I usually sketch out exercise plans a couple days in advance, taking the weather forecast and our schedule into account when coming up with a loose idea of what I’ll do in the days ahead.
I knew I was going to “ride Saturday, run Sunday” – but when I woke up this morning, I felt the need for a little *something* to make today’s run more interesting and fun.
If you’re supposed to give thanks for something each day, today I’m giving thanks for the XBox game Dance Central that I played at a holiday office party way back in December. I’m also giving thanks to the commercial for said game during The Biggest Loser on Hulu the other day.
Yes, thank you Hulu and Dance Central for reminding me about this song. It is the newest addition to my running playlist.
Want to cut 2 minutes off your pace for 3 minutes and 31 seconds? This ought to do it. Don’t forget to turn it up.
If wearing your Vibrams on the treadmill at the gym doesn’t get you any looks, taking a picture of yourself wearing your Vibrams on the treadmill at gym should totally take care of that.
I actually don’t know if anyone gave me the stink eye on this particular day while donning my favorite pink toe shoes. I do know that I was fully prepared to say “but look at how stinkin’ cute they are!!” if someone called me a freak or a did that thing where you hold your pointer finger near your temple and swirl it around a bit.
You know that saying;
What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
Sometimes the answers that we seek are right in front of our very eyes, it’s just a matter of opening them and taking a look.
A couple weeks before all this finger felon business went down I’d read an article on Mark’s Daily Apple called The Case Against Cardio. (If you already love exercise and have no problem making time for a regular run or workout, that article is worth a read.) It got me thinking that regular, lower intensity work outs can be A-OK. Maybe even better than ok – maybe slowing down is actually a really good thing.
Welp, a trail race was on the agenda for this morning! 10 kilometers to be exact.
Yes sir – 10 cold, rainy, snowy and more rainy kilometers. On the agenda.
Also on the agenda? A bunch of lessons to be learned. Get ready to take some notes.
Stay in the car as long as you can.
Let’s not rush to get out there just to stand around in the snow and rain, mmmk?
Snow is better than rain.
Because you don’t get soaked quite as quickly. Whose idea was this race anyway?
Potential Energy
These my friends, are fuel. And a pretty yummy fuel at that.
Inspired by Brendan Brazier’s Direct Fuel Bites, I made my own version with coconut oil, medjool dates and cocoa powder. Coconut oil is where it’s at for potential energy, which is what makes these little suckers so powerful.
Chewy Chocolaty Chewy Chews (catchy, eh?)
10 medjool dates, pitted
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 – 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Throw all ingredients into the food processor and then stand back to observe it’s Kinetic Energy with awe and wonder.
For those of you following along, I read Born to Run a few weeks ago. This book was awesome and continues to have a strong influence on my running life as of late. Much of the book is about these ultra-marathoners who run this insane, 100 mile race through the Rocky Mountains in Leadville, Colorado. One of the runners featured in this story had the bright idea to do his training for the race on the actual course itself. And what do you know – he ended up setting a new course record that year.
Do you know what I think of that?
1. I failed to remember to charge my Garmin before bed last night, thus I ran today with my old school (now seemingly very little in comparison) digital watch that doesn’t tell me anything fun or exciting.
2. My left arm felt amazingly light with no 3 lb garmin strapped to it. So light in fact that it kept creeping up toward the sky and I had to hold it down with my other hand lest every person I ran past wonder if they were supposed to call on me to answer a question.
At the end of last year I saw this hippie barefoot runner dude in the November issue of Runner’s World in their “What it Takes…” column.
More Mama’s Weeds
