Ditch the Attitude.

Staged running selfie to go along with tonight's running-life metaphor. I'm a week into training with a running coach, more on that later. Today's task was 1mi warm up/cool down with a 1mi time trial ("as fast as you can go!") in between-didn't want to do that on a treadmill. Babysitter, check! Freezing rain kept me off the roads, so I headed to our hockey rink's walking track (runners allowed). GPS wasn't working so pacing my warm up was interesting, too fast I'm sure, and I ultimately just shut off GPS and went old school with a stopwatch.

The track is wide enough for two, passing is okay, except there was one (very sweet) couple walking together so once every lap I had a pretty substantial interruption jogging in place behind them until I could scoot around them, usually an aisle in the bleachers. SARCASTIC BONUS: website says 7 laps=1 mile, posted sign says 7.75 (probably truly 7.75), so who really knows what went down today, huh? What I wanted was a clear start, a clear finish, and nothing in my way. Didn't think I needed a reminder, but I guess I did... that.is.not.how.the.world.works. All things considered, I truly believe I did the best I could, I explored a new running/walking space, had a full hour ALONE outside my own house, and I got off the treadmill! All things I wish I could do EVERY day, so I'm trying to ditch the attitude and feel good about today. Coach gave me more credit for my time than I was willing to give myself and I'll have plenty more opportunities to see what I'm made of.

Knowledge.

I've had some urges lately to spill my mind onto Instagram, which has led me to two conclusions.  One: I should be writing here more.  Two: I should spill my mind onto Instagram.  So, for the time being, I'm going to kill two birds with one stone.  I'll dump a little more there, and post the same message here.  I like to go back and read these sometimes and it's far easier to find and reflect here than on Instagram.  Though I sure do love them both.  Here are today's thoughts on my latest accidental science experiment

Word of the week: knowledge. It's my number one coping tool. With any stressful situation (deployments, parenting, dental school chaos, illness, anything), give me all the information that's out there and I can handle it. So, big shocker to no one, I've been doing a lot of reading about running and talking to people with far more experience, even following other random runners on Instagram. It's been so helpful and given me the confidence I need to push myself. But you know what information just can't be found? Information about my own body. The only way to get that is by trial and error and LISTENING to it. I've been doing everything right (shoes, strength, yoga/stretching, incredibly gradual increases, following a plan, etc.) and I still developed some shin pain in December. I'm still not convinced it was shin splints, but rather than be stubborn, I took two weeks off. When I started back, I did so very slowly. I added compression and ice to the mix, too. My runs felt great, and so did my shins afterwards. Until they didn't. I realized the only difference was skipping the ice. So, yesterday I ran again and made sure to ice afterwards. Voila - no pain. Hopefully it really is as simple as that. And if so, no amount of Googling or book reading could have told me that. Sometimes the knowledge we're seeking just isn't "out there," but we can still find it by listening. And yes, I'll still be doing everything "right" and listening in case it isn't that simple after all. PS: pretty sure the photo timer went off when I was actually walking so don't read into my form too much.