Follow the foot path?

I like to boldly run, where no one has run before, so today I decided to follow this little dirt path I discovered last year. And as I ran along the potholes, immediately twisting my ankle, I proudly thought: 'Look at me! I'm doing cross country!'

Patent request!

At the end of the path stood a primitive, cardboard sign, and someone had written: 'Footpath' on it. Beneath the word 'Footpath' were two arrows, pointing in opposite directions. I decided to go to the left, because I thought I knew where the path would lead me. And in my mind I started writing my request for a patent on this new Runners Route.

Where did that ditch come from?

But after stumbling along for a few minutes, I couldn't help but think there was a whole lot of grass and not a lot of path. But I just hate 'turning back' so I ploughed on, until I couldn't plough anymore, because a ditch appeared out of nowhere.

I looked at the ditch, which clearly had aspirations to become a ravine. Then I sighed because I knew: 'I will have to 'go back'. As I ripped my request for a patent to pieces I ran back the way I had come. But then I saw this other little path, and decided to take that. Anything to avoid going back the way I came!

Serial killer!

Then suddenly I saw this serial killer, wearing a big white hat! I nearly died with fright, but then I discovered it was a scarecrow. Still breathless from my near death experience, I left the scary path, and found out I was a very long way away from home.

'And what have you learned from this experience?' I asked myself sternly.
And I humbly answered: 'You should never trust footpaths that are written with a felt pen. And sometimes it's best to return the way you came, because otherwise you may be far, far away from home.'

Running Views: Anyone thirsty?

Wordless Wednesday

New running mantra: spaghetti!

I've got a new mantra! Mantras are recommended all the time, as a great way to run further and faster. To prevent my mantra becoming a desperate 'How much further can I go on?!' I try to make up more positive ones.

For years I told myself: 'Youcandoit, youcandoit, youcandoit!', and during my religious phase I mumbled: 'Jesus Christ, son of God, rescue me!'

But my new mantra is: 'Spaghetti!' It's my way of reminding myself to loosen up those shoulders, until they don't touch my ears anymore. I want a supple body, like boiled spaghetti. This new mantra also comes in handy as a mom.

Whenever I have to help my son do his math homework, and I feel like tearing my hair out, I quickly think: 'Spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti!', and I feel the tension leave my body.

Do you have a running mantra?

Figurerunning

Do you ever feel that, as a mom, you just run around in circles? Well do I have some good news for you: there's a new phenomenon called figurerunning, and it's all about running in pretty figures!

You could for example, run the figure of the Statue of Liberty! Or if that's too difficult, a big Magnum ice cream!

Figuring out figurerunning

1. All you need is a running watch with gps, or your mobile phone. In case of the mobile phone you need to download an application to track your run. For example Runkeeper
2. After you've got your gear, you need to think of a figure to run. Let's say you've had a bad day, so you decide to run a big middle finger. 
3. Just look at the map and find this figure in the streets. Start your gps tracker and start running.
4. After you've finished your figure, you can upload your run to Runkeeper, and upload your work of art to your blog or send it Figurerunning.com

So if you feel like you're just running in circles, go and run a car!

Did you know about figurerunning?
Is it for you?

Must-have for running moms!

Wordless Wednesday

Running: glasses or contact lenzes?

For a whole year my laziness beat my vanity, and I wore glasses during my runs. Then, to my surprise, my vanity made a come-back! It made my laziness eat its dust, and this morning, I wore my contact lenzes again during my run.

And I was very grateful to my vanity, because it was raining. And running with glasses when it's raining,  is no fun at all. Rain makes me peer through my glasses like an old granny. Sometimes, in desperation, I'll even take my glasses off. But then I'll stumble along like I've had way too much to drink, because my eyes really need some help seeing clearly.

This morning however, everything was fine, because I wore my contact lenzes, thanks to my vanity. And as I was running along it occurred to me that lenzes beat glasses all the way.

Contact lenzes during runs: Pros

1. They don't get foggy
2. They don't get splashed with rain
3. They don't slide off your sweaty nose
4. You can put sunglasses on to hide your face that's contorted from the effort of running

Do your wear glasses or contact lenzes during your runs?

Beware of the Trap of Ambition!

I see it happening around me all the time: runners and moms, falling prey to the Trap of Ambition!

'I only ran forty minutes today,' a runner will say, sounding like she just heard Walmart went belly-up. 'I didn't even make it to sixty minutes.'
I ask them: 'Who said you had to run for sixty minutes?'
They look at me dumbfounded. 'Huh?!'
The same tragic faith can hit moms: 'I set out to build the Statue of Liberty from toothpicks, with my two year old. But it collapsed when we put on the final touches. I feel terrible! I'm a big, fat failure as mom!'

