September 4, 2012
Well, it may be September but it is still HOT, HOT, HOT! Tonight was cheer practice again. I hit the trail and I've decided that I do NOT like it! One circuit around the whole trail itself isn't a full mile and I don't like that. I like for one round to be a rounded distance....like for instance I know that it takes four times around the track at the high school to run a mile. This makes sense to me. I start in one place, end in that one place and that is one quarter of a mile....four quarters make a whole so four times around is one mile. This is what I refer to as round. The trail has no sense of measurement that I can make of it yet. That sentence didn't come out right....it's kind of like the "timey-wimey, wibbley-wobbley" sentence that the Doctor says got away from in the "Blink" episode of Doctor Who. I guess that sentence got away from me! What I'm trying to say is that once you've made it a mile around the trail, you are now starting from a different position and then you have to go further around to go a mile again so when you start the next mile you are starting from an even further position than when you started in the first place. This doesn't feel neat and tidy to me if that makes sense. Okay...so call me OCD. I guess I am about this. I want to start in one place and be able to make sense of the distance. But as long as we have cheer practice out here I'm stuck with "The Trail" so I will have to figure it out or just deal with it."
No mind tricks tonight. It was hot. I had to walk a little bit because the trail has a hill that darn near kicks my butt every time I run up it. It's a steep slope to start with but then it appears to level out but this is merely a Jedi mind trick because despite what your eyes tell you, you are still climbing. Then just when you think you're in the clear and you've recovered from the hill in disguise, The Trail hits you with another one and you're winded again. And before you know it you're back at the hill in disguise. Toward the end I was done in and I had to walk up the disguised hill. I was just too pooped.
I stopped at a little over two miles and crossed the street to go sit in my chair and drink a gallon of water but just as I sat down my daughter decided that she needed to go to the bathroom. Since the bathrooms are across the street, the cheer coaches don't let the girls go alone so she asked me to take her. I did and when I take her I don't cross to the portapotties. We go to the real bathroom that's further down than just across the road. After bringing her back I was feeling a little rested so I decided that since I only had about a half mile to go to finish a 5k distance (and since I did have a 5k coming up in the very near future....like about four days!) I headed back out onto The Trail again. Once I hit the 5k distance I walked a little bit to cool down.
As you all know I'm not terribly keen on walking as it feels like failure to me and I'm not really big on restarting once I've stopped as that feels like cheating but I'm feeling alright about this run. It was terribly hot out even for evening and this could account for having to walk, especially on hills. I find that when it is hot like that I end up having to walk. So I'm not so upset about having to walk this time. So, all in all, it was a good run.
Here's the numbers: My distance was 3.43 miles. I don't remember what portion of that I ran and what portion was the walk at the end. It took me 53 minutes to complete this run and my pace was 15:19, keeping in mind that this is an average by my Garmin (or the website I post my runs on; I'm not positive which is doing the averaging). I'm finding a little bit of discrepancy between the Garmin Connect and the site I post my runs on. Garmin Connect says my time was 44:30 with an average pace of 12:59 and a best pace of 8:19. While these numbers are much more attractive to me than the previous ones, I'm not going to claim as gospel. I don't understand the discrepancy since both runs were uploaded from the same device, just to different websites. I will have to look into it. At any rate it was a good run and Saturday is the Popeye Annual 5k so I will try to get a couple more runs in before racing day. I want to be ready but I don't want to over do it. I will probably take Friday off to rest.
Happy Running!
KEA
Thursday, September 27, 2012
I Went to the Animal Fair
September 3, 2012
No run today. Today my youngest daughter and I went to the zoo again. This time it was for a birthday party. Two years ago we moved from a small town to where we live now and my son and daughter had to leave their friends. My daughter has maintained one of the close friendships she had made over the years, in part due to the close friendship I have maintained with the mother of her friend. So to celebrate that friend's ten year old birthday we packed up and headed to the zoo for a safari!
We had loads of fun and of course took lots of pictures. We love going to the zoo but this time we took the safari tour that they offer. It was very inexpensive ($10) and a guide takes you to various exhibits and shares information about those exhibits. We learned a lot and had a great time.
