about getting from point A to point B in the most interesting ways possible

If you're a large woman in America, your whole life is an opportunity to feel self-conscious, embarrassed, resentful and way too big. You can hide in the corner or on the couch, you can go to therapy, or you can put on your lycra bike shorts and get out there and move.
—Jayne Williams, Slow Fat Triathlete

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January 17, 2005

The Chris Brogan Oracle permalink

Today was a day off for me, so I spent the morning pining for the outside world from the couch, watching TV and reading blogs. As usual, I'm catching up on everyone's entries for the week, and I run across this one from Chris. He mentions feeling better about saying he's training for an ultra rather than to lose some weight, and man, I totally know what he's talking about.

The idea of training for a marathon is so cool! Dieting, how vain is that? The reality of training for a marathon, in the winter in Oregon, not so much.

I spent the morning moping, being sad, etc. A lot of good that did. Finally, in the afternoon, I did some housecleaning, dunging out some drawers, and then I went for a walk.

It was overcast and sprinkling for most of the walk. I went from my place to Alameda Blvd, and followed that til 57th Street. I went up 57th until Fremont, to make 4 miles. Then I doubled back. Because I had done some goofing off (looking in the windows of houses for sale), it didn't end up being quite 8 miles.

I was soaked through by the turn-around, and at that point I noticed that I didn't have my ip0d. It's just not that important when I'm outside, and I had a bunch of emotional stuff I needed to process anyways.

I noticed a number of beautiful, decrepit old houses along 57th. I love decrepit houses, and of course, I tend to forget that I don't have the resources to rescue them, but I love to daydream about them. Houses along 57th wouldn't do, anyways—it's a big street, and while Daphne the outdoor cat is very smart, I don't want to test her.

Coming back, I was full of all sorts of complaints. My toes hurt, my feet were wet, I was cold, my hankie was soaked through, blahblahblah. Vicki, get over yerself!

Much to my surprise, I did a negative split to the tune of about 45 seconds a mile. Wuhoo! I did a leisurely pace, mostly because I was hoping to get out of my funk.

My enthusiasm is down. Maybe I've bit off too much, maybe I need some downtime, I don't know. But I'm feeling like I've set some goals that are too high. Momentarily today, I thought about going to Austin, and not doing a race there. Just kicking back and having a vacation. But I really want to do a race there, at least my ego wants to do a race there.

Posted at January 17, 2005

Comments

Hey negative splits are a sign of a good run. Good job!

Some days I have that "why am I doing this?" feeling. Usually its on a long run when I start to get tired. I ask myself what good this is all doing. The races help me. Running in the race and getting a number and a T-shirt and cool snacks at the end makes it fun. That's what I'm doing it for. :)

Posted by: Jon in Michigan at January 18, 2005 5:38 AM