someone who is busier than you is running right now

Life is insanely busy right now and I'm failing at finding the perfect balance between work, parenting, exercising, house keeping, sleeping, and spending time with friends. And guess which activity got pushed to the back burner this week.. Yep.. running.. logged a whopping 9.19 miles in 3 runs (and swam 1000 meters). Didn't meet my weekly goal, but eh.. there's always next week! Think I'll tattoo the saying in this picture on my hand as a reminder ;-) 

inspiring by example whether you realize it or not

I'm happy to say that my first "long run" of 2012 marathon training didn't involve episodes of Law & Order! Thanks so much to my Daily Mile Secret Santa for the cool gift! LOVE IT! I haven't had a decent long run in over a month. Either the long run was horrible or I wimped out or was too busy. But finally made the commitment to "JUST DO IT!" today. I set myself up for a win.. I strapped on my heart rate monitor and set my goal of LSD (long slow distance). I kept my heart rate in the 70-80% range and it was EASY! Slow.. but EASY.. until the end when I couldn't handle going so slow any more and picked up the pace for a happy finish!

You never know who you may inspire by just being you.. There were several mountain bikers on the trail today. On my last lap, a lone rider slowed as we passed and said, "you must be running 20 miles today" (we had passed each other at least once or twice already). I replied, "nah.. only 11". And he said, "my god.. I can't even imagine running that far.." and at the same time I was thinking that 11 miles is less than half the distance of my longest runs. Lesson learned is that what seems easy to you may be impressive to others.

So get out there and inspire someone today!

parking lots are much more fun with grocery carts

Although I swore no "resolutions" for 2012.. I did resolve to try something new this year.. and thought about a few goals in order to make 2012 better than prior years. I registered for a few triathlons for 2012 for fun new adventures. My big goal is a half IM in October. And since I've never tried a tri, a lot of people suggested that I start with a sprint so I registered for a sprint triathlon in May, and an olympic distance triathlon in August so I will be better prepared for the half IM.

I thought about a goal of "streaking" in 2012.. but couldn't decide if it should be simply to exercise each day or run each day or are both insane because my body will probably perform better if I take occassional rest days? I started the year with the "A" goal of running every day, but that ended yesterday due to an insanely busy work/personal crisis day. However, I realized early into the day that I wouldn't have time to run until maybe midnight so I shifted to the "B" goal and made a point to walk/jog the 11 flights of stairs (each way) at work throughout the day. I think I covered the distance 4 times, so that's certainly better than not doing anything.

I ran my planned 5 miles on my favorite trail today and then added a "fun, unplanned, naked (without a gps watch) run" tonight as I ran while pushing my teenaged daughter in the grocery cart, and then chased her (while videotaping) as the cart rolled down the sloped parking lot. She said several people were staring at us like we were crazy teenagers, and we both laughed. I told her that her life would be so much more boring if I were an obese/sedentary mom and she thanked me for being a fit/fun mom instead. Life is great! Live like you're a kid when you can because it is so much more fun!