I'm the Girl Who Cried Wolf (Week 6 of 45 in 45)

First off, thanks to those who have reached out with encouraging words during my "down" exercise days. It's nice to have folks recognize the effort I'm putting in day in and day out to not become a couch-dwelling pregnant slug. Which is a bit harder than the effort to not become a couch-dwelling non-pregnant slug!

But I feel a little bit like the boy (or girl) who cried wolf. You know the story. The shepherd boy keeps scaring the villagers by claiming a wolf was nearby eager to attack the flock of sheep. The day the wolf actually comes, he cries "Wolf, WOLF" but no one believes him since he's fooled them so many times before.

Well, I keep "crying wolf" by over-reacting every time I have a failed work-out. I let myself catastrophize the situation thinking I'll NEVER have another good run (while pregnant), or my running days are over (for this pregnancy), when in reality I'm experiencing likely normal ebbs and flows in my body's tolerance of running and exercise in general. Bad days are often followed by good days, often multiple good days in a row. So next time I have weird pains that cause me to bail on a run or anything else I will do my best to not freak out, and just hope the next day is better!

I suspect the day will come when all I can muster is my one mile a day. But until I have a week of consistently bad work-outs, I will not cry wolf, I will not jump to any conclusions about pregnancy work-outs being over, etc, etc. Even when I'm not pregnant, I've had 'bad' weeks due to work or illness where my total workout time for the week was a paltry 7 miles. So I need to give myself a break. At the same time, though, I need to start watching my dietary intake like a hawk so that if/when my exercising decreases my eating decreases proportionally. (Stay tuned for a post on pregnancy weight gain.)

With no further ado, here's the breakdown for 45 in 45 week 6:

Day 1: 1 mile run (10 mins)
Day 2: 11.5 mile spin, 1200 yd swim, 1 mile run (85 mins)
Day 3: 5.1 mile run, 1 mile hill walk (65 mins)
Day 4: 1 mile run (10 mins)
Day 5: 1 mile run (10 mins)
Day 6: 2 mile run, prenatal training (70 mins)
Day 7: 11.5 mile spinning, 1 mile run, 0.7 mile hill climb (60 mins)

This week: 310 out of 310 minutes (RIGHT ON TARGET!!)
Total deficit: 225 on going deficit. At least I didn't add to it this week!

When I first start this 45 in 45 challenge (take 2) the goal was to exercise 45 minutes on average for 45 days. Day 45 is two days from now and I'm behind by 225 minutes. Now if only I had a marathon to run I could knock that 225 out in one fell swoop! But I don't. So, strictly speaking, this challenge was a fail.

But I really don't want to call it a fail, because it kept me motivated to at least attempt a full 45 minute workout everyday (with a few exceptions of long days at work). It took me time to get into the swing of things, but my workout deficit time became smaller each week and this week I did indeed reach my goal. So maybe with a few more weeks I could make this a true success.

So, like a 6th grade teacher whose prize pupil claims the dog ate his homework, I'm going to give myself an extension. I'm going to extend the challenge for 4 weeks- to March 14th, to try to work down that deficit and make the final average 45 minutes a day of exercise. So what if it will be 45 in 73 instead of 45 in 45. It's keeping up physical fitness that counts! And not giving up.....