Trying To Get With The Program Tuesday

Hola, Bloggarinos. Once again, I have been a lame, unmotivated blogger. I could write about Motivation under the title Motivation Monday, like all of the other cool, hip bloggers, but like I said; I'm lame. So this is Trying To Get With The Program Tuesday.

I'm looking like a rhino these days despite
my unicorn-like magicalness.

Anyone that has read this blog for more than a nanosecond knows that my first love is riding horses. How does this relate to running? Well, I'm going to share my troubles in my riding life and how it tends to affect nearly every other aspect of my world, including running.

Last year was an amazing year for me, riding-wise...all the way up until the end of the year when my brain went all cray, cray at our state championships and I had the worst show I've had in years because I psyched myself out so terribly that I couldn't ride for shit.

Or in my case, the rider becomes so psychotic,
she makes her horse crazy.

I moved my horse up a level a couple of months ago and nothing illuminates the holes you ignored at the previous level when they rear their ugly little heads aggressively at the next level, where you can no longer hide it.

At the beginning of March, I dragged my horse down to Tucson (about 2 hours south of Phoenix) for a horse show where it all came to a head. It was bad enough that on the first day, I had to excuse myself from a class. I finally got my act together well enough to get through a class on Sunday, but I went home knowing that I had some serious work to do to get myself back on track to be successful.

Sometimes overcoming a huge hurdle
feels as good as winning a blue ribbon.

Back to how this relates to running. I have done no running since Star Wars Half whatsoever. I'm signed up for Wine & Dine Half in November, but that's a long way off, especially for a slacker like myself. I can binge on a whole lotta Netflix rather than train in that time span. So how do I get myself motivated to work out or run when what I really want to do is plant my ass on my couch and whip through all 4 seasons of Lost Girl in one weekend?

Well, by the skin of my teeth, I managed to qualify for the Dressage regionals in October at our spring show last weekend. Riding is a much more physical sport than people realize. I somehow have the drive to get up at 4:45 every morning to ride before work, but can't seem to go the extra mile - literally - and get myself in shape for something that I pour blood, sweat and tears into (and an insane amount of money. No joke.)

The worse things got with my horse, the more hopeless I felt and the more I felt a complete lack of motivation to go work out. Luckily, I've figured out a few things with Louie and we're getting everything figured out.

I'm trying to use riding as a motivator to actually work out and get into better shape so that I can ride my horse better. And if I could get myself a shiny new PR at Wine & Dine, that would just be icing on the cake. (Mmmmmm....caaaakkkkeee.)

What kinds of things motivate you guys? Where do you get your inspiration from? Sometimes I feel like I'm just failing at doing something so simple as working out for the sport that I love so much. Maybe it's just that my brain spins around like a cyclone until I curl up on the couch in the fetal position, snarfing M&Ms like magical happy pills.

Louie the magical pony.

So, help me out and tell me your tale of woes so that I don't feel all alone with my neurosis and my cats. Who wants to boss me around, military-style until I'm a lean mean machine? Also, does anyone else watch Lost Girl? I'm addicted.