Yesterday was 10 miler number 2 for Disneyland Half Marathon weekend! We had crazy nice weather and you can read more about how it went at the end of this post. I did love this picture (which is actually at the entrance of a local sub-division and stands for Pecan Ridge but I’ve decided it was just for me!!)
We are in the home stretch and I am SOOOO ready to race! Haven’t done a half since April and that’s a long stretch for me. Excited to see what my hard work has done for my times and (more importantly) how I’ll feel during and after the race. I need to figure out what I’m going to wear! Would love to have some custom Alice in Wonderland ensemble but time is not on my side so that’s not looking likely. I’ll be stuck with my well used Minnie Mouse running gear so it’s all good:). (yes, I realize that’s an odd sentence even for me)
So, if you haven’t read the book Run Like a Mother and you don’t follow Dimity and Sara on twitter or FB, you really should. These ladies have great words of wisdom about making running work for REAL women with REAL families and REAL bodies that frequently let us down.
This week, they tweeted out this talk that Dimity gave recently (warning, just listen to the audio as the video quality is lousy and will drive you crazy.)
(here’s the link if you’re reading on your phone – for some reason I can’t get YouTube videos to actually show up when you read on your phone and I’m far too busy having fun to figure it out so whatever http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr6uyV45wuw)
There’s lots of great stuff here but the first one is the one I needed to hear the most and that I LOVED. She said that it’s important to remember that hard is hard. My level 8 efforts feels exactly the same to me as Kara Goucher’s level 8 does to her. She may be moving far faster, but we need to really accept that when we’re pushing ourselves to the next level (whatever that is), the numbers are what they are and we need to get over it and not feel bad because Kara’s level 8 is 15 times faster than mine. Hard is hard. (I am, of course, telling you what I heard . . . I tend to embellish so go listen to it yourself).
She also talks about running for effort and running “naked” (without your Garmin or your music) and I did this yesterday (well, without my Garmin. I was happily listening to my tunes).
My only goal for yesterday’s 10 miler was for it to be 1. gentle and 2. enjoyable. I didn’t check my RunKeeper even once and in hindsight I shouldn’t have even used it. The run was AWESOME. The weather was unseasonably cool and awesome and I literally had a big goofy smile the whole time. Totally blissed out. At the end I was cramping up a bit so took a few extra walk breaks (I always walk one minute every mile so that was happening the entire run). I finished and felt GREAT! I was happy and was like MAN, I love this sport!! So awesome!!
And then I checked my time. WHAT THE?!?!?! It almost completely robbed me of my joy. How stupid is that? I didn’t set out to break any records yesterday (my own or someone else’s) so why was I upset? What were my goals again? Oh yes. That the run be gentle and enjoyable. And you know what? I achieved that! And bonus, I felt great for the rest of the day yesterday and it didn’t leave me so exhausted that I couldn’t function for my family. So I stopped myself and am officially accepting that in order for yesterday to be gentle and enjoyable, it had to be a bit slower and that’s 100% OK! I got my mileage in and had a great time. I may want too much from the world. Scratch that. I for sure want too much;).
I realize this is similar to my last post but maybe I’m a slow learner. I’m getting there, day by day. Learning how to be gracious, loving and kind to my own physical self and how to love every run, every effort and every milestone for the miracle that it is. (and yes, there are huge life implications in that statement that are not lost on me)
I hope this week is filled with running and life joy for you! And if you’re frustrated with your numbers maybe just let them go and get out there just for fun again. Because really, if it’s not fun, what’s the point? Life, as I am reminded of almost daily as a pastor and as a mom, is short. And we need to spend our time doing what brings us joy and what makes us better able to cope with all life hands us.
Happy Running!!
Jen
Love the “PR” picture! And the idea that a level 8 hard is the same for everyone, even if it’s not at the same speed.
While I keep track of my runs on my Garmin and get excited if I have a really fast run, I’ve learned to not get too hung up on numbers. The important thing is finishing. Everything else is circumstantial in my opinion. It could be hot and humid or snowing or I didn’t eat the right things or the hills are getting to me more than usual or my clothes are laying on my the right way to feel comfortable or I’m not hydrated enough; the list goes on. Rarely do all these things line up for me, leading to an awesome run in terms of speed, but every time I finish, bad or good, I am grateful for doing just that; finishing, because that is a better spot to be in than before I started the run for the day.