Today I feel very happy and blessed. I love it when I wake up feeling satisfied in my life. It’s crazy that there are days that feel like this and then there are days where I just wake up pissed off and grumpy. Life is interesting like that. I need to embrace these happy days, but I am certainly well aware that they are not all like this. Far from it honestly. But today I am just going to be happy.
I think my commitment to my goal of 14 in 14 is making me happy. I think setting an epic goal and going for it is really helping my mood. Funny. I guess I am a goal oriented make a list and cross it off kind of girl. I guess I also just like the feeling of success. And the surest way to be successful is to set obtainable goals. Here’s the funny thing though, running is like the black sheep of the fitness world at a gym. I pretty much discovered this the first day I ever walked into the gym. The sentiment is felt by pretty much all employees. It’s a bizarre concept to me. I have had it drilled into my head that for whatever reason running is the anthesis of health. I am still baffled by this concept. I “see” where they are coming from but I’ve never 100% subscribed to their crazy Kool-Aid.
As excited as I am about my goal it is like this shameful dirty little secret that I am not supposed to discuss in my gym life. It’s funny. Last night I told my previous trainer Julie about my goal, I’m going to run 14 in 2014 and she looked at me with big eyes and said, “be careful.” I was immediately taken aback. She said that I didn’t need to do so much cardio and I have an obsessive personality and blah blah blah. I was honestly surprised. We aren’t talking about running those 50 mile uber runs or anything; it’s literally a freaking ½ marathon. It’s not like I am even saying 14 full marathons. I don’t really understand. And a year is a very long time honestly. So let’s just break this down a little. For the sake of argument, let’s just say I got super into this, like crazy over the top Emily kind of crazy and blew past my 14 in a year plan. This could realistically happen honestly. But it wouldn’t be like more than 2 a month. I don’t have all the money and time in the world for this. So for the sake of argument I run 2 half marathons in a month. That is a total of 26.2 miles a month. Its equivalent to about 4 ½ hours of running in a month. I rarely run much in between them. I am too busy doing all the strength training they have taught me at the gym.
So 4.5 hours of running in an entire month. That is NOTHING! Let’s not forget that I have on many occasion over the past 10 years ran consistently a minimum of 5-8 hours a week, every single week at points. In all honesty those 4.5 hours wouldn’t even touch my weekly running quota. I don’t do that anymore. I am happier for it, honestly. I am happier now not running that much. I think it’s because I don’t run that much anymore that I am excited to run half marathons. I don’t think this is excessive or asking too much of my body. Well, no more than I already put my body thru on a regular basis with every other crazy thing I do.
It’s just I’ve been told time and time again that cardio, running in particular is the devil. I’m floored and surprised by this concept as a whole. I am thankful that I no longer run an hour plus every day. I see their logic in this very flawed thinking, but a few half marathons are not going to kill me. If I was in physical pain afterwards. If my body was hobbling along for days post run I could understand. The most I’ve felt is tired for the duration of the rest of the day after I run, but I’m ready to go the next day. I am not in physical pain; I do not injure any body part in the process. Honestly it’s just not that big of a deal to me.
Let me put it this way. On any given Saturday or Sunday I pretty much spend 2 hours in the gym working out. Granted, there are many breaks in there and variety of exercise. It is not a solid my heart rate is elevated can’t stop, 2 hours 15 minutes of workout. But it’s typically 2 hours nonetheless. So on a particular weekend I choose to run instead of spending my 2 hours in the gym. And I get a shiny medal at the end of it for my efforts. I don’t get medals after my gym workouts so sometimes this seems more fun. I guess I’m not doing the runs as a means of physical fitness. I am not doing them to lose weight or even to burn calories. I am running because it is fun to me. I am running to push the limits of my heart.
I am honestly disappointed that it is such a shameful goal in my gym world, but it doesn’t stop me from achieving my goals or moving forward. I will not be deterred. There is no one that will ever be able to convince me that running 14 half marathons in a year is going to be bad for me. My body can take the stress and/or strain if that’s what the issue is. I am conditioned and capable of the task. I am going to ignore the naysayers and move forward with the happy smile on my face. This is what I want and I always make what I want happen.
I keep envisioning myself in a year with a ton of medals and more importantly with the feeling of pride and happiness I will have from accomplishing what some consider crazy. Oh, I should also point out that my father in law thinks that 14 is probably too many to run in a year. I think he’s just trying to be nice and look out for us but it seems more often than not I am getting told what a not good idea this is when I know it’s a perfectly good idea for me. I have never been more capable physically and mentally in my entire life. In fact maybe there are some of you out there that think this is crazy, but if you’ve been reading my blog for any duration of time you should know that 1. I am slightly crazy 2. That crazy is just steadfast determination to achieve my goals and 3. Physically I can handle a lot, I am a work horse. 4. I haven’t backed down from a challenge yet.