No mileage today since I didn't wear my Garmin. I was going to but I forgot it. It was a great day and we were blessed to spend it with good friends.
Happy Running,
KEA
No run today. Today my youngest daughter and I went to the zoo again. This time it was for a birthday party. Two years ago we moved from a small town to where we live now and my son and daughter had to leave their friends. My daughter has maintained one of the close friendships she had made over the years, in part due to the close friendship I have maintained with the mother of her friend. So to celebrate that friend's ten year old birthday we packed up and headed to the zoo for a safari!
We had loads of fun and of course took lots of pictures. We love going to the zoo but this time we took the safari tour that they offer. It was very inexpensive ($10) and a guide takes you to various exhibits and shares information about those exhibits. We learned a lot and had a great time.
No mileage today since I didn't wear my Garmin. I was going to but I forgot it. It was a great day and we were blessed to spend it with good friends.
Happy Running,
KEA
Quick Note to Explain
September 27, 2012
It has been almost a month since I have posted anything and I almost didn't start tonight but I need to get back to running regularly and I need to get back to posting regularly as well and despite (or maybe it is because of) the crappy day I have had today I decided to get caught up as I have several entries to write and post.
I didn't run tonight even though it was cheer leading practice night. I didn't even take my daughter to cheer leading practice tonight. This afternoon my mother called to tell me the lump they found in her breast is most likely cancerous. Needless to say I am extremely upset and forgive me but I do believe due to this circumstance I am allowed to crawl into my shell and cry like a baby. She did call later this evening to say she isn't worried because her husband's daughter, whose mother died of breast cancer, has had the same type of lumps - my mother said the mass had "spikes" coming out from it and apparently her husband's daughter has the same type of mass - and apparently the doctors told her they are positive it is cancer only to find out they were wrong. So my mother is determined (rightfully so) to be positive about this until she has reason not to be. I will take her lead but part of me still harbors some fear and worry. I am working on letting that go and with God's help I will.
So, having gotten that off my chest, I will commence the updating of the blog in backdated chronological order because that's how I roll....
Happy Running,
KEA
It has been almost a month since I have posted anything and I almost didn't start tonight but I need to get back to running regularly and I need to get back to posting regularly as well and despite (or maybe it is because of) the crappy day I have had today I decided to get caught up as I have several entries to write and post.
I didn't run tonight even though it was cheer leading practice night. I didn't even take my daughter to cheer leading practice tonight. This afternoon my mother called to tell me the lump they found in her breast is most likely cancerous. Needless to say I am extremely upset and forgive me but I do believe due to this circumstance I am allowed to crawl into my shell and cry like a baby. She did call later this evening to say she isn't worried because her husband's daughter, whose mother died of breast cancer, has had the same type of lumps - my mother said the mass had "spikes" coming out from it and apparently her husband's daughter has the same type of mass - and apparently the doctors told her they are positive it is cancer only to find out they were wrong. So my mother is determined (rightfully so) to be positive about this until she has reason not to be. I will take her lead but part of me still harbors some fear and worry. I am working on letting that go and with God's help I will.
So, having gotten that off my chest, I will commence the updating of the blog in backdated chronological order because that's how I roll....
Happy Running,
KEA
Friday, August 31, 2012
Back To the Country
August 31, 2012
Another night of cheer leading practice and another opportunity to run in the country. This time I knew what to expect and I was better prepared. This time I brought along my sun glasses but I still haven't figured out a way to carry water without spending a bunch of money on a belt of a backpack that will weigh me down. I've to figure this one out because I've decided that running without water SUX!!!! BIG TIME!!!! Actually, I have a small backpack that I could carry an old Diet Coke bottle, one of those ones that you get at gas stations. If you fill one of those half way with water, stick it in the freezer and let it freeze then fill it with water you end up with a nice cold bottle of water that stays cold as it melts. I suppose I could do that and use that small backpack. I just don't want to carry that on my back and be more sweaty than I get. I'm also afraid it would get heavy. I don't want to add more weight to myself as well. I'll have to think about it.
