Tag Archives: inspiration

Boston Marathon 2013: A Letter To The Runners

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***EDIT: The following post was written and posted the morning before the tragic Boston Marathon bombing. My heart goes out to all those affected, and to all of those whose lives were turned upside down for one senseless act of violence. Stay Strong, Boston.***

 

Today is one of the best days of the year in Boston; Marathon Monday. Instead of a normal blog post, I’ve taken today to write a letter to all of the runners who will be pounding the pavement today:

marathon

Dear Marathon Runners,

Do you know what you’re about to do? You’re about to run. 26.2 miles.

From Hopkinton to Boylston St, through Framingham, Wellesley, Newton, and Brookline, among other towns in between. Past throngs of screaming students from Wellesley College, BC, BU, and the 30something other colleges in the Boston Area (because of course all of the colleges have this day off, it’s “Patriots Day”). Up Heartbreak Hill, where you’ll want to just crawl your way to the top (or alternatively, curl up in the fetal position and cry… both are acceptable). You’ll run through some quieter areas, but for the most part the crowds will be so loud and excited that, for better or worse, you’ll hardly be able to hear yourself think. You’re about to run.

You’re about to join the exclusive club of people who have run Boston. BOSTON. The world’s oldest annual marathon, and one that