Change of Plans

**In the huh, I never hit Publish category, I bring you this post...**

I'm sure many can relate to this: sometimes when I've planned a workout, I just don't feel like doing it. I know, shocker right?

I have what are best described as my "must" workouts and my "if I feel like it" workouts. My M-F ones are my "must" workouts. I just suck it up and go when I have the "don't wannas". My "if I feel like it" are the weekends. Races get done (cause they are fun...well, and I've paid for them!) and on the weekends that I don't have races I generally get in a long run. But sometimes on non-race weekends my run may be what I planned, a bit shorter, a lot shorter, rarely longer, or *gasp* not at all.

I run because it has evolved into something that I enjoy (and yes, it took time to get to this point!). I get dressed and head out and plod along thinking about "stuff". Sure, sometimes along the way I have the mental whines that pop up during a run like how much farther, I've been doing this how long, this hurts / that hurts, etc. But for the most part I am thinking about things that are going on, totally random stuff, or at times not much of anything.

Compared to serious runners, I don't consider myself one at all. My goals for races are: (1) have fun (2) finish (3) have a decent time / pace and (4) no recovery downtime (so that I don't miss any of those "must" workouts!). So what I'm doing works for me to meet those goals and maintain my base. If I decide that I want to PR a 5K or a half, then I will need to alter what I'm doing and do some training. But with training for me comes stress. The running becomes prescribed and must be done. That doesn't sound fun to me right now and I have plenty of stress at the moment without adding to it from choices that are within my control.

Anyway, last Saturday I bailed on the 15K to do the 5K because it was just too cold for me. I said that I'd do 9 miles Sunday, but I wasn't feeling it. I needed a mental break and some movement from sitting at a desk all day though, so I decided I'd go out and go with the flow. My 9 ended up at 5 miles.

I guess the point of this post is that my quarterly wellness goals which are a bunch of stats may make it seem like I workout a lot, I think there's a lot of balance in the details. I workout because of how much it helps me manage my stress, make better food choices, and how it makes me look and feel (healthy and strong) which all goes into helping me maintain my overall health and wellness.

Thank you for taking the time to read these posts---especially as my blog is far from band related at this point. (I really do still have a band!) Hopefully a nugget here and there is something to think about or at a minimum provides some insight at what things are like for me at about 6.5 years out.