Staying Positive

This week so far my mileage is up and I am getting back into it. I have logged 17 miles with my long run today still to go and possible another run on Sunday for fun. Work is still crazy but just in another way. Instead of the holiday madness it is now all about payroll. Leading my team to perform at their highest level every day they are working. the schedule is tight no more spending extra hours. Basically get in get out get it done all within 4-5 hours depending on what day it is. And lets not forget the P-Fresh trailers.

 There is no designated time they arrive. The trailer arrives anywhere from 3am-6am and it is my job to get it on the floor and back stocked. So if the trailer is late that could be disastrous as the bulk of my team could be gone like what almost happened on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday I had the general merchandise trailer 100% by 3 a.m. This way I am fully ready to devote everything I have to P-fresh. The driver calls at 3:30 saying he is just leaving Stockton and will be there in a hour and a half. AGHH!!!!! NOOOOO!!! This is not good. I knew I couldn't have my team just standing around waiting that is unproductive and I also knew that I didn't want to start a project in case the trailer arrived early. Such a catch 22. I did get them working on something.

Luckily when the trailer arrived at 4:45 I had already given my team their last break so all we had to do was get the 8 pallets of food pushed and back stocked. It was all hands on deck. It might have looked like mass chaos but it wasn't. The team went to work and within the hour we had all 8 pallets pushed and back stocked. Wow! What a relief and what a awesome team to stay focused.

That is what I am dealing with now. It makes it for a challenging night every time I go in. Each night is not the same. With things slowing down just a bit I took a personnel day on Wednesday. A day to relax and recharge and I think it helped with me getting my running back in line that and also the fact that I have been sucking it up and running.

Yesterday I woke up a bit later then I normally do. Around 6:30am. I know that isn't too late but this morning I was up at 2:30am. I enjoyed some coffee and hung out with Lil Man. Around 8am I went out for my run. I was cold. It was in the low 40's again. I did a nice warm up mile and then increased my pace. I wanted to keep the next four miles at a 9:20 pace but I wasn't going to push it too hard. My legs were a little sore from the other days afternoon project. My hamstrings were tight, my back was tight but it was totally worth it.

 I did my normal 6 mile loop. My about mile 3 I had finally warmed up where my hands were not freezing cold and my legs had loosened up a bit. My pace slowly increased. I was running relaxed again. It is so much easier when I am relaxed to run because it is that much more comfortable on my body. I had a nice pace going. It didn't feel like I was pushing it, I was actually enjoying this run. In the end I ran those 6 miles in 55 minutes with a pace that averaged out to 9:09.

Saturday (today) is Fleet Feet Ultra training groups long run. I will be carpooling with Lily. We are heading up to Auburn for some of the group members first time on the dam hill. This hill can be very challenging on the return to the cars as it is 3 miles of climbing. Every time I run it it still amazes me how hard it can be but it is also mental. If I tell myself "I can do it" over and over and I let my mind go it is a lot more easier for me to run then if I were to think "this is never going to end". So I have to keep positive thoughts going through my head and just keep moving. The group is looking to run 14 miles today and in a few a weeks we will be heading to Cool for the longest run to date, 20-26 miles on the New Cool Course. Here is to staying positive and overcome obstacles.