Taking a cue from one of my favorite bloggers...

I am starting Operation Suck Less in honor of Suck Less, Whine More.  But I can't add more whining to my regimen because, as you know if you read my last post, I am already in tip top whining shape.

And where, exactly, has all my whining gotten me?  Oh, that's right... crying in bed yesterday after running 3.66 miles when I was planning on running 9 miles.  Really?  I still ran 3.66 miles!  Six months ago, I was not running 3.66 miles.  Running a mile seemed a little challenging.  I have come a long way!  So what if I didn't run 9 miles - I ran 11 miles last week!  And not in the course of the week, but all in one day!  At one time!  I couldn't have done that even three months ago.  Three years ago, I couldn't even run without getting horribly out of breath after only a few seconds.  I let myself get emotional yesterday, and while it wasn't the best response, I'm not going to beat myself up about it, because it's okay.  Everything's okay.  I'm alive.  I'm healthy (as long as you don't count the fact that my bloodstream is currently 90% candy orange slices).   And I regularly get punched in the arm (in a good way) by an amazing blogging community filled with motivating people like Amylee (who is, in case you didn't know, gorgeous... on top of being a running rockstar and finishing the Top of Utah Marathon AND qualifying for Boston!).  So am I giving up like I whined about yesterday?

Hell no, I'm not!

Instead, I am going to start sucking less.  For me, this means the following:

1. Stop beating yourself up for not constantly being God's gift to exercise.  Miss a workout?  Life goes on.  Ran 1 mile instead of 10?  It'll be okay.
2. Don't allow rule #1 to turn into "I don't feel like running 10 miles, so I'll do 2 crunches instead and then take a nap."  While beating yourself up is no longer required, effort is still required.  You don't feel like doing a HIIT workout today?  Too bad.  You are required to at least attempt it.  If you start and you are in pain or feel awful, that's one thing, but no skipping workouts just because you don't feel like getting sweaty or you'd rather eat Chick-fil-a.
3. Listen to your body.  When your knees hurt, ice them and stop jumping around like a maniac trying to impress Chalene Johnson.  When you're tired, rest.  When you are thirsty, have some water.  When you are hungry, don't listen to the voice that tells you to buy Oreos.  Eat a freaking banana.
4. Floss.  Seriously.
5. And, perhaps most importantly given yesterday's emo kid post... FINALLY REGISTER FOR AND RUN THE ROCK 'N ROLL DENVER HALF MARATHON.

I know.  I needed to do this a while ago.  And I can cough up a million excuses for why I didn't, but let's be honest... when you get right down to it, I'd say it was 50% fear and 50% laziness.  Neither of which should be part of my running.  So I am shutting up and registering.  And I have a backup bribe in case I start to chicken out - after I register, I get to pick out a new outfit for race day.  I will absolutely finish registration if I know there's shopping at the end.  It's kind of the best way to bribe me into anything.

So that's it.  Operation Suck Less... commence!