like a college student during finals week. I only took a break to write today's blog post because my hand hurt so hard from taking notes. This was one of the best days of PMP prep, and came at a great time considering that I am 4 days away from testing. Tomorrow is going to be practice tests at a coffee shop (my cleaning people are coming in the morning, so I need to get out the way anyhow.)

Feeling high from the successful mental workout, I put in some job applications too. One of which both surprised and excited me. I applied to a project manager position at a nutrition company, which is something I never really imagined before. I historically have had a do-it-yourself attitude about nutrition and supplements, but as I thought about it I realized that a company in that sector would actually be really interesting. It is a part of healthcare and would make use of some of the Biomedical Engineering I studied, both things that I want in my career. Plus it sounds fast paced with lots of travel, which I am starting to crave. 

Most of all, it dawned on me that working with people passionate about fitness and health would only motivate me to continue my better living (better blogging) lifestyle. And if you recall, motivation is the theme for the week!

Tomorrow is a mid distance sprint day. Get up and be an athlete!