Ever had one of those days where you just lack motivation? I mean, where you just feel sluggish and really don’t know why or how to get out of it. Well, this doesnt happen very often to me but today was one of those days.

I was supposed to run 18 miles today and had prepared last night by getting all my running gear ready as well as leaving out my Gatorade, water bottles and KIND bar on the kitchen counter. I set my alarm for 5am so I could get on the road by 5:30. Our hot temps in good ‘ol Sactown are in the triple digits these days and it’s making it hard to get longer runs in. But I was motivated last night and was ready to bust this out in the early morning.

Now, I’ll back up a bit here. The past 12-14 days have been not so fun in the sleep department. One dog was spayed and had four teeth pulled. Then both dogs have been dealing with fleas (come to find out the flea problem is bad with many dog owners right now). We’ve been giving lots of baths, doing lots of laundry to clean sheets and dog beds, vacuuming, etc. It’s been fun frustrating. So I’ve been up every night with one or both of them at least once a night, sometimes three times in a night. Sound exhausting? Yup, I guess it’s like having kids.

I can deal and function on less sleep than the average person but after several days in a row of interrupted sleep, it’s taking it’s toll. So, this morning I woke up at 4am to one dog needing to go outside. I looked at my phone and realized it was an hour from my alarm sounding. I decided to change it to 6am. I woke up before 6 because I had been tossing and turning and decided I was too tired to do this run. I really needed to sleep. I shut off my alarm and fell back asleep.

This only resulted in anxiety for me later in the morning when I realized I missed a long run! An important run in my training with only 7 weeks to go until the marathon. But I vowed to do it later this week when it cools down. Thank God it will be in the high 80′s later this week.

Even after getting mad at myself but somehow being okay with missing a crucial long run, I still came back to that anxiety. Ugh. Sometimes it’s hard for me to get past it and say “It’s okay!” And I was just feeling really unmotivated and didn’t want to leave the house. The heat outside was definitely not helping either.

So I then decided I was going to run on the treadmill at the gym. I had planned on 7 miles and it would be in a cool place, so no big deal. I finally was motivated enough to get my running clothes on and was ready to head out the door earlier this afternoon. Interruption: Clint needs me to take him to get his car. Dang. Now I have to go across town in traffic and in the heat. I had a feeling of what was going to happen.

And it happened. I got to the gym. Started running and 0.50 (that’s right – a half of one mile!) into my run is when I turned the machine off. That was it. Julie, one of the gym owners, asked me where I was going as I was leaving. I said home. And she said “You’re just not feeling it?” Nope. Not today.

I got home and just said that tomorrow will be better and everything will be fine. It’s not the end of the world. I’ll chalk it up to it being an “off” day and I will resume my normal training tomorrow. I have to remember the things I say. It’s okay and there’s always tomorrow.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow!