Everybody Gets A Trophy?

I have two race medals.  They are both finishers medals, one from a 10 miler, and one from a Half Marathon.  I am proud of both, and feel they are each symbols of my accomplishment, and all the miles I ran in preparation of those two races.   After a conversation with my 5 year old, however, I realized that not everyone may feel the same way. 

Last night, my son's t-ball coach told the team that they had one more game, then they'd be having a get-together with the other teams, and trophies would be given out.  My son was really excited - until he realized that everyone would be getting a trophy.   "All the teams get trophies?" he asked.  "Yup!" I replied enthusiastically.  "But... why?  That's weird."   He frowned at me, and looked rather upset. 

I tried to explain to my son that at this level - the 4 to 6 year old t-ball crowd - it's more about participation and doing your best.  And that everyone gets a trophy because everyone came to all of the practices, listened to the coach, cheered on their team, and had fun.  I was met with complete silence.  My son was not happy.   Winners should get trophies.  That is his line of thinking - and generally, I agree with him.  I do think that children need to learn that sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and you don't always get to go home with the trophy, no matter how hard you tried.  That's the nature of sports - and of life. 

Yet I'm sitting over here in my corner of the world, surrounded by my sport, and I'm in possession of two medals, even though I've never won a race.  Or, truth be told, even placed in the top 50%.  

I will likely never win a race, or even place in the top of my age group (unless I'm the only one in it).  "Finishers" medals are probably the only kind I'll ever get - and honestly, I'm ok with that.  I love my finishers medals.  I am proud of them.  They're pretty, and I don't want anyone to take them away from me, or tell me that I'm not deserving of them.  It makes me a little sad to think that my son may one day realize that the only reason Momma came home with a medal was because everyone did - but I'm also hoping that one day he'll understand that it doesn't negate the experience, and it doesn't make my medals any less important to me.  

I hope he'll be excited when he gets his trophy, and put it somewhere special in his room so he can look at it and remember how much fun he had with his friends this spring.   Or, if not, then I hope he'll at least say "Thank You" to his coach before he tosses the trophy in his closet and moves on to the next big thing.  

*****

What do you think of race medals? Do you keep yours? 

Running, Period.

I'm lucky enough to have female runner friends to talk to, ask questions of, swap clothes with, etc, etc.  I know others aren't as lucky, so today I bring you - "The Joys of Womanhood." 

For any men reading, if you think a women's menstrual cycle is "icky," feel free to skip this post and go watch Sports Center.  (Then again, if you're a woman reading, and you likewise think the topic is icky, I also direct you to Sports Center.  Who doesn't like Sports Center??)



Ok, now that I've successfully cleared the room (hopefully not of everyone)...


I never pay attention to my period.  Seriously, I don't.  I'm on Ortho Evra (birth control patch), so I'm fairly "regular," but I really don't pay any attention.  I don't usually notice if I'm more bloated, crankier, more tired, etc, etc.  I am completely out of tune with my body.  It bleeds for 4 - 6 days every month, and yet, as my husband "jokes," I don't die.   Whatever.  No bigs.

Except, now that I'm a runner, I've started to pay more attention to my body, and have begun to question things.  Why does this run feel so hard/slow?  Is it what I'm eating/not eating? My sleep patterns?  Or could it be, just maybe, that my period is starting soon, and that's why I'm feeling so sluggish while I'm chugging along on an "easy" three mile run?

So, like I said, I asked my female runner friends.  Turns out, feeling sluggish during runs in the days before your period is pretty common. Doing a little Googling, I found a bunch of articles on the subject.  Here are two:

Running and Your Period: How it Affects Training

How Your Menstrual Cycle Affects Performance

So how about you?  Do you notice any differences in your running during certain times of the month? When changing birth control?  While pregnant?  After menopause?  

Cutting The Fat

I hate whining about my weight. I really do.  But today I need to.  I will try to keep it more to "talking" and less actual "whining."

My goal for this year was to get down to 145 lbs.  That would require losing 12 lbs, which I thought was completely do-able over the course of 12 months.   I started off really well, but after looking at pictures from my recent half marathon, I realized that things were not hunky-dory.  They were more like chunky-dory.

I love this picture because I look happy.
I hate it because I can't stop looking at my stomach.

Last week I announced I was going to quit drinking soda.  I have yet to actually achieve this.  I blame it on stress and PMS.  I picked a crappy week to try to give up my biggest vice.   Still, when I got on the scale today and realized that I have gained back ALL of the weight I'd lost earlier this year, I was frustrated and angry with myself.

I'm 34.  I don't make good food choices.  It has to change.  Something's got to give.  Today I'm just feeling lost as to where to start.  They say weight loss starts in the kitchen.  I have a ton of "diet" and "healthy" cookbooks, yet they're just collecting dust on the shelf.  I don't know what my problem is, but I can't seem to shake myself up enough to change things.

For those of you who have lost weight -  What did you do to kick-start the transition?  How did you make the first steps towards a healthier you?  

Who are you?

The thing I love most about running is that it has the power to completely transform me.  Not physically, though it's doing that too, but mentally.   I am never the same person before a run as I am afterwards.  Good, bad, or ugly, somewhere along the way, two steps in or two thousand, I become someone else.

