Thursday, January 14, 2010

LIVE STRONG

Two months ago today I ran in my big race. That same afternoon, Ryan and I dragged our kids to Runner's World on the way home from a family picnic so that Ryan could pick out some running shoes. He got the "itch" to start running after being at my race and thought it would be fun to do the Turkey Trot with me 12 days later. No prior training. It was only going to be 6.2 miles. He had plenty of time to train, right? Twelve whole days. How hard could it be? It turned out to be a little harder than he thought, but he ran the whole time and finished the race.

Post race, Ryan thought it would be a good idea to do a long strenuous hike with his buddies the day after black Friday, and then follow that up with tons of walking at the ASU vs. U of A football game (we'd had our tickets for a month and there was no backing out. We were both pumped for the game). A few days later at his weekly softball games, he felt some pretty bad pain in his knee. By the end of the night, he said he could hardly even make it to first base. It took him almost two months to get that knee recovered from the strain.

Too much, too fast.

He needed to work up to it.

The day we went shopping for Ryan's running shoes, the kids were all tired (and so was I), and none of them really wanted to be there. It took longer than we expected, and they were soooooo ready to leave by the time we finally left the store.

To kill the time while we waited, though, we walked around the store quite a bit, checking out all the displays, gadgets, and latest running finds. Unfortunately by then, my feet were so tired and legs so sore, that all I really wanted to do was sit down. Or sleep. Nevertheless, every few minutes, we'd get up and take a lap around the store, browsing here and there, trying to keep the peeps occupied. And every time I started to look around, I kept being drawn to one certain rack.

It was a rack on the far left hand side of the store in the women's section. Displayed prominently on the rack was Nike's new clothing line which sported a tag line I have come to love:

L I V E S T R O N G (followed by the Nike swoosh).

I went back over and over, checking out the shirts, and just knew that one of them needed to go home with me. I was in love with that mantra.

Live Strong.

How perfect. It's my new slogan. Did I mention that I bought the black t-shirt with the bright yellow "LIVESTRONG" and it's pretty much my most favorite shirt ever?

Over the past two months, I've had a number of opportunities to sport my new shirt. I was actually thinking about taking a picture of it for my post, but it's in the laundry since I just wore it to yoga Tuesday night. I was looking for it tonight to wear to volleyball, then remembered I needed to do some wash.

I've been thinking a lot about that slogan lately. Kudos to the Nike marketing woman (I'm assuming such brilliance came from a woman) who came up with the tag line.

For me, living strong is more than just running. It's more than working out. More than eating healthy. More than being fit. More than getting enough rest. It's all that and more. It's a lifestyle. It's an attitude, a commitment, a desire to be "well." Living strong is not dieting, but making general wise choices about nutrition. Living strong is taking opportunities to play, get your heart rate up, be physical, and enjoy the outdoors. Living strong is knowing your body and pushing it to do great things.

But living strong takes some practice. And sometimes it takes longer to get from zero to sixty than we'd like. We want it now. We think we can reach the high hurdles when we've just barely learned to jump. Like Ryan, sometimes if we take off too strong and try to do too much too fast, we'll burn out and pay the price.

I think that happens sometimes with our New Year's Resolutions. If you are like me (and so many others), we are beyond ambitious in our goals and expectations. We have great intentions to make huge changes in just about every area of our lives, and think we should be able to do it all in 12 days. It takes time. Just like I couldn't have run a half marathon without proper training, practice and dedication, I can't expect to meet my goals in other areas of life without equal long term diligence. It just won't happen.

I've also been thinking about my new mantra in another light. Even as perfect a slogan as it is for our physical well-being, I think "LIVESTRONG" is the ideal slogan for life in general. Live strong in the gospel. Live strong in your relationships. Live strong in your service to others. Live strong in your work. Live strong in your values. Live strong at school. Live strong with your family. Live strong with your spouse.

Man, what a better world we'd live in if we would all commit to LIVE STRONG.

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