This week’s Fit Five Friday topic: 5 spring cleaning tips for your fitness gear.  You can write about this topic or any fitness-related post.  We’ve got FIVE incredible co-hosts My First 5K and More, Running With Attitude, Run Laugh Eat Pie, Runs with Pugs, and Zenaida so be sure to link up with us. 

The word “Spring” gets me all excited.  While it isn’t my favorite season, I do like it more than Winter.  Spring gets us closer to Summer and then Fall.  Yes, Fall is my favorite.

Fitness gear isn’t cheap.  Well, it depends on what you buy and whether you pay the full or the sale price.  I usually do the latter unless there is something I really, really like then I will pay the full price.  No matter what, we want to take care of it so that it can last a long time.  Below are a couple of Spring cleaning tips I do for my gear.

🧺 Invest in a good detergent specifically for fitness gear.  I have tried a few brands over the years, but my favorite is “Sport Suds”.  I use it each time I wash my running gear.  A little goes a long way.  I have been using it for years and my clothes do not smell like they used to before.  I am a heavy sweater and my clothes would stink a lot.

🧺 Check if the clothes still fit, has holes, or are too dingy.  I know I just said that fitness gear could be expensive, but why still wear something that is very old with holes or doesn’t fit anymore?  Invest in something new.  You might get lucky and get a good price!  Now will also be a good time to invest in new sports bars.

🧺 Replace your running shoes.  They need to be replaced every 300–500 miles.   I replace mine every 300 miles.  I track the mileage using the Garmin Connect app.  Once they’re no longer usable for running, I use them for work.

🧺 Clean your Garmin device.  I do this more than once a year.  Of course, Spring is the perfect time to do this.  I hand wash the strap.  I also deep clean the actual watch as if I am performing surgery.  OK, not really but you get the idea. 😃

🧺 Clean your treadmill, bike, weights, and any other fitness equipment you own.  Right now the only fitness equipment in the living room is the Peloton bike.  Though at this moment it is collecting dust.  I need to get my act together.  I will, I will.  I wipe off the sweat after each workout, but I need to wipe off that dust and clean it from top to bottom and from left to right.  

The topic for next week:  5 fitness superstitions.  We hope you will link up. 

This week’s Fit Five Friday topic: 5 self-care ways to show love for yourself.  You can write about this topic or any fitness-related post.  We’ve got FIVE incredible co-hosts My First 5K and More, Running With Attitude, Run Laugh Eat Pie, Runs with Pugs, and Zenaida so be sure to link up with us. 

We all love self-care right?  What it is and how we do it is different for each one of us.  Let me tell you what I do.

💟 Exercise.  I run and sometimes I walk.  I know, I know, I need to do more.  My Peloton misses me.

💟 Watch what I eat.  It may not be perfect but I do what I can.  However, there are days when I get too stressed and I go for what I want to eat.  Hello Big Mac and french fries!

💟 Get enough sleep.  I am usually in bed by 9 pm and wake up between 4-5 am.  Sometimes I do OK and other times I wake up in the middle of the night and it takes me a while to go back to sleep.  Melatonin does make me sleepy but I need it to last longer.  

💟 Do things I enjoy. To me, that is either watching TV or reading a book.  On Monday I finished reading my 4th book this year.  I also like to meet up with friends for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

💟 Drink less coffee and drink more water.  As much as I love coffee, I have cut down on it.  I drink one cup in the morning and that’s it.   Sometimes, I will stop for coffee at Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts, but I don’t do it as often as I used to. I bought a Brita pitcher to have in my room and fill it up in the morning.  My goal is to finish it at school.

The topic for next week – It is Runfessions with Marcia!  We hope you will link up. 

This week’s Fit Five Friday topic: 5 struggles you face to reaching your fitness goals.  You can write about this topic or any fitness-related post.  We’ve got FIVE incredible co-hosts My First 5K and More, Running With Attitude, Run Laugh Eat Pie, Runs with Pugs, and Zenaida so be sure to link up with us. 

Last week I wrote about the things that motivate me.  Now, we know that not everything is perfect and there are times when I am not motivated or something holds me back from doing a workout or a run.  Then this in turn will cause me to struggle to reach my goals.

Let me tell you about some of the struggles:

🌟 Excuses.  Sometimes I have many of them – it is too cold or too hot, I am too tired, or I don’t feel like running today.  

🌟 Procrastination.  Because of the excuses listed above,  there have been times when I say that I would do my run after work.  Then something happens and I don’t end up doing it.  That is one reason why I’d instead like to get it done in the morning.  

🌟 Unrealistic goals.  Can I really PR by 1 hour in this race?  Instead, should I make it my goal to PR by 5 or 10 minutes?

🌟 An injury.  Like many runners, I’ve had a few injuries – ITBS, runner’s knee, calf strain, and plantar fasciitis.  They’ve left me out of the running game for a few months.  One year I wanted to do one of those running series to run 3 half marathons in the Summer (for my 50 states goal) but was in the beginning stages of plantar fasciitis.  I knew I should take time off from running and rest up.

🌟 Feeling burned out.  I have experienced this a few times.  Once it was during marathon training.  I finished my long run, called my coach, and started crying.  I told her I didn’t want to run anymore.  I wasn’t feeling the excitement of running or the marathon anymore.  She listened to me.  I can’t remember what she told me but that year I ended up not running the marathon.  I looked up my races for that year and saw that I ran 18 races (one being a 50k) that year and 24 the year before.  

The topic for next week – It is Runfessions with Marcia!  We hope you will link up.