evolving fitness

February 23, 2012 4 Comments

It’s weird to say this, but it’s been a little more than three years since I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting and started eating right and working out. From early on, I knew that diet and exercise went hand in hand.

When I logged into wordpress today, this post: A Brief History of Workouts, was on Freshly Pressed. Of course since the title had the word workout in it, I had to read it.

But it got me thinking about how my workouts and habits have evolved and changed since that first time I stepped on the scale and logged my first activity points.

I was obsessed with the 30 Day Shred. I had already graduated, so I had no gym access and it was winter. The thought of walking outside never crossed my mind. My roommate watched the Biggest Loser all the time, so I figured some tough, skinny chick who gets people in shape on TV must be doing something right.

I didn’t actually own the DVD…ExerciseTV on demand was the greatest thing ever.

I couldn’t run without music and my watch was a little girl’s Timex ironman. At first, I really didn’t need anything other than that watch. I have baby wrists, so I can’t wear bracelets without them falling off and it’s really hard for me to find a watch. Anyway, I would just hit the stop/start button and go. It worked well when I ran a few miles at a time or ran laps inside on the gym track. When I started longer distances, I used to map out all of my runs on mapmyrun.com and try my hardest to memorize them. But after a hellish 20 miler (my first one ever! Yes, I used to get lost) during training for my first marathon, it was time to upgrade to a Garmin.

I did yoga in the living room in yellow Victoria’s Secret PINK sweatpants and a fraternity rush tshirt. I started working out before I knew workout clothes could be cute, but most importantly, functional. I had no idea shirts weren’t supposed to stick to you during a workout. I’m pretty sure the first time I went for a “run,” I had on yoga pants, a tshirt and a PINK hoodie. It was around 65-70 degrees outside. This was what I wore for my second 5K. I had a baselayer on too. It was 50 some degrees…

Ugh, there’s the awkward lean again and nobody is standing near me!

Running wasn’t my only love. I joined a gym the very first day it was somewhat cold about six months after I began running. nowadays, that 45 degree day would feel like a heatwave, but then, it was too cold and too rainy and I joined a gym. I loved cross training. I took so many classes at the gym and loved it.

I was terrified of the weight floor at the gym.  Like I said, I took a lot of classes. Including a strength training class. No way in hell I’d actually venture out on the floor and put plates on a bar and lift. Too scary.

I never ever dreamed of running a mile. Now here I am, training for a 50 mile ultra. Who knew?

How have your workouts evolved since you began?

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with , , , ,

practicing non-reactivity

February 15, 2012 2 Comments

I don’t know if you’ve ever had a moment, but before I began 40 Days, I felt kind of like this (in my head, not out loud) at times of really high stress:

Each week has a theme: week 1 is presence (bringing the idea of being present to your practice on and off the mat), week 2 is vitality (enriching your life with people/foods/things that bring you vitality and energy and letting go of resentment) and week 3 (the one I’m on now) is equanimity (maintaining peace of mind and practicing non-reactivity).

So reactivity relates to how you react to something that happens to you or something you’re doing — like screaming like Jenelle, dropping into child’s pose instead of trying an inversion, slowing down your pace because it’s uncomfortable, snapping at someone because they were rude to you, etc. All of those examples are negative and don’t get you to your goal or help you maintain a healthy, peaceful emotional state.

Non-reactivity got me through a tough situation last week (and I hadn’t even read the week 3 chapter yet), but it’s been a challenge this week, off the mat at least. I’ve been thinking a lot about how it can help my running — being less lazy when it comes to workouts, actually doing speedwork and not reacting when it’s uncomfortable.

I ran 4 miles yesterday, with no intention of going fast, but after running the first mile in 8:50, the last three had to be faster, of course. And then with 1.5 left, I had a perfect opportunity to practice non-reactivity: I almost got hit by a car.

I was at a stoplight, waiting for the light to turn so I could cross. The light turned red and a car came barreling through the intersection, nearly hitting the other cars whose light was green. They honked and slammed on their brakes. I could tell before I crossed that they weren’t going to stop, so I stepped back, threw my middle fingers at them and screamed, “it’s a fucking red light you asshole!”

It’s February, it was barely 40 degrees, I’m sure they didn’t hear me, but I was wearing a bright yellow vest, so they had to have seen me.

