Road Warrior Blog

15 January 2008

Challenges vs. Excuses

Posted by Julie Hurley under: Julie Hurley .

Each time after I finish writing a blog, I wonder where in the crap I’m going to find inspiration to write another one that would be interesting to people other than friends and family.

But, as always, the idea comes. This time, thoughts for my next blog came from my oldest child. Not in the sweet, inspiring way you would think, however. I was awakened last night by the long, low wail of my son at 2 a.m. “MoooooommmMeeee!!!” After several minutes of reasoning (with a 2 year old? Ha!), bargaining, and flat-out begging, he ended up in our room. Score 2,326 for the Kids. Once there, he decided to toss and turn, push his face into mine and whisper all sort of questions “What’s sat noise, Mom?” “It’s Daddy’s snoring, sweets, go back to sleep.” “See shark, Mom?” “Yeah, sweetie. I see shark. Shark’s tired too, so why don’t you let him go to sleep.”

And on and on….

Of course I couldn’t fall back to sleep, so my mind started writing and re-writing my next blog. I’m finally at a computer now so that I can get everything down “on paper”.

Terry’s post actually planted the first seed for my topic, Challenges vs. Excuses. When I first applied for the Road Warrior program, it hadn’t been too long since I had returned to work after a 7.5 month-long maternity leave. I ran nearly every day with the kids in the stroller, and was in pretty good shape. I was nursing as well, so I had an uber-metabolism, burning an extra 600-1000 calories per day. I could eat anything I wanted, and didn’t gain weight. Then I returned to work, winter arrived, and my days got shorter, literally. My running tapered off, and I thought it a “challenge” to fit in a good workout. As I was thinking in the dark last night, I realized that all my “challenges” were really excuses.

If you ask my husband, I am the Master of All Excuses. I would like to change that about myself. I still am not running as frequently as I could be. Why can’t I get up before everyone in the morning and go for a quick run? Because I’m lazy and it’s cold out. Well, I just received over $400 worth of running gear for Christmas so that I could run outside. Why can’t I run after the kids go to bed? Because I’m lazy, it’s cold out, I want to eat dinner, and I want to just lay on the couch and relax for crying out loud!

The challenges of a busy schedule are nothing more than self-justified excuses. And these just won’t cut it for me if I’m really going to really challenge myself in the 5/3 RBR. Not only will I have an easier time (ha! easier…I must be a newbie) running the race, I will have planted critically important seeds in my children’s impressionable minds. First, when you start something, make sure you follow it through to the end. This is not my strong suit. Second, to maintain a truly healthy lifestyle, a person really needs to exercise. I love running, and I want my children to have the same attitude toward physical fitness that I’m incorporating into my life.

Last April, I went from NO running, to slowly running, to getting very excited about running official 5k races. Just think, if you start now, TODAY, think of where you could actually be in four months on race day. No excuses. Just do it and get it done, and feel all the better for it. I don’t know what it is about running, but it’s something that I own and it’s a part of me, and will continue to be a part of me for as long as these legs will keep me moving.

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