Not A Poser

I had the opportunity to participate in my first yoga class last week.  Little did I know it would cause pain and discomfort the next day…but this has been my experience with yoga poses I have created on my own by accident.  Seriously-if you haven’t done a yoga class I highly recommend it.  I know what you are thinking:  weird music, bending like gumby, a thin instructor who looks like he or she eats too much lettuce, uses no deodorant, and is telling you to breathe so much you pass out from an oxygen high.  Nah.  Well it’s not all true anyway.  My instructor was a tall, thin, perfectly sculpted and beautiful Victoria Secret model.  It’s true.  She comes from a whole family of pretty people that my yetti tribe of Reddicks thought only existed in fairytales.  Thank you, Gina, for facilitating the removal of 35 years worth of built up stress in my shoulders and neck. :)  That being said, below is a story I shared of my own yoga pose I performed during a training run last year…enjoy!    

NOT A POSER...

As many of you know, I’m a runner.  Not particularly competitive but I’m what you’d call dedicated.  It is not about the time and it’s what keeps me grounded in my life.  Well, do I ever have a story to share with you about how running grounded me this morning in a very literal sense.

I woke this morning at 5 a.m.- what I call the crack of dawn (usually I have a specific body part in mind when describing what kind of crack of dawn I’m referring to).  At 5 a.m. and after a few slaps at the snooze button,  I rolled out of bed and managed to stumble out the door with my eyes still very nearly closed.  It was fresh and crisp, the sun wasn’t out yet, and not a cloud in the sky…perfect running conditions.  Of course I didn’t think all of these positive thoughts as I grudgingly belted out the first painful mile-while my feet and lungs yelled at me to go back to bed with every step I took.  But I got into it as I warmed up.  I listened to some Metallica and Nickelback on my iPod and muscled through it (so to speak). 

I hit about 4 miles.  Actually hit it.  In the hills above the beautiful town of East Helena, in a sparsely populated subdivision, I managed to trip over a small rock in the mildly descending dirt road.  I skidded 7 feet in some sort of modified yoga position I’ve watched other people make attempts to replicate after attending classes.  Flat on my stomach, palms down, elbows down, straining to keep my chin up and off of the ground with most my weight on the right side.  I now refer to it as the ‘screeching-to-a halt-tiger-moderately wounded-gazelle’ move.  I hadn’t peeled off my long sleeved shirt as it was still cool out so my right elbow didn’t get too many small rocks lodged in it.  Sadly, my knees and hands weren’t so lucky.  After my body stopped skidding, I rolled over in the street and laid there for a minute and willed my stinging wounds to heal immediately.  I slowly heaved myself onto my feet checking to see if anyone in the area was up at this hour to witness the near fatality.  Wouldn’t you know it, the house I performed my yoga position in front of, the owner was rearranging his sprinkler to water his lawn.  With his mouth slightly open, eyes as big as saucers  and hose in hand, he didn’t seem able to tear his eyes away from the scene of the accident that just unfolded right before him.  Initially I thought maybe he might say something…offer to spray my gravel filled wounds with his hose to remove some of the lead shards and debris from them.  No.  After an awkward moment of silence and gaping, I took off like a maimed, cognitively impaired animal and left him to reflect on the morning’s events.

I managed to get past the joint aches and burning flesh (to add to my experience, I didn’t get enough sun block slathered on for my first golfing expedition yesterday and the road rash was making a nice accent to my ruby red skin) and finished up my 10 miles in a not so fast pace. 

We all have things that knock us down.  Maybe it’s a rock in the road.  A personal struggle.  Maybe you ‘fall off’ the exercise wagon because you just get too overwhelmed.  We all can say we have fallen at one time or another.  I know I can…several times.  And not just physically like this morning.  But you get up.  And boy, is that ever the most painful part of it.  We get up and we start moving.  It’s slow and it hurts real bad.  But we do it. 

