1. A young man I know made the statement, “I remember it like it was yesterday” and my first thought was, “You’re 23. It basically was yesterday.”
Soooooo, I guess this means I’ve started the steep descent into becoming a bitter old woman. I just need to learn to stomach coffee so I can cradle a huge mug of it while waddling around work each morning, darkening the doorways of my co-workers’ offices as I take long sips between telling them my opinion on subjects they never asked me about. While I’m at it, I might as well stock up on some horridly bright lipstick which I can apply to where I approximate my lips to be rather than where they actually are.
Now that I think about it, I might already have the bitter part down pat. And, as my sister points out, I might have the old part worked out as well.
2.
The Dirty Hippie: So what are you up to? Besides running. I don’t care about that.
Me: I’m GOING TO SEE THE PIXIES TONIGHT!!!
The Dirty Hippie: Are they performing in wheelchairs? I mean they were old when you were in high school. They must be keepers of the crypt status now.
Whatever, hater. The Pixies were fantastic!
And there wasn’t a walker or a cane in sight. How brave of them to play so fast & easy with their hip health at their advanced age.
3. I just love this video of the time lapse of a guy who taught himself how to dance over the course of a year:
“I hope this video inspires you to do things that you really want to do. The things that makes you feel good and happy while doing it. With one year you can make a huge change in your life if you step out from your comfort zone and begin to act.”
4. The “Couch to 5k” program is fantastic because it has helped a lot of people become active through a solid and steady schedule. However, it subtly planted the idea in my head that a 5k would be something I would have to work months at in order to be able to do. When I was able to run that distance in my first week of starting to run I thought, “If I could do this in 1 week. What could I do in one year?” At that point, I promised myself that I would stick with running – even though I hated ever single second of it – for one year. If I still loathed it at that point, I could move on. Until then, I would work really hard at it to see how it could better me. (So for those of you, like the dirty hippie, who can’t wait until I quit it so I’ll stop talking about it – you have until October for that to even be a chance.)
It took a little over four months of regularly running until I actually began to enjoy it. Before it was kind of like:
Then, one afternoon just a couple of weeks ago I was running an errand for work and it was a beautiful day. I was shocked when I thought, “I wish I were running.” Then, I was even more stunned when I realized it was true. At some point during those four months, I began to really enjoy it. I still don’t love every single moment of it, and I prefer races to training but it’s growing on me. I won’t have an awesome video showing a time lapse but I could probably cobble up some pictures. I know I have one from my first race where I’m heel striking and over-striding. I bet you can’t wait for that slide show!
My goal is to be able to finish a half marathon while looking gorgeous and put together like this girl in the black who was in the finishing stretch of the Tryon Half Marathon back in October:
And not like the girl in the gray (who, granted, still looks better than I do in 99% of my race photos. I’m glad they are all terrible of me since they are all SO EXPENSIVE to purchase.)
Speaking of race pictures, I ran one this past weekend and the race photographer snapped & posted this awesome picture
I don’t know who these boys are, but I love how high off the ground their feet are!
5. We have been watching a lot of Sons of Anarchy at my house. In fact, we just finished watching all six seasons over the span of a couple of weeks, and we’re ready for the 7th to be out already. One of the side effects of this – besides wanting to accessorize with more leather – is that I now want this:
Personally, I think it would make the perfect group shirt for an Obstacle Course Race team. Ben commented that you can’t wear a shirt like that without being fast though. So my goal for 2014 is to become fast enough that I can legitimately wear this shirt in a race. That – and to be able to get at least halfway across the formidable Sawtooth!
Well Laura, the bitterness, the unsolicited advice, the garish lipstick, incessant coffee drinking -you’ve just described me very accurately! I’ll be 40 this year and I’m already freaking out a little bit. I saw They Might Be Giants in November and nobody was in a wheelchair or anything and that made me feel a bit better, too!
Mr Apps and I have started running in the past 6 months and I also totally get what you’re saying there. I’m not at the point of loving it while I’m running yet, but you’ve given me hope!