I was pissed for the next minute or so. Hoping they’d get pulled over (25 mph speed limit, residential area), hoping karma would get them, etc. But then I realized how I was reacting to the situation — I wasn’t letting it go, I couldn’t stop the driver from being dangerous and driving recklessly. I hadn’t died and I couldn’t change the situation.

 There was no need for me to react that way to it. The same way there’s no need for me to be pissed about my knee injury, berate myself for not being able to do an inversion yet or be unhappy that my boyfriend isn’t here. There’s nothing I can do about those situations but accept them and move on and keep running.

We have to pass through what is messy and sometimes painful if we are to get to the bliss on the other side.

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with , , , ,

so I need to cross train…

January 30, 2012 9 Comments

I don’t know what it is about winter that leaves me feeling down, unmotivated, up a few pounds and usually injured.

This year has been no different.

It’s always been in my nature to ask a lot of questions — why am I feeling this way? How can I make such and such work? What should I do with my life? Why am I not getting faster? Why can’t I lose weight? Why can’t I get into crow?

(those last two questions may be related. Or I’m just scared of balancing poses and can’t let go of the fear of falling.)

Running is usually the answer to any questions I have, but lately, it’s been leaving me with more questions than answers. I’m not at the greatest point in my life (or the worst, life’s not so bad. I’m grateful for what I have), and the one thing that I can always count on to make me feel better, more in the moment and like everything’s going to be OK was starting to leave me feeling overwhelmed, stressed and injured. And not only that, other areas of my life have been full of stress and fatigue and running wasn’t giving me the same stress relief that it used to — a sign of burn out.

Since the trauma to my knee at Regis, jumping right into Mohican training had to take a step back and I’ve been looking more toward my (new) yoga mat to help me get more of what I look for out of exercise and fitness. (I know what’s wrong with the knee, it simply needs some rest, reduced mileage and fewer downhills. Only one race on my calendar is questionable, but other than that, I don’t really want to talk about it or dwell on it).

Last Monday, I went to a late afternoon hot yoga class at Cleveland Yoga with Terri. I haven’t been doing much yoga before recently, but my legs and hips are in desperate need of some stretching and strengthening and I’m a complete idiot for not taking my last injury as a sign I should slow down and keep stretching and doing other activities. While I was there, I noticed a poster advertising the “40 Days to Personal Revolution” program, based on the book by Baron Baptiste. According to the studio’s website, this is a basic rundown of what the program includes:

Daily yoga practice; Ways to cleanse your body; Daily meditation practice; Journaling questions to root out limiting beliefs and patterns.

Sounds awesome, right? I thought about it the entire class. The only hangup for me is the price tag. Though I’d be able to meet with the group and practice unlimited yoga for the entire 40 days, I’m still sticking to my commitment towards saving money this year (so ignore those lululemon pants I bought yesterday…)

After class that Monday, I joined Alicia and a few other Cleveland Marathon bloggers for dinner in Independence. Alicia blogged about it today, so check it out. Since Alicia is starting YTT soon at Nishkama Yoga, I told her about the program and asked for her thoughts. She suggested just buying the book myself and doing it alone. Sure I’d be losing out on the experience of the group, but I can use that few hundred bucks for more yoga (and not limit myself to one studio either) and the lululemon jacket I had to talk myself out of buying yesterday… and new brakes for my car… And if I need someone to talk to what I’m learning/experiencing, I have Alicia (ha, sorry for not asking first) as well as plenty of other friends who may listen to me and well, this blog that I can pretty much post whatever I want.

So I went home that night and bought the book on iTunes and read everything up to the first week in two days.

I started today.

I don’t plan on blogging all about it, just pieces here and there that I think will be beneficial or interesting to you.

I’m still running, though not as much and focusing more on getting healthy and making it to the start (and finish!) line of Mohican (while not wearing a shirt). We’ll see how it all shows on my chip times. But the point is for me to learn and grow as a person. To evaluate my life, and to “unlearn.” I have my whole life to run a fast marathon and a ton of ultras. I’m doing what I can right now.

“There are no riches greater than a sound body.”

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , , ,

run-less monday.

January 23, 2012 9 Comments

Long time no blog….

Not much has happened in the past week other than I’ve been doing things like working my butt off, yoga-ing and not running as much as I should be. I took two days off after Regis, went to hot yoga Wednesday morning and then did my first run (5.65 miles) with running club that night.

Oh and in between, I picked up this and had lunch downtown with my dad:

Yup, two years in a row I was at the top of my AG in the Hermes Cleveland Road Race Series. This year was considerably tougher. In 2010, I crushed everyone (sorry for the lack of humbleness), but this year there were more runners in my AG who participated in more races and I took two months off from the series because of plantar fasciitis. But anyway, I missed the awards brunch to run Regis, so I went down to the Hermes office to pick it up. And sad to say, but I will not be participating again this year because of all of my crazy trail races… that and I moved up an age group now and I like Jessica too much to kick her butt ;) (or fail miserably trying to beat her…)

So, back to the run… Running club was great. I felt awesome, fast and held on to the faster group the entire time (though a few guys were missing, but those are minor details). Nothing hurt. I ran a quick 4 on Thursday and had some soreness and a little bit of knee pain going downhill, but nothing to really bother me.

But Saturday, I headed out on another trail run/adventure. I started the run cold and frustrated (it had snowed all night) and very pissed off because I noticed this when I was putting my shoes on:

Yep. Nice big rip/hole in my Brooks trail shoes. I bought them in late October and don’t remember doing anything to my shoe last week that could have caused it (that foot didn’t get caught in either fall during the race). I was planning on replacing them in February, but I guess I get to now.

Around mile 6, my knee was hurting. By mile 9.5, I had enough and took the roads back to my car, only finishing 12.35 and the rest of the group did 15.5.

I was (and still am) pissed. I’m supposed to be training for Mohican. And Fool’s. And Cap City, the Pig and Cleveland.

I went to yoga in the afternoon to see my friends (Jess, Jen and Julie) at a class at the Yoga Room, led by Becca, who is going through YTT and is going to be super awesome! And with some assistance, I did something I never thought I’d do: a headstand.

Part of me wishes I had a photo to prove it, but that’d be obnoxious. Anyway, I’ve been to so many yoga classes before and never ever even attempted a headstand. The closest to an inversion I was always comfortable with was shoulder stand (and plow, but I don’t know if that counts.) I’ve always thought was too fat or too inexperienced to do it.

I guess all I needed was some help. And to be surrounded with people I actually know.

I’m off for more hot yoga. Fingers crossed I’ll be running again later this week!

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with , , , ,

Protecting the long run

January 8, 2012 2 Comments

Since I don’t follow a training plan, I have one simple rule:

Protect the long run.

In a way, I don’t care as much about what I do the rest of the week, but as long as I protect the long run and get at least X miles in, I had a good week. When I trained for Chicago, I only planned out two and a half months of long runs and never cut those short. It worked and helped me feel less stressed and overwhelmed with a short training cycle.

And now that I’m staring at 50 mile training that starts in less than two weeks (ugh, I can’t believe I have a training plan for something and that it lasts almost six months, ew), I’m starting to worry about staying healthy and getting to the finish line on one of the toughest courses in the state (apparently). I’ve had a cold that’s lasted longer than a week (unheard of for me in the past two years). I have to nap every day and then 8-9 hours of sleep at night still isn’t enough and I have this constant tired look on my face. Not to mention, I’ve been taping both feet for plantar fasciitis for some time now and been wearing the stupid night splint again.

I’m not happy.

So something had to give. I have to protect the 50.

I’m currently a few hours away from going to bed without running today.

I’m trying not to dwell on it. I don’t want to settle for mediocrity and tell myself that it’s OK that I only lasted 76 days and that’s still a huge accomplishment. I set a goal. I didn’t accomplish it because I set an even bigger one that requires rest and recovery (thanks Hal Higdon).

With weeks pushing 75 miles, it just wasn’t possible. I’m not a machine. I need to keep my heart, my mind and my body healthy. I know the only person I’m really letting down is myself and I’m the one who’s going to have to deal with it. But I’ll get over it. I know I’ll thank myself later when I cross the finish line at Mohican.

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with , , , ,

day 51

December 13, 2011 3 Comments

So today marked 51 days. It was a pretty insignificant day. I worked, caught up on Homeland and Dexter, fell asleep and ran six tempo miles as night fell upon the suburbs and Christmas lights came on, lining the streets of the Heights on a rather warm, December evening.

It was a beautiful run, one of those runs where I was able to maintain a hard half marathon pace the entire time without even trying. Though I really didn’t want to get out there in the first place, I was glad I did it.

It was almost perfect. It was too easy.

But it was day 50 that was probably the hardest day yet.

