Image from paral_lax

It is cold and dark.  Do I really want to roll out of bed and workout? Most days I force myself to get up and out the door.  It is hard though.  The alarm goes off at 5:15 and I have almost no margin of error with timing to get my workout done and be home before Christy leaves for work.  We can’t leave little Nadia alone  now can we?

There are probably a million reasons to not workout.  The three biggest obstacles facing me each day as I train for Buffalo are time, motivation, and my foot/leg.

Time

Nadia and I have to be on the bus at 7:17AM to get her to daycare and me to work on time.  We arrive home between 5:15 and 6:15pm depending on the day of the week and assuming I don’t have any other meetings or events to go to.  Nadia rides in a backpack and on a normal day we walk 2.25 miles to and from the bus stops. Christy gets home between 5:30 and 6:30 depending on the day.  We are just starting to get more daylight on both ends of my day.   Depending on the morning Christy leaves at either 6 or 7am.

We worked out a solution that on the mornings she works at 7am I am able to go to the pool or on a run.  But that means getting up at 5:15 and not hitting the snooze button.  This makes for some long days.  To get 8 hours of sleep on a regular basis this would mean going to bed around 9pm.  This doesn’t happen very often and so after several days I’m exhausted.  So maybe the barrier to overcome is sleep.  I need more sleep and then I’ll find more time.

Motivation

As noted above it is hard to get up at 5:15.  Maybe it is a lack of sleep that is pulling me down and not a lack of motivation.  At 5:16 in the morning it is hard to think about hitting the trainer or getting dressed for the gym or an outdoor run.  Hitting the snooze is so much easier.  How can I overcome this lack of motivation at 5:15?? I’m following a training plan with a goal in sight.  Does the biggest factor hark back to sleep?

Foot/Leg

My left leg and foot still have pain over half the time.  Not usually while working out, but later in the day or the next.  Usually rolling them out will relieve the ache for most of the day, but by evening time my foot usually hurts again.  I’ve decided to train through it and persevere.

I would say these are the three obstacles that I’m working to overcome.  What obstacles are impacting your training? Any tips for me?