And as you have such good taste, I’m gonna have to check out this Sons of Anarchy!
Bright lipstick is fine – it is when it’s applied outside of the lip line that you need to start worrying!
I saw Morrissey a few years ago. He’s older than the Pixies AND he was doing yoga on stage. The show off. Of course, all the exertion meant he was sweating through his shirt causing Ben – who was thoroughly unimpressed with the entire show – to call him, “Wet nips.” So, maybe aging performers should just stick with not being in a wheel chair and leave it at that.
You are my hero. I’ve been running for over a year and I still hate it and technically haven’t even worked my way up to 5K yet. Love the races, though, so I should probably start doing more of those.
I HATE long training longs, but I prefer long races to shorter ones. In a half marathon, you’re suppose to run the first several miles at a slower pace (defined by being able to comfortably talk in short spurts). I always train by myself but I love being able to talk to others during races. (And the running part at least makes it so that even a Chatty Cathy can’t be TOO chatty so win-win.)
I don’t know how I feel about the Pixies without Kim Deal… How was the show?
It was great, and I loved the set list. The only disappointment was that they didn’t play “Gigantic.”
I guess they’re on their second bass player since Kim Deal left, but I really liked Paz. She held her own on stage, and has a nice voice.
Can you send some motivation my way? I can’t bring myself to get up and go running in the cold, dark mornings and then the kids wake up and then it’s too late. You sure sound like a runner what with your talk of heel striking and over striding. Maybe you should come give me lessons. I have no idea what you are talking about. I am sure my form could use some help.
I have never been able to successfully work out in the morning. Right now, I’m relegated to only running on the weekends and the very rare day when I get home from work early enough that it’s still light out.
Both over striding and heel striking are exactly what they sound like. Over striding is when your foot is way in front of your knee which leaves you open to a lot of injury. (So your foot lands in front of your hip joint rather than underneath it.)
It was the easiest of the two for me to correct – I just take shorter strides. (Although this is a bit more difficult for me when I’m running down hills.)
Heel striking is when you land on the heel of your foot, instead of mid-foot or on the ball of your foot. For me, I can’t even tell where I’m landing on my foot when I run until I see myself in pictures. It’s a lot more complicated to change, and I think I may only have done it when I was over striding so I’m not worried about it too much.
I’ve been corrected TWICE now by other runners on my form so I must have incredibly lousy form. I watch videos and read articles, but it’s been difficult to figure out how to apply it all (especially since some of it seems contradictory.)
Ok, now I’m even more impressed. You’re only running on weekends? I’ve stopped running completely since I did my 10K last month. I keep coming up with stupid excuse that mostly come down to staying up too late watching TV and talking myself into sleeping late (I NEED my sleep, right?). To think of how far you’ve come with just weekend runs . . . What kind of training/workouts do you do during the week?
Sorry, I was inadvertently misleading. I can only do runs OUTSIDE or long runs (5+ miles) on the weekends. During the fall, I was able to do all my runs outside. I still workout 5-6x a week.
From October – December I was training for my half-marathons and my schedule was running 3-4x a week and cross training 2x a week. My runs consisted of one long run (8+ miles), one speed workout, and two “easy” runs around 4-5 miles long each. Compared to that I feel as if I barely run these days!
I missed strength training though. So, in January I decided to focus on that and ease up on running. I started with Phase Two of Jamie Eason’s Livefit trainer. Then, I couldn’t resist the siren’s call of local races so I squeezed in running outside on the weekends. I run 13-18 miles a week. Plus, I strength train 3-4x a week. (Every strength training day, except leg day, I do 30 minutes of cardio after I finish up with weights. I run outside whenever I can. That’s not frequent so I do treadmill or elliptical or the row machine.)
The running is new but I have been working out 5-6x a week regularly since October 2012. Progress is slow, but I MOSTLY really enjoy it. I do a lot better if I have something fun to work toward goal wise.