To Run or Not to Run... It's not even a question

So this past weekend, after finishing my 6th race, I thought about hanging up my running shoes.

My running days begin last January when I started training for a 5K run in March. I attempted the Couch to 5K running program. Some weeks I ran all 3 days and some weeks I was only able to find time to run 1 or 2 days.  At the beginning of the program, I couldn't even run a mile.  At the completion of 9 weeks, I was able to run 30 consecutive minutes.

I had this illusion in my head that at the end of my first race, I would cross the finish line and my little girls would come running up to me and give me big hugs saying "Congratulations Mommy! You set a goal, worked hard and achieved what you set out to do. We are so proud of you!"

It didn't exactly happen like that.

I think my youngest was shivering under her blanket while the older one said "Good, can we go home now? I'm freezing!"

My official time was better than I had expected, but I knew that I fell short by skipping many days of training.  I thought that if I was a little more dedicated, I could train for better results.  So I attempted a few more races in October and November.  Did my long run in February.  And another two 5Ks in April and May.  Unfortunately my times have been getting progressively worse.  For each race, I make excuses: I was sick, my shins hurt, my foot hurts, the course was poorly marked, the weather was bad, etc.  But the biggest reason I was underperforming was my lack of dedication to the training program.  So I made excuses for that: I was sick, my shins hurt, I was busy and tired from work, my husband was out of town, the house needed to be cleaned, etc.

I came across a quote on Pinterest:


I realized that if I kept finding excuses for not running, then maybe I should postpone this running thing until I am mentally and physically ready to attempt it.  I kept asking myself "when will running be fun?"  (Although if exercise was more fun, we wouldn't be facing an obesity crisis in this country so obviously it's not just me who thinks running is hard.  Also realized that's why they call it a WORKout!)

I thought that by hanging up my running shoes, I would spare myself from the disappointment I face before every race (knowing I fell short in preparation) and the disappointment with my time after the race.

But after my little pity party, I decided that I have NOTHING to be disappointed at.

1. This past Saturday morning it was raining, I felt a sinus infection coming on, I had just spent 2 weeks being a single working parent while my husband was out of the country so I was EXHAUSTED!  All I wanted to do was crawl under the covers and sleep.  But I got out of bed, put on my running clothes, shoes and headband, pinned a number to my shirt and at 9 am, raced in the rain.  And I had my worst time yet.

But I remembered this quote I also saw on pinterest...

My time of 35 minutes was still better than DNF (did not finish) or DNA (did not attempt- I just made that up!)

2. I wasn't running by myself.  Since my "running days" started, I have passed along the running bug to my sister who has run several races with me and is always asking when the next one will be.  In addition, my husband and brother-in-law also came were dragged along and ran instead of sitting at home on the couch.  I signed my daughters up for the children's races and Charlotte was so proud crossing the finish line and getting her medal.  I hope that I am teaching her to make time for an active, healthy lifestyle and one day she will realize the importance of setting a goal and accomplishing it.

3. The experience can't be beat. I now have so many fun stories to tell... I ran through the desert of Arizona, ran through the concourse of the friendly confines, ran across a college campus, ran with a man dressed as a turkey, watched a man carrying his dog across the finish line, saw Eric from The Mix as he announced the start at Wrigley as well as many other memories.




4. What I forget about a lot of these races is that they aren't solely about the run... many of them are for CHARITY.  In getting out and running these past few races, I have supported Children's Memorial Hospital, the homeless, scholarships for local students in honor of a beloved teacher in the community and scholarships in honor of a bright, generous girl whose life was ended too soon.

So while my running shoes may get a little dusty from time to time when I am tired or busy, I am not going to beat myself up over it.  I will put on my running shoes, gather up some friends and family, go for a run (or sometimes technically more of a jog) and as my mom always says "Just do your best and have fun!"

That's all anyone can ask of me.

An long-overdue update to my goal setting

It's a good thing I don't get paid to write a blog.

Number 1, I'd have to post something more often than once every 3 months.
Number 2, I'd have to make it interesting.

So I thought since I have a week off of work, I would post an update on how my goals/resolutions have been coming along....


1. Finish 12 books. 
In January, I finished The Help and Little Girl Gone.
In February, March and April I finished The Hunger Games Trilogy.
4 months down and 5 books read... I seem to be on track.  Except now I'm back to reading four books at a time. Currently in the middle of Water for Elephants, Stop Saying You're Fine, The Happiness Project and Just Let Me Lie Down.  I need to pick one and go with it.  Oh, I also read The Easy Part which is a kindle single written by a friend of my cousin Jenny and her husband Nick.  (Side note: I really don't want to be a book reviewer and I don't want to be giving recommendations or critiques about the books I read, but this one was very inspiring and definitely worth reading.  Also, go read The Hunger Games so you know what everyone is talking about.)