Hey, where did the fun go?!

The Trap of Ambition sucks out all the fun, and makes you feel hopeless. Worst case scenario: the victim decides to throw in the towel.
'I stopped running, because it became so hard,' a victim of the Trap of Ambition might say. 'What's twenty minutes of running? It's nothing. I might as well quit all together.'

Faulty reasoning

It's the same faulty reasoning people, who can't keep their mits off the candy, use: 'I don't really like mars bars, so this one doesn't count!' Or: 'If I eat this bag of chips really fast, the calories won't matter.' But believe me, the calories will matter. Just like twenty minutes of running matter!

More doesn't equal better

So beware of the Trap of Ambition! 'More' doesn't always equal 'better'. You know what? Sometimes less is more. Running a half hour, three times a week, is better than running 90 minute once a week.

So don't set the bar too high, because nothing sucks as much as being doomed to fail. Let the bar be a nice challenge, one you can make with a bit of effort. Set it too low, it'll cost you your feeling of satisfaction. Set it too high, it will be detrimental to your motivation.

Do you ever fall victim to the Trap of Ambition?
As a mom, or as a runner? Or both?

Can moms wear running clothes to school?

On Tuesday, Thursday and Fridaymorning I take the kids to school wearing my running clothes. It saves me some time! I drop them off, and off I run.

Recently I read this post of a mom called Irene. She wrote 'sporty moms' make her feel guilty. And it made me think: 'Do the other moms at school get annoyed at the sight of me in my running clothes? Do I make them feel bad about themselves?'

Here's what Irene wrote: 'Seeing a sporty mom at school is a bad start of the day for me. Just seeing them in jazzpants, makes me feel guilty.'
She then writes how she got over her guilt when she realized these women tálk more than they work out. Whereas she, being a housewife, does a five miler every day just by doing the housework.

But I don't talk, I actually run. Four to five times a week. To keep myself healthy both physically, and mentally. Not running has become unthinkable. It would be like not brushing my teeth: it just doesn't feel right.

And so I take my kids to school in my running clothes. And I hope I inspire some other moms, instead of making them feel guilty.

How do you feel about moms wearing running clothes to school?

And the winner of the Exceed Sports Earphones is:

Random.org selected number 61 as the winner of the Exceed Sports Earphones. Hotsnotty2, that would be you! I can only hope Hotsnotty number 1 won't be too jealous.

The good people of Auria.com will be sending the earphones directly to you, so just use the contact button at the top of this page to leave your full name and shipping info.

Thanks everybody for participating in this giveaway, and leaving your comments. They were much appreciated!

What kind of cable girl are you?

I once made a movie. A movie called 'Look at me run!'

It featured me running back and forth, and the central theme was: 'How do I put my foot down?' I tried to get Stephen Spielberg to direct it, but alas, he was busy doing something else.

Unfortunately my movie was a big flop. Personally I do not blame myself. I blame my cables. If only I'd had some HDMI cables, my movie would have been pictureperfect, and I could have watched it on my HDTV.

What's HDMI when it's at home?

Don't know what HDMI is? It stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface, and offers a simple plug-and-play solution. HDMI cables are available in all kinds of lovely colours. You can use them to connect your computer's video card to your HDTV.

At optimization-world you can buy a VGA cable for only 7.99. The VGA-cable is the Ying to the HMI-cable's Yang. Put them together, and you get something great.

Wanna get technical about it? Check out this wikipedia page about video graphis array

What's this got to do with running?

What's the point of owning high-end equipment, if you don't have the right cable to get the most out of it? It's like running: your body may be in the best possible shape, but if you put the wrong shoes on, you won't get the best out of it.

The same applies to your tv and computer: you need the right cables to get the full experience.

My mind before a run

Does this look familiar to you? It's how my mind feels before a run! But it's also a Messy Cable Contest. The winner wins 100 dollars store credit at Optimized Cable Co.

I could certainly use some of that.

Very special ad from Brooks shoes. Who wouldn't want shoes like that!

Wordless Wednesday

How to combine running with motherhood?

The magazine that is Runner's World scares me. They always feature skinny men, wearing very small running shorts, who whine it took them two hours to complete a marathon. I just find it hard to sympatize. Maybe it's because I would already be grateful to fínish a marathon.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I read an article about 'regular' runners: mommies! The article is about combining running with the busy life of a mom, and how to do this.

According to the article there are three ways to succesfully combine running with motherhood.

Join a runner's club

One of the moms featured, Evy, runs at a running club that offers childcare. While the moms run, their kids are well taken care of. It sounds a lot like paradise, and I would have loved this when my kids were little.

