Taking a Dose of my Own Medicine

So last night I went to bed feeling completely congested.   Allergy season is upon us!   I went to bed early in hopes of giving my body a little extra recovery time to fight off what ever it was dealing with.  It helped, but I was repeatedly sneezing in no time.  My first thought?  Maybe I should skip working out.  After all, Cynthia is not coming over to workout today. No one would blame me for taking a day off... Besides, it is about to rain!  Mind games were in full effect.  Then I thought about the post I wrote only yesterday about exercise being a decision.  Good grief, Lisa!  Take a dose of your own medicine and get out there!   It's just some silly allergies, not a torn ligament!  So even though I was not feeling totally motivated, I made the decision to run. I had to go to school to sign a permission slip, I figured I would see if I could run the whole way and back without joint pain.  It was about 3 miles total.  So guess what? It actually felt pretty good to be out there! I ran on the side of the road on the dirt. I took the first mile kinda slow, but then I picked up the pace. I got into a rhythm and before I knew it, I was finished!


Three miles is not exactly a huge distance, but in that short time, I learned a few things that I would not have if I had sat home nursing my nose.

1)  Running on dirt is much less jarring on my bones than road running.

2) In the Insanity workout, Shaun T. talks about lifting your legs with your core by leaning forward ever so slightly.  I concentrated on lifting rather than pushing off.  I found that by getting my core more involved, my gait slightly changed. I was not landing quite so heavy on my feet.  The bonus was, I could feel my abs getting involved ( six pack here I come!)

3) Exercise clears out the sinuses!  Okay, I kinda knew that, but I needed the reminder of actually doing it. It felt good to breathe.

4)  Sticking with the Decision to Exercise despite what the mind chatter is saying is always the right choice.

The best news of all was that my knees/ hips did not bother me AT ALL!     I will definitely continue the "lift with the core" technique and see where it takes me.   What  have you learned recently by working out?

Exercise is a Decision

Have you heard  the phrase, "Love is a decision"? The decision to love doesn't rely on feelings, which can come and go with our moods and the circumstances of our life. If it did, where would we be when the warm fuzzies disappeared?  Instead, it relies on the commitment we make. We can know that even when things are tough, we have made a decision to love, regardless of conflict and difficulties.

This same concept can be applied to exercise. Exercise involves decisions (often daily ones) as well.  Is it too cold?  Am I too tired?   Am I in the mood?  Do I have time? Is it even working? Moving towards our well-being is a decision which I think can be viewed as two–sided.   One side holds our excuses (some of them valid), and the other side holds our goals, hopes and dreams.  If this sounds dramatic, think about how real those excuses can be.  So real that they often prevent us from exercising at all.  If we can counter those excuses with our goals and even our bigger dreams, we give ourselves real reasons to exercise. And like real love, our motivation is not based on our feelings, but on a decision that we have made.

Lets face it, often the decision to exercise is half the battle.  The  mental battles can sometimes tire us out before we even face the physical ones! If we can prepare ourselves to make better decisions, exercise might not be so difficult.  A decision made the night before, for instance, will go a long way to propel us to follow through.  We decide to set out our clothes, turn on the alarm, meet a friend.  All of these things help us, so that in the morning we are better prepared to make a good decision about exercise. And when we do get moving, we feel better and more motivated to do it again tomorrow! That is not to say those excuses won’t be there tomorrow . In fact, we may face off with them everyday for a long time.  But there is good news, I think.  Eventually the decision becomes built in to our subconscious.  A decision made long ago still has enough weight to bring us to it today.

Our longterm goals can help in the decision process as well. Whether it is a race we sign up for or a weight we aspire to, goals are incredibly helpful in the decision to make exercise a regular part of our life.  I know that when I decided to increase my endurance, it was important to have a goal. I knew if I could build the muscles around my joints and start walking and running more, I could possibly figure out how to overcome my knee and hip issues. So I set the goal of 250k race.  I wanted to be able to do something I never thought was possible. I still not where I want to be, but I am getting there. And each day I have that race to focus on. Most of us need a little carrot dangling out there to push us toward our goals.  

