Thursday, February 27, 2014

Hot hot desert

Bring me down, break me down, in the hot hot desert, this is where I want to be
Break me down, break me down, in the hot, hot desert, this is where I want to be
And I am, what I am, a natural disaster
- Group Love, Shark Attack

Heard this song on the long drive through the desert to Las Vegas today, and I liked it. I did get out for a run this morning and yesterday, but the near future of running is a bit dubious as I'm in Vegas for work and a lacrosse tournament this weekend and then Denver next week. Good thing I've banked some miles these first two months. I think I'm at about 120 for the year so far. I made an excellent discovery today - if you want to get to know your teenage kids, put them in a car with their friends for five hours and just listen to their conversation. Pure gold.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

eyes open

Oh, her eyes are wide open right out of her head
Yeah, she's cleared of a crime that she did not commit
Well, I did what I did and I didn't mean anything
- The Wild Feathers, The Ceiling

Yes I got this song and even this quote from my blista sista, and it spoke to me this morning on my neighborhood route. Good song!  I had a pretty decent run - it was nice and cool outside with cloud cover, and I even got to wear a long sleeve shirt.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

She never knew you, she only knew what she heard
So just once you'd pull her close and you'd whisper the words
That you hated yourself for the things that you gave her
That you stole with your mind, when your heart was impure
- TATE, The Secret

My mountain run started with a bang this afternoon and ended with a whimper. Oh well. It was a nice day to be outside. I made a game time decision to hit the mountain instead of the streets, and only realized when I started running that I was wearing my fancy street running shoes instead of my dusty mountain shoes, but I figured that's ok since these shoes are almost a year old now. I remember because I got them right after I got my cast off last year, after breaking my foot as a dumb drunk and stumbling fool in Miami, back when I was the worst person in the world. Anyhoo, I had to get home to take my awesome daughter to a merit scholars reception for NAU. She is an incredible girl - so much better than I ever was. It's exciting to see her blossom, and I love to take credit for her maturity and brains and sense of responsibility and humor. And blame her dad for her mistakes.

And I know it well....

I must've walked a thousand miles or more tryin' to keep you off my mind 
I've knocked on a thousand doors I'm sure, just to see what I might find
I slept in the arms of a fallen angel cryin' next to me 
And I knew her well

And you took me to hell and back
How many times can I walk away from you
My mind's like a one way track 
And every one is taking me back to you 
And you tell me just one more timeand you'll lie like you always do
and I needed just one more lie then there's nothing that I can do
and I need it just one more time then I swear that I'll be through
And I know it well

                               - Airborne Toxic Event, Hell and Back

WOOT! An ATE song that most definitely won't make you cry, but WILL make you run. 

I'm feeling every so much better, and I'm at 87 miles for the year, which is not bad! So, not nearly as far behind the curve as I would have thought after my weeks of struggling with the black plague of death. 

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

the tide

I don't get waves of missing you anymore
they're more like tsunami tides in my eyes
- Ed Sheeran, U.N.I.

I had the best run I've had in awhile this morning. The temp was finally cooler, around 70 degrees, and I was feeling strong. I was thinking about how in order to be able to accept love from others, you really have to love yourself first. And you can't ever love someone enough if they don't have a love for self. I was talking the other night with a friend about the "luck" involved in lasting love. I don't think its fair to say that people who lave lasting love are "lucky," because surely they invest a lot of time and commitment into making things work. I think the luck might come in choosing someone that you can grow and change with. The 25 year old me picked someone that wasn't compatible with the person I had grown into by 35. We're always growing and changing - if not, we're dying. My 25 year old self would not recognize or even like the person I've grown into today. When I got married, I had no idea of the skeletons that existed in my psyche. But after a lot of heartache, I dug them up and gave them a proper burial, and am an entirely different and healthier person today. So how do you choose someone for forever? I think you have to be flexible and respect yourself and the other person enough to allow for growth and change, and beyond that it really is a crapshoot. How do you know that the person you become will still like the person they become, and vice versa? Who knows. I don't know why I think about this stuff but lately it dominates my running mind.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Knives

Your words in my head, knives in my heart
You build me up and then I fall apart
Cause I'm only human
- Christina Perri, Human

Took a little jaunt around my hood this morning. 3.5 miles.

Monday, February 17, 2014

And the run ...?

Forgot to mention I hit the gym tonight for 3 miles including nerd workout. It's getting hot out there, and it was nice to be in a social environment after months of solitary running.

