Posts in the Holidays Category at , Page 3

This one goes out to all my fellow runner fiends! (PS-that’s not a typo but friends would work too…hehe) So it’s National Running Day, (I wonder who actually comes up with these dates, is there some kind of voting thing, just curious how they go about picking these days…anyhoo) and what better way to celebrate than lacing ’em up? Me, I just put in my usual 8 easy, I was tired after yesterday and my stupid adductor (which has been bugging me for ages) is always extra tight the day after I try and go faster than my easy pace. I’ve got some exercises and stretches that I do but it’s still a pain in my butt. 😉

Enough complaining though on oh such a day! I thought it fitting to state a few reasons why I love being a runner or what running means to me:

I like that when I hop on a treadmill I can go faster than the dude sweatin it out next to me.

Runners can laugh at the ‘portion size’ listed on a nutritional labels. Three servings my @$$!

Upon meeting a stranger, the second I find out they’re a runner there’s that shared nod of the head, someone else who ‘gets it.’ Nice to meet a fellow member of the club.

Runners are generally nice folk, road races usually start at the butt-crack of dawn and people are always milling out. I’ve left my car unlocked, my racing shoes out, sweats, etc. in a little pile and gone for my warm-up. And I’m not afraid that they won’t be there when I get back. Same thing goes for track meets, people’s spikes are sacred ground, we respect it.

It could be argued that I’m addicted to running or exercising, to that I say, “Could be, but better this than crack.” True, I’ve got one of those addictive/obsessive types of personalities so I think this is one of the more benign addictions.

Feeling that jiggly leg feeling after a really good workout or race. (ummm, ya, so this may have been a while in my case…lol…but I can still remember them…hehe) You can already feel that soreness coming on during the cool-down, and you know it’s not going to be pretty later. But you were ‘on’ and that rush of endorphins numbs out any pain.

The closeness that can come between training partners/groups. Lots of it can go unsaid, for instance during hard workouts, more bonding can be done by sharing excruciating pain than lots of other things. Also more things can be shared during a long run than few other things.

I’m grateful for every step. Running maintains some semblance of my sanity.

It just makes me feel right. I can’t explain it, but if I don’t run I feel off.

Things I’m not so hip on:

I can’t get over the fact that I still hear people shout ‘Run, Forest, Run.’ Honestly, wasn’t that movie from the 90’s? Get a new line.

Back to the adductor. It seems each runner has that one ‘thing’ that’s always bugging them. Tendinitis here, weak muscle there…I sometimes joke I’ll be a cripple by the time I’m 40, but at least I’ll be happy until then.

There are highs but also plenty of lows. Running is insanely mental and it can screw with you like few other sports. Expect the bad days and then really appreciate the good ones. Still applies when you’re not racing, we all just have days that we feel crummy or like we don’t want to run. But I always feel better after I force myself to start going.

I haven’t ever run a marathon, but the first thing people ask when they find out I run is if I have. When I say ‘no’ they get that look of disappointment and then sympathy like, ‘oh, how sad, she thinks she’s a runner, poor girl.’

Getting hit by cars…’nuff said.

So I hope you all are having a great holiday, ya I’m gonna call it that! Even if you didn’t necessarily run today, because there are also times when you need to have days where you rest!

1) What do you love about running or being a fitness fanatic?

2) What are some not so fun parts?

Happy Memorial Day!! Okay, it’s a little late in the day but I can still yell it out there! 🙂 Hope you’re all enjoying the holiday, maybe getting a little BBQ action, a little pool party, some nice food grubbing. If you are getting some nice sunshine I reserve the right to be a little jealous. It’s not as cold as it’s been the past few days and it’s not raining (yet) but it’s definitely not what I would consider ‘lay by the pool and bust out the grill’ type of weather.

There’s a pool here at my apartment complex but there is no freaking way you’d catch me diving in right now. I think some kids are, but I’m a total weenie and still complain getting into an indoor pool that’s heated. I have issues with being cold. Plus I’m not a big waterbaby to begin with.

Moving on…definitely had one of those ‘just get through this’ runs today and was a trooper and busted out my core/abs routine before sticking a fork in myself. I knew if I didn’t do it right after no way I’d be motivated to do it later. Then, bring on lounge lizard mode! At least I was prepared for it, it’s kind of funny to think of the word ‘easy day’ because in training it usually follows a harder workout day and even though it’s at a slower pace it inevitably winds up feeling tough because of the effort of the day before. Haha.

So you just know what’s coming, get in the token miles, and make sure you keep it at a recovery pace. But it still sometimes becomes a mind over matter issue. How I get through it is to usually tell myself to just make it to ‘X’ amount of miles (usually for me it’s 4) and I tell myself that if I really feel like sh** I can cut out early. But usually once I hit that mark I figure I’m already here, let’s just finish out what was in the training plan. All about lying to yourself at the beginning to get out the door. 😉

Just one more mile…or one more half mile. This is what I tell myself as I’m going along. “Eh, what’s one more mile? Just make it to that mark.” Running outside, we all have our usual routes and I’d have little check points or landmarks that I’d know were coming, “Just make it to that big random clocktower in the middle of suburbia with the stained glass.” That was on one of my routes, that clock was massive and so out of place, but once I got to the clock I knew I was about half-way done. I’d have others, one that was just over a mile from my house and I knew that usually no matter how junky I was feeling I could make it home once I hit that point.

Zone out. For easy days, usually your body can run on auto-pilot, it’s kind of funny how you can mentally zone out sometimes and, “Wow! Two miles just few by!” Usually it’s because I’ve got some song stuck in my head (blast that Bieber! Hehe) or this can happen a lot if you’re running with a partner.

Still, you also need to pay attention if you’re constantly feeling rundown or crappy because that can be a sign that you’re just overtraining, going too fast on your easy days, and maybe need to back off. That’s where keeping a training log can really come in handy. Go back and look that baby over, have you recently increased your mileage a lot? Also check to see if you’re hitting your harder workouts as you’d like to. If you’re not, then reassess and again make sure that your easy days aren’t being run too hard. Doing that can blur your training program into a whole gray blob, the distinction between the hard/easy days gets harder to distinguish and the workouts that you actually CARE about pace-wise start to suffer.

I’ll follow up on this post about getting through workouts that aren’t going your way and races where the second the gun goes off you know it’s gonna be a battle of wills. We all have them. Also, The Hungry Runner Girl wrote a really good post on a similar topic about mentally battling back after a crummy workout/race. You can’t let those less than stellar performances keep you from coming back because we ALL have them and those bad days are what make those good days all the sweeter. 🙂

1) How do you keep on plugging through a crummy run or workout?

2) Are you a total waterbaby or a weenie in the pool like me?

3) Favorite food at a BBQ?

My mom and grandma (we actually call her Po-Po, long story) makes this dessert call chocolate junk cake…yummy stuff!

Category Archives: holidays

Happy National Running Day!!

Raise the Red, White, and Blue…And the Contradiction of ‘Easy Days’