Motivation

Ok. It's pretty hard for me to get motivated to go out for my runs lately. Today was no exception. I usually wait until about three to do this (because it is the warmest time of the day) but today I knew that if I waited until three I would find some excuse not to go :)

The run (run-walk) wasn't even that bad. Don't get me wrong, it had it's pitfalls. Like, when I got to 86th street it was like someone had decided to take ALL of the snow and pile it up at the entrance to the park. It was all trampled on, so it was kind of a mound of icy footprints. Good thing my stroller has super big wheels with massive treads. Ironically, this happened to be my downfall later, when I rolled right through some fresh dog poop and it got impossibly stuck in the wheels. Yay! This meant that afterwards I had to clean out the tire treads in the hallway of my building. (Come on people, I pick up my dog's poop, why can't you pick up yours?)

I did feel like I had more energy, which is kind of funny because this run definitely had more hills.

As I was getting to the last part of my run I was trying to think of things to motivate me. See, normal motivation techniques ("After the run I can have a candy bar," or "If I do all of my workouts this week I'm treating myself to a pedicure") don't work for me. The last time I had to resort to motivation techniques was when I first started running. I put a dollar away for every mile I ran and then bought myself a Tiffany's necklace.

That's not going to work this time because I need something more short term. I'm thinking of giving myself a points system: 1 point for each workout completed, an extra point for mileage exceeded, 1 point for completing 3 runs a week, 1 point for completing 3 cross training workouts a week...etc etc etc. Only what should I make the rewards? I was trying to think of something I really really wanted for a big point reward -- like a Coach bag. But then I remembered that my new purse is a diaper bag and I have no use for a Coach bag. For the low number prizes I thought of the normal things: a bath, a manicure, a night of ordering pizza. But the problem is that I do these things already...not all the time, but enough that I'm not going to be motivated to get them. So I've got to do some thinking on this whole reward business.

It does help that when I got on the elevator when I got home some lady asked how old Liam was and when I told her she said "You don't even look like you had a baby!" I never tire of hearing that. I guess that is at least some motivation. :)

My next run is Saturday. 6 miles with Bill and Liam. Bill gets to push the BOB this time. My secret fear? That he will kick my butt and that pushing the BOB while running really isn't as hard as I think it is. :)