 Always we be ready to fight those sneaky excuses, because they can rear their ugly heads if we are not prepared! Writing down our short and long term goals is another way to practically help ourselves make daily decisions. Taping them on the bathroom mirror or on a nightstand next to the bed where we see them first thing in the morning is that mental tug towards making the decision to exercise. Making fitness a regular part of your live is a whole lot easier when you make a conscious decision to do it. Then all you have to do is stick with it!

Tell me about your decisions regarding exercise…or regarding life in general!

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with the First Step...

Training has officially begun!!   To get my legs and feet prepared for such a long race, I have am increasing my outdoor workouts.  It is important to ramp up my endurance, but not so quickly that I sustain an injury or damage my joints. So this is my current schedule:

Mondays- Insanity 

Tuesday- Hilly hike (changes week to week)

Wednesday-Insanity 

Thursday-10 mile hike

Friday-Fit club workout (cardio)in pm, possible am workout depending on my schedule.

Saturday-Body Gospel fit club in am

Sunday -rest

First attempt of the season. Deep snow !

My training partner, Cynthia,(pictured here) and I just finished a round of P90X  so we are both starting with a good base of overall strength.  We just started the hikes 3 weeks ago when the snow was still everywhere, but it is just about gone now. Thank goodness!  I cannot tell you how much easier it is to hike the hills on soft dirt instead of crunching though deep snow and jagged ice patches.

It is funny, I am already feeling a difference in how my body is responding to the longer workouts.   The first time we did the 10 mile hike (lots of rolling hills), my hamstrings and quads were tighter than a drum for two and a half days! Owie!   The second week,we ran a lot more of the trail and  one hamstring was only really it for 24 hours. 

Week three- much less snow means more waterfalls

  This Thursday, I added a little more weight to my backpack ran the first section, which was all uphill, and I was only feeling tight for about an hour!   It is truly amazing how quickly the body responds to what we need it to do.  

Yesterday was fit club day and while it is always fun to workout with friends, I found that it was not enough, so my daughter and I  went for a nice hike around Fernald's Neck.   It is an outcropping of land surrounded  Megunticook Lake.  It was pretty darn soggy in spots and while this hills were fairly tame,  roots and rock abound!  It was great ankle work.  The real bonus to sneaking in an extra hike was sharing the experience with my eleven year old.  It was great to see her scrambling up the rocks and having so much fun.  I may have a new hiking buddy!

What is YOUR Atacama?

Earlier in the year, I hinted that I had a big announcement.  Well I think it is time for me to let the cat out of the bag!   I have been looking for a new challenge for a while. While I was feeling pretty good about my fitness, I did not have any real goal to drive my workouts.   I saw some of my friends Well my training buddy Cynthia told me about this crazy self supporting race that is at least five times longer than I have EVER done!    


As soon as she told me about it, I could not get it out of my head.  But how in the world was I going to do it?   For the last few years I have had some pretty serious joint pain in my knees and hips that would kick in when I tried to run more than 20 minutes. It is frustrating, to say the least.   As I researched the race, I found that 80% of the contestants walk some or all of it and 20% walk the whole thing!  That was all I needed to hear.  I'm IN, baby!!


So here it is:  I am officially in training for the 2012 Racing the Planet, 250K race in Atacama Mountains of Chile!!   This is sooo far outside my regular happy box and I am both nervous and excited!  I have not been in a serious race in two decades.  I am going to be 46 in 3 weeks and  I have no idea how my knees and hips will hold up.  I will have to do some MAJOR fundraising or find a sponsor as this is not just outside my box, but outside my budget. I do know one thing, though.  Once I make a decision, there is No Going Back! 


I have been hesitant to write about this and I am not even sure why. Maybe because it sounds so nuts!  Maybe because I thought only a few people out there would understand.  Then I realized, everyone has a secret goal, something they wish they could or would do. I am hoping that by journaling what I am doing, it will challenge you to step out and do something that YOU would like to do, but were afraid.   So don't be afraid!  Pick something, then OWN it!   What YOUR Atacama?


I will be posting my training schedule, strategies and generally sharing this journey.  There is so much to learn!  What to bring, which backpack will work best, hydration systems, food options and of course figuring out how to finance it all!  


  If you have participated in an ultra marathon or in training for one, I would welcome any advice!  If you have decided to do something you have always wanted to try, but were previously afraid, I definitely want to hear from you!  Finally, this is going to take a LOT of work. Any encouragement whatsoever is appreciated!  I will need it.


Let's do this!