Realities

This past weekend we headed to Concord CA. to "drop off" Alyssa for the summer so she can be a part of Concord Blue Devil's drum corps. Yes, this was a little emotional for me, she is only 16 and I will miss her! Anyway, along with the Blue Devil's festivities and first performance, we (mostly Mike) tiled a shower for Cindy (Mike's sister). Our intentions were good, honestly, we were planning on running, but, we were just too beat! We drove up Thursday night arriving at 12;15am Friday morning. We then had to be up early to get Alyssa to rehearsal and then begin to tile the shower. We also had several hours of school work to accomplish and a late night when we dropped Alyssa off at her "home" for the summer.

When the alarm rang on Saturday morning, we just could not make it happen. Knowing that we had another long day of tile, homework and a dinner party ahead of us. Also with the knowledge that we would be driving home after the Sunday Blue Devil's show (ending approx 10pm), meaning that we would not arrive home until approx. 4am on Monday morning with the first daycare arrival at our home at 7:30am Monday morning; we just could not physically do it, we chose to sleet in till 7am Sat morning.

We did not run at all this weekend. Reality, I am not 25 anymore, I am 45. My body does not recover from that much loss of sleep very easily. Actually, that is the first time I have gone with only two hours of sleep in years. I wonder why I thought it was appealing when I was younger? I just found it exhausting this time around!

Reality number two, I could not run on Monday. My body was pretty messed up from the all-niter! (I know, what a wimp!) Tuesday, we were back to our regularly scheduled run. I hadn't run since last Wednesday! We took it kind of easy because of our long break. After the run, I was glad to be back on schedule! I admit, it was actually difficult to get going again. It was good that Mike was more motivated than I and encouraged me to get back out there and run.

Reality three, it is VERY helpful that Mike and I are running together and with a larger group. When Mike is less motivated, seems like I am more motivated and vise-versa. When neither of us is motivated, our running group that is expecting us to join them on Saturday mornings and Thursday evenings, is motivating! If I did not have these people to motivate me, I would surely have lost the battle against my excuse-ridden will and not be able to still call myself a runner today! Thank you my Friends for keeping me on track! =)

Braces On!

Braces have nothing to do with running you say? Well, you really are right, however, it is part of the adventure, so I am including it in my blog! =) Anyway, I got braces on my teeth last Thursday. I have been waiting for this day for quite a while! They feel very strange, like some big bulky thing is sticking out of my mouth! Not really what I imagined. Oh, at this point, they are certainly hurting more than I imagined also. So, in a way I kind of feel like a kid, I told my husband that I am going through my "awkward" stage! My friend even made up an emoticon for braces... =(#) I love it!

Running has been going pretty smoothly. Jeff Goldberg (author and Olympian), Says that every time we run we may have to contend with our left-brain. Our left-brain is the one telling us that we are "too tired, or "had a long day", or "don't feel well enough" to run, and little things like that. We must tell the left-brain to be quiet! We must overcome the arguments of our left brain to be victorious in our quest for healthy bodies!

It seems that I have my share of fighting my left-brain lately! I especially had to fight it on Thursday when my teeth were aching because of my most recent acquisition of braces! Over the last couple of weeks I have had many stressors in just about every area of life! My left-brain jumps at every chance to get me seated in front of the TV eating popcorn instead of running. I have respectfully declined Left-brain's offers and have gone running in spite of the compelling arguments not too! That is not to say that I have stepped out the door with a happy face and a jump in my step though, but, I have gone out the door and I have run, that is the victory! Hurray for victory!