So, anyway, I set out on my run again tonight after a couple of delays. I had to give my daughter insulin at practice since NaNa took the kids to McDonald's and dropped my daughter off to practice and she hadn't been able to get her insulin. Then I had to go back home and get her tennis shoes since she'd worn flip flops out to eat and needed tennis shoes for practice. When I was finally able to set out I'd almost talked myself out of the run! But I decided to go ahead and get it done. I started out and tried to be more aware of my pace when I started out. On Tuesday when I started out I was running @ a pace of 10:42 which made me super tired by the time I got farther along and hit hills, etc. I tried to be more aware of just how fast I was running. I didn't want to wear out and have to walk again. Walking feels like failure to me and I don't like failure.
Tonight's run was better than Tuesday night's. It felt better; there were less cars so there was less running in the grass but then again, I decided to just stop and wait for the car to pass instead of trying to run in the grass. It's just not worth the chance of stepping into some clump of dry dirt pile or hole and spraining my ankle. I do like the feel of the road beneath my feet and I like this route but it's just not worth it since the road seems to be busy. I won't run this route again unless my daughter has cheer practice at the gym again. I'll stick to the courthouse run or the "trail" at the sports complex where cheer practice is normally held.
I didn't have to stop or walk once tonight which made me very happy. It was still rough. I'm still running without water which as previously stated SUX BIG TIME! I do need to come up with some way to carry water. I'm probably going to have to break down and either buy a belt of just accept the fact that I am going to have to carry a backpack. I have a belt that I carry my cell phone and my driver's license in and I've tried to hook a water bottle to it but so far I've not come up with a way to do it and my engineer husband hasn't weighed in with any ideas. I guess it's going to have to be the small backpack. At any rate, I've talked enough about carrying water and need to get back to the run itself. It was a rough run but I felt good at the end. No knee pain, no back pain, no foot pain and I didn't keel over dead so that's all good, right? I am pretty happy with this run. The hills are still hard but at least I ran up them and didn't have to walk. YAY!
Tonight I ran 3.12 miles. It took me thirty-eight minutes and my average pace was 12:06. This is a tiny bit better than Tuesday. I ran a full 5k distance and my pace was just slightly better. I'll take those extra hundreths, thank you very much! I'm satisfied with this run all in all and would like to go back to that route and conquer the hills but it just doesn't seem safe with the cars and such. I have a lot going on at home tomorrow with the kids tomorrow so I guess I'll hit the treadmill tomorrow. We'll see how that goes tomorrow.
Happy Running!
KEA
Another night of cheer leading practice and another opportunity to run in the country. This time I knew what to expect and I was better prepared. This time I brought along my sun glasses but I still haven't figured out a way to carry water without spending a bunch of money on a belt of a backpack that will weigh me down. I've to figure this one out because I've decided that running without water SUX!!!! BIG TIME!!!! Actually, I have a small backpack that I could carry an old Diet Coke bottle, one of those ones that you get at gas stations. If you fill one of those half way with water, stick it in the freezer and let it freeze then fill it with water you end up with a nice cold bottle of water that stays cold as it melts. I suppose I could do that and use that small backpack. I just don't want to carry that on my back and be more sweaty than I get. I'm also afraid it would get heavy. I don't want to add more weight to myself as well. I'll have to think about it.
So, anyway, I set out on my run again tonight after a couple of delays. I had to give my daughter insulin at practice since NaNa took the kids to McDonald's and dropped my daughter off to practice and she hadn't been able to get her insulin. Then I had to go back home and get her tennis shoes since she'd worn flip flops out to eat and needed tennis shoes for practice. When I was finally able to set out I'd almost talked myself out of the run! But I decided to go ahead and get it done. I started out and tried to be more aware of my pace when I started out. On Tuesday when I started out I was running @ a pace of 10:42 which made me super tired by the time I got farther along and hit hills, etc. I tried to be more aware of just how fast I was running. I didn't want to wear out and have to walk again. Walking feels like failure to me and I don't like failure.
Tonight's run was better than Tuesday night's. It felt better; there were less cars so there was less running in the grass but then again, I decided to just stop and wait for the car to pass instead of trying to run in the grass. It's just not worth the chance of stepping into some clump of dry dirt pile or hole and spraining my ankle. I do like the feel of the road beneath my feet and I like this route but it's just not worth it since the road seems to be busy. I won't run this route again unless my daughter has cheer practice at the gym again. I'll stick to the courthouse run or the "trail" at the sports complex where cheer practice is normally held.
I didn't have to stop or walk once tonight which made me very happy. It was still rough. I'm still running without water which as previously stated SUX BIG TIME! I do need to come up with some way to carry water. I'm probably going to have to break down and either buy a belt of just accept the fact that I am going to have to carry a backpack. I have a belt that I carry my cell phone and my driver's license in and I've tried to hook a water bottle to it but so far I've not come up with a way to do it and my engineer husband hasn't weighed in with any ideas. I guess it's going to have to be the small backpack. At any rate, I've talked enough about carrying water and need to get back to the run itself. It was a rough run but I felt good at the end. No knee pain, no back pain, no foot pain and I didn't keel over dead so that's all good, right? I am pretty happy with this run. The hills are still hard but at least I ran up them and didn't have to walk. YAY!
Tonight I ran 3.12 miles. It took me thirty-eight minutes and my average pace was 12:06. This is a tiny bit better than Tuesday. I ran a full 5k distance and my pace was just slightly better. I'll take those extra hundreths, thank you very much! I'm satisfied with this run all in all and would like to go back to that route and conquer the hills but it just doesn't seem safe with the cars and such. I have a lot going on at home tomorrow with the kids tomorrow so I guess I'll hit the treadmill tomorrow. We'll see how that goes tomorrow.
Happy Running!
KEA
Country Roads, Take Me Home....
August 28, 2012
My youngest daughter had cheer leading practice tonight at the local gym so I decided to gather my running gear and go run while she learned how to stand on the other girls' shoulders. The gym is on the outskirts of town and there's a back road out there so I decided I would see where it led. I found out that it is half a mile from the gym to the skating rink and from the skating rink to the old folks' home is another half mile. Another half mile then I turned around and came back to give me a full three miles today.
This was really rough because even though it was evening it was still really hot. On top of that this road is super hilly and a couple of the hills are rather steep. I ended up having to walk for quite a bit as I was worn out; I didn't have anywhere to stop for water and I wasn't carrying any. I was super thirsty and super tired. I felt like one of those cartoons where they crawl across the desert going "Water......water.......water....." It wasn't a pretty sight, that's for sure!
There's not a whole lot I can say about this run. It was really hard and I had to stop and walk. I liked the route but at the same time I didn't like it because there were no sidewalks so I had to run on the road. I didn't think that the road would be busy that time of night but it was and every time a car came I would have to get off the road and run in the grass. That was a little difficult because the ground is super bumpy with dirt clots and hidden holes, etc. I kept twisting my foot or stumbling on stuff. So I'd run in the grass until the cars passed then I'd go back to the road and run a pace. Then another car would come and I'd have to get back in the grass again. Blah, blah, blah.....didn't like that. I like the way the road feels under my feet but I guess I prefer running on a sidewalk because I don't have to keep getting in the grass.
I was exhausted when I was done but I did do a full three miles and even though I had to walk it took me just a minute or two longer than my standard three mile time. This is because when I started off I started off with a faster pace. I'm pretty sure that's what contributed to my running out of energy too quickly too.
All in all a good run. I ran 3.03 miles. It took me 37 minutes and my average pace was 12:10. That looks a lot better than it felt!
On to the next run!
Happy Running!
KEA
My youngest daughter had cheer leading practice tonight at the local gym so I decided to gather my running gear and go run while she learned how to stand on the other girls' shoulders. The gym is on the outskirts of town and there's a back road out there so I decided I would see where it led. I found out that it is half a mile from the gym to the skating rink and from the skating rink to the old folks' home is another half mile. Another half mile then I turned around and came back to give me a full three miles today.
This was really rough because even though it was evening it was still really hot. On top of that this road is super hilly and a couple of the hills are rather steep. I ended up having to walk for quite a bit as I was worn out; I didn't have anywhere to stop for water and I wasn't carrying any. I was super thirsty and super tired. I felt like one of those cartoons where they crawl across the desert going "Water......water.......water....." It wasn't a pretty sight, that's for sure!
