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What I’m Doing This Wednesday…

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Cait — 9 Comments ↓

Happy Wednesday everyone! So I’ve noticed that tons of people take part in some kind of ‘What I…’ themed post on Wednesdays. (Why all the love to Wednesday, is there a reason this day of the week seems to get so much more attention than the rest? Jk.)

I have yet to take part in any of them for a few reasons: 1) At first I just didn’t catch on to the whole acronym thing, I started to see it popping up everywhere, and it confused me. Yes, I’m lame, but then when I did figure out what the things stood for it again took some time for it to sink in that there was a trend and not something specific to just one blogger.

Yes, carrots make the cut! (pic is from a design i sent to...duh, new seasons market...lol.)

2) I don’t do the ‘What I Ate’ thing because really, if I posted up what I ate each Wednesday it would take everyone about two weeks to see that I basically eat the same thing all the time. It would be boring, and to be honest I might just be tempted to make a template and repost it every time since the odds that it would still be the truth would be stacked in my favor.

3) I don’t do the ‘What I Worked Out’ one because again it’s typically the same thing. I know I need to mix it up, it’s a case of ‘do as I say, not as I do.’

4) Maybe I’ll just toss this in and pretend that it’s because I’m a rebel without a cause. Nah, but the truth is that I’d probably just forget after a few weeks.

Although, I thought I saw one about ‘What I’m Thankful For Wednesday.’ I could be wrong, but let’s roll with that one. I can do that and at least for today, who knows what next week holds, like I said I’ll probably end up forgetting.

*I’m thankful to not be living in a box. Bwahaha…it was iffy there for a bit (juuuust kidding) but I am one of those people who is always really paranoid about just being flat out broke. I get nervous when I spend a lot, even if I know I have enough saved up and need whatever I’m purchasing. (Here, I’m not even going to say what I think constitutes ‘a lot.’) My mom rags on me for being a cheap-o but I like to just think I’m cautious? The thing though is that the only time I don’t feel as guilty is when I’m buying something for someone else that I care a lot about.

This princess is my sis!! (i made this card for her bday awhile back)

*I’m thankful to be closer to my siblings/family. Actually, they are probably the top two ‘get out of guilt free for spending’ cards for me.

*I’m thankful that I just found some gift cards that I forgot about. They are to Borders and since they are going out of business I need to use them fast, and I just got emailed another coupon…I’m all over this. If anyone has any book or movie suggestions, let me know!

*I’m thankful that now I have my own treadmill and TV viewing space. There is nothing worse than not being able to get on a machine at the gym, getting stuck with a treadmill that is at a wonky angle and you can’t see the TV, get a treadmill at the opposite end of where a fan is located, or being stuck watching something you really don’t care about or like on the TV. Now, I get to be the selfish kid who always gets their way with the remote. I also can place a fan right next to me that staves off my crazy sluggy salty sweat-fest self. Wow, I paint a pretty picture.

In my typical sarcasty self way, I’m going to add in some things that fall under the category of ‘What I’m Hoping for in Wednesdays to Come’:

*Be rid of some pesky blisters on both of my big toes. I usually don’t get really bad blisters all too often, so I guess this was a long time coming. They’re the ones that are mutants between blisters and calluses, I seriously should hire the 7 Dwarfs to go in there and mine, maybe they’d come up with some diamonds??

*Google Reader to stop hating me. I keep hearing that people aren’t getting my new posts since the Blogger transition. I guess I peeved off the wrong people, and I’m sort of scared that Google is tied up in it. I mean should I expect more forms of punishment forthcoming?

*Just randomly be granted a lifetime supply of: running shoes, running clothes, a tad of fashion sense, a scanner and computer that get along, a freezer and fridge large enough to hold limitless quantities of my staple foods, limitless quantities of all my staple foods, and to never have to worry about my stupid hair flying into my face while I’m running. I don’t know how the last one would work out, I don’t want to be bald, but maybe I’d just have that hair block type thing you see in cartoons???

I’m sure there are other things, I know that they are, but all in all I’m pretty thankful this Wednesday. The goods outweigh any of my snarky remarks and right now I know that I’m lucky. There are others having much worse Wednesdays, my heart goes out to them and can only say, “Get through life’s shiznit…stay the course!”

1) If you do any type of ‘What I … Wednesday’ what is it and do you feel like you have to be ‘on’ and make it extra interesting?

2) What’s something you’re thankful for this Wednesday?

3) What’s something you’re hoping for in Wednesdays to come?

4) What are some book or movie suggestions I should spend my gift card on?

