Ban those ugly running tights

I find it hard to look cool in Winter. I blame those damn tights. So I never ran so fast in my life heading to the store, when I heard there are now running pants that don't show off all your bulges!

Wordless Wednesday

Ban those ugly running tights

Spilling chi

In ChiRunning it's important to keep your pelvis level. Imagine your pelvis as a bowl full of chi also known as life energy. And if that doesn't do it for you, just imagine it filled with chocolates or potatoe chips. You wouldn't wanna spill any, now would you?! I didn't think so.

So before I start my run I always take the time to put myself into the right position. But during my ChiRunning course I got some good news and some bad news. I got the position right, but as soon as I made a run for it, I heard my instructor shouting: 'Okay Nicole, stop please! You immediately let your pelvis go!'

Obviously I'm still spilling my chi left and right during my runs.

I'm like the woman in dr. Hook's song: 'Baby makes her blue jeans talk'.

Spilling chi

In it for the long haul

Both as a mom and a runner, going the distance is my main goal. As a runner this means I'm quite slow, but as a mom it helps me to prioritize.

For example: all my kids can choose óne afterschool activity, preferably within walking distance. Because after doing the school run four times a day, they come home for lunch, I don't feel like driving around like a mad cabbie.

As a mom and as a runner I have made a lifelong commitment to these identities/activities, and I'm hoping to live a long life. Therefore it's important I use my energy and strength wisely, so I'll be able to go the distance, and not crumple into a sad, sweaty heap of misery.

Because tired runners can count on a ride to the finish and a comforting blanket around their shoulders, but who takes care of burnt out moms?

So I choose to go slow and far, rather than fast and short.

I'm in it for the long haul, and when I reach the end of the line I hope I can say: 'It's been a good run!'

In it for the long haul

Dashing through the snow

Dashing through the snow
in my two running shoes
O'er the fields I go
Laughing all the way

In spite of the cold,
sweating like a pig
what fun it is to laugh and run
all through the snow so bright.

Dashing through the snow

Running encounters

As a runner you encounter all sorts of people, things and events.

Sometimes you even encounter yourself, or like Dutch runner Sandra Visser, you encounter twohundred lottery tickets along your running path.

Sandra secretly dreamed of winning the jackpot, but then she read about an armed robbery where lottery tickets were stolen. Sandra did the right thing and took the lottery tickets to the police.

I'm chagrined to admit my encounters usually consist of vicious dogs that want to take a bite out of me, and their stupid owners saying: 'He néver does that! I don't know what's gotten into him! You really bring out his agressive side.'

What's the most special, funny, obnoxious encounter as a runner you ever had?

Running encounters

Getting your feet dirty

Both as a mom you should never be afraid to get your feet dirty.

Wordless Wednesday

Getting your feet dirty

Hang in there!

Today I met God again during a run. He was dressed up as a runner, with short curly hair and buck teeth. He smiled at me and shouted: 'Hang in there!'

I love meeting God during my runs. It never fails to give me a lift, and always makes me feel better.

Today I met him as a runner, but I've also seen him dressed up as the colors of a beautiful dawn, or a solitary bush in the winter with pink berries.

Like love, he is all around you.
You only have to take notice.

Hang in there!

Go with the flow

This morning I stuffed my two youngest in the car to take them to school, so I could drive straight through, to my ChiRunning lesson ten miles further.

Hastily I started the car, or should I say tríéd to start the car, because all the car did was mumble: 'Phrrrt,' and then flatlined.

This wasn't the first time the stupid thing did this. And while my body does this all the time, I can use my willpower to get it started. Unfortunately my car doesn't respond to willpower. Only a mechanic can bring it back to life when it's like this.

I tried to decide my next move, and decided first things first: I had to get the kids to school. It's hard to think with two squabbling kids in the back anyway! So I started the tedious process of getting them out of their car seats, and marched them to school. Then I galopped back home, where the car stood, still stubbornly silent.

I gave it some mean looks, and decided there was nothing for it: I had to call and tell my ChiRunning instructor I wasn't going to make it. There I stood, all dressed up for a run, with no where to go.

Then I remembered something my ChiRunning instructor said: ChiRunning is all about going with the flow, about adapting to what the road ahead of you offers. You shouldn't fight the road, a steep hill or some icy wind: you should work wíth it.

Strenghtened by this thought I decided to work wíth this setback and to use my sudden free time to go and get a cup of coffee in the city.

So I got to practice my ChiRunning after all.

Go with the flow

And the winner of the Yoga DVD is...

The people at KMR Communications offered a DVD of Pulse Yoga to one lucky reader of Mom's Home Run!

And the winner of the Yoga DVD is the eleventh comment, which came from Molly

This is what she said: 'I really need something to help get me to cross train, I would do cardio every day if I could, but need to strengthen my muscles!'

So good luck Molly! I hope you get a lot of use out of this dvd.

And the winner of the Yoga DVD is...