How do you ‘eat the heart out’ of life? How do you celebrate the positives in life? Cherish even the little, fleeting moments, soak up what the moment may bring, and savor the deliciousness of what makes you smile?
Sometimes we can all get stuck in the hustle and madness that is our day to day schedule and blitz through a day without really even having ‘lived’ it…or sat down for that matter.
It’s also easy to get stuck going through the motions; sometimes it’s because you’re not exactly loving whatever it is you HAVE to do and going on auto-pilot is much easier. Hey, not everything we do in life we look forward to…we all have to scoop the dog poop one way or the other so to speak.
This happens in training too…the vast majority of those miles and workouts are not going to be filled with rainbows and sunshine. Unicorns won’t be frolicking around and shooting stars out of their behinds in your wake. Not every race will bring a PR…not every long run will go to plan.
But we don’t just run for the good times, because if you did that you might only run once or twice a year. You run for the quest of those ‘good times’…you keep putting money in the bank for the days you can then make a withdrawal. You stick to the path for the journey because even in those crappy runs there is the nugget of accomplishment when you are at least done and you put in work. Then, you REALLY should soak up those fantastic ‘ups’ and successes when they come…you worked hard for them!
A vat of ice cream could be in order after a FAT PR!! 🙂
But I think it’s important to remember that regardless of what you’re going through, where you are, there ARE positives. It may take some thinking at times, and during these times it may call for just going outside, turning your head to the sunlight and forcing a smile.
FORCED smiling, forced laughter can even feel good…liberating…and turn into a real smile…if even for a fleeting moment. And if that still doesn’t quite do the trick, try thinking back to something in childhood that made you smile…and if it’s taking a huge bite out of cotton candy…then by all means, indulge yourself.
1) How do you eat the heart out of life? If it’s tough to force a smile in the moment, what’s one way you make yourself remember how?
Usually thinking of my family or things I loved as a kid…Disney movies are always a sure fire way to time warp me back to an 8 year old me!
2) In training, what’s the ratio of the days you feel ‘great’ compared to the ‘not-so-awesome-but-it’s-done’?
Depends where I’m at…but have to say the ratio gets skewed when you’re only cross-training!! Haha.
3) Why is all the training time meaningful or ‘worth it’ to you? Is it PR’s, so you can eat like a runner, so you can be faster than your husband, because it keeps you sane???
The last one for sure! 🙂
4) Last thing that made you smile?
I was telling a story and my brother interjected this side comment that totally made my day…he didn’t even mean to, but it just made me stop and bust out laughing.
I LOVE training most of the time, but I sure have my fair share of bad runs! I just remember that the bad times make the good ones seem even better 🙂
How’s your injury Cait? Hope it’s healing fast!! And knowing how awesome your x-training is, getting back to it won’t take long once you can run again!!
Bug hugs!! <3
P.S. your posts haven't been showing up in my Google Reader! I don't know if anyone else has been having this problem too, but I'll try resubscribing an see if that works:)
oh man…wat the heck is with google reader, does it hate me?? has this happened for any of the other blogs u follow, or do u know how i could try and fix that…that’s NOT good if i’m on google’s bad side. :/
BIG HUGS to u girl, and thanks so much!! i kno that just means u’re running extra speedy on my behalf too….hehe. 🙂
I just tried resubscribing, but it hasn’t helped! The last post it’s showing is your motivation+self-deception one from last week…! It must be a problem with your RSS feed I’m guessing, but I don’t know anything about that I’m afraid! :/ Maybe think back if you’ve changed anything in the last six days…installed a new plugin or something possibly? That can mess up things sometimes!
okay, this is driving me crazy because i don’t know what the heck to do…i am trying to find out how to fix it but an woefully tech inept! would u let me when/if things start to look like they are updating for ur reader??? sorry emma and thanks for all ur advice!
How do I eat the heart out of life??? I annoy the crap out of everyone else with my “sunshine attitude”. Haha I’ve been told that I’m too perky. I do it just to annoy everyone else. I have a quote that I like; “A smile might not solve all of your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.” So that’s what I remember.
Honestly I feel like most times I have the So-happy-its-done attitude mixed with the I-feel-great-for-doing-that attitude.
All the training is worth it to me because I like making my body stronger, I like being able to eat whatever I want. I like wearing certain clothes because they look good on my runner body.
The last thing that made me smile…… My friend Kolbi, when I was a wise ass to him and told him since he sits on his ass I assume he watches tv ;P
haha…i’ve totally been accused of being the annoyingly perky person too! hey…sometimes u gotta either laugh or cry and i choose the first! 🙂
I feel like I love all your posts. – good job! lol
I generally try to look on the bright side. Sometimes, like everyone, I get lost in the shuffle. I just remember to breathe, and feel my body – I like running for that reason: it grounds me and joins me with my body. I hate spending too much time in my mind lol
I would say my training goes in waves……good run, good run, good run, GREAT, GREAT, GREAT…..slip and slide….argh, hate, why am I doing this, c’mon Ali make it through, just run! then….oh this is why I run!, good run, great run
and the cycle continues. lol
thanks so much and i’m happy that u like my ramblings! 🙂 as for training, it will always ebb and flow and even during each run too…it’s funny how during a run it can be junky/good/junky/good…so sometimes i just remind myself to just motor through a junky mile and it’s crazy how u can feel better come the next one. 😛
Working out definitely keeps me sane! I know I’m never more than one workout away from a good mood – and that’s the best motivator I can think of 🙂
Thanks for the reminder that not every day / every run is going to be full of rainbows and sunshine.
oh man, me sans a workout is like a madlady on the loose…lock her up before she hurts someone! 😛
This post made me smile 🙂 I needed it. I try to stay positive in general, but it’s not always easy! Sometimes I actually have to force myself to do the things that make me feel good: workout, bake, blog, etc. because otherwise I just won’t do them and be in a cycle of sadness. Painting my nails helps too 🙂
What keeps me training is thinking about all the work I’ve put into it and all the success I’ve already had. Knowing that I can keep moving forward (literally) is amazing!
Just to let you know, your posts haven’t been showing up in my google reader!! Not that you can probably change that, but I’m really mad because I’ve missed your last few posts because of it! DANGIT GOOGLE!!
another Google reader problem!! seriously, i’m tech inept, has this ever happened to any of the other blogs u follow??
but i’m happy that when u did find my post u were able to smile…and hopefully getting out of that funk! like u said, and i do it to…u have to sometimes force urself to do the things that may seem unappealing at the time but make u feel so much better when u have started!
A very wise post. I loved it! But I’m having troubles removing the image of a unicorn with stars flying out its butt ~ ha ha!
❀Barbara❀
My Running Shortz
haha…oh the unicorn visual, perhaps one of my favorite little sayings just because of the mental picture it gives me! 🙂
I know i’m creeping on all your posts at once but I love this one too! I’ve often found myself in the position of having to do things I don’t like in order to eventually achieve what I want…namely schoolwork haha. as for running, yeah you hit the nail on the head with the injury XT haha! I do have bad runs every so often though, but they make the good runs just that much sweeter! As my coach put it, “yeah, I don’t always LIKE every single one of the 130 miles I run every week, but I love to race and when I run well, every step is worth it”. true that.
umm, please feel free to creep the heck out of my posts…u kno i love the comments. 🙂 so true those words from ur coach, cuz if it were easy all the time everyone would do it.
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