#GBE2

I am about to make my first foray into a "group blogging experience" #GBE2, which  I found out about on Word Nerd's website.  It is basically a group writing exercise where you are given a topic and have one week to post about it on your blog.  This is my first crack at this, but I am excited at the opportunity to put my spin on a topic of someone else's choosing.  I have come to think of the weekly "prompt" as the equivalent of Fred Penner's Word Bird and the word of the day.  So stay tuned in the weeks to come as I endeavour to participate in #GBE2.  To my fellow bloggers ... I encourage you to take a look and join in if you are intrigued.  Do not forget to check out the hashtag on Twitter!

Getting up the gumption...

I have a confession, I was supposed to run yesterday and today, and was supposed to go to the gym at lunch on Thursday, but I did none of the above.   So, total runs this week?  Only one.  I ran 5.94 km at lunch on Tuesday.  I was actually very pleased with this result as it was my furthest distance to date and my first run in over a week.  I heaved and complained the whole way, but made it back in one piece, just in time to hit up the toilet.  

Now, as it is a long weekend I could feasibly run tonight and tomorrow at some point, but, honestly, my motivation levels have reached a new low.  The truth is that I have not felt motivated all week, whether it be to clean up the apartment, do the laundry or study for my accounting final.  For example, this morning I got up bright and early to go perform a wedding (I moonlight as a Justice of the Peace) and was home by 8:20 this morning.  Any normal person would have done something valuable with their time, but, not me.  I started off by eating breakfast and started my daily routine of email checking, blog checking, twitter checking and then suddenly it was noon-ish.  I must also acknowledge that I have discovered the magic of the internet; this has become a chronic problem since I began blogging.  I could have gone for a run this morning, but, my first excuse was that my ipod was not charged and today is a solo-run day.  I believe this is a very good excuse; running is still a cruel form of torture, so running in silence without Jon Bon helping me through it is absolutely, positively, out of the question.  However, without physically getting off my butt to check, I feel confident enough to say that the ipod is likely charged, so, running at this point would be within the realm of possibility.  What is my excuse now?  Writing this post.  So, with no additional runs to report, no bathroom emergencies shocking or funny enough to merit a post, what do I have to write about?  Nothing… and maybe everything.  For several months now I have been flip-flopping between highly-motivated and highly-unmotivated.  It is amazing how much you can get done when you have a little drive to peel your butt off the couch or out of bed, it is also just as amazing how much does not get done as soon as you make your couch your home.  I guess what I am saying is that sometimes I am just plain lazy and other times impressively motivated and efficient.  There are so many things I wanted to achieve this week:

• Unpack suitcases from last week’s trip (they were shoved in my closet to hide from party guests last weekend)
•  Fold my laundry (also a remnant from last weekend)
• Do the other piles of laundry that have accumulated
• Complete three additional runs this week
• Do two gym workouts
• Do one additional yoga workout (I did one, with a hilarious Irish woman leading the charge!)
• Do a couple sessions on the piano (the goal is to get back into playing again)
• Prepare to submit my applications for a couple of different Certificate in Public Relations programs (aiming for September 2013)
• Begin preparations to submit my writing to publications that people actually read
• Study for my accounting final (as you can see this is lower on the list than it should be)

The above is only the short-list of items to complete; I have a much longer list which essentially consists of organizing and purging my home.   I am hoping by writing this down I will feel more accountable and actually complete some, or maybe all, of these tasks.  But, what I am really looking for are ideas … 

• What motivates you?
• How do you stay motivated?
• What keeps you organized?

For those of you with children, I am in awe; I do not know how you do it.  I am looking to find a way out of my rut, I dream of my more efficient days, they did exist, I promise you they did, but I look back on those days as fond memories and fantasize about what my future could hold if I could only get up the gumption and get ‘er done. 

Something new

This blog has instigated a number of firsts for me, including my first blog, the first time I have shared my writing with friends and family, and now, my first foray into the world of Twitter.  I was definitely more afraid of Twitter than I was of blogging.  I knew the basic premise, I had read some tweets, but I am still discovering how to fully take advantage of it.  So, last night I decided to create a Twitter account, which took a lot longer than I anticipated.  I knew that the tweets were restricted to a certain number of characters, but had no clue that my Twitter name (probably not the accurate terminology) was also restricted.  After I discovered that Running from the Runs was too long, I was eventually able to shorten it down to Rnningfrmtherns.  Upon completion of this task I was ready to compose my first tweet – I tweeted about my new blog.  And suddenly, I had a follower!   And then another!  My husband was home studying, and I was tweeting and screaming.  And then, I noticed it.  To my horror, my follower was very interested in ... blowjobs?...  Not my target audience.  With that, my bubble was completely burst and I came to the realization that one of my two followers was in fact blowjob-related spam.  The other follower appears to be legitimate, but I am now paranoid and suspicious, I thought about removing them in case they were spam, but I really didn’t want to be rude.  So, I will have to keep a close eye on this situation.  A colleague of mine did warn me that I would have to monitor for spam, he wasn’t kidding, within an hour of setting up my account I had been spammed!  

In other news, I have signed up for my first 10K race as part of the Bluenose Marathon weekend.  I will not be aiming to beat anyone in this event; I just want to complete it without crapping my pants.  My running partner and I have been thinking about participating, but had yet to sign up.  I figured since I was on a roll trying new things that I should just bite the bullet, there is no backing out now!  We briefly considered attempting the half marathon, but, as I still can’t run longer than two 6-minute intervals in a row, I decided to play it safe.  This will give me a good opportunity to ease into it, especially since I have no idea what to expect from this event.  I really hope there are lots of port-o-potties along the way, otherwise, on May 20th I will be panic-stricken on some poor stranger's doorstep.