Fear Factor Recasting – Overcoming the Fears We Battle

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Cait — 2 Comments ↓

Cue Joe Rogan. So I am bringing you this post as a major alert: CHECK OUT DIS CHIC CHICKPEA…do it now!! Haha, now I usually try not to bust out the all caps in multi-word format that often because it is annoying, but Amy over there posted a poem she wrote that really is too amazing to ignore.

It’s about fear. It is ever-present but needs to be pushed out of our lives. She really puts it best, but it also got me thinking about fear and so now, as always, I can’t just shush-up and will ramble on with my two cents.

I think pushing fear from our lives in sort of like an ongoing battle, you shove one out the window and the door knocks with another. Sometimes I think it’s almost impossible to avoid opening the door, or I guess rather the door gets thrust open against your own will. So then, it’s up to you to rid yourself of the intruder.

There is also the little fear spectrum, or rather a speedometer. Worries and fears sort of blur together in my mind sometimes, and it’s a matter of placing a particular worry/fear on that odometer. Is it running at a 4 minute mile pace or is it walking at 20 min/mile pace? Sometimes it looks like a speed demon but when you stop and actually clock it, it’s going much slower than you thought. Sort of like that red sports car vs. the cops thing.

Amy’s poem also comes at really, a perfect time for me. I’ve got my own little knock-knocks on the fear door and actually, should I be completely truthful they’re already sitting in my lounge sipping coffee. I don’t like to really admit some things, I like to either be positive or make enough jokes out of it that I laugh it off, but then again I don’t like to lie or feel like I’m being a hypocrite either.

I would sort of feel like a hypocrite if I posted up this amazing poem about giving fear the finger and then not put the disclaimer that I’ve got my own fears and worries. I’m not sitting in an empty room, I’ve got Fear Nasties too. But, I also have other people in it besides fear and worry. Those people are there to help me oust Nasty Thing 1 and 2 out the window. In some cases those people are actually battling against the very same fear as you.

Our Fear Nasties Graveyard

The tough thing I’ve learned is that those ‘good’ people are sometimes hard to find, the Fear Nasties can really crowd the room and the ‘good’ folks can get buried in the back. Here are the sticky points: 1) Identifying there ARE actually other people in the room besides you and the fear dudes 2) actually believing that they are there (yes, this is another step) 3) reaching out to them and saying you need their help and 4) actually getting the fear thangs out the window.

The Fam

Getting back to the fear speedometer, if the things are more just worries, sometimes you can take a step back and realize that you’re making them ‘faster’ than they really are in your mind and if you start thinking more rationally or logical you can come up with some sort of solution. If there IS no solution than your solution is that whatever it is may be out of your control, so the best you can do is accept that it is out of your control, then distract yourself until the thing works itself out or you learn something new about the situation. Push it out of your mind as best you can.

Lots of my ‘fears’ are actually just my over-worrying. Fear in my mind is more gripping, heart-stopping, or it’s an enormous weight that is pressing down on my chest. Fear seems shorter, or like a climactic eruption. Worries to me are the slow build…I think they can lead to the gigantic fear eruption as the weight just builds to a point where it feels like it’s crushing you.

Worries are more my problem. I’ve briefly brushed on that fact that I’ve got OCD where I made fun of myself, and if I told you all of my worries I’d laugh right along with you as I said them out loud. But laughing them off inside is far harder, and it’s a matter of forcing myself to discredit these worries. Of course I’ve got actual ‘real world’ worries too, like we ALL do…and there are becoming more of those, so that adds to my lounge room of folks with Starbucks cups.

As I again catch myself in an epic ramble, I don’t want to make this too personal, my intention was to identify that this particular poem is something we should all read, digest, then read again. Because it’s a reality check: do you want to keep living with Starbucks sipping, uninvited, fear nasties with a speed rating taking up space?

I know I don’t, and I know I’ve pushed plenty out of my room before with the help of the other ‘good’ people in the room. I think the digesting part for me has also been admitting that there will always be new fear/worries or whatever knocking on the door, some of them the very same worries I already pushed out before, and I need to really listen when they start knocking. When the knocking gets louder, barricade that d*** door and if the door bursts open anyways, rally the troops, open the windows, and get to chucking!

Bummin on no Froyo and Training Logs are A for Awesome

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Cait — 11 Comments ↓

Do you see it? It’s my curmudgeonly, scowly look of utter disappointment. Why? Well, for reasons that I can’t fully explain (one, because it’s a long backstory and telling it might wind me up with one of those cyber-faux pas where the thing you write about gets back to people you don’t want it to…second, because it’s sort of ridiculous to the amount you might not really believe me) I missed out on a chance for a real, live, in the flesh froyo date with Margs!!

