Eminem, Naps and Gettin' Down to Business...:)

I'm typically NOT an Eminem fan, but his new album "Recovery" has some great songs with incredible lyrics. I love listening to certain ones, especially when I'm working out. My faves are "25 to Life" (wow), "Love the way you lie" (awesome w/ Rihanna), and "Not Afraid"....Obviously every song has its intended meanings by the artist, yet of course we can apply them to our own lives and some lyrics can have symbolism that can be interpreted in different ways :) Anyway, his new stuff is great and when I have amazing new music to listen to when I train, it takes me to a different level, I run faster and I imagine myself racing super fast; I LOVE new music!!

I vividly remember being five years old and NEVER wanting to take a nap when my mom told me to. I'd come out of my room begging her to let me stay up; I STILL remember doing it and it makes me laugh. I can probably count on both hands how many naps I have taken in the past 15 years. I think I just always find something to do even if I am tired, get an iced coffee from Coffee Bean (yup 5 shots of espresso in their large!!!ahhh lol), and then continue to get things done in the day and go to bed at night. Therefore over time I am probably constantly a little sleep deprived. So many professional runners take naps like every single day! I have never been able to do that, mostly because of my teaching all day and by the time I get home, even if I didn't have a second workout, it would be weird to nap from about 4 pm to 6 pm, haha. I'd rather spend time with my boys anyway :) Well, the past week I have taken 2-2.5 hour naps on 3 different days and they felt sooo great. It took me about 45 minutes to feel fully awake again and be able to do another workout, yet it definitely refreshed me a little bit. I'll definitely continue to take them as much as possible, especially since I love staying up late. It's hard to go to bed at 9 or 10 when I want to stay up, yet getting up at 5:30 on most days lately is NOT fun when you go to bed late, ahem...like I have found out a couple times ;) When my workouts get harder and longer my body will need a nap to recover and rest a little more.

Now that my running is back in full swing pain-free, it's time to get down to business baby!! :) I have been mapping out my training and potential races for the next few months and it's very exciting. Someone recently told me that planning races and having certain ones to focus on, is something I need to treat like a business. It's very true, obviously, since this is my business. My career is training, racing and traveling all over the world and although it's what I love so incredibly much, sometimes you have to really treat certain aspects like a business to get what you want and accomplish your goals. My agent is working on finalizing my fall marathon plan but right now it's looking fab-u-lousssss :):) I am so incredibly excited. There are some things I am going to do differently for this marathon in order to really see what I am capable of.
First of all, I will not race as much as I did last summer and I won't race as much leading up to the marathon because long training weekends and the important marathon pace runs, long runs, etc. are not worth interrupting to go race across the country. We'll see if this approach is good for me; different plans work for different people. I'm also going to work on getting leaner than I've ever been before. Let's face it, I'll never weigh 100 pounds and if I did I might be on my deathbed. However I will work on not eating as many sweets, lots of fruits and veggies, whole grains, etc. It's all not really that complicated but having really good willpower is always easier said than done, especially for someone like myself who has tended to pretty much always eat what I want. :) We'll see how it goes...I may also go do some altitude training the couple months leading up to the marathon. Quote for today: "It's lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself"- Muhammad Ali