Showing posts with label Keep Calm And Series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keep Calm And Series. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Smash(ing) September

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.
- Gloria Steinem

Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.
 - Malcolm X
Anger is a brief madness.
- Horace, Epistles (Book 1)
Keep Calm series
Hulk Doesn't Keep Calm Hulk Smash
September
source: The Keep Calm-O-Matic

I'm sharing (my personal meditative!) cathartic quotes and the poster of the Hulk because all together, they made me laugh a liberating laugh (finally!), and I hope my fellow runners, who are currently rehabilitating from injuries will get a laugh out of them, too.

This image is also something I want to look at when I start obsessing again about my current situation.  A situation, that I can't change. 

I have been acting absurdly towards my first serious running injury.

Exaggerated, my family would definitely say, my erratic behaviour in the last weeks mirrored that of  Dr Bruce Banner and his alter-ego The Incredible Hulk, upon learning that I should not run/race, until I have lost the pain on my foot.

In my defense, this is the first time, since I begun running two years ago, that I have been injured. 

Now, with a clearer mind (after a lot of crying! haha), I realise, I have been very lucky, that it's (Morton's Neuroma) been detected at a very early stage.

Sunny smile after stormy tears.

It's been a difficult weekend. It's been an inspiring weekend. As I said, "Goodbye to August, and welcome September!", I also said, "Goodbye Berlin Marathon, and welcome a whole month worth of other adventures."

I've been inspired and motivated not only by my family, and friends but a lot of beautiful souls out there.

Meditation to quite the mind, being in motion, being active in many other different ways even without running, are just some of those things I am reminded, that I could still do.

Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling. ~James E. Starrs

“The water doesn't know how old you are.”
― Dara Torres, Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life

There are several unpublished blogs  expressing all the contradictory feelings I have had over not being able to run, not being able to fulfill the running goals I set out to do this year.

Not to mention those unpublished blogs of the
crazy running months (5 half-marathons, 1 of which was a DNF, my first DNF; 1 full marathon, a 15K, a 10K, a 7K all ran between January-June 2013) , which all followed after we lost our home due to a fire that broke out above our flat.

January 2013
Egmond Half-Marathon medal
January 2013
February 2013 my first DNF race
March 2013

April 2013
May 2013
May 2013
June 2013
June 2013


Running for me is not a mere hobby.  Everything encompassing running helps me cope with my manic-depression, and live a life of quality with my family.  Yes, you could almost say, it's how I medicate myself.  It's my healthy addiction.

Since running, my head is less busy. It still is very busy! But I experience more and more pockets of serenity, sometimes catching me silently aware, that I smile and have tears in my eyes all at the same time.

Since running, my anger has lessened. I still have a lot of issues! But I experience more and more the lightness in my being, I never imagined - o nly hoped, fervently wished - I will attain.

Since running, my  perspective has widened.  I still fall into the same pattern of thinking!  But I experience more and more how I can easily welcome a new positive thought in place of the negative paralyzing ones.

Running, in short, has given birth to the person, I like.  Running has made me like myself (again).

A collage celebrating new beginnings: March 2009
My 37th birthday (20th of March, 2009), and the day we moved to Holland (9th of March).
Mijn liefste P.
My beloved by my side in the middle of running Paris Marathon, 2013.

Yes, I have to face the facts, that I will miss fulfilling running goals set this year, but I have already "won" so much more than running goals achieved in 24 months of running, and will be achieved (#positivethinking!) in the future. 

Yes, indeed, I have so many years ahead, years to have fun setting and fulfilling goals and dreams. :)

Well,since the pity party is over, let's all welcome what I know will be a smashing September! :)

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Top 10 - 10 Highs of Being a Runner for 2 Years


Keep Calm and Count to 10
courtesy of Google images
“Anxiety's like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you very far.”
― Jodi Picoult, Sing You Home
“Sometimes life knocks you on your ass... get up, get up, get up!!! Happiness is not the absence of problems, it's the ability to deal with them.”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

Currently, I am addicted to surfing Spotify for cathartic music. Tonight, I stumbled upon Be OK by Ingrid Michaelson. I think the first time I heard it is from a commercial on Dutch TV. Love the album cover:

courtesy of Google images

I'm using it as a personal motivating poster this week.

