Ah, February. Celebrating love in a cold month, cutting out pink hearts on grey days...l'amore! Right? And there's so much more to do this month! But first, a January recap and then February goals.
I love running in circles. No seriously, I do! I love track workouts - the precision of the distance and the pace, the consistency, the controlled environment where you can push yourself and test yourself. How does that mile time measure up against your last attempt? How has your cadence improved? How far can you go on a hard effort?
I am tired. Good heavens, I'm tired. Exhausted from work, exhausted from running, exhausted from all the anxiety that keeps me awake half the night - just exhausted. But I had to go to this rally. I had to go. It's important. It was and is so important. It was time for me to stop pontificating, for me to stop spurring everyone else to action while I napped in the wings. It was time for me to show up or shut up.
It's time! Last week I posted on Instagram about how I had reached 500 followers and was going to do a $25 Amazon e-gift card. Y'all! This week I've got over 550 followers! You all are seriously amazing and I am so so so happy to be connected with all you wonderful people! Thanks so much for following my little sliver of the Internet!
Raven Rock on a winter morning with the clouds so thick you can't find the sun is a monochrome monolith. The rock wall rises from the Cape Fear River and looms over the lazy waterway like Polyphemus gazing slothfully over his sheep while Odysseus and his crew scramble in the shadows. McCrae and I met up with my dear friend Becky and we explored the rocky trail for a morning.
Okay, let's be honest - raise your hand if your resolution was to run or go to the gym more in 2017 but for whatever reason - time, health, stress, whatever - you haven't done as much as you'd planned? You say to yourself, "I will, I will, I will, I will," but your legs say, "But this couch is so nice," or your hands say, "But we can just pour ourselves this glass of wine instead, it was a rough day after all," or you just don't want to get out of bed. Yeah, we all struggle with this, but it's been a few weeks after New Year's so now is a good time to check in, evaluate progress, and ask ourselves what else we can do.
This week was rough. And it's only getting rougher. So I made a list of a few of my favorite things. This isn't a complete list, but these are things I don't ever want to lose.
Confession: it's been a while since I did yoga. I used to practice yoga at least once a week - easily! But then there were conflicts with soccer, I had to work late too many times, it conflicted with the running group, I couldn't find a class offered in the morning or evening, or the yoga studio was too hot or too far away or too expensive or didn't have parking. It was a pile up of one thing after another and eventually I just stopped trying. I realized recently I'd let my practice slide away so I went back to some yoga classes and ended up in some yin practices, and I realized how much extraneous noise I always have in my environment and my head.