Angel vs. Devil

GOALS:

It's almost race time again. I'm checking one off the 2010 goal list: Run in at least 3 races this year. Setting goals keeps me focused. It helps me to shake off the devil sitting on my shoulder in the wee hours of the cold morning. You know that guy that whispers, "You don't really want to wake up now, do you? It's dark and cold outside and your bed is so warm and comfortable. Just turn off your alarm and go back to bed. No one will care. No one will know."

Does that guy visit any of you or does he save it all up for me?

Thankfully, with the goals written down, and discussed with family and friends, I have a little positive self-inflicted pressure to keep the momentum moving forward. The angel sitting on my other shoulder, dressed in warm jogging clothes, ear warmers, gloves, pink ipod, and my favorite Asics shoes has been winning out over that terrible devil. Mostly. She's the one telling me, "Just get up. It's not that bad. Who cares that it's pitch black outside and 45 degrees? Get dressed like me and let's give it a whirl!"

Running is so MIND OVER BODY.

I am just grateful that 1) I live in AZ and the winter weather is so mild compared to most other places in the country, and 2) that I only work part time so some days I do get to run after the sun comes up. Like yesterday. I did my 5 miles at 7:30 am, and even though I could see my breath in the chilly clear air, the sun was up and it was a glorious morning by all accounts. Clear, crisp, beautiful.

Saturday morning, 8:00 am, Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek will be home to London's Run for the fourth year in a row. Proceeds from the event will benefit children's charities. There's a half marathon, 10k, and 2 mile fun run. Something for everyone.

I am looking forward to running. My cousin, Dyan, and her husband Ryan are running the half. I'm just doing the 10k this time. I've been running consistently since my last races in November, but not tracking up the same kind of mileage as I was before. Typically, I've been tracking 4-6 miles each running day. In hindsight, I kind of wish I'd kept up my half marathon training routine and was ready to run another half on Saturday. But again, it's all about the goal. Without that goal set firmly in sight, I didn't push.

I just reconnected with an old friend of mine from our high school years. Stacey Skeen. We grew up in the same neighborhood together and worked at DQ together too. Well, we found each other on Facebook, and I was checking out her photos and profile page. She looks so amazing! She's 3 years younger than I am, has four kids, been married 14 years, and just ran her 9th marathon! Yes, 9th! And she qualified for the Boston Marathon again this year. And a week after her last marathon, she ran a half marathon in 1:35. Holy cow! That's some serious speed! So she's my new running icon. That's just amazing.

Saturday morning, my SIL Shari will be running the 10k too, and this is her first race ever. So exciting! I hope she does great!

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.

2010

I've heard it a hundred times.

Write it down. Write it down. Write it down.

A goal not written down is just a wish.

So I'm writing them down this year. 2010 is going to be a terrific year. It's already off to a great start. It's only January 3rd and we've already accomplished a few big projects around our house. I blogged about the pantry makeover. Tonight we went to Home Depot and bought a shelving system for Barrett's closet. Ryan and I installed it at 9:00 tonight and Barrett started reorganizing her room. She finally dropped off after midnight.

I've got 2 days of running under my belt (Rowan rode her bike along with me for the full 4.5 miles yesterday), 2 days of scripture reading done, both our garages cleaned out (thanks to Ryan), and I took a great photography class on lighting Saturday afternoon from Amy Fraughton. It was awesome! I can't wait to do silhouettes of my kids!

(I took this picture yesterday in my photography class!)

So...so far so good. 2010 is starting off strong.

Here are my ambitious personal goals for 2010. But what the heck? If you think you can or think you can't, you're right.

So I'm thinking I can and that's a great start. Here are my top 10, not necessarily all in order.

1) Read my scriptures every day.
2) Go to the temple every week.
3) Keep running & training at least 3 days/week.
4) Compete in at least 3 races (my first one is January 30th - London's Run).
5) Train for the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim. We're going in September!
6) Improve my photography by taking classes and doing more shoots. (I got a new lens and Photoshop CS4 for Christmas! I am so thrilled!)
7) Read more. With my kids. On my own. Always keep a book going.
8) Date my husband every week.
9) Stay caught up on my home office work.
10) Accept the "10 in 2010" challenge. (I'll post about that this week).

And there's more...all the financial stuff and such...but these are my personal ones. So I'll post about progress as the year moves along. Good books I am reading, the races I'll run, fun times with my husband, and of course pictures all along the way to document the lives of our beautiful children and the memories we are creating together. We have a great life and I never want to forget...