Welcome to the weblog of Jonah Grimes; Software Engineer, Guitar Player, and Ballroom Dancer.

I’m constantly amazed at how easy it is to start talking myself out of doing something simply because I don’t “have time”.  Today was pretty crazy.  I worked through my usual lunch break practically without realizing it, finally grabbed something and ate it at my desk while still working.  I had some friends coming over later, and I needed to get home and get ready for that after work.  I was starting to talk myself out of going to the gym because I just wouldn’t “have time”.

I decided to completely ignore myself as I tried talking my way out of my run, and just go do it anyway.  I won’t lie; Monday’s run was definitely better.  Today I had a much harder time settling into a rhythm, and I was just glad to be done by the end of it.  But something amazing happened after all of that.  I felt refreshed from having gone to the gym, powering through it, and taking my mind off of the long and tiring day behind me. Working out is important for me on so many levels, mental, and physical.

I’ve really been a slacker over the last few months.  I haven’t been working out as consistently, and I’ve been eating less than stellar.  All of these things started to pull me down.  I justified my legitimate “lack of desire to do the right thing” with the false excuses of not having enough time.  Signing up for a couple races seems to have forced me to carve out the time.  Yet I don’t feel any more time constrained than when I was not doing those things.  I’m finding that if I make those things important, there will be time.

I’m also finding that I’m involved in a lot of things that simply aren’t important to me, and are just the cause of more stress in my life.  It is time to let those things go.  They’re stopping me from pursuing a few other things that I really want to do.  I’m already making “resolutions” in a sense at this point, but I feel encouraged by where these decisions will take me.

Running, you and I need to get reacquainted after a summer of being apart.  I’ve signed up to meet you at the Derby Festival Mini Marathon.

This week’s training plan.

Monday: 3 Miles, Indoor Track.
Wednesday: 3 Miles, Indoor Track.
Friday: 3 Miles, Indoor Track. 

Let’s do this thing!

- Jonah

I’ve realized that I’m beginning to settle into the whole “post-race blues” thing that people always talk about.  I’m having a hard time desiring to run, and I think it’s time to mix it up a bit.

As such, I’ve decided that I’m going to spend the next week or two working into a strength routine.  The rainy weather here in Louisville gives me the perfect opportunity to do so, and the variance in exercises should really help me get over this plateau I’ve been on for the last month.  Once I get some strength work, I’m going to start in on the Hal Higdon intermediate 5K training plan to begin incorporating a little speedwork into my running.

I find it so hard to go workout and NOT run right now, and so, with the focus on something else, I’ll feel less guilty about taking days off purely for strength training.  At least, that’s the hope.  I can then roll the running and strength work into a slightly more routine schedule.

I’m finally feeling inspired enough to write something about this experience, so here it goes!

First of all, for those of you that didn’t know, this weekend was the culmination of nine months of effort.  At the beginning of last August, I had never run any kind of distance before, and I’m not even completely sure what inspired me to give running a try.  Anyway, I started running by doing the whole C25K thing, completed it, and then signed up for a 5K race, and finished it too.  From that point, I wasn’t quite sure where to go with running, but a friend of mine was going to do the mini, and pushed me to just go for it.  I signed up for it. OMG.

So this past Saturday, I showed up at the start line with 15,000 of my soon-to-be closest brothers and sisters at arms to knock out the 13.1 mile beast for the first time in my life.  I can’t tell you how exiting that was!  I’d dreamed of running that race about three times that night, and to say I was full of nervous energy would be an understatement.

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