There's not a whole lot I can say about this run. It was really hard and I had to stop and walk. I liked the route but at the same time I didn't like it because there were no sidewalks so I had to run on the road. I didn't think that the road would be busy that time of night but it was and every time a car came I would have to get off the road and run in the grass. That was a little difficult because the ground is super bumpy with dirt clots and hidden holes, etc. I kept twisting my foot or stumbling on stuff. So I'd run in the grass until the cars passed then I'd go back to the road and run a pace. Then another car would come and I'd have to get back in the grass again. Blah, blah, blah.....didn't like that. I like the way the road feels under my feet but I guess I prefer running on a sidewalk because I don't have to keep getting in the grass.
I was exhausted when I was done but I did do a full three miles and even though I had to walk it took me just a minute or two longer than my standard three mile time. This is because when I started off I started off with a faster pace. I'm pretty sure that's what contributed to my running out of energy too quickly too.
All in all a good run. I ran 3.03 miles. It took me 37 minutes and my average pace was 12:10. That looks a lot better than it felt!
On to the next run!
Happy Running!
KEA
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
3.166......Torture
August 27, 2012
Today was a flop day to start with. I didn't sleep well last night. Went to bed around 2:00 which I keep telling myself I will stop doing (and look at me now, up late again....) so when it came to getting up today it was rough. Got up to get kids ready for school and then went back to bed because I just wasn't feeling well but I couldn't sleep. My sister in law texted me this morning and then I got to thinking about what she was texting me about and finally fell asleep. I slept until 1:30 OMGoodness I did NOT intend to do that. I then remembered that I had to get my daughter's test strips refilled at the pharmacy. My husband asked me to stop at the doctor's office to pick up a sports physical form for his son who wanted to go out for cross country and had to have the form to school by today. So, I stopped at WalMart, dropped off the prescription then headed to the doctor's office. Went back to WalMart, picked up a few things and the prescription. Drove to the school, dropped off the form, picked up an insurance waiver form, found out my husband's son forgot to take the check to pay for cross country. Went to the car, called my husband to tell him I would come back home and pick up the check since I didn't have a checkbook in my purse, found out he was on his way to the school on his bicycle so I just headed home....already I felt like I put in a full day even though I really hadn't. Got home, put a load of laundry in the dryer and sat down to recap on my plans for the day. So far in my day nothing had gone to plan. Kids got home from school and we realized my husband's son (after all that running around to get all the ducks in the row so he could go to practice today) had come home and not gone to cross country practice. UGH! So.....after all this I remembered I wanted to get a run in sometime.
It was getting late and my daughter was hungry so I decided to go ahead and cook some supper. I had planned on having cube steaks, butter noodles, blueberry muffins, and corn but the cube steaks turned out to be bad so I had to go with Plan B. I found some hamburgers in the freezer, fried them up and decided to hit the treadmill. Unfortunately, my iPod was on the fritz and it was low battery so I plugged it in to charge it up and wait for my daughter to finish her supper so we could give her insulin. By this time it was almost 8:00 and I was feeling like skipping my run altogether but something in me kicked and wouldn't let me skip since I've already skipped two days and have been feeling guilty about it. So I begrudgingly got up out of my chair and dragged the treadmill out and fired her up.
My intention was to run four miles at 5.0 MPH and figured it would take me 48 minutes since I know that pace at 5.0 MPH is 12:00 which means I'm running a mile in twelve minutes so four times twelve is forty-eight minutes. That was my plan.....yeah, right. I got on there and quite frankly, I wanted to quit at half a mile. What? How did I get so out of shape? I was out of breath and I just wanted to quit. But I'm not quitter so I figured I'd have to use some pretty distracting mental tricks. Unfortunately, I was fresh out of those and the only thing I could do to keep myself distracted was to count. I counted seconds, I counted tenths of a mile, I counted anything I could think of to count. There's several different minute counts: There's the actual count the seconds in a minute minute count. Then there's the how many minutes do I have to go minute count. There's the how many minutes left to run a mile, how many to run half a mile minute count. Then there's the count to one hundred to calculate the mile. So much counting but the whole thing is to distract myself from the torture of this run. It was awful....just awful and I wanted to stop so badly but I didn't. I'm glad I didn't. I just couldn't let myself off easy.