Run a faster mile, get homework done, spend time with the kids, eat better, drink more water, exercise a little longer.  Everything can be a challenge.  Some days are tougher than others to will ourselves to get back up when we fall.  We can look at these as opportunities.  I now know what it is like to perform a yoga position as my body is in motion, scraping across a dirt road, with a sunburn.  ;) Yay for me!

Frosted Glory

I don’t know about any of you but the month of December was a drag for me.  Literally-I was dragging.  Every day I contemplated on calling in “unmotivated” to work.  But I’d muster up a few drops of energy I didn’t think I had and managed to shower and throw myself together for the sake of my co-workers.  It was rough.  I felt like I stomped through the month with my head down until I could see the bright light of the New Year.  And wouldn’t you know…I woke up on the first day of the year and STILL didn’t suddenly possess any more energy than I did the day before!  After discussing my need to add ginkgo biloba and ginseng to my daily vitamin regiment with co-workers, I found I wasn’t the only one suffering from a severe case of unmotivation.  Like me, everyone else said they “checked out” for the month of December and were slowing integrating themselves back into civilization.  I deduced some were having a harder time than others, hence the facial tics, drooling from the mouth and glazed over eyes I sympathetically observed.

I decided to slap myself back into reality (think about the Rocky theme song here).  I went for a short but painful run and figured I might as well try my hand at the art of water drinking too.  Twenty more days to go until I form a habit.  Yay for me.  Later in the week I wanted to share my aches and pains and asked my husband to come along for a jaunt too.  The weekend came and I thought I’d to shove my body into a state of shock by running five miles in seven degree weather.  My husband was concerned.  All of the ice on the roads coupled with my known  lack of coordination…he sensed a disaster brewing. 

I bundled up and was ready to conquer the road with my IPOD blaring in my ears.   “Let’s do this thing” I told myself…right after I told my husband if he didn’t see me in a few hours to come look for me-I was either laying in a ditch with a head injury from slipping or just frozen in place.  I ran slowly.  My lungs were burning a little but I was good.  I made it about two and a half miles, breathing in and out through both my nose and mouth to keep my face warm.  I had a few near misses that very nearly involved a broken right hip but I pulled through with my cat-like reflexes.  Throw in this new water drinking habit and all that goes along with it…and I really have to time my runs right if you know what I mean, not to mention I was frozen from the midsection down for three quarters of the run.  No feeling.  Numb.

Now I know what you are thinking… “She’s the runner on the side of the road in -10 degree weather that I shake my head at thinking I need to stop and tell her to have her head examined.”  Well.  I think those same thoughts about anyone who walks their dog when it’s blizzarding outside.  Thank you for not stopping to admonish me as it would be a real blow to my drive.

I return home after five miles and free from injury.  My husband looks at me as if he knows me…but just can’t quite place where he has seen me before.  The invisible peach fuzz on my face that he’s never noticed has a beautiful white coating of frost…my eyelashes, my eyebrows…frost.  He was speechless.  I was slightly mortified.  I smiled-and giggled as I wondered if he was comparing me to Grizzly Adams.

Is it worth it?  Trying to make changes to better your eating habits, exercise habits, trying to keep the spark alive, and follow through?  Man, let’s be honest, it can be a drag.  Sometime you want to toss in the towel or “check out”.  Those feelings are normal and you really have to work at it to make them temporary.  For all of you who are hanging in there, trying new things and pushing yourself to the limit…it is worth it.  It doesn’t go unnoticed.  When you change your habits your body notices and those around you do to.

Was it worth it???  Running in the freezing cold and seeing his face when saw me in all my frosted glory?  YOU BET!!!

What’s on your plate for this year?  Big plans?  Big bike race?  A 5K?  How about Race for the Cure?  Do you plan to hike to the top of five peaks in Montana?  Is this the year for a triathlon?  Is this the year you try to quit smoking?  Get off the Mountain Dew and Snickers bars?  Whatever your goal is expect growing pains…be realistic…and it is worth it.  No calling in unmotivated!

Good luck!