Posts in the Motivation Category at , Page 27

Sandy Pants, Racing for Your Cookies, and Techie Apps

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Cait — 8 Comments ↓

And we’ve worked our way back to a Monday! Well, sorry for being a bit lame with the posts the past two days and I’ll catch you up to speed. Nothing too crazy exciting to report for Saturday, so I’ll use this as a chance to follow up on my mom’s bird story and share a picture of my lovely sis having fun at the lake up in Twain Harte.

Sis and BF at the lake

First off cute pic…oooh, and awww time. PS-she’s with her boyfriend.

The sun...oh how it burns my eyes out

Actually, right about now I’ll use this as a chance to throw up another beach picture (wow, I wish I were at the beach right now!) but this one is from Hawaii back in 2007 I think. That little guy in the front is my youngest bro and he’s doing that ‘hang loose’ sign with his hands not trying to flash some rando gang sign. I’m the one on the far, top right looking like the sun is about ready to burn out my retinas…that’s because it was and my mom was on about take 50 of this photo.

On to the bird story…now, I warn you animal lovers that this one is not a happy ending type thing so you might just want to skip this paragraph. Anyways, the drive between Gramp’s house and my family’s house is about 2 hours and it’s through the woodsy, curvy NorCal district. Well, my mom and bro drove back from their trip later at night and when they got home they just ate and went to bed. The next day my mom went out to run some errands and there was a note pasted to her window shield that read, “You got a dead bird stuck in your car grill :)” (see picture below) Yes, somehow a poor birdie was hit by the car and wound up stuck on the car for probably about 12 hours…how did no one smell that? My dad had to tackle clean up duties for that one. I want to say that I’m NOT saying the actual event is funny, in fact sad for the birdier, but what I found comical was the fact that my mom totally didn’t notice it and had to have some stranger alert her to this nasty display going on on the front of her car…with a smiley at the end no less. I also laugh because it’s something that would totally happen to me. I’ll spare you any visual of said bird.

Bird note

Sunday night was SUPER fun because I paid a visit to one of my all favorite families…I’ll tell you they wind in a very close second. 😉 I actually have begged my way into being a floater adoptee child, thankfully they didn’t turn me away at the door. Mamma Nappy is actually the one for who I made up the little Cookie Race design for the day when she hosts her own race.

Today I got in my tready run, just over 9 miles, hit the core and abs and got nice and sweaty. Now, I have something that I’d like some of your thoughts on. I got to thinking about how the whole social media and digital world has effected fitness, running, and training. There are a plethora of downloadable apps, online training coaches and trackers, iPod workouts, and even Facebook running apps. Not to mention the little sidebar widgets I see on many blogs announcing the latest workouts completed and all that fun stuff.

Now these apps run the gambit, those that can act as GPS trackers for pace, speed, distance, calories burned, the works, but there are also those that tout the ability to actually coach you to a faster PR. So what I’m curious about it just how reliable and for lack of a better term, good, are these things? As with everything you have to consider the source, and certainly some apps are better than others, but I was hoping to hear from anyone who’s used some of these things to share your experiences. I think that some of the apps for Facebook/blogs/etc where you can post your most recent workouts can offer a person up some positive feedback, encouragement, and maybe even a little bragging rights. That’s cool if it keeps them motivated to stick to their training and get er done. I’ve never downloaded one of those iPod workouts, with music and encouragement while you’re on the treadmill or elliptical, I wonder if hearing Jillian Michaels shout at me would be a kick in the tush to work harder or be just plain annoying.

Let’s hear the good, the bad, the ugly, and the cool things you’ve found in all things apps/widget/downloadable! I want to sort of revisit this whole online coaching thing later in another post, so stay tuned as I’ll be wanting to hear from any of you who have done/taken advantage of any sort of online coaching. 🙂 PS-these are all things that I’m writing an article about, so I could really use and would REALLY love any and all kinds of feedback!

Well, that’s that for now. I hope your week is off to a great start!

1) How do you handle sand getting everywhere at the beach?

Not gonna lie, I really don’t like feeling nitty gritty for days after I go to the beach, but I really don’t think there is any way to avoid it. That and a nice butt full of sandypants.

2) Have you ever hit anything (that was living) while driving? If so how did you react?

I’m SO thankful I’ve never (to my knowledge) hit anything, but if I did I think the guilt would just about eat me alive. My aunt once hit an armadillo while in Texas and she swore she had nightmares of its little beady eyes staring back at her.

