Fighting the winter blues

Today, the first snow flakes fell on Holland. And with it, so did my spirits.

While I love the summers in Michigan spent outside in the beautiful weather and post card pretty beaches, I am not a fan of the other five to six months of the year. The time of year when the temperature plummets, the skies turn gloomy grey and the snow starts to fall. It's almost like Mother Nature punishes us — if we want perfect summers, we have to pay for it by suffering half the year. While some residents might get excited for a winter full of hunting, cross country skiing and snow blowing the driveway, all I want to do is stay in bed in my sweats.

I know I shouldn't whine so much — it's Michigan, it snows, I should be used to it by now. But I'm not. I'm stubborn that way.

But what I really don't like about the cold season is I lose my motivation to exercise. When my spirits drop, so does that peppy spirit to jump out of bed and hit the gym. My gloomy, Eeyore persona bleeds over into other aspects of my life — I get down on myself for what I eat and how I look in that bulky sweater.



This year, I have decided — as of today when I saw that first pesky snowflake — that I don't want to fall victim to the winter blues this year. So I have decided to motivate myself by training to run the Fifth Third River Bank 10K this May.

I've run four 5K races and done pretty well — I've dropped my time with each race. But I've never run more that the 3.1 miles across the finish line. So, today I decided to give it a try. I dropped my speed down a little and was able to finish 4.26 miles in 44 minutes, including a 2 minute warm-up and 2 minute cool down.

What really surprised me was that it didn't hurt. When I first started running, every new milestone hurt my hips and my knees. I secretly thought I would disappoint myself and not finish the full 40 minutes of running. But I pushed through and it felt great at the end.

While I was never a big runner growing up — OK, I hated it — I do love the sense of pride and accomplishment I feel when I finish my work out. I try to use that feeling as my motivator and most of the time it works.

I really am hoping this new goal will keep me upbeat and excited through the upcoming winter gloom. I'm also hoping it helps push me off the workout plateau I feel like I've been stuck on for a few weeks.

I'm crossing my fingers. Wish me luck.