Avoidance and Body

I got up later than usual this morning, this week has been full of parties and alcohol and late nights, but it's been a lot of fun.  Today a local runner was organizing her fifth annual birthday 5k toy drive.  Hubby and I went and took my co-worker's daughter, who is 14 and a half.  It was a lot of fun.  We even got numbered bibs, but there weren't any timers.  I was wondering what it would be like because it was definitely the fast Dallas crowd that showed up.  Local runners who place among the top Americans at races all over the country, and all seem to have sub-3 marathon PRs.  Very intimidating for me!  I feel like my running times have improved like crazy starting in mid-2007 (after I started doing some major cross-training and some weights).  But I'm still leaps and bounds behind this crowd.  When I got my first facebook friend request from one of them I said I honestly felt like I should be his "fan" rather than his friend!  Anyway, I got the invite to this 5k and thought it would be fun to bring the freshman with me. 

We had run a 5k together about 2 years ago and had a good time.  Today was also great, though she said she's not in as good of shape as she thought.  We ran about 8 minutes, then walked some, then ran and walked 2-3 more times and then finished pretty strong.  About the same as two years ago.  A local speedy guy had said he'd run with us.  Though he didn't hook up with us until about halfway, it was nice to have him keep us company too.  And then we kept seeing my husband too, he'd pass us and then we'd pass him and we kept going back and forth, though we eeked out the victory. 

On to more reverb.  I'm participating in Reverb 10 for the month of December. Each day has a new prompt to encourage participants to reflect on 2010 and manifest what’s next in 2011.

December 11 – 11 Things. What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life? (Author: Sam Davidson)

1.  Injuries.  Last year I struggled with plantar fasciitis in both legs, beginning in about June.  Though I publicly deny how it happened, in my heart of hearts, I know full well how it happened.  I built up my mileage too quickly.  I've run for long enough that I certainly know better.  What happened was that I ran fairly solid and steady mileage all spring, took a little vacation, and then came back to the same mileage and started to very gradually build it up as marathon training got underway.  My dirty little secret though is that the little vacation was actually the few week trip we took to the east coast, Sweden and Russia.  And aside from a couple days of running on the east coast and maybe once or twice in Sweden, I really didn't run at all.  The runner's rule of thumb is that most runners can safely skip two weeks for any reason (illness, injury, vacation, whatever) and jump right back in where they started.  But if you miss over two weeks, you're supposed to build back up to where you were originally.  Well, we were gone well over two weeks and I picked up right where I'd left off.  We had a train wreck of a trip home.  Moscow to Stockholm, one very short overnight in Stockholm, then to Copenhagen, then to Chicago, then back to Dallas.  But we got to Chicago and our flight to Dallas was cancelled.  Yikes.  Fortunately, I have a couple brothers in Chicago and we were able to break into the main door of their house, and then get to their hidden house key and stay at their place (they weren't around but told us we could).  They live close to Lakeshore Drive, so the next morning I couldn't resist running there and I did an easy paced 6 miles.  Then we flew back to Dallas and I was right back where I left off.  Unfortunately one day of 6 miles on LSD was not sufficient preparation.  Oops.  This year I will avoid that by not slacking over the holidays!  I'm going to keep working out on a fairly normal schedule, and even for the 9-10 days I'm home at my folks' place, I'll try to get some working out in to my days.  I'll be home in Dallas on about the 27th and will run steadily that week, and on Jan. 2, the official start of Boston training, I'll be ready to bring it. 

2.  Hesitation with Italian.  Hubby and I are planning to make the switch in our conversations at home from English into Italian on January 1, which will be how I'll keep the hesitation out of my life in 2011.  I'd like to keep a dictionary at hand and make a running list of words I have to look up.  I might add vocabulary cards back to the walls of the shower, which was one of my techniques before for learning extra words (my law school roommate and I had done that in law school before exams; since we were in the same section and the same informal study group, it worked very well!).  But the bottom line is that I want to be able to speak easily when we get there.  While I'll still be unable to understand dialect, I'll at least sound like less of a jack@ss than I currently do when speaking Italian. 

3. 5 pounds?  I'd be happy to lose more weight than that, but steady as she goes, right?  I think my workout plan that goes into effect on Jan. 2 might help with this, but I need to clean up my eats too.  I'd really like to get rid of some weight for good, as in never to be seen again, even on the night of Thanksgiving...

4.  Clutter!  In the closet and around the house in general.  Even in the bathroom -- I have a little stockpile of lotions and other make-up.  I need to either donate it or start using it.  Or pitch it if some of it's as old as I think it might be.  I should cut the contents of my closet in half approximately.  The garments that don't fit need to be altered or donated.  The things I don't wear need to be donated.  I have no idea how I'll avoid keeping the clutter in my life in 2011.  It's been there for so long.  Fortunately, I don't tend to accumulate much, but the clearing out needs to happen.  The best thing of course would be to move, which always prompts me to undertake some major cleaning, but we love our house and don't see a move in 2011.  So I'll just have to buckle down and do it on the weekends. 

