#12 - Sign Up for Something

Training is hard. It's not easy to get up everyday and maintain the discipline of following a training plan. The daily grind is relentless, and in my experience having some general notion of "I want to start exercising everyday to get in better shape" is too vague and open ended to keep you going day in and day out. The first time a little laziness creeps in, the rationalization of "better shape can wait a day" will take over.

The easiest way to avoid this problem is to sign up for something. Something challenging.

I have 67 days until my first 100 mile trail race.

If I lose discipline and get lazy today, I might destroy my chances of finishing this beast. I can't accept that. The consequences of my actions today are very tangible and very real. Unlike "better shape", knowing that in 67 days I'm toeing the line at a 100 miler is concrete, measurable, and scary as hell. If you're goals don't scare you, then they probably won't motivate you out of bed either.

More on this to come...

Training - 5 easy miles today. Still sore from long run (5 hours) a couple of days ago. 5 miles today will push me over 60 miles in a training week for the first time.