M...is for mental fitness and milestones

For the next chapter of my A-Z blogging challenge, I am up to M - half way done, yay!

This post aligned well with a couple things I've been pondering lately.

Mental Fitness.  This comes in all sorts of forms.  Lately, I've been battling two elements of this.  I'm frequently running alone - not all the time, thanks to my MRTT group ladies, but a lot more than I'd like.  Solo runs are hard for me, especially given that lately I've had to achieve some personal records on them.  I'm constantly battling the voice in my head that says I can give up or comes up with excuses why I don't have to or shouldn't run that day.  "It's too hot" or "I can stop now, I'll make it up another day".  Things like this run through my mind a lot on runs.  I do a pretty good time battling my way through it, but not always.  It's always easier when I have someone else to run with me - makes me feel accountable, like it's a challenge. 

As I press on in my running and target even farther runs and faster times, I have a feeling I will need to start finding others to run with more often so I will hold true and do it.  Anyone want to run? Let me know!

Anyone else have the same issue?  How do you overcome it? What are your tips?

The second mental challenge I'm having is probably a less healthy habit I'd really like to break.  I've gotten into the bad habit of letting myself over eat or indulge in things I shouldn't when I have a decent or good run.  "Hey, I burned 500 calories or so on my run.  I can totally have one of those Belgian Chocolate Truffle Brownies that's approximately 400 calories".  Then it continues the rest of the night as I try to "refuel" I justify with myself.  I'm all for eating healthy and practicing the 80/20 rule - it's OK to indulge some of the time - but not after every.single.run.  It's getting to be a bit of a problem. 

The picture says so, so it must be true right?  Oh please be true! That would be heaven!

Okay, so wait...two images?  It's gotta be true.  Chocolate before running and chocolate after running, I can totally do that. Not sure it will help my goal though. I'm willing to try.

While I met my goal weight of 119 pounds, I've actually started to creep back up.  I'm running around 120 or 121 lately...not too bad.  And surprisingly despite my increased running it is definitely not muscle weight.  I would love to think I can meet my stretch goal of 115 or lower my body fat percentage to somewhere in the 20-21% range, but eating too much unhealthy stuff after runs...not going to help me get there.  I need to be better, fitter at that.

I think my big issue is I'm really not sure of the best way to fuel up before long runs and to refuel/recover after runs.  I need to look into this more. 

Anyone have any tips or suggestions for that? Books? etc?

Milestones.  On a lighter, more positive note, I think it's important to try and focus on hitting milestones to keep running fresh.

I looked this up in the dictionary to make sure I was using the word correctly.  Courtesy of dictionary.com:

1. a stone functioning as a milepost.

2. a significant event or stage in the life, progress, development, or the like of a person, nation, etc.

I'm referring more to definition two here.  Significant event or stage in the progress or development part in particular.  When it comes to my running, I'm pretty new to this, so I've been able to pretty frequently hit new milestones in distance or pace.  I imagine at some point it will take longer to hit these and much more work...but as long as I've got some new milestone in mind, I have a goal to work towards and that motivates me (another good M word for another day). Whether its a distance, a pace, or even a quantity of races...anything can be a milestone.  Set a goal and reach the milestone.

What milestone are you looking to achieve soon?

~A