I look at the streak in three chunks, I guess you can say. An easy way to break down a seemingly huge goal is to break it down into smaller goals —for my year-long running streak, it’s just get through 100 days. I only have to get through 100 days three times and just coast through the last two months. It works out perfectly with my potential race schedule, as my biggest race of the year is at the end of August. After that I can just kind of play around and maintain. Maybe run a marathon and just get through the final 66 days.

Yesterday marked that I was halfway through that first 100. And exactly how hard was this day?

I was sleep deprived — I stayed up until midnight the night before trying to fill out the necessary forms to mail the LT’s Christmas presents to him so that the mailman would just pick up the boxes from my house and I could rest easy. Unfortunately, the internet hates me and I had to go to the post office between clients yesterday afternoon to fill out customs forms since the web site didn’t want me to for some unknown reason.

I learned a few things yesterday: old people don’t want to use an electronic stamp machine and therefore will make the already long line even longer by waiting to get help from a person. Also, there are such things as cutoff dates when sending Christmas gifts to APO addresses. I missed it by a day. Hence the tears. I’m new at this and had no idea. (I’m trying to look at the bright side and since I knew he’d open my gifts before Christmas, now he probably won’t get the chance. Oh and it says exactly what’s inside each box and how much I paid for each item. Awesome.)

And then when I got back in the car, I realized I had probably left my yoga mat at the studio on Friday since it’s gone. Fail.

An hour after I had left, I got back to work and still had an hour and a half before my next client. So I did what I do best, hopped on the treadmill (ugh) and knocked out a 5K.

I immediately felt better. I was myself again. And then it was back to normal today.

I’m 51 days in, still a long way to go, but I’m making it through each day, one mile at a time. Life is good.

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with , , , ,

three things thursday

November 10, 2011 4 Comments

1. I’ve said multiple times that I really, really like holidays. I prefer the spring ones over winter (working in retail for years will do that to you), but I can’t help but get a little excited when Christmas (excuse me, holiday) decorations start going up and I have to start thinking about gifts and food and things of that nature. I can’t wait to decorate my own house someday (my mom and I no longer see eye-to-eye on Christmas decorations). Unfortunately, I only had to do the prep work for the holiday decorations at work and didn’t do the actual holiday boxes and overheads (which is OK with me, it was on a late night and I crap out around 10 p.m.). So every time I see someone repost this picture on Facebook, I can’t help but get a little angry:

For starters, this photo is two years old. Black Friday is on Nov. 25 this year…. And please realize, those Nordstrom employees who are lucky enough to help put together those crazy awesome decorations have to do so very early on Black Friday or very late the night before Thanksgiving.

2. My Garmin strap ripped last week. Thanks to the genius of my brother, I had to use duct tape to fix it:

You can see in this picture too that it’s ripping on the hole where I always put it. I really do not want to buy a stupid velcro strap, especially since the thing’s been crapping out on me already. I’m hoping some nice person (ahem) will just buy me a new one for Christmas….

3. OK. Confession time. I haven’t had a day off running since Oct. 23. After my run today, that will be 18 days in a row. Some days have been as little as 2 miles, others as much as 20. There’s reasons why I haven’t taken a day off, but I’ll save those for another day.

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , , ,

believe.

November 8, 2011 6 Comments

Though I feel like my days are much of the same (work, run, shower, work, facebook, sleep, repeat), I must say that life is pretty unpredictable. I haven’t been my usual ball of happiness lately and I’ve found that I can’t count on anything because so much of what is going to happen in my life in the next year is so up in the air.

One thing is constant of course: running.

(click image for source. God I miss Lost.)

In the past two weeks, running has become my way of coping, the only thing I can trust to fall back on or believe in. Which is fine, but I’ve been really in my head lately about where I’m going to take it. While all of my friends are signing up for spring marathons, talking about running relays and putting plans together for 2012, I’m not-so-patiently sitting on the sidelines because something more important will be taking up a lot of my time next year: my life.

I’ve been forced to answer the question: what is more important to me: running a race or my family/friends/boyfriend/career?

Sorry, running doesn’t win. I believe I need to strike more of a balance between everything, but sometimes, you have to choose your battles.

Between weddings, vacations, hopefully moving, showers, bachelorette parties, birthdays, and most importantly, the LT’s leave, the only races I know I can 100 percent for sure commit to are in August and September.

Cool. There’s a race I really want to run in August and one I probably should have ran the past two times it was held in September (yeah, AK, I’m looking at you).