3) Have you used any of these apps or techie things, if so, which ones? What are you experiences with some of them?

Runner Buddies Unite! We’ll kick the butt of stupid injuries and make the world a better place ;)

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Cait — 8 Comments ↓

As per usual the day started off with this: debate about rolling over again and spending more time with my pillow (Since I’d already done that a few times I knew it was time to peel myself out of bed…lazy bones!!), swing myself over to the laptop, loaded up the emails, and then go my blog crawl on.

One of the fist posts I came across was over at The Hungry Runner Girl and Janae was talking about her current running situation…or more that because she’s coming back from another injury the lack of actual running. Trust me, the girl is still training like a champ it’s just of the cross-training variety.

But the thing is, and I myself can fully relate, as runners, even if we’re logging hours on the elliptical, bike, pool, weight room, whatever, we still feel like slackers. Heck, we could be a drippy sweaty mess and so obviously putting the work and effort in, but it just doesn’t ‘feel’ the same. It’s then really easy to get down on ourselves and sucked into that whole ‘I’ll never get back to it’ black hole.

(Injuries flipping SUCK!)

But Janae was doing the smart thing: she had her vent session (totally warranted and I think we ALL deserve those now and again, because the thing is, sometimes in life things just plain suck!!) but then she looked at things from a rational perspective and got proactive.

I tell people to have a window of letting yourself sort of ‘wallow’ in whatever the suckiness is in your life, get it all out there, but then stop. You have to purge those feelings because you can’t ignore them, but then you HAVE to cut it off because if you don’t shut that window you’ll never pull yourself out of the depressive cycle. From there you need to be as positive as possible, even to the almost-it’s-getting-annoying point.

(I hope you enjoy the little toon I have, maybe it can put a smile on your face, but feel free to pin it up and throw darts at it when the last thing you wanna see is a rainbowy unicorn trying to force you into staying positive! hehe)

I try to be a positive person about as much as I can, but trust me that’s not always easy and I’d be lying if I said it’s ALWAYS completely genuine. The thing is, I have to make myself think positive…fake it til you make it…and in this instance it’s okay to lie to yourself. Don’t worry, I won’t tell.

Going through injuries, and just bad times in life, is really tough but if you don’t try to look for the light you might not make it through. And if you do, when you come out the other end you might look like a rat that crawled through the sewers. I use humor, I make jokes about anything and everything, I still like calling myself a gimp and am thinking of having a shirt made up that reads: Kankles 4 Life!

Getting hit by the car aside, I’ve had other obstacles in my life (usually self-imposed) and shiznit, we ALL do, but as dark as it seems at that time the world goes on. The sun will always rise in the morning…not saying you won’t want to curse that sun, but it will come up regardless.

Back to my Hungry Runner Girl friend, before I continue to veer off course like mad, runners get injured. Our sport is one of the most demanding on the old bones and bod, unfortunately injuries can come up out of nowhere, they can come at the worst possible time, and they can come at you wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am-right-after-the-other. Spending weeks, months, seasons on a cross-training machine can feel like he!! and it can demoralize even the strongest of folks. Honestly, I think coming back and battling through those things are what can really make you mentally stronger AND make you all that more hungry when you finally get back.

When you have running ripped away from you, you start to appreciate it more when you do finally get it back. And you will…trust me, it might feel like forever but you will get back.

But then when you are able to run and haven’t had an injury for awhile (lordy you never want to admit that though because you feel like you’re only tempting fate!!!) you can sort of forget that and start to take those miles for granted again. So, when I read Janae’s post it was a little reminder to me too, that I still need to remember how grateful I am for being able to run. (PS-that was only after I of course was sad for my at the moment injured runner friend, and I KNOW she’ll get back to tearing it up very soon!! Hang in there, girl!)

Not that I forgot that, but just that you know how everyday life is, when you have something around all the time it’s easy to just sort of expect it to be there tomorrow. Yet a little refresher is sometimes needed and so today on my run I was really present…I really enjoyed it…and I remembered how much I worked my butt off to get back to being able to do it.

So, I hope all you out there had a great workout today, regardless of if it was a run or if you busted your bum cross-training. And TRUST me, if you are injured or cross-training, that by NO MEANS robs you of your runner status…and it also does not make you a slacker, you can seriously kick your own butt in plenty of non-running ways. 😛

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I still wanna see those nasty-@$ running shots I KNOW you people have out there…hehe. 🙂 Please, don’t be shy and send some to me so I can do this fun little montage thang! 😉

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1) What is your favorite cross-training method of choice?

