Archive | October, 2012

Running Solo

16 Oct

Runner Number Six

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Last night I tossed and turned well passed midnight, so when my alarm went off at 4:30 AM for my morning run I made a sleepy, but sound, decision: I would sleep in and run on my own after work.

This decision won me three much-needed extra hours of sleep and nine hours to talk myself out of running after work. As the day wore on, my legs got more and more sore from yesterday’s early AM Yoga Meltdown session and I started to tell myself that maybe just stretching after work would be good enough. My sister asked me to hang out and I came so close to saying yes. And I almost scratched the run to go to the grocery store and make a home cooked meal.

Instead, I came straight home, changed into my running spandex and walked right out my front door without even stopping to look at my sweet, fat pugs (whom I’m sure were giving me the stink eye for not walking them first). I walked down my driveway, took a deep breath and set out for three miles … all by myself.

Almost immediately I passed two neighbors who were combining several activities: drinking wine, walking and weight lifting. You see, they were walking with a dumbbell in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. When they saw me they started laughing and told me that I was doing it the right way. I laughed back and told them that I thought their way looked like a lot more fun. I ran on  with a smile on my face. I think I might try this workout tomorrow. 😉

My sore legs were heavy and my run was slow but it was a gorgeous night and being alone with my thoughts was splendid. Sometimes running solo isn’t such a bad thing… That is, when you can manage to not talk yourself out of it.

What do you do to avoid talking yourself out of a planned workout?

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I Wish

11 Oct

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Running Therapy

10 Oct

Combined with a very busy month and pains in my left heel that I think are the makings of plantar fasciitis, I hadn’t run in almost two weeks.

For a girl in the midst of a new job, planning a wedding and still getting adjusted in a new home, not running was becoming torturous. You see, I need running to deal with my stress. I need the pounding of the pavement to drown out my worries. And I most certainly need my running ladies to talk me off the bridal ledge. I need running.

So yesterday, me and my plantar fasciitis went for a 5:30 AM run with the ladies. We took an easy pace and ran four miles.  At first I struggled to keep up. I frowned thinking how out of shape I was with a half marathon just around the corner.

But then we began to talk about my recent woes, and suddenly my pace picked up. With every word I said, my feet landed with more determination. When I got angry, I got faster. And when I let a tear slip down my face with the sweat, the weight of the world seemed to melt off my shoulders.

Then the ladies gave me sweaty hugs. These are best accepted when you yourself are sweaty as well (which I was).

Let’s just hope my friends don’t start charging me by the hour. 🙂

As for my heel pain, I’ve been stretching my foot and calf daily to help relieve the pain in my heel and I’ve got my foot rolling on a frozen water bottle as I type. I need to run and I’m hoping my foot can get on board with me on this one.

If you’re wondering why I’m not doing the yoga (as I like to now call it), we can blame the new job for the late hours. I’m hoping that things will settle down soon and I’ll actually leave the office and make it to class when I say I’m going to. In the meantime, I just ordered the AM and PM Yoga dvd with Rodney Yee and I plan to put it into good use when it arrives this weekend.

How do you relieve stress?

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Why I Didn’t Run the 15k and Other Great Stories

3 Oct

On September 22nd I didn’t run the Miracle Miles 15k like I planned to. Instead I ran 8.7 miles with my running ladies and called it a  day. But please don’t worry… there are really good excuses reasons for this.

The main reason I didn’t run the race as planned is that I never signed up for it. Unless you’re a bandit runner, registering for a race is one of the most important steps in running a race. It’s right there next to showing up for a race, which I also did not do.

You may be wondering what I was doing that would cause me to be to busy to register for a race. Well… I was busy celebrating.

On September 7, 2012 my love asked me to marry him under the first oak tree on the southwest corner of the Great Lawn in Central Park, New York. It was, quite literally (I tend to overuse this statement, but certainly not on this occasion) the best day ever.

We took the pics above in a photo booth hours after we got engaged while waiting for our good friends to meet us for dinner. Can you tell we’re giddy? This photo was quite possibly the best $5 I ever spent.

The days and weeks that followed were crazy busy. We ran around town telling our local family members in person, while trying our best to catch the rest of our family on FaceTime. We called friends and broke the news. We celebrated. We began planning the day when we will stand before God, our families and those we love the most and vow to love each other for the rest of our lives.

And if that wasn’t a life changer… Literally minutes after I said “Yes!!” I received an offer on the job within my company that I had interviewed for. Did I happen to mention that September 7, 2012 was the best day ever?

I’m currently working long days to get up to speed with the new position and when I come home I’m lucky if I have the energy to walk the dogs and eat dinner. Our weekends are spent working on our new house and trying to figure out the whole wedding thing. To say I’m stressed and overwhelmed is a gross understatement.

My little sister sent me a text today that made me stop, smile and remember to breathe:

I watched a two hour testimonial on a holocaust survivor. And the only times she smiled was when she talked about her wedding day and her grandchildren. She wore a white blouse and had ten people at her wedding and they ate soup. Just a reminder that what’s important is you and Donnie and what makes you happy… the rest you will surely forget. 🙂

She’s right. I will forget the race I missed and the yoga classes I couldn’t make it out of work in time for. I will forget that my half marathon training schedule is all out of whack and I can’t seem to find the time to do laundry or dust and sweep. There are a lot of things I will forget, but you know what I won’t? How I felt on September 7th.

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