5.  My wimpy arms.  I'd like to step up my weights at boot camp by about 2 pounds.  It will be exceedingly difficult I think, but it's certainly good for me!  I'm not sure whether or not I'll be able to manage this, but it's something I'd like to get rid of in 2011. 

6.  My car.  I hate to put it on the list, but it's getting old and I will likely have to get a new one in 2011.  Possibly I'll take my husband's car and he'll get a new one.  We might get something small (my car is a 2-door BMW, his is an Audi with 4 doors), and he'll drive it since he drives a lot more than I do.  But I'd love to have my car going strong a year from now.  The mileage isn't very high, which works in my favor.

7. Wasted time.  I'd like to get more efficient.  It's too easy to get sucked into blogs, facebook, etc.  I'm lucky that I don't have to be at work at any particular time, but I should probably be more selective in what I read, particularly in the mornings. 

8.  More bills.  I don't think anyone wants more bills in their life.  Aside from possibly a new car, I don't think we'll make any major purchases.  We are lucky not to have lots of debt, but it would be great to have even less a year from now.  We still have quite some time left on the house payments, but eliminating some non-house debt would be good.  We're going to upgrade our cell phones next summer, but hopefully we'll cut off one of our lines and choose a good plan that won't increase our bill much.  I am dreading researching this. 

9.  More activities.  I don't know how long a couple can be in a nesting phase, but our pattern lately is to stay home whenever we can.  Having more downtime at home together makes me feel better, more well-rested, calmer, more organized.  Being less involved in activities probably isn't something we want to do for a long time, but a down year would be nice. 

10.  Stress about groceries.  Very odd thing to put on the list, I know.  And actually, it's something I've been working on for about two months.  I'm so lucky that my husband does our grocery shopping, but part of relinquishing that control means that I have to accept things aren't done the way I'd do them.  It's an odd source of stress in a marriage, and I know it's good -- I'd rather have groceries be an issue than something like kids or sex or money, something that could be a real problem.  The issue is that I make the grocery list and then expect 100% accuracy in getting the items on the list.  And it has raised my blood pressure untold amounts when I've been in the middle of making something and I realize one ingredient that was on the grocery list wasn't purchased.  Very stressful.  I also used to be fairly picky about our everyday groceries, like I hated getting the wrong kind of English muffins for breakfast.  We've tried to talk about many solutions.  Like I write the list in a single column.  Or he uses a pen to cross things off the list while at the store.  Or even that I do the grocery shopping and he does something else for our little community (but that doesn't work well for us for various reasons).  So I'm trying to let go of the stress.  I've decided to try to be more patient and willing to make do with things that aren't what I'd have bought (like trying to eat regular English muffins instead of the whole wheat ones I prefer).  And I'm going to try to double check the grocery list when we unpack the groceries to make sure everything on the list made it into his cart, into his trunk and then into the house, which will eliminate the mid-recipe freak out when one key thing is missing.  Avoiding the stress on this issue will be very good for my marriage! 

11.  Kids.  Definitely something my life doesn't need in 2011, at least not kids of my own.  There are some great things on the calendar -- Boston marathon in the spring, a trip to Europe right after the marathon, my brother's summer wedding, and then hopefully a fall marathon.  I think getting pregnant would ruin a lot of those plans -- and PR dreams would fall to the side.  But since I like kids a lot, in small doses, I'll hope for lots of time with my nieces and nephew over the holidays and maybe other times during the year, and lots of activities with our godchildren.  The AC's godson is 8.  He's autistic but has improved so much in the last few years, so we're looking forward to more fun with him.  And my godson just turned 2, which is such a fun age.  He knows and likes me and is happy to play with me.  And each of our godchildren has a sibling.  AC's godson has a younger brother who is 6.  And my godson has an older sister who is almost 4.  I'd like to get to spend more time with all of them in 2011.  And for my friends who want to have kids this year, I'll hope their whole experience is joyful and that I get to hold some cute babies! 

I'm not sure that getting rid of any of those things will really change my life though (except maybe the groceries thing), but I like where my life is.  Nothing in particular that I want to change!  I'd be happy to end up 2011 in substantially the same spot where I'm wrapping up 2010.  Personal life is great, financially sound, a fair number of PRs, physically healthy, wonderful family and friends.  I'd like to just hold right here! 

Okay, and one more Reverb prompt to get completely caught up again:

December 12 – Body Integration. This year, when did you feel the most integrated with your body? Did you have a moment where there wasn’t mind and body, but simply a cohesive YOU, alive and present? (Author: Patrick Reynolds)

Well, the easy and clear answer is at the end of the 5k PR I had in September.  I've posted about that a couple times, right after it happened, and again in the context of these Reverb prompts.  It really was a monumental occasion for me!  I felt like during the final mile, I was so alive.  I knew I was working hard, but I wasn't even looking at my pace or thinking about it, I was just running.  I've tried to think of another example of when I felt most integrated, body and mind, this year, but I really can't come up with any non-running example.  I'm curious to see what others will post -- when do you feel integrated besides during one of the best work-outs?  Maybe sex?  Doubt people would post about that.  Maybe I'm just blanking on some other integration moment, but right now, I've got nothing.  For me, it was all during that 5k, especially in the second half.