Despite my toe problem, tomorrow I'll attempt to run a slow 10K, and build up carefully to my next long distance run for Sunday.

Three weeks ago, I run a successful slow 26K in blistering July.

This knowledge has been helping me these past weeks to come to terms with my decision of  resting and reducing mileage until the shooting pain I feel no longer causes me to cramp, when I walk.

It's true based from experience, and from what  I've read about marathon training, that long distance runs does not only help your body prepare but gives your psyche confidence.



Speaking of confidence, I need to make sure I maintain my supply, and thinking of ways to do that, I came up with many ideas both creative and practical ones.

I thought I will be experimenting the last few weeks of August with some of those creative ideas here, and the practical ones, I'll be sharing @ My Daily Mooosings in the Netherlands later on the week. 

As I've mentioned before, blogging helps me a lot when I struggle with myself; it serves as a way to give me better perspectives, when life gets hectic, and undeniably a great creative outlet.

I know, I've said it countless times, but I'll say it once again: I should blog more, and with regularity!

An idea I've applied and worked in the past, that put these good intentions into practice is doing a series of themed blogs.

Since my next run (hopefully tomorrow!) is a 10K, I thought I'll write my top 10 Highs of Being a Runner for 2 years! I'm naming this series tentatively Tuesday 10. :)


10. Finished: 3 marathons in my first 2 years of running!

Berlin Marathon & Amsterdam Marathon 2012 medals
around kilometer 30-35 in Berlin Marathon 2012 course
Amsterdam Marathon 2012
at home - beaming with my back to back blings!
On the way back to the Netherlands, at a gasoline station, I took a picture for posterity: my giddy self, that want to shout out loud, : "I
finished Paris Marathon"despite the odds!!!
Paris Marathon 2013
by the

Arc de Triomphe


9. Improved: My speed and pace!

(comparing 2 races, that were 2 years apart)
-  speed from 6,67 km/hr to 10,04 km/hr

- pace from 8:59 min/km to 5:58 min/km -

 

(comparing a 5K race pace see photo above, to a 5K training pace see photo below of my Nike Stats)


 - add here print screen shot of the run above -


8. Recorded: 100 runs on my Nike+ Sportswatch.

7th of August, 2012 - the day I got my Nike+ Sportswatch, which I won  from Media Markt Holland, on Facebook!

7.  Met: Churandy Martina! Being in the presence of an inspiring Olympian is amazing and electric. :)



6. Nike Poster Girl: with my sole sisters for a whole day in Amsterdam!

Moi standing in front of an advertising column in Amsterdam with our - Eva, Udjen and I - poster!
The pose, that won us the poster, Summer 2012!
5. Ran:

- on a racing track - 5K Runner's World Zandvoort Circuit Run 2012
- on the beach - Egmond Half Marathon 2013
- barefoot - (training) 16K in Wijk aan Zee


5K Runner's World Zandvoort Circuit Run 2012

Egmond
courtesy of Google images


16K in Wijk aan Zee

16K in Wijk aan Zee

4. Gained: friends for life ~ soul/solesisters!


Beautiful ladies, beautiful souls, who helped me fulfill a dream: run and experience a marathon athmosphere during Hamburg Marathon 2012 - we formed a relay team, the first in this event!

3. Cheered: by our girls! They are the best moral supporters, I could ever wish for.

@ Kinderdijk
training runs becomes more fun with beautiful scenery

2. Changed: physically and mentally. :)

Left, my first 4M: Run2Day Ladies Damloop 2011
Right, my first 10M Dam tot Damloop 2012

1. Completed: my first 5K!


with my beloved, mijn liefste P from the beginning - together we continue to dream!

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