Running is a road to self-awareness and reliance … you can push yourself to extremes and learn the harsh reality of your physical and mental limitations or coast quietly down a solitary path watching the earth spin beneath your feet. But when you are through, exhilarated and exhausted, at least for a moment everything seems right with the world…

Saturday, July 30, 2011

On Getting Through the Hard Miles

I had an epiphany the other night as I was trying to fall asleep, and it was something I desperately wanted to blog about, but I can't for the life of me remember exactly what it was. I have some sort of idea, although this seems dumb in comparison to what I thought of in bed, which seemed legendary, but I guess I'll blog about it anyway.

Life is similar to running in so many ways. In running, you reach rough days, and days with miles that are easier to get through. There are miles where you feel fantastic and have fun. These miles fly past you. Then there are the miles where you have to focus on your goals, and the final prize. You have to center your balance and breathing, focusing on each and every step.

In life there are days that go by quickly, un realized and unimportant. Then there are the easy and fun days, the ones that keep you living. And then, of course, there are those hard days. The days that cause you to focus on your balance and breathing.

The thing is that if it wasn't for these rough runs, there would be no improvement to running. They say that with no pain comes no gain. This isn't true. We can gain from days and runs with no pain, but those days would seem so meaningless if it wasn't for the days and runs where we have to exert everything within us.

So sometimes I have force myself to go onto the next mile, until I get to the mile that reminds me why I love running so much. And so, I will simply force myself to work through the hard days until I get to the 1 day that makes me realize how truly great life is.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

The Monster Dash

So we have officially decided on the Monster Dash, which will take place on October 29th. The only thing that now remains to figure out costume ideas. Since the race takes place the weekend of Halloween everyone dresses up in costumes to run the races, and their is a costume competition. Therefore, me and John are looking for creative couple costume ideas that are easy to run in. If you think of any let me know. So far our best ideas are as follows
1) Fried Chicken and Waffles. problems- not sure how to go about finding costumes, and we aren't sure if people would get it.
2) Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. problems- not sure I could run in antlers
3) Ketchup and Mustard. This seems too easy to me.

Anyway, training will start in about 2 weeks, I found a great 10 week training program. So I'll post again when I get a schedule all written up. So excited!!!

Friday, July 22, 2011

Redemption comes in many shapes, with many kinds of pain

So, I have officially created a training schedule and found a half marathon to run the last weekend in August. The plan was that if I could keep up with the training for the next 2 weeks, when I'm working extra and have class, then I would be able to complete it all and I'd sign up for the race. Given the circumstances of extreme weather I have not been able to keep up. I've skipped a few run, and made some runs shorter than they should have been.

Today I completed my 6 mile run, or my 5.85 mile run. It did not go well at all. I was so warm, plus the antibiotics I'm on right now many me nauseous, and cause my skin to burn easily. I forgot to put on sunscreen, so 30 minutes into the run I looked at my shoulders and realized they were already pink. Plus I hate running in the heat. If that isn't enough reason to not run a half marathon in August, John (my running partner who was going to run it with me) hurt his knee a few weeks ago and needs some serious recovery time. So we discussed it last night and decided to postpone it to late September or October.

I'm currently looking at the Maranatha's Road Race on September 17th or the Monster Dash on October 29th. If we do the first one then my training program that I started this week would be pretty accurate. If we do the October one then I can pos-pone training for 3-4 weeks, and just keep doing an average of 20 miles a week. I'll keep you posted!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

One Mile at a Time

Sorry It's taken me so long to write again. It's been truly insane! Needless to say my running has taken a back seat to my work, school, and small social life. Sleep deprivation is not a good way to run. I try and get out at least 3-4 times a weeks, and most of these are around 4 milers.

John is currently trying to convince me to run a half marathon in the end of August and if life wasn't going to be so crazy in the next few weeks I totally would. 3 weeks left and I'll be done with class, but in those 3 weeks I will potentially be working more hours. The family I work for has adopted 6 children already and the mom and dad leave for China on Friday to adopt 2 more! I'm super excited for them, but it means a lot of work on the part of many PCA's while they are gone. As John puts it I just have to get through one mile at a time. But I still haven't gotten to do an entire 6 miles (trust me I've planned to do a few times, but it just never works out.)

I'm still woking on my pacing which means going slower, but much farther. I've also been trying to work on decreasing my heel striking these last few weeks, as I'm sure it's probably one of the reason my ankle was so bad for awhile. In good news: I went home in June and while I was there my chiropractor took a look at my ankle and did some adjustments and it hasn't hurt since!

Guess that's all for now folks. Sorry if this seemed quick and undeveloped. Just had to get it all out quick. Now back to homework.