I’m all about the elliptical. I’m like a cat and hate the water and my butt goes numb on the bike after about T-minus 30 seconds.

2) How do you stay motivated through an injury if the time seems to stretch on for ages?

I’ve done things like making picture collages that I’d put on the front of my elliptical to look at and playlists that keep things fun, but there are always times when you wake up and want to burn that elliptical or bike to the ground…just kidding. No, but the best trick for me is to take it day by day, workout by workout, and not even think about tomorrow or how much ‘longer you’re in for’ because then it does seem like it might just stretch on forever. Focus on that single workout and do the same thing tomorrow than the days have a way of slipping by.

3) What’s the first thing you do when you wake-up?

English Muffin Withdrawals and Then I Get All Sappy Motivational On You

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Cait — 4 Comments ↓

So I’ve already raved about loving the new gym situation here in Cali. It’s not a secret either that the BIGGEST draw for moving back to the Sacto area was to be around these folks…

…the fam bam. I’m also kinda hoping some of that style and good looks rubs off on me, but let’s be honest I think after 25 years I’m really just a lost cause.

That said there are some things that I’m missing from the Portland area. The weather, duh, I’m not a fan of smoking hot summers. Upon hearing that I grew up in CA the first thing most people assume is that 1) I’m a surfer 2) I eat sushi by the poundage and suck down wheat grass shots and 3) I grew up on the coast…sorta ties into the first one I guess. The fact that I do actually love sushi is not going too work its way into the post…oops. Well, I still have never tried wheat grass, okay?!

My response to this is, “Okay, no, I grew up in Roseville, it’s in the Sacramento area and really, Sacto is the armpit of California.” Yes, it’s the capital, and for a while we did get to boast of having a governator who could rip you apart and beat you to a bloody pulp if he wished…unless you were a house maid in which case he’d ravage you in another way. Sorry, that was s bit dirty…I digress.

Sacto summers are hot as heck and really super smoggy. In high school it was not uncommon to hear over the loud speaker: “Today is a spare the air day due to the toxic air quality. All sports practices are canceled…football, basketball, soccer, volleyball, cheer…oh, wait, but cross-country is still meeting.” Actually all us distance runners took some glee in the fact we were the only ones dedicated enough to still get out there and burn our lungs to a blackened, smoggy crisp all in the name of the sport.

So yes, I miss P-town’s cooler temps and even the rain. I’m not a person who found it depressing, it was all fine by me, except the times we were getting snow. Now, today I’m realizing two BIG things I’m really going to be missing. I didn’t know they wouldn’t be available when I crossed the border…

Alpenrose Fat Free Cottage Cheese and Franz B lueberry English Muffins!!! Egads, I’m about ready to throw a duel funeral or find a way to smuggle myself some of these in bulk quantities. Not gonna lie I’ve contemplated calling up a store and seeing if they would order these for me special or even the companies directly…I’m only quasi-joking here.

The thing is, I eat much of the same shiznit and I eat a lot of it. If I find something I like I’m pretty dang loyal and it has to be my thing, my brand. I then take full ownership and wrath will befall any fellow customer who dares to snag the last of said item on the shelf before I get to it…I totally called dibs and they knew it!

The cottage cheese, I didn’t realize how much of a difference taste-wise there is between brands. All are not created equal and here it’s super evident…I got some Knudsen’s the other night and nearly just spit it out. I couldn’t even force the rest down. Oh, Alpenrose, how I miss you so! I’d go through a 16 oz carton a day, that stuff has got some awesome protein stats and the tub along would clock me in at 48 g’s total.

Now the blueberry English muffins, if you think I’m wonk for listing these things and think they are boring you are dead wrong….dead wrong! These are really the equivalent of a healified regular blueberry muffin, no joke. They even flipping smell amazing, I mean they make anything in about a 4 foot radius smell all blueberry and yummy. They don’t have these ANYWHERE here and nothing even to substitute them with, like a different brand. There are always those cinnamon raisin ones but no other fruity ones…I’m sad. And PS- I would eat a full 6 count sleeve a day too (umm, carbs are good peeps!)…so really I think logistically I should be able to warrant some kind of bulk shipment, right?!?!

