You never run alone...

... for one thing, there's always your shadow.


















Wordless Wednesday

You never run alone...

Running with or without music

I much admire runners who run without music, and only their thoughts to keep them company. I feel they must be very interesting people to be able to run for miles on end with just themselves.

Doesn't running with music really mean you bore yourself to tears, and need the distraction? What does it say about me that I find my runs mind numbingly boring when it's just me, and no country and western songs telling me stories?

So I've decided to quit and go cold turkey: no music for me for at least a while. I'll force myself to keep my own company and see where it leads me.

Who knows, I might turn out to be really interesting after all.

Running with or without music

Body talk

This morning my eldest daughter came home from a field trip and I had to go and pick her up, thereby missing my yoga/pilatus class.

I tried to be all Zen about it, telling myself: 'It is, what it is'.' But as the morning progressed I began to feel really antsy. I felt like an addict looking for my next fix. So I surfed the internet looking for a yogaclass somewhere, anywhere! Finally I found one and I hurried down there, only to be told that this week there was no yoga.
'This is a great learning opportunity for me, this is a great learning opportunity,' I told myself through gritted teeth.

I got home with all this pent up energy and no where to put it. I decided there was only one thing for it: I had to go for a run.
So I put on my shoes and running clothes and raced out the door. I only had time for thirty minutes but it made me feel so much better.

Now I actually féél zen.

But as I was running I was thinking how sometimes I hardly recognize myself. Who is this woman who craves movement? What happened to the couch potato?

This change in me still surprises me. I guess because in my mind I'm still that couch potato.
It's my body that's telling me otherwise.

Body talk

Words to live by, as a mom and runner

Wordless Wednesday

Words to live by, as a mom and runner

Slippery slope

It's a slippery slope. When is it okay to miss a run, and when is my inner lazybones plotting a hostile take-over?

For weeks the kids had been coughing and spraying bacteria left and right, and it was only a matter of time before the bacteria got me, even though I tried to outrun them. Once they caught up with me they made me miss two of my weekly runs, because I réally didn't feel up to it.

But as the week progressed I began to feel more and more nervous about missing not only one run, but two! What if I was on the slippery slope to no longer being a runner? And if I was no longer a runner, what was I? Only a mother?

This is where running is really different from motherhood. The slope of motherhood is sticky like superglue, and you don't have to worry you'll slide off. Not only that: it's impossible to get off thát particular slope. Once you're a mom, you're a mom for life.

Being a runner is more of a conscious decision, a choice you have to make time and time again.

So yesterday I decided once again, I really am a runner too. I ran twenty minutes and then did fartlek for ten minutes.
It wasn't my longest run, nor my fastest but at least it was a run.

I am a mom and a runner once again.

Slippery slope

Mommy, Marathon Mommy

I 'do' a marathon every week. Yep, that's me, Marathon Mommy.

I have calculated: every morning I walk my kids to school, that's one kilometer right there. Then I walk home all by my lonesome, which makes it two.

At around twelve 'o clock I walk one kilometer to take them home for lunch, which adds up to four kilometers. At one o'clock I take them back to school again and head home, which makes it six.

And then there's the final school run at three fifteen which brings the day's total to eight kilometers.

Multiply these daily eight kilometers, times five days a week, and that's forty kilometers right there! And the missing kilometers I figure I make up with running around the house and doing all the housework.

But maybe I should call myself Yoyo Mommy, because that's how I sometimes feel.

Mommy, Marathon Mommy

Run like a mom!

Life as a mom feels a lot like running on a treadmill: you give it your all, but you never seem to get anywhere!











Wordless Wednesday

Run like a mom!

Runner's validation

When I'm running, I like nothing better than to get caught by someone I know. Then I can act all nonchalant and mutter someting like: 'Oh you know, I run all the time. I'm a runner you know.' And since I'm sweating like a pig and dressed in my running skirt and shoes I actually look like the real thing.

And the lovely thing about being a runner is that it impresses people. Sure, they may think you're crazy, but they can't help but admire someone who runs. Especially if the only running they do is to the fridge to get a snack.

As a mom you get much less admiration. After all, it's the second oldest profession in the world. As a mom the best feedback you can get is that you dón't look like one.

So I love to have my identity as a runner validated, and I take that validation home to the mom in me.

Runner's validation

Running lessons for the motherhood!

It's one of my daughter's favorite anecdotes: 'Remember mommy, when you went our for your first run, and only got till the corner of our street, and you came home cryin' 'cause you were so tired?!'

I used to grit my teeth, and go 'Hahaha', but then I realized something: this anecdote gives me the opportunity to impart some (running) wisdom!

So now I just smile and say: 'Yes that was funny, wasn't it. But have you seen how far mommy can run now? That's because mommy put in the time and effort to practice, and practice makes perfect. And the same thing applies to your school work! If you can't do it at first, it's only a matter of practising!'

And the great thing is: I actually believe what I'm saying, which as a mom isn't always the case. Like when I say: 'If you watch too much televsion your eyes will become square,' or 'Wait till Santa gets here!'

Running lessons for the motherhood!

I'm proud to be a

Wordless Wednesday

I'm proud to be a