Join a runner's group

Amy joined a group of moms who run every Tuesday night at eight o'clock in the evening. You can just show up, and if you can't make it, you don't have to let them know. It's all very casual.

Combination training

Becky is very inventive: she travels to work by train, and on her way back she gets out way too soon. And then she runs home!

I use the combination method

My way of integrating running into my life as a mom, looks a lot like Becky's. For example: I take the kids to school in my running clothes, and run home after dropping them off. And when we go for a visit to my parents, I always run home.

What method do you use to integrate running into your life as a mom?

Thoughts and feelings during a marathon, and Summer Vacation!

This movie very accurately describes the process I go through as a mom during Summer Vacation! I start out very positive and hopeful, but soon I start to think: 'How much longer will this go on?'

I run the whole gamut of feelings: from hope and triumph, to despair and exhaustion. And in the end, relief that it's over.

Can you relate?

Motivation device, if you don't feel like running

My kids have one of these… It gets me right out the door.

Wordless Wednesday

Running in books: After the party

I often find myself reading a book where the main character goes out for a run. I love characters that run, and I'm going to start a special category on this blog for books in which running is mentioned!

If you know any books, please let me know, or email me! the quotation/text that's about running!

Let's kick this category off with Lisa Jewell's novel 'After the party'!

'It was a warm morning. Jem was taking Scarlett to nursery. Ralph was going for a run. Running was an activity that Ralph had always viewed with some suspicion. There were three women who ran past Ralph and Jem's bedroom window every single morning at 6.45 a.m. exactly. In the winter months this would occur in pitchblackness and be utterly unthinkable to Ralph.

Why, he wondered, would anyone peel themselves from a warm bed, pull on a pair of leggings en pound the streets in the ark? Even during more civilised hours it struck Ralph as a slightly unnatural thing to do. If an alien were to land in Herne Hill, sit himself at a pavement table outside a café and look around himself at humanity, after a while he might think he had worked out what was going on, and the someone in neoprene would run past, pat-pat-pat, ears plugged with white wires, eyes staring blankly adhead and throw the alien completely off course.

But then Spring had happened and the idea of cloisering himself away in the windowless, strip-lit obscurity of the gym has lost its appeal and Ralph had put his prejudices to the back of his mind, his trainers to the pavement, and become a born-again runner.

He loved the feel of his feet against the pavement and the music in his ears. He loved the searing coldness of the air being dragged into his lungs and shot out again. And he especially loved the sense of begin both part of humanity and yet removed from it by sped, by mission.

How I recharge my batteries

We have a lot of batteries in our house. It's an occupational hazard of being a mom. When I was still a young and innocent mommy, I greatly invested in wood colored building blocks for my kids. And I solemnly vowed: no plastic in óur house!

Fast forward fifteen years, and the building blocks have been replaced by a Wii, and a Playstation. And these are accompanied by battery devouring controllers. So I greatly invested in rechargeable batteries.

But the most important battery of them all is me! As a mom I need to recharge my batteries regularly. And the best way for me to do this, is by running. Even if I don't feel like going out for a run, I force myself to do it anyway, because I know wit absolute certainty: afterwards I will feel much better.

Sometimes I even feel so powerful after a run, I invite my kids to build a tower.
Of dusty wood colored building blocks.

www.skinnyscoop.com

Running: a sign of the times?

As more and more people turn to running, scientists are scratching their heads wondering: 'Why is running becoming so popular?'

Greg Richards of the University of Tilburg ventures a guess: 'People don't want the commitment of a team sport, where you have to be there at a certain time. They dó like the informality of running groups they can join whenever it suits them.'

I can relate!

I can totally relate to the first part of his explanation: I too, do not want to be bound to a schedule, of 'having to be' somewhere at a certain time. That's why I love running so much: all it takes, is me running out the door.

No running groups for me

This is why I did nót join a running group, because that would still mean having to make a commitment. And I feel very strongly that you should honour your commitments. That's why I'm careful not to make too many. Besides, I love to be alone during my runs.

Paradox

Having said that: I háve to run every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Each day has its own running route, and its own time table. I don't get it: how can I hate having to adhere to a schedule, when I have a running schedule myself?! One that I enforce diligently?

Sometimes I moan to my husband: 'I háve to go out for my run, and I really don't feel like it.'
Then he says: 'You don't háve to, you wánt to!'

What do you think: is the growing popularity of running a symptome of commitment phobia?

Running clothes: my Summer and Winterlook!

… hot! Yet cool.

Plain sad.

Wordless Wednesday