2. Run 7.1 miles as part of the AZ Marathon Relay.  
The relay was President's Day weekend in February.  I can say that I finished my leg of the race, however I didn't run all 7.1 miles.  I ran the first 3 as if it were a 5K, then I kinda walked 1/4 mile, ran 3/4 mile or so.  Not a great finish time and I really don't want to ever run that much again.  But I feel like I have to make another attempt at a 10K so that I can really say that I ran it rather than ran/walked/ran/walked/walked/ran/walked/ran it.

3. Attend 10 yoga classes.
Haven't been to 1 yet.  I was going to go today at 12:30, but it conflicted with me eating lunch.  I did get the class schedule so that is a step in the right direction!  Unfortunately, a lot of the beginner classes conflict my work schedule.  Except for the 5:45 am classes.  Which conflict with my sleep schedule.

4. Knit or crochet a blanket and donate it to Project Linus. 
Haven't started this yet.  Haven't even picked up needles or a hook since December.  I really miss it, but have been too overwhelmed with other things to start something yet.  I am going to a crochet class next week to refresh my skills and then decide if I want to crochet or knit the blanket.  I may be looking through some patterns online and posting some for my (3) readers to vote on which one I should attempt.

5. Date night every month. 
Jan- Lunch date at Chili's

Feb- Happy hour with the senior citizens at the hotel in Scottsdale with Brian, Becky and Mark.
(Not sure if that one really counts??)

March- Dinner at Chinese restaurant and seeing The Hunger Games movie!!  Bonus points to Steve: He even agreed to read the books along with me.

April- Wedding on Saturday.  Does that count?

6. Organize (label/tag/group) all of our digital photos.
I was planning on tackling some of this project this week, but am still catching up on the everyday tasks of dishes, laundry, clutter and paperwork.  Maybe tomorrow.

I do have a few more blog posts stored in my head that I would like to write.  I just need the technology that takes my thoughts and enters them as words on the computer screen automatically.  So stay tuned for some posts on My Runner's Block, Lessons I'm trying to teach my kids, What I learned from taking a week off of work and My internal battle with hiring a cleaning lady.  I know, they don't sound entirely intriguing, but like I said, until someone pays me to do this, what you see is what you get.

Reading into the Future

Finished my first book of the year! Eleven more to go. 

I was making my way through The Help at around 70% complete and it looked like I would finish before the end of January. Until this arrived in the mail. A book...

from the FUTURE...

Set to be published at the end of Jan, I received an advance copy of this book free from the Manic Mommies Book Club. They would be discussing it with the author on 1/18 so I wanted to finish it so I could contribute any questions for the author. Meanwhile The Help went back on hold so I could I read Little Girl Gone. The book is inspired by the story of the Jaycee Duggard kidnapping and tells it from the perspective of the partner of the kidnapper. I thought it was an interesting look at what it means to be "free". I'm not a literary reviewer and it's hard for me to criticize an author for something that I could not do. So if it's an excellent book, I'll tell everyone I know. If I had to rate it out of 5 stars, I'd give it 3.5. (If you are someone I see often and are interested in reading it, let me know and I can bring it next time I see you.) 

The Manic Mommies book club also read another of Drusilla Campbell's books, The Good Sister. The moderator Mari emailed me : "You might enjoy The Good Sister, Drusilla is a brilliant character writer… with dark dark subject matter.  I still think about this book, 18 months later." So I might have to add this one to my list... in the future. 

Winner (s)

So to determine the winner for the Stop Saying You're Fine book, I asked Charlotte to pick a number between 1 through 4. She picked 4 since she's 4 years old and 2 since Sydney is 2 years old. So Teresa and Jenny, you both win a copy! Hopefully you can find time to read it and let me know what you think.

Bring on 2012

Alright.

So I have decided I am not a fan of the word RESOLUTION.

First of all, it's so overused this time of the year. Second, it's almost always associated with the word BROKEN around February. I was going to use GOAL instead. But unless you are at a hockey or soccer game, it's kind of a boring word. I've decided to go with CHALLENGES. This year I have selected 6 ways to challenge myself.

Make an improvement through MIND:

1. Finish 12 books. 


An average of 1 per month. (Yep that calculus class is coming in handy.) I have a pile of books on my nightstand and a bunch more in my kindle that unless I make time for, are going to go unread another year. Here's my list of some of the ones I plan on tackling:

1. The Help
I'm actually almost half way through this one. So is it cheating if I already started it before the New Year? Umm... I didn't say read 12 books start to finish, just finish! I have a slight issue with reading multiple books at a time and maybe that's why it takes so long to finish them. Sometimes I'm just in the mood for something different than what I've already started. Everyone tells me I'm weird for doing that and they don't understand how I can keep the story lines and characters straight. Anyway, so far it's a great book and everyone I know, says the same. I want to see the movie once I finish reading.

2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Ok, here's another one. Currently on page 163. But I think I started in February 2010. Based on how tough it is to read and that there are around 600 pages, starting at 163 is not cheating. So far, I've been able to follow it. It's just not really a "before bedtime" read for me. Also another one I might want to see the movie for so that I can be one of those people who says "the book was waaay better than the movie".

3. Water for Elephants
You guessed it. I'm on page 62. (And if anyone has read all three of these books so far, you will agree that they are completely different and there really is no chance of confusing the story lines!) When I started reading this, it made me think of my grandpa. So when I had an extra ticket to the circus, I asked if he would like to join us. He loved it.

4. Stop Saying You're Fine: Discover a More Powerful You

I talked about this one in my first post and I love every SENTENCE I have read so far. I really need to finish it but I have already been recommending it to everyone! If there is any part of your life that you would like to improve upon, this is the book that will help you achieve it. Love the no-nonsense approach of Mel Robbins. ***See my giveaway at the end!!!***

5. The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
Cuz who wouldn't want to learn about this? (Sounds like someone had an ambitious NY Resolution.)

6-8. The Hunger Games
It's a trilogy so I don't know if I count this as 1 or 3? Never got into Harry Potter or those Vampires, but I'm curious as to what all the fuss is about with these.

9. Steve Jobs
What a legacy! And a VERY heavy book to prove it.

10. The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
I heard about this one since it's based off of on of my favorite etsy sites Barn Owl Primatives. Here's the link from when her signs were featured on the author's blog.

11. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a Better Story
Don't know much about it. Sounds interesting. Heard good things.

12. ????
This one I've left open to recommendations. Feel free to bombard me with worthwhile reads.

Phew! I'm starting to think that one challenge will be enough. Well, on to the rest...

Make an improvement through BODY:

2. Run 7.1 miles as part of the AZ Marathon Relay.  
This one will be a struggle. I haven't been training much recently. Busy with Christmas and then had a cold afterwards, trouble breathing. Excuses, excuses! Need to get back on track. Starting tomorrow.

Make an improvement through SPIRIT:

3. Attend 10 yoga classes.

Bought a Groupon that is good till June, so there's my deadline. I don't have the discipline to meditate on my own so I will have to schedule it in for a least 10 sessions. Maybe more.


Make a contribution to COMMUNITY:

4. Knit or crochet a blanket and donate it to Project Linus. 


What a cute name for a charity, right? Last year, my challenge was to learn to knit and knit a scarf. There was a point this past year when I wasn't sure I'd be able to knit anything else other than a scarf. So I thought about  knitting a bunch and donating them to the homeless. I still might do it. But I really like the idea of working on a project knowing it may bring a little piece of comfort to a suffering child.

Make a contribution to FAMILY:

5. Date night every month. 

This will probably be the easiest one. Or at least the one I'm most looking forward to. It's obviously not a new concept, but I always thought date nights were for couples who never saw each other. I feel like my husband and I see each other a lot and eat dinner together a lot. But kid-free dinners are rare with us. There's always something being spilled, someone needs more milk, someone wants the black stuff scraped off, someone wants more bread, someone wants more water in their bowl (dog, not kid). Not to mention the clean up after every meal. While we love chaotic family dinners, I'm realizing it's important to keep the flame alive and show our girls that we value our partners. I have made an effort to get together with my girlfriends on a monthly basis for our girls-day/night out. But now I'm making it a priority to schedule date nights with my honey. Anyone want to babysit?

Make a contribution to HOME:

6. Organize (label/tag/group) all of our digital photos.

If I don't do it now, it will just keep getting more and more overwhelming. Wish me luck with this one! Gonna try and tackle a little at a time and maybe some momentum will keep me going.

So there you have it... A busy 2012.

****GIVEAWAY*****Many bloggers give things away to their readers. And many times those items are from sponsors. I have no sponsors so I'm going to give away something by myself. I keep recommending the Mel Robbins book Stop Saying You're Fine and my goal challenge is to get one other person to read it. I figure that my best chance for someone else to read it is if I give away a copy FREE to someone. So if you want to be entered in my first official blog giveaway, leave me your
1. Name
2. E-mail
3. Challenges for 2012 (or if you don't have any, then tell me a book you recommend I read)

I'll randomly pick a winner on Sat 1/7 and send you the book.