I feel a bit like Julia and Christina should they not be able to get their Puffins fix. So Franz and Alpenrose, if you are reading this I LOVE YOU and I miss you. Please come back, I feel like a jilted lover, you broke up with me so fast, I didn’t even get a chance for closer. Maybe I’ll write some kind of Taylor Swift-esque song a la her Joe Bro phone break-up.

I jest, but apparently because Oregon is really into supporting local businesses and both Franz and Alpenrose are Oregon based, that’s why they were easy to snag up there and non-existent here. Ugh.

In other news, I wanted to thank YOU all for your awesome show and movie suggestions. I have a gift card to Borders and what am I going to buy? If you guessed a ton of smarty people books that will no doubt help enlighten me and make me a better, more well rounded person, you’re wrong.

Though maybe I should because I have a potential cartoon gig that is for a financial business. They want some cartoons for their newsletters…do you ever have an assignment that you just feel too stupid for? Haha. But I think we all have those times where we feel out of our element but you have to just fake it til you make it and play along. I mean of COURSE I’m gonna work my tail off and Google like a demon to provide the best material I can for these folks, I want the gig, and darn it this girl may not be smart but I’ll pretend I am anyways! All in the name of art! 😛

But seriously, how do you handle situations like that? They come in different forms, you’re new to a class and don’t want to be the dork doing the dance moves in the opposite direction as everyone else. You meet up with a new running group, turns out they are a bit faster than you, but you do your best to keep up and pretend you’re not totally dying…and you hope they don’t notice that as the miles progress you are contributing less and less to the conversation.

It comes down to this though, how important is it to you? How bad do you want it? Are you going to let the fear of looking like a doof or not being able to achieve something stop you from ever trying? Or from giving it your all? I want this cartoon assignment so dangnamit I’m going to do what I have to to make it the best that I can and pretend that I have a smarty-top-financial-business-world savvy bone in my body. (I hope that one wasn’t broken in the car wreck…haha.)

With the fitness thing, lots of people just take themselves out of the game by putting limits on themselves. They are the ones who build their own ceiling, but if they were to just not look up and instead look straight ahead, keep putting one foot in front of the other, they’d eventually realize that the looming ceiling they had isn’t there. Or maybe it’s a glass one and all they have to do is shatter it.

You don’t think you can run a 5k? Well, take it mile by mile, or minute by minute and work up to it. You don’t think you can do a 10k? Reference last bit of advice…and so on. Ya, the speed thing, and getting those times faster is tricky, not gonna lie there, and to a certain point I guess you could say there are physical limits…I mean they don’t have those fun little record books for nothing!

But just tell the fear of at least trying to take a U-Haul back to where it came from. But would you ask it to pick me up some Alpenrose Fat Free Cottage Cheese and Franz Blueberry English Muffins if it happens to find any?!?!

1) Are you pretty brand specific? Name a certain food item that you HAVE to have your way, and would beat down a fellow shopper if they snagged the very last one before you got to it.

2) Are you one of those smarty pants who can talk politics and World finances with the best of them?

No. I try to keep it to the important stuff like Seinfeld references and celeb news.

3) How do you handle tackling goals that you sometimes feel might be unobtainable? In moments of doubt what keeps you going?

In the past, when I was racing, my coach would be the one to tell me that they thought I could do something. Often times I thought they were crazy and I’d never be able to do ‘X’ but the thing is, I trusted THEM enough that I forced myself to believe it was possible. When I would doubt it I just thought, “Well, if my coach says I can do it, I can.” And the crazy thing is that whatever they said I could do usually ended up happening. Eventually maybe we all have to be able to take ownership I think and set the goals ourselves, but maybe not though because having someone else push you just that little bit more is a good thing, just so long as we keep moving forward and do chase those big dreams.

America’s Getting Old and Paris is a Complainy Pants

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Cait — 6 Comments ↓

Happy 4th of July everyone! And a Happy Birthday to America! 🙂

Maybe your day includes a nice BBQ spread, hopefully some fun with family and friends, and perhaps even some fireworks…

…I just hope that yours don’t have any pups on top! Don’t worry, no animals were harmed in the creation of this picture. Don’t send PETA after my @$. 😛

Anyways, this morning started off with a nice run and arm weights. You guys better watch out because I’m becoming one buffed out chick. Soon I will be pulling night shifts as a bouncer. I’ll also be freelancing as a security guard so drop me a line if you’re interested.