A song you are guaranteed to love

To be bold, to be brave
It is the thinking that the heart can still be saved
And the darkness can come quick
The danger is in the anger and in the hanging on to it
- Alternate Routes, Nothing More

I heard this song on satellite radio when I was on the road last week and I was so taken by it that I jotted down the band - the Ultimate Roots, and the main line, "we are how we treat each other and nothing more." It took me awhile to find it though, when I got home, because the band is actually Alternate Routes. So I googled that line and came up with it. I read this evening that it was written in honor of the elementary school shooting at Sandy Hook. It is a gorgeous and positive song about being the best people we can be and letting go of pain. And it's good to dance to. I attended a talk given by Jason Schecterle last week, he's the Phx cop who was severely disfigured in a fire 10 years ago and he talked about his journey and his decision to live. It was incredible. My problems are so small. Hearts get broken every day. It's wonderful that the universe sends exactly what you need if you are open to her gifts.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Lost

I won't go back to what I was
I know now that you are lost
- Airborne Toxic Event, The Fifth Day

Here's a pic of a little friend that fat dog and I ran into on our run this evening. There were five coyotes just ambling through the hood. It was a decent run but I was already tired from moving furniture around. I tricked my boy into spending the day with me by allowing him to drive to Costco, wherein we made the rather spontaneous purchase of a sectional couch. Thankfully his dad was kind enough to help us get it home. It was damn heavy. I am currently working on a fresh butt imprint.

I don't remember, were we wild and young? All that's faded into memory...

The lights will draw you in
And the dark will bring you down
And the night will break your heart
Only if you’re lucky now


                         - Ryan Adams, "Lucky Now"

Haha.... we'll have a sad lyrics contest!! Just for my sister..... who I think may not understand that great love isn't measured in years, never has that been true.

Anyhoodle, so it is that time of year for me when I start to make my real goals, reflect on my real life and maybe make some good changes. My birthday is in February, and Spring is around the corner, and this time of year has always felt much more natural for me to be introspective and changes I make during this time tend to stick. (Incidentally, one of my great rants is about this... I think people would be far better off figuring out for themselves at what time of year they make the most successful changes, and I think it is almost NEVER New Year's.... it is the dead of fucking Winter, and human beings are simply not designed to make great changes at that time of year, our souls are way too busy feeling around in the dark.) 

My point being, I have found myself reflecting a great deal on a conversation I had with my sister at Christmas. We were talking about running while on vacation, and we seemed to be on such different wavelengths on this.... I could not point to a single week of the year where I had not run (with the exception of recovery from surgery). And I told her at the time that my great fear was that if I stop running I won't ever start again. And this was true.... for the most part. But what I started thinking about these past two or three weeks is that it really isn't true any more for me. And I found myself reflecting on the fact that I really just don't want to run the Colfax half marathon that I registered for. I have been trying to focus on speed, training, blah blah blah and it just isn't working for me. It is making me profoundly miserable, in fact, as evidenced by my getting sick, which is always my body trying to tell me to slow the fuck down already. 

Anyway, so I was talking to Chris about it (trying to gauge the level of upset that would be caused by wasting an $80 entrance fee), and I was telling him how I just don't feel like I need to run these long distances right now. At first, it was important. At first, it was all about pushing myself, doing things that I didn't think I could do. Proving to myself and whoever else that I could do whatever they could do, that I could do whatever I want.

But I'm just not feeling it anymore. The goal that feels right and natural for me this year is one of balance. I need to take a lesson from my sister, that it is okay to go easy sometimes. It's okay to have a vacation. Even from running. My body and my fitness will still be there when I get back, I need to work on having faith in that. It's okay to stop and slow down when you get sick. It's okay to not be training for anything in particular. It's okay to just run your four or five times a week and be good with that.

I don't have anything to prove anymore. Not to myself and not to anyone else. And it feels good. It feels good to have my Garmin sitting with a dead battery collecting dust, because I rarely use it these days. It feels good to just recognize that I need to rest when I'm sick, and spend the day sitting around and watching old movies and not feeling the slightest bit guilty about not hitting the gym. 

And it makes days like yesterday and today that much sweeter and more important.... the days when I WANT to run, when it feels good and I remember the reason I started it.... because the ease of just putting on my shoes and walking out the door... that was something I could do. 

And running a half marathon is just not compatible with these feelings and these goals. It doesn't feel like quitting or settling.... it just feels like listening to my own cues, and following my own lead. 

Which was always the real goal.