I am a rare mix of crazy determination and steadfast dedication. The funny thing is I don’t doubt for a slight second that I will succeed at this. It just is slightly odd to me that some people don’t understand it. I guess there will always be those people who wish to bring you down a little! That is probably true of life in general. I shouldn’t let it bother me at all. Just an interesting observation really.
So tonight is my one kind of “free” night at the gym. There is only 1 30 minute class to do, and then I am on my own to do as I want. I am not sure what I want to do honestly. I can do strength training, I can run for 30 minutes or I just fuck around and barely accomplish anything. Ha Ha. I am tired. Let’s see. Saturday I ran 13.1 miles. Sunday I did a back and ab workout with Amanda for like 2 hours. Yesterday I did a 30 minute butts and guts class and then an hour of iron power strength training. Now today I am tired. Go figure. Doesn’t mean I won’t go to the gym and workout. I just have to figure out how much effort I want to put in. I do like to take it a little easier on Tuesday’s. Like only an hour of workout since Wednesday night is usually brutal for me with personal training and then an hour of Iron Power strength training. I like to kind of take it easy if I can on Tuesday’s. So whatever happens will be fine.
I will say this, it is only Tuesday and already I wish it were Friday and I want the weekend again. This moment I am also very glad I have another mini vacation on the books, for San Francisco in April. I can’t tell you how motivational it is to me to have something to constantly look forward to. It seems that once we take a mini trip I am always thinking about the next one. I guess I need things “out there” to keep me going. To keep life interesting. I have discovered for me that is pretty critical for my mental well-being. Who doesn’t want to take a break from the regular grind of life every now and then? Aside from the immense love of running half marathons I have discovered an insatiable urge to travel and explore. I guess this goes with the desire to truly live my life, step out of my comfort zone and live a little. Life is far more exciting when you are having fun and enjoying yourself.
I am watching all those Facebook videos of people’s lives with that sappy music and it’s just brining a giant smile to my face! You know what mine had, lots of running photos and it just made me happy. I am so in love with the life I am starting to form and the person I am becoming. My life is good. Today I shall smile because despite the fact that is snowing outside my heart is warm.
2 comments:
It's weird to me that your gym makes you feel like running races is shameful. It seems like the "Us" vs. "them" mentality. But then again, for a lot of people 1/2 marathon's seem to be a lot more physically challenging than they are to you. I am serious, I have never read or talked to anyone else who could do the 1/2 marathon's without training properly and not feeling like dying. But for you, it just seems to work. If you were writing about not being able to walk for days after doing a 1/2 marathon or being in so much pain, etc, I would worry.
But frankly, I have no doubt you can do it. I may not know HOW your body is able to do it, but you've proven you can time and time again. I am glad you aren't pushing down this part of you even if it's contrary to what your gym friends say. Just continue listening to your body and brain:)
I have a coworker who does the ultra marathons which I can't even imagine. I also read an article about people who ran a marathon every day of 2013. So 14 1/2 marathons seems quite reasonable:)
Is it really snowing in Oregon? I was hoping to escape the snow this weekend!
Is your husband also doing the 14 in 14? Does he have to train for these races or can he wing it like you?
Funny because that is what our trainer used to tell my husband- that he needed to do no more than 20 minutes of cardio like 2 times a week and the rest should be muscle-building exercises. His goal was to get bulked up in his chest and arms and not necessarily to lose weight though. I didn't get harped on as much because I had weight to lose.
I kind of get why they feel that way because if you think of it, cardio is/can be kind of torture and if someone tells you that you don't have to do it to get fit, GREAT! Maybe they think you are training for these with runs every day or something, but by using your logic that it's about 4.5 hours of running and you're not really "training" per se, aside from the occasional run to break up the monotony, I don't see why it's a problem.
I know there is that whole rumor our there that a lot of people train for halfs and fulls and actually GAIN weight, and I have definitely seen it happen to some people and it also terrifies me as I sit static with my weight at about halfway through my half training.
But I say just do your thing. Tell them it's more about mental health and that you are a BORN RUNNER, and they should back off. If not, they need to chill. Seriously. It's your life. It's not like you are negating your hard work in the gym by smoking ciggs and eating lard, so seriously I don't see why it worries everyone so much, you know?
I just don't know how you do it! I got up to 8 miles in our Saturday long runs this week, which accidentally turned into more like 9.5 and my legs are STILL sore. Thigh and ankles. So much that I skipped my short run yesterday. I wanted to make it up by doing some hills training today, but just the thought makes me draw up in pain.
I am definitely interested in seeing how the 14 in 14 goes since you are pretty much only running the races and not much else. You are a MACHINE!!
I have the same question as Paige- does your husband run the same way? Isn't he a new(ish) runner? I'd worry more about injury with him than you, but you guys are adults, so I say just do it until it's not fun anymore. :)
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