I admit I’m a sucker for reality shows, I’m overly curious about celebs going about their normal business. Though I try to draw the line at some point and even I get embarrassed fessing up to certain shows. This is going to be one of those times.

The well on my OnDemand shows is running thin, so I checked out what was on the Oxygen channel. That alone should be a red flag of my desperation…there was just nothing else on I promise! Well, so now Paris Hilton has her own show. She’s been slowly fading off the radar and a new breed of party girls are taking over…so I guess now she’s looking to Oxy to rocket her back to front and center.

At any rate, the episode I saw was one centered around her weight; she’s always looked super thin in my opinion and it seemed she never really worked out and ate whatever she wanted. In the Simple Life days we at least caught her wolfing down a cheeseburger and fries on a few accounts; though who knows if that was just like catching sight of Haley’s Comet. I’m going to say though that she was mostly likely the skinny fat sort of gal; she’s obviously thin but without muscle tone and such.

Well, now she’s older and rumors of the baby bump were circling. So she wants to try and lose some lb’s. They cut to her taking a stab a the whole working out ‘thing’. I know we have to take some of this with a grain of salt because it’s for entertainment shock value, but SHE is one of the reasons why I’d be a horrible personal trainer.

She’s wining walking on the treadmill at 1.2 mph. Her mom is canoodling her to keep going, push it, Paris. Really?! First of all a leisurely stroll does not a workout make if you want to get anything out of it. Cut to her boyfriend (ex now) trying to take her for a jog…I can’t bring myself to even use the term run, and jog is a stretch. He’s moving butt slow and she just takes to skipping.

Call me mean, but I just don’t have the patience for this kind of thing. It’s not only the lack of effort (at a certain point you just have to ignore them and let them just do diddly) it’s that they are the same ones complaining about being ‘fat’ or not getting any results. Well, duh?! So it’s the constant wishing, wanting, and not being happy…the bi***ing but they aren’t willing to do anything about it.

I really LOVE talking about all things sports and fitness, running ranks supreme, and if someone asks me for help, input, advice, whatever I jump at the chance. I’m not a total jerk, I genuinely enjoy helping people out if I can and I don’t expect something to be ‘in it’ for me. Plenty have done it for me in the past, so you gotta pass it on!

But some people just really don’t want it. They talk it up like they do, but it’s just talk. No one can make anyone do anything, Paris’s bf couldn’t stop her from skipping and stopping after two minutes. A trainer can’t DO the workouts for anyone, a coach can’t MAKE you go out and run…that takes personal dedication and motivation. Others can help, they can remind a person of their goals, but at a certain point you need to toss the ball to them…if they catch it and throw it back you can keep playing. But if they just let the ball drop and roll away…you have to go find someone else to play with. Or maybe pick the ball up and give them a nice little whack to the back first. 😉 Juuust kidding.

I don’t know where this is leading…just that I thought the whole Paris on the treadmill was at first ridiculous and funny but then it got very annoying very fast. We all have times of flagging motivation but we can motor through and get things done…if it’s important enough to us.. When I don’t feel all that jazzed, I make myself at least start…and from there let the endorphins take over.

Constant complainers are annoying…nuff said. Well, as for my little tangent I’m sorry there! And power to all those who are out there and getting it done; on the flip side I think one of the most REWARDING things is when you see someone who takes the advice or any kind of knowledge and input and it spurs them on to accomplish their own goals. I think THAT is why people who coach, personal trainers, and heck, even bloggy buds, keep on doing it, for the chances to see someone set a goal and STICK to it until they achieve it.

These are the people who always make my day, make me smile, and reading about them gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling. *Cheesy Hallmark moment* So a big shout out to all those folks, I know recently I’ve seen a few who ran their first this, did their first that, got a faster best time…so keep on rocking! Also, take a minute to brag on yourself please, or I may have to start calling people out. 😉 This kind of dedicated will overtake the Paris-slothy-complaining masses. 🙂

1) How do yo deal with complainers?

We all know ‘that person’ in the group who is always moaning about something. I let them vent for a bit, because we all need to at some point and myself included, but if it’s constant I try to block it out because it can get a sister down…lol.

2) What’s one way you motivate yourself to get ‘er done when you aren’t really feeling it?

I remind myself how much better I fell after and make myself at least start and from there I usually get going and keep on rolling.

3) Any fun plans for the 4th?!!

4) Almost forgot, anyone who wants to, please share the last goal you set and achieved. 🙂