Margs, you may recall has shot to worldwide celebdom for her role in TO YOGURTOPIA WE GO (how many times am I going to link that fairy tale, well for the time it took me I’m gonna milk it for all it’s worth…haha) and I was excited to learn that this SoCal living bunny was bopping around my neck of the woods for the weekend. But thanks to crazy events we weren’t able to make it to froyo bliss. 🙁

Don’t try to get all smart and figure you’ll pester Margs for my lame reason, partly because she’s got WAY cooler things to think/talk about than me, and second I pulled a Men in Black move and her memory is partially erased. I will say I was happy we at least did get to phone chat, and I hope my fast-talking chipmunk voice hasn’t left her deaf in addition to having a memory fugue.

Why so late a post? Sorry folks, internet still wonko on this side but I’m able to mooch a quickie blog post off of the internet at my parents’ house.

Next on the agenda, so I’ve spent quite a lot of time these past few days working on a project for my old high school’s cross-country and track teams. It’s a running log, something I think is not just really fun to have so you can look back on and track your progress, but it really is important to keep. Why you ask? I’ll tell you…

Even if you aren’t necessarily training for any big race, logging what your workouts are and what you’re doing can keep you on track and motivated to actually DO your workouts, you can reference it when you are feeling sore/sluggish/overly tired and look back at previous weeks’ workouts to figure out why. If you wind up injured you can look for signs of overtraining, then later should you come down with another injury you can look back to what you did then and do your best to cross-train and stay in shape.

People write all kinds of things in their logs, to varying degrees of detail, some people write how much sleep they get, when they feel sick, if they changed a workout their reasons, how they felt in their workout, replay a race, of course PR’s…the color of their poop…just kidding, just wondered if you were still with me. But all of this is useful and important info…oh, and making notes of when you switch out for a new pair of shoes so you remember to change them!

Anyways, anything I do I like to try and make it unique or at least a little better than the bare bones, so I have included lots of articles, quotes, and so forth. So I got to thinking, if I were back in high school, what would I have liked to read about, learn, or hear tips on? I put in things about stretching (when to do it/dynamic vs. static), mental ways to trick yourself into believing that it really doesn’t hurt as much as it does, things on goal setting, refueling right and such.

I think one of the best quotes I’ve ever gotten was from a coach whom I respect to no ends is this: “Stay the course.” Ya, there are tons of other quotes that I really like and are classics, you’ve got Pre’s quotes and other words from legends that are longer and more colorful, but I like this simple one because it is so true in running and in life.

In running, there are ups, downs, sideways, and stallouts. But what separates those from quit or lose their love of the sport from the people who are runners into geriatric years are the ones who just simply keep doing it. They know and accept there are going to be tough times that suck, but getting through those makes the sunny periods all the more special.

Sucks to be that dude.

In life, it’s the same thing, and we all get dealt some shiznit, but you just gotta stay the course. I’ve said this to myself tons of times, and not going to even try to lie, usually when I’ve said it I’m: 1) on the verge of a mega-girly-style breakdown and about to cry…one time that comes to mind was when I was on this horrid stair gauntlet climber cross-training and had been injured forever 2) fuming at the mouth because I’m SOOO irate at whatever 3) feeling so hopeless I have nothing else to do but just hope that things will in fact get better. So for me it’s not even about necessarily always believing at first that staying the course is the right thing, but knowing it’s the ONLY thing to do.

Wowza, so didn’t mean to turn this post into a preachy thing, really I tend to just sit down and type and see what spews out. Winding back to the training log I’ll ask you guys some questions:

1) Do you keep one?

I do, and now it’s a habit, I mean I tend to do really the same sorts of things (I know I need to mix-it up, really I do!) but I guess you can’t fight a habit.

2) What is a piece of advice you would have liked to hear about running/working out when you were younger?

3) What’s one of the best pieces of advice you’ve ever gotten?

4) Can’t end sappy, what is one the funniest random quotes you’ve heard? And do feel free to take it completely out of context!

This one leaps to mind because it just happened, and I’m blanking at the moment. I didn’t want to post it because I don’t want to seem like I’m a perv, but this was said dead-pan and in total seriousness by my mom: “I don’t know what a cat penis looks like, I’d have to Google it.” Later common sense took over and the realization set in that *duh* if you Googled that you’d definitely regret it!