Posts Tagged ‘running’
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Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
Hello! I am still very much behind on getting my thoughts together about my latest traveling adventure. This seems to happen to me every time I go away. I tend to have trouble transitioning back into my routine.
So I am still working to catch up. But where did I go? I went to Munich, Germany for 9 days to tag along with Craig on a business trip. I had so much fun. It was amazing to once again get out of town in the middle of winter. To get back to Europe! While I was in there, I took a side trip to Verona, Italy. INCREDIBLE.
I am busy sorting through photos, getting caught up on laundry, and trying to plow through the mountains of work-work that I came home to. All while trying to pick right back up with my running routine. The upside of all of this is that I am pretty darn busy and content.
This is good. Really good.
Normally by about this time in winter I am dragging. Normally I am down in the dumps. Normally I just sort of slog my way home after a long day of work and creep up the stairs to my bedroom and dive under the covers and hibernate. My infamous winter hibernation.
But I am doing so much better this year. No hibernating! In fact, I feel like I am having this truly amazing winter awakening. Granted, this could easily be post-vacation talk, but I do feel very alive and aware. I love that the sky is now the tiniest bit still light out when I leave work. I love waking up to the sounds of chickadees and song birds in the morning and the way the harsh winter sunlight streams through the trees. I love making hearty winter soups on Sundays to last throughout the week (this week’s creation is a southwest black bean).
And I kind of love forcing myself to get on the treadmill when I come home from work. No, seriously, I do. You see, it is all too easy to just resign myself to sleep and collapse on my bed every evening. But the kick and release I get out of going for a run is so worth it. My body feels lighter, less sluggish. My mind feels elevated. I am sleeping so much better at bedtime, too!
This winter awakening is pretty fantastic. I can look at my calendar and see that March will soon be here. And with March comes Spring! It’s not too, too long now. We have endured freezing cold temps and feet upon feet of snow. But there will be an end.
And I will bide my time with work and running and cooking and snuggling and writing until the thaw comes.
Tags: exercise, gratitude, running, travel, treadmill, winter, winter hibernation
Posted in The Daily Balance | No Comments »
making new tracks
Sunday, January 30th, 2011
January is coming to a close, and it has been a wonderful, albeit snowy month. I have made it through with flying colors! 2011 is well under way, and I feel very hopeful about the goals I am setting for myself this year.
I have been back in the swing of full-on exercising for 6 weeks now. Here is a look at my routine which has now become practice:
In the last 42 days I have run 24 times (averaging 5K runs with extensive hill training/uphill walking mostly on the treadmill), cross-country skiied 2 times, and shoveled 4 times. That’s 30 days of exercise out of 42. Not bad… an average of 5 days a week. I am pretty darn happy about all of this.
And not because I suddenly look amazing. Because I don’t. Progress is slow. As it should be. It takes time and continued dedication to achieve real, long-lasting new fitness results. As a runner for several years, I know this. I can go long periods without consistent running and my body doesn’t completely cave. But the same is true if I crank it up again—it takes my body a little while to catch on that I’m stepping up my game. But my body is always ready to respond.
The results will come. But that isn’t the big motivator for why I am running again. The real reason? I just really wanted to feel better mentally. Running makes me content. It is so easy to forget how powerful exercise is for the mind. And as soon as I am back in the routine, I remember how good running makes me feel.
I do feel good. Pretty darn amazing, in fact. And this is running’s biggest reward.
Now I want to keep on running and treating my body well. This is where I want (and need) to be!
Back in September I wrote out this goal list for myself. But I wasn’t in the right place at all mentally to commit to it. It took me about 3 months of wading through the muck in my mind along with trial and error to figure out how to balance work and life demands and prioritize being good to myself.
It wasn’t easy. But it can be done!
I am running and sleeping better (getting there!) and eating well and drinking tons of water and very much enjoying the present moment. Even in the middle of evil winter.
As for the reading part? Well, sheesh, that’s a fun problem… twist my arm, I will just have to start tackling this goal. Winter is the perfect time to curl up with a good book.
We can all make new goals. We can have a bad day, bad week, and even bad months or longer. But we CAN make baby steps toward better, healthier choices. And continually renew these commitments.
What changes have you made? What has been successful for you? What has been hard?
Tags: exercise, goals, gratitude, running, treadmill, winter
Posted in Let's Get Physical, The Daily Balance | 2 Comments »
smack dab in the middle of winter
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
Helllloooo from cold and snowy New England! There really is not much to report, sadly. Or, I suppose, not really sadly? It’s pretty much a winter homeostasis here. The work week is pretty much the usual work week. I get up and go to work and do my thing. I come home and I go for a hearty run on the treadmill. I eat dinner and hang out for a bit. And then I obediently head off to bed, even if what I really want to do is stay up late poking around on the computer.
I am trying very hard to establish and keep healthier, more holistic habits for myself in 2011. And that means lots of exercise, eating well, and making a conscious effort to get more sleep.
So far, so good. I am officially on Week 6 of my little renewal plan. Yeah, I started this re-commitment back in December for good measure. It’s pretty boring, I won’t lie. It’s a whole lotta routine. But I have to say, I forgot how much I like this routine. I used to be so good at it, but I had fallen out of practice. But, much like riding a bike, I picked it all right back up!
And I am feeling so much BETTER. I am sleeping pretty well. I wake up fairly easily. I have increasing amounts of energy each day.
And, get this… I am having these wonderful moments of pure, unabashed joy. Yeah. In the middle of winter. Hibernation time. Sometimes it’s when I am in the car driving to work. Sometimes it’s when I am huddled in my cube. Sometimes it’s right after I get off the treadmill and I’m stretching in the shower. Make no mistake, I get these momentary bubbles of real joy. Quite near bliss.
I have to think it has everything to do with exercising and sleeping more. My body craves these two things. More and more. Even if I am super tired and cranky after work and I don’t want to run. I do. I throw on my running clothes and I go.
And I feel so much better after.
In other news, it’s snowing outside right now. Another 4–8″ of snow due to fall overnight. I have to get myself off to bed so that I can wake up and shovel out before work.
And so it goes…
Tags: alone time, exercise, gratitude, laughter therapy, running, treadmill, winter, winter hibernation
Posted in The Daily Balance | No Comments »
frickin’ freezing!
Sunday, January 23rd, 2011
It is reallllllllllly cold right now in southern New Hampshire. Bone-chilling, suck-your-breath-away cold. The kind of cold where your nostrils stick together and you get a dry little cough if you’re outside for more than 10 minutes.
Which is precisely what happened to me when I stepped outside to snap a few photos at sunset today.
I was trying to convey two things:
1) We have a sh*t-ton of snow going on. It snowed again last Tuesday. It was around 6″ of icy, heavy snow which made for fun after-work shoveling. And then it snowed about an inch on Thursday. And then it snowed another 6″ on Friday. I had trouble getting out of the driveway to get to work. My car just couldn’t get traction. But after some stealth shoveling coupled with a healthy dose of cursing, I was able to finally get out. Friday night after work was also spent shoveling more icy, heavy snow.
Side note: Snow shoveling is quickly becoming part of my weekly workout routine. Which I do not mind. It’s such a great way to exercise and breaks up my running regimen. We’ve had close to 35″ of snow in 2 weeks. And rumor has it another huge storm is headed our way on Wednesday of this week. It just keeps coming. It’s kind of funny to plan out my runs for the week and schedule them around potential shoveling.
2) On the positive side of things, the sun is setting a little bit later each day. Today it stayed light until just about 5:30 p.m. This is progress!
The snow banks lining our street are quite high, and my front bushes are absolutely buried. I do hope that the bushes will fare okay through all of this.
And now back to the cold… the high today was around 16°F. And that’s not factoring in the windchill. And since the sun went down, the temp has fallen steadily. It’s just after 11:00 p.m. and here’s the latest:
Yeah, 3.9°F is COLD. The overnight low is expected to fall well into the minus territory. Brrrrrrr!
I am so thankful that I washed the sheets today. I am very much looking forward to bounding into bed with clean sheets and making a cozy little blanket nest to keep warm overnight.
So, that pretty much sums up what last week was like. Cold. Snow. Shoveling. Sleep. Repeat. It’s that time of year.
Tags: exercise, running, winter, winter hibernation
Posted in Let's Get Physical, The Daily Balance | No Comments »
new year, new tracks
Sunday, January 2nd, 2011
Hello! Happy New Year to you! So, did you survive the holidays in one piece? Can you believe that it is 2011 and January is here? Yikes. It sure did sneak right on up, didn’t it?
I hope you had some time to kick back and relax over the holidays like I did. It was sooooo welcome and needed. I had time to sleep in and time to loaf around—and I did so WITHOUT GUILT. I absolutely relish the fact that I can be absolutely leisurely still. I fully understand that these days are numbered, and I felt really lucky to have had the week off before Christmas so that I could be at home and spend some time being ridiculously selfish. I wish a little of that for everyone now and then. It is rejuvenating.
I also had time to clean, time to hang out playing with nieces and nephews, time to read, time to bake, time to run errands, time to see friends in town, time to go to a few holiday parties, and time to go for long, challenging runs.
And while I did go back to work last week, I had Friday off. It was nice to come back from vacation and ease into the routine with a 4-day week. Plus, coming back to work when half of your office is on vacation is awesome. It’s quiet and you can get so much done! I sorted through copious amounts of old email. I organized files. I cleaned up my desktop. I got all my dates put onto the calendar for 2011.
Now if I can carve out a tiny bit of time each week to STAY organized—that will be real progress.
So yeah, now here we are. A brand new year. 2011.
Swinging back around on that track to face January again. A chance to rethink old ways and bad habits, a chance to make new plans, a chance to set out on new journeys and make new tracks.
What will this new year bring? I am open to the possibilities. I am ready for the ride, and I hope you’ll come along with me!
What new tracks would you like to make in 2011?
Tags: alone time, gratitude, housework, laughter therapy, running, winter
Posted in The Daily Balance | No Comments »