I guess my plan now is to bank on those two and stop letting everyone else cloud my judgement. I don’t need to run every single marathon or race everyone else is doing. These things happen every single year and new ones pop up too. I don’t know why I’m letting myself pressured to make plans and do things other than believe in what’s in my best interest.

I know, wahhh, #firstworldproblems. I guess I just want to be left alone with my constant.

Happy running!

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with , , , ,

friday favorites: what I’m thankful for this week

October 28, 2011 1 Comment

The last full week of October is pretty much over and I’m just… tired.

I can’t think of any other way to describe it. The LT left for his year overseas Wednesday. I don’t know when I’ll see him next, but for now, I’m looking forward to moments like this again:

So because of that and some other things that happened this week, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking of the things I’m thankful for in my life:

Having really awesome friends to run with. I couldn’t be more thankful for running club right now. Wednesday was a tough day and getting to dress up, run and just kind of forget about everything and have a good time was nice.

Caitlin’s post yesterday.  I spent a lot of time thinking “this isn’t fair” and “I’m jealous of so-and-so” and things like that this week. And then when I was on my lunch at work, I caught up on my reader a little and saw Caitlin’s post. Perfect timing.

New running shoes. I posted a picture of them yesterday. They’re my third pair of Brooks Ghosts, but they’re specifically for the trails. They’re not technically trail shoes, but the treads are different and they’re Gore-Tex and since I’m scared to wear anything else (ha), they’ll work for me. 

Getting an opportunity to hit the trails tomorrow. I am completely in love with it and I really want to take my new shoes out :) And I’m also slightly thankful that very soon, I will see signs like this before I hit the trails:

 

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with , ,

Getting past the brick walls

October 19, 2011 4 Comments

I wasn’t planning on writing a post today. I haven’t been feeling too inspired lately. Work has been busy and going from sunny, 90-degree Vegas weather back to grey, rainy Cleveland hasn’t helped my mood much. And lack of running has started to wear on me (side note: I need to get back to where I was quick… I may be training for a marathon…)

Anyway, after a long day and long nap, I checked my Google reader and my good friend Alicia’s post stuck out to me. It’s apparently National Evaluate Your Life Day and as Alicia quoted, it’s “to encourage everyone to check and see if they’re really headed where they want to be.”

I thought about it for a while. Am I headed where I want to be? Short answer is, yes. But there’s some things in the way.

Which immediately reminded me of this guy:

(click image for source)

That’s Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon professor who passed away in 2008 from pancreatic cancer. In the fall of 2007, he gave his “Last Lecture” to friends, family and the Carnegie Mellon community as part of a lecture series that asks professors to give the last lecture they would hope to give before they die. It became a you tube hit, bestselling book and he was on Oprah and all of that.

So why am I telling you this?

I guess I have to backtrack a bit. My relationship with the LT hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. When people ask how long we’ve been dating, I usually say “four years, on and off… mostly off.” and leave it at that. We started dating in the fall of 2007, broke up the following April and though we would usually talk when he was home, we didn’t really get back together until this past January. When we initially broke up, one of my friends told me to go on you tube and watch “The Last Lecture.”

“It’ll totally change your perspective on life,” he told me.

So, amidst my pathetic, sad girl-ness, I watched it when I should have been writing the outline for my core class thesis. Then, and now, two parts in particular always stick to me:

We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hands.

That quote is written on the second ID tag I wear when I run:

And the purpose of this post:

But remember, the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.

I realized that time in my life was a brick wall. Something I needed to get past to prove to myself how strong I am, what I’m capable of in life and that I need to go after what I really want. It took nearly a year for me to get on that path.

As you know already, I started running a year after that. And as running mirrors life, I face brick walls in that aspect all of the time. Those time goals I can’t seem to break? Brick wall. That hill I can’t seem to keep running up the entire time? Brick wall (it’s at North Chagrin Reservation. I will make it up without stopping…) When I began marathoning, I thought of how awesome it was that it is called, “the wall.”

And during those moments of doubt during Chicago, I thought of the brick walls. In a time someone else would’ve given up and let that wall defeat them, I just had to keep going.

It took a while, but I can finally say I’m on the right track and headed where I want to be. And though those brick walls keep popping up, that’s life. I can honestly say, I’m not one of those “other people.”

Remember brick walls let us show our dedication. They are there to separate us from the people who don’t really want to achieve their childhood dreams. Don’t bail. The best of the gold’s at the bottom of the barrels of crap.

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with , ,

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,018 other followers