Because people who are running aren’t always a pretty sight. They can look downright mean, or in despair. Add tot that a wobbly walk, and what you get isn’t the most beautiful picture. It kind of makes you wonder about how your own looks during a run… So beware, before you start checking yourself out.

Checking yourself out as a runner

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I like to check myself out in the windows of the stores I pass during a run. Usually what I see does nót please me! I always seem to be on the verge of collapse whenever I see my mirror image on the run. So I immediately straighten up and imagine there’s a string attached to my head, holding me up! I also try to look cool and airy and like running is no effort at all. Obviously checking yourself out during a run is not for the faint hearted!

Checking yourself out  is great way to improve your posture

However it’s not all about vanity! Checking yourself out can provide valuable information about your running posture, and where there’s room for improvement. For me that means no slouching, and straightening up.

Other things to check out are:

• Your head: look ahead naturally, not down at your feet
• Shoulders: keep them relaxed, low and loose
• Arms: elbows bent at an 90-degree angles, hands loose like you’re holding a butterfly
• Hips: imagine your pelvis as a bowl filled with water. Try not to spill any!
• Legs: short stride, quick leg turnover
• Feet: be silent. Good running is springy and quiet

Beware of checking yourself out in cars

When there are no shops around, it can be tempting to check yourself out in windows of parked cars! But be careful doing that, because it can be really embarassing if someone’s sitting in the car! Unfortunately I speak from experience…

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It’s like doing a hurdle race, finally jumping the last hurdle and then finding out someone put up a néw hurdle! That’s how I felt when I heard running isn’t enough. You have to do cross training too!

I blame my mom

Luckily I have found a way to fit cross training in! As (bad) luck would have it, we’ve got this huge garden. And during Spring en Summer this garden requires a lot of work. I’ve never liked gardening, for which I blame my mother of course. When me and my sisters were children, she made us help out in the garden. I was a terrible help, and quite lazy. And now I’m getting my come uppance!

But I’ve found a way to combine two things I don’t want to do: cross training and gardening. Because it turns out gardening is a form of cross training!

Cross training by gardening

I was delighted to find out that by gardening you’re working all your major muscle groups! Think legs, buttocks, arms, shoulders, neck, back and abdomen! Like with every work out, you have to keep at it for at least 30 minutes. So 30 minutes of gardening is 30 minutes of cross training.

The benefits of this form of cross training are:

• Increased flexibility
• Decrease blood pressure and cholesterol levels
• Lower risk for diabetes
• Lower blood pressure
• Gardening keeps your weight nice and balanced
• Stronger joints
• It’s relaxing and quiet, as long as you stop cursing the weeds

And I’ve looked it up, and found that assuming a body weight of 70 kg, you burn 280 calories per hour.

Cross training: biking

Another way I’ve found to fit cross training into my daily life is by using my bike instead of our car. Every Thursday I ride my bike into town, to visit the library and treat myself to a cup of coffee. I don’t particularly like riding my bike, but the thought of that nice, hot cup of coffee keeps me going. That, and knowing that the coffee will taste that much better because I got it by doing cross training!

So if you’re like me, and you are totally turned off by having to do cross training, do what I do: just fit it into your daily life! Do what you have to do anyway, and use it as a cross training opportunity.

That way it’s not such a hard cross to bear. (sorry, about the terrible puns)

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The only thing I can think of is to put on my running clothes, and just go. Even if I don’t want to. Because if I stay here at home, I’ll probably feel even worse. How do you cope if the running blues hit you this hard?

I could use some kind words and some friendly advice.

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Getting lost along the way: as it is in running, so it is in life

Yesterday I hitched a ride with my husband into town, and decided I didn’t want to take the boring way home. I had this vague notion about running ‘a bit that way’ and: ‘If I turn to the right somewhere I ‘ll be on familiar territory again.’ Except I wasn’t.

Looking around me, I did not recognize anything familiar in my surroundings. I turned to the left, hoping for the best. Getting lost does wonders for my pace by the way. Because I get all stressed out, I can’t help but run faster. So there I was, galopping away, when I recognized something. ‘I think I know where I am!’ I whispered to myself.

Running methaphor for life

And suddenly, those same surroundings that moments ago had send me into a panic, wondering if I would ever see my loved ones again, made sense.

‘Ahaaaa!’ I thought. ‘Nów I get it!’ Unexpectedly the once unfamiliar streets made sense, like pieces of a puzzle. And that’s when I realized how this experience is much similar to life.

Sometimes life takes you places where you had no intention of going, that make no sense at all. It can make you feel quite lost. But then suddenly, you find your footing again, and what was once frightening and unfamiliar suddenly starts to make sense. Like when I couldn’t find a job after getting my PhD in psychology. That was not what I had planned, and I felt quite lost. But looking back I can see how this led to me becoming a mother, and then a blogger.

And now I can make a living by writing and I have five lovely children.

So life took me to a way of life much better than I could ever have planned myself.

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Mark Remy, editor at Runner’s World, noticed that when something bad happens to runners, they’re suddenly referred to as joggers! This inspired him to create his very own, funny magazine for joggers. ‘Because injury-, accident-, crime-, and horror-prone fitness enthusiasts deserve a publication to call their own.’

I love it!

You can read the whole article over here.

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This pic was inspired by James Dean’s ‘Rebel without a cause’ and this post.

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A 5K, a 10 miler or even a marathon. When I read running blogs there’s a lot of talk about races run, and races that wíll be run.

And then there’s me. I don’t race. I run because I like the peace and quiet, and racing doesn’t seem to be particular peaceful and quiet to me. Although I can most certainly understand the appeal of having a race as a goal, something to ‘run’ towards, I don’t like having a race on my already busy calender.

I don’t wánt to have to be somewhere at a certain date, at a certain point in time. As a mom of five childeren, I get enough of that already. I want to keep running separate from all that.

I want running to be something that offers freedom, a brief moment of getting away from it all.

I am a runner without a race.

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I’ve often wondered if it’s fair on men to have special Ladies Runs. This inspired me to create this poster for a Gentlemen Run!

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Every episode starts and ends with Laura Ingalls running through the prairie. But Laura does a whole lot of running in this series. Enjoy this compilation of Laura Ingalls running!

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