Tonight I left my house tired and cranky.  My legs were heavy and my normal pace was not possible.  I trudged.  The dialog in my head was negative and rambling.  Then, about halfway through my route, a voice in my head said "What hurts?"   I took stock, and realized that nothing hurt.  My right calf, normally loud and obnoxious, was quietly moving along.  My ankle, often twitchy, wasn't twitching a twitch.  Everything was just fine.  So I said to myself "This feels great!  I am so lucky to be able to be out here, running, free, healthy, happy...."    My pace picked up and the rest of the run felt easier.

Not easy, mind you, because running is never easy for me - and tonight I really did feel like I was running in quicksand, but after my little mental shake up, things just felt easier.    I started the run tired and cranky.  I finished it energized and happy.   Running is transformative.**   Love it.

**Someone please tell me why spell check does not think this is a word, even though Merriam-Webster says it is?

Fitness Friday

Fitness Friday

For the past two days, I've been madly scouring the internet for other bloggers, trying to build up more of a community - not only to foster some readership for my own blog, but to find other blogs that I'm interested in, and to see what's out there on the Wild Wild Web.  

What I've found has amazed and delighted me - but also left me realizing that while I may be a runner, I am quite possibly the laziest runner out there.  Yes, I finally started doing some core/strength workouts this week, but it's all  baby-step stuff, and certainly not anywhere near as hardcore as what the rest of the running world seems to be doing.  Ya'll are amazing - and inspirational.  

So help me out.  What's your favorite non-running work out?  What do you absolutely hate to do, but love the results it gives you?  What have you found to be totally useless?  I need your knowledge, oh wise ones.

Running Words: A Primer

Before I started running, I was pretty sure that I had a firm grasp on the English language.  It was, after all, my first language, and  I've been speaking it since birth.  (Ok, maybe not birth.  But fairly soon after. I'm a gabber!)   Not only am I fluent in English, but I'm familiar with many abbreviations and acronyms, and a fair share of "slang" and pop culture idioms, as well.  

So when someone mentions The Wall, I know immediately that they're talking about Pink Floyd.  A Clydesdale is a gorgeous horse, and a brick is something that's used in the creation of buildings and homes.  I'm no dummy, those are easy!

Except, apparently, runners have their own language.  PB does not stand for peanut butter.  When someone talks about "the pack," they are not worried about putting things in their suitcase for an upcoming trip, and the Magic Mile?  No longer a British movie made in 2005.  

At the tender age of 33, I had to learn a whole new language.  Fortunately for you, I've developed a little list of running words and their meanings.  So feel free to use it as a guide, a cheat sheet, if you will, and maybe you'll be spared the embarrassment of asking "What the hell are you people talking about?"   Because, really.  It's all English, don'tcha know?   (Well, except "fartlek."   But we'll get to that.)

So, here you are.  A running primer:

• Magic Mile - NOT a British movie, but instead a method by which to determine pace, developed by Jeff Galloway
• PB - "Personal Best" (also sometimes called a PR - personal record)  This is used when discussing race times.  
• Brick - not a building material, but a training method.  A "brick" is a run and a bike ride, back-to-back.  Often undertaken in preparation for a triathlon, or a duathlon. 
• Surge - big wave during a storm  Pulling ahead of your competition in a race
• Pack - A group of runners in a race.  Often there is a lead pack, "the pack," and then the "back of the pack" (<--- Where I normally am)
• Clydesdale - Horse? Of course not.  In running a Clydesdale is any male competitor weighing over 200 lbs.  (The female version of this is an Athena, and the weight classification is 150 lbs) 
• The Wall - Pink Floyd album. (No, really!) And, also, apparently, what you might "hit" at mile 20 of a marathon. 
• Fartlek - A Swedish word that runners have co-opted. A fun, unstructured way to do speed work.  
• DNS -  "Did not start" - what happens when you sign up for a race, then don't participate.
• DNF - "Did not finish" - what happens when you sign up for a race, start it, then either break something, vomit, pass out, get lost, etc, etc.  
• DFL - "Dead f*cking last"  - what some people live in fear of being, and something I am waiting to experience.   
• Negative Split - has nothing to do with mean bananas.  Crazy, right?  When you have "negative splits," it means that you ran the second half of a run or race faster than the first half.  
• Ultra - something crazy people do.  Any race distance over marathon length. 

There are others, but why overwhelm you? I'm sure you're still trying to figure out how something with "fart" in it could be considered a good thing.  So. There you go.  You learned something today!  You're welcome.

Breaking up is hard to do

It's been nearly 8 years since I last smoked a cigarette.  When I decided to quit, I went cold turkey and never looked back.  Occasionally I dream about smoking, but when I'm awake, I never feel the urge to light up.  

Unfortunately, there's another bad habit that I haven't been able to shake.  I think, though, that I haven't really been ready before now.  I'm hoping that like cigarettes, I can quit cold turkey and never look back.   While my current bad habit isn't nearly as deadly as cigarettes, it is harmful, and it needs to go.  

So innocent looking, right? 

I shouldn't just single out Dr. Pepper - I'm giving up all soda.  But Dr. Pepper has been my favorite for years and years.  There's nothing quite like it.  I have a sneaking suspicion I'm going to feel like this after a few days: 

With my weight creeping up steadily over the past two months, something has to give.  There are a few sodas in the fridge, but once those are gone, I am not buying any more.  It has been suggested to me that I just switch to diet soda, but I can't stand the taste of diet, so I might as well just go cold turkey.  

Let's just pray I don't hurt anyone in the process.  (Or wander through the desert with my underwear on my head.)