Fuls

No, I didn't misspell that. Right now, I'm feeling two "ful"s.

Thankful.

Neglectful.

Let's start with the easy one. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday....for the same reason I love birthdays. I find it wonderful to take a minute to remember all of the reasons I'm grateful. It is amazing when you start counting your blessings...how many you find. Big ones...small ones. We all know it is easier to see what is wrong, but I find that when I start to look for things that are right, they become all I can see.

Well, the above statement now makes it easy for me to right about "the hard one". Neglectful. I have been sorely neglecting my swim,bike,whating life. After setting a great goal...I found myself challenged by life and rejecting anything extra...like running.

Which is such a wrong move. For me when I run I feel like life is clearer. With each breath I clean out the bad and breathe in the room for change. So when I get stressed and then stop running it compounds everything. Of course then I also start eating wrong...which then makes it even worse.

Whoa. Put on the brakes. I'm loosing focus of the good things. There are good things that come from neglect. Like this morning when I finally laced up my shoes and started out. I thought "oh, you'll be just fine. You went running a week ago on a tough course and pounded it out." Oh, cockiness. Such a fickle friend.

It became evident, pretty quickly, no, it wasn't going to be easy. But I did it. At one point in this journey I would have quit. But I didn't. And I'm so grateful to be at this point.

So now we head off to Thanksgiving weekend. To celebrate, I'm stopping at every moment I get to be thankful. And starting a new tradition....the Turkey Trot!

Hosted by Alisa HERE:

The good, the bad and the PR

It's funny because on the runs where I feel the worst - I tend to do the best.
And when I end feeling good, I've usually gone slower.

Today's run started off since I left the house at 7:00am and not 6:30am like I've been trying to do. The first mile felt sluggish and sloppy...and I had to keep reminding myself:

"Just get past the first mile, just get past the first mile...".

I must have made up some good time since I finished with a new PR. Such a good PR that I am almost to the next minute per mile bracket - SEVEN!

My two mile run was done in 16:03. About 8:01 per mile. Which means my last mile might have actually been less...since my first mile was the slow one...

That's the good news.

The bad news is that I know my form was off. My back is a little sore and I felt like I spent a lot of time correcting my posture. Even though I'm focused on time right now, I do thinmk it would be a good idea for me to slow down and strengthen my form...

Don't really want to get hurt again...that sucks.

But for now, until tomorrow's run, I'll just be happy with my new PR!

Reframing

After running this morning I realized that it's time for a new goal. I don't have a race until November when it's Turkey Trot time...and for some reason that isn't really motivating me.

Then RunMan told me last night since August he's booked a mighty 196 miles.

ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY SIX F#*(@NG MILES!

According to my DailyMile I've only logged 273 miles this year.

Ok. Ok. I'm not being fair to myself. Let's reframe that.

I ran NO miles last year. Zip, zilch, zero!

I've run a whopping 273 this year.

Plus there are runs, rides and swims I didn't log.

So, rather than compare myself to RunMan I want to remember what life was like a year ago.

What my mind was like a year ago - "Me, run?" No way! "Me, do a triathlon?" You have to be out of your freaking mind!

But, those both started out as lofty goals. And I do run. And I did do a triathlon. Given that, I'd like to set a new reachable goal.

I'd like to hit 350 miles at the end of the year.

Seventy-seven more miles. That puts me running two miles every other day from now until December 31st. I didn't factor in that some family run nights we run almost four miles - but I figure that will account for any time I can't get my run in.

So here's to the next 77 and to finishing 2009 strong!!