So here's the breakdown because I just don't want to talk about this horrible run anymore. I ran on the treadmill tonight because it was getting late and I knew if I ran outside I wouldn't do a full three miles. I ran with the treadmill incline set at 2.0, running @ 5.0 MPH. My pace was 12:00 and I ran a total of 3.166 miles. It took me 38 minutes exactly. I would've stopped at 3.1 miles but it was an odd number and I prefer to stop at a round even number. Silly, I know but there it is...another one of my quirks. I'm glad to be done with this run, both running it and talking about it. I prefer to never think about this one again but I know that wouldn't be very productive because it's runs like these that help me remember not to quit so I won't have to start all over again and have to go through the awfulness of how this felt again.
Happy Running!
KEA
Today was a flop day to start with. I didn't sleep well last night. Went to bed around 2:00 which I keep telling myself I will stop doing (and look at me now, up late again....) so when it came to getting up today it was rough. Got up to get kids ready for school and then went back to bed because I just wasn't feeling well but I couldn't sleep. My sister in law texted me this morning and then I got to thinking about what she was texting me about and finally fell asleep. I slept until 1:30 OMGoodness I did NOT intend to do that. I then remembered that I had to get my daughter's test strips refilled at the pharmacy. My husband asked me to stop at the doctor's office to pick up a sports physical form for his son who wanted to go out for cross country and had to have the form to school by today. So, I stopped at WalMart, dropped off the prescription then headed to the doctor's office. Went back to WalMart, picked up a few things and the prescription. Drove to the school, dropped off the form, picked up an insurance waiver form, found out my husband's son forgot to take the check to pay for cross country. Went to the car, called my husband to tell him I would come back home and pick up the check since I didn't have a checkbook in my purse, found out he was on his way to the school on his bicycle so I just headed home....already I felt like I put in a full day even though I really hadn't. Got home, put a load of laundry in the dryer and sat down to recap on my plans for the day. So far in my day nothing had gone to plan. Kids got home from school and we realized my husband's son (after all that running around to get all the ducks in the row so he could go to practice today) had come home and not gone to cross country practice. UGH! So.....after all this I remembered I wanted to get a run in sometime.
It was getting late and my daughter was hungry so I decided to go ahead and cook some supper. I had planned on having cube steaks, butter noodles, blueberry muffins, and corn but the cube steaks turned out to be bad so I had to go with Plan B. I found some hamburgers in the freezer, fried them up and decided to hit the treadmill. Unfortunately, my iPod was on the fritz and it was low battery so I plugged it in to charge it up and wait for my daughter to finish her supper so we could give her insulin. By this time it was almost 8:00 and I was feeling like skipping my run altogether but something in me kicked and wouldn't let me skip since I've already skipped two days and have been feeling guilty about it. So I begrudgingly got up out of my chair and dragged the treadmill out and fired her up.
My intention was to run four miles at 5.0 MPH and figured it would take me 48 minutes since I know that pace at 5.0 MPH is 12:00 which means I'm running a mile in twelve minutes so four times twelve is forty-eight minutes. That was my plan.....yeah, right. I got on there and quite frankly, I wanted to quit at half a mile. What? How did I get so out of shape? I was out of breath and I just wanted to quit. But I'm not quitter so I figured I'd have to use some pretty distracting mental tricks. Unfortunately, I was fresh out of those and the only thing I could do to keep myself distracted was to count. I counted seconds, I counted tenths of a mile, I counted anything I could think of to count. There's several different minute counts: There's the actual count the seconds in a minute minute count. Then there's the how many minutes do I have to go minute count. There's the how many minutes left to run a mile, how many to run half a mile minute count. Then there's the count to one hundred to calculate the mile. So much counting but the whole thing is to distract myself from the torture of this run. It was awful....just awful and I wanted to stop so badly but I didn't. I'm glad I didn't. I just couldn't let myself off easy.
So here's the breakdown because I just don't want to talk about this horrible run anymore. I ran on the treadmill tonight because it was getting late and I knew if I ran outside I wouldn't do a full three miles. I ran with the treadmill incline set at 2.0, running @ 5.0 MPH. My pace was 12:00 and I ran a total of 3.166 miles. It took me 38 minutes exactly. I would've stopped at 3.1 miles but it was an odd number and I prefer to stop at a round even number. Silly, I know but there it is...another one of my quirks. I'm glad to be done with this run, both running it and talking about it. I prefer to never think about this one again but I know that wouldn't be very productive because it's runs like these that help me remember not to quit so I won't have to start all over again and have to go through the awfulness of how this felt again.
Happy Running!
KEA
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Inspiration 3
August 26, 2012
Here I am, up late again. I know I should go to bed but I know that if I do I will just lie there and toss and turn. I want to sleep but I won't so I might as well share another (the last) round of inspirations. I'll just dive in with no further ado...
"The real purpose of running isn't to win a race; it's to test the limits of the human heart." Bill Bowerman I have shared how I am amazed at what my body is capable of. This inspiration expresses that amazement. A couple of weeks ago I was working on a new training program that I have since dropped for reasons (excuses) previously blogged about but will take up once again in the very near future. When I was reading about the program I was floored at the requirement....sixty minutes, running? Seriously? But I got up on the treadmill and I did it. I DID IT! Running! YES!!!! While it was a test of my ability to play the mental game that running is to me, it was also a test of the ability of my body. And while that's not my heart specifically it's close enough. And that's if we interpret this inspiration literally. Let's talk about what we mean when we say "the heart". When we say "My heart belongs to so and so" we don't mean that person literally owns the physical organ that pumps blood through our veins. That would be creepy. We mean that we love that person with the very core of our existence. Right? So when we say running tests the limits of the heart we mean it tests what we are made up of, deep in the core of our being. How much can you stand? How much can you push yourself through? How strong are you, not just physically but mentally, emotionally and spiritually? That's what I like about this inspiration. It gets at the very essence of the mental game that running is to me. It tests my ability to push myself though.
"Run Hard & Be Nice To People" Okay, so this isn't really an inspiration; it's more of a moral code. Well, not the run hard part. That part just reminds me to be strong and keep going. The be nice part is the moral code part. I realize being nice has nothing to do with running, unless running helps you be nice to people but as a person, living my life day to day I strive to be nice. I firmly believe if more people were dedicated to being nice this world would be a better place to live in. Let me give you an example. My husband and I went to Tunica for a weekend get away a few years before we were married. My husband is a professional poker player so when we go away for a weekend get away we often go to Vegas or Tunica or somewhere he can play live since he plays mainly online. At the casinos and hotels with casinos you can often sign up for a card that looks somewhat like a debit card that you use when you play the games at the casinos or buy something from the hotel shops. You give the dealer your card (or swipe it in the slot machine) and it collects points that you can then trade in for goodies at the casino or hotel like free dinners or whatever. My husband was signing up for one of these cards and the woman behind the counter was in a cranky mood and while she wasn't rude or mean to us we could just tell that she was having a bad day. I began talking with her and discovered that her small son was sick with the flu and she had been up with him all night. She also had to work late that night and wasn't able to be home with him. She was tired and worried about her son and that made her cranky. Just by talking with her and sharing that I understood how she felt we were able to cheer her up and when we left her counter she had a smile on her face. Just by being nice. If more people took the time to think about things from someone else's point of view we might be able to understand what makes each other tick and we might be more apt to be more tolerant of people and their point of view. In lieu of the upcoming elections and the dissonance between Republicans and Democrats with the polar opposite view points this particular "inspiration" is something we all want to think about. You don't have to agree with someone or even like their opinion or point of view but let's try to understand each other and just plain be nice!
"If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today was your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass. There is no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run." John Bingham I love this. This gives me permission to call myself a runner even though I've only been doing this for less than a year and even though I've stopped and restarted so many times I've lost count. I am a runner. John Bingham says so, LOL!!!! This makes me feel better about my low mileage and my slow pace. I am a runner! I don't have to join a club. I don't have to take a test or join a gym. I can run anywhere. I can run any time. I don't have to prove anything to anyone but myself. I don't have to go to some bureau to take a physical test or a written test. I can call myself a runner no matter what. This is so simple and so beautiful in its simplicity! I am a runner.
The last one I want to share with you is this:
I mean, who doesn't love pie? Seriously though....this one reminds me that I need to reward myself once in a while for good behavior because you must reward yourself. :-)
Happy Running and let's have some PIE!
KEA
P.S. That is NOT me in the picture; I don't know who she is but she is pretty and I would certainly trade looks with her!
Here I am, up late again. I know I should go to bed but I know that if I do I will just lie there and toss and turn. I want to sleep but I won't so I might as well share another (the last) round of inspirations. I'll just dive in with no further ado...
"The real purpose of running isn't to win a race; it's to test the limits of the human heart." Bill Bowerman I have shared how I am amazed at what my body is capable of. This inspiration expresses that amazement. A couple of weeks ago I was working on a new training program that I have since dropped for reasons (excuses) previously blogged about but will take up once again in the very near future. When I was reading about the program I was floored at the requirement....sixty minutes, running? Seriously? But I got up on the treadmill and I did it. I DID IT! Running! YES!!!! While it was a test of my ability to play the mental game that running is to me, it was also a test of the ability of my body. And while that's not my heart specifically it's close enough. And that's if we interpret this inspiration literally. Let's talk about what we mean when we say "the heart". When we say "My heart belongs to so and so" we don't mean that person literally owns the physical organ that pumps blood through our veins. That would be creepy. We mean that we love that person with the very core of our existence. Right? So when we say running tests the limits of the heart we mean it tests what we are made up of, deep in the core of our being. How much can you stand? How much can you push yourself through? How strong are you, not just physically but mentally, emotionally and spiritually? That's what I like about this inspiration. It gets at the very essence of the mental game that running is to me. It tests my ability to push myself though.
"Run Hard & Be Nice To People" Okay, so this isn't really an inspiration; it's more of a moral code. Well, not the run hard part. That part just reminds me to be strong and keep going. The be nice part is the moral code part. I realize being nice has nothing to do with running, unless running helps you be nice to people but as a person, living my life day to day I strive to be nice. I firmly believe if more people were dedicated to being nice this world would be a better place to live in. Let me give you an example. My husband and I went to Tunica for a weekend get away a few years before we were married. My husband is a professional poker player so when we go away for a weekend get away we often go to Vegas or Tunica or somewhere he can play live since he plays mainly online. At the casinos and hotels with casinos you can often sign up for a card that looks somewhat like a debit card that you use when you play the games at the casinos or buy something from the hotel shops. You give the dealer your card (or swipe it in the slot machine) and it collects points that you can then trade in for goodies at the casino or hotel like free dinners or whatever. My husband was signing up for one of these cards and the woman behind the counter was in a cranky mood and while she wasn't rude or mean to us we could just tell that she was having a bad day. I began talking with her and discovered that her small son was sick with the flu and she had been up with him all night. She also had to work late that night and wasn't able to be home with him. She was tired and worried about her son and that made her cranky. Just by talking with her and sharing that I understood how she felt we were able to cheer her up and when we left her counter she had a smile on her face. Just by being nice. If more people took the time to think about things from someone else's point of view we might be able to understand what makes each other tick and we might be more apt to be more tolerant of people and their point of view. In lieu of the upcoming elections and the dissonance between Republicans and Democrats with the polar opposite view points this particular "inspiration" is something we all want to think about. You don't have to agree with someone or even like their opinion or point of view but let's try to understand each other and just plain be nice!
"If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today was your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass. There is no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run." John Bingham I love this. This gives me permission to call myself a runner even though I've only been doing this for less than a year and even though I've stopped and restarted so many times I've lost count. I am a runner. John Bingham says so, LOL!!!! This makes me feel better about my low mileage and my slow pace. I am a runner! I don't have to join a club. I don't have to take a test or join a gym. I can run anywhere. I can run any time. I don't have to prove anything to anyone but myself. I don't have to go to some bureau to take a physical test or a written test. I can call myself a runner no matter what. This is so simple and so beautiful in its simplicity! I am a runner.
The last one I want to share with you is this:
I mean, who doesn't love pie? Seriously though....this one reminds me that I need to reward myself once in a while for good behavior because you must reward yourself. :-)
Happy Running and let's have some PIE!
KEA
P.S. That is NOT me in the picture; I don't know who she is but she is pretty and I would certainly trade looks with her!
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