Thinking deep thoughts and getting back to training

So I spent the last two months of 2011 in a chair in front of a computer. I mean, I ran my mud race in November, sat down and didn't get back up until Jan 5th (wrote a paper and defended some research, got a Master's degree). I like to say I did a Scott Jurek.

Now I'm moved to another state and getting ready to put my body back in order. I've run 6 times since Nov and rode a bike 7 miles the other day. That's not much exercise. I'm going to pick a couple of races to run during Spring and Summer and start my training.

I really started running less than a year and a half ago. I've discovered that I love it and that it makes my life better in many ways. I've had people comment that I'm nicer when I'm routinely running and my daughter actually told me to go for a run when I was grumpy one day.  My thing is that writing about running motivates me and it's rewarding to hear from people that it helps motivate them. This is really a rough time to convince myself to get out of bed early enough to get the morning run in and of course it doesn't help that it feels like I'm starting from scratch.

One of the things that always amazes me is that people think you have to have a particular kind of body or have some innate love of running to do things like a marathon or ultra. The truth is just about anyone can go from little or no running to half marathon or more. It's all mental. The real problem for most people is not their knees or arches, although that's what they'll talk about. The real problem is that people think running sucks! It's uncomfortable, it's tiring, it hurts. I think that just means you're doing it wrong!

Not every person who goes out to run a race is going to win right? So especially when you are just going into it, why train as though that's the goal. The goal is to finish the race and have a good time doing it. That's my goal for training as well. Of course I push myself, but the truth is if a run is truly miserable, or if running routinely becomes miserable, I'll drop it like a guinea pig peeing in my hand.


Exercise is supposed to make your life better. It cleanses the mind and helps put things in perspective. It's great time for deep thinking, or hanging out with someone. In a world where every thought is about to be interrupted by the ring of a phone or ding of a message, it may be one of the only places our phones have not infiltrated  (I stopped by a restaurant restroom the other day in which the guy on the pot was chatting on the phone).


Now is the time to start training for the Spring/Summer race season. Let me know what you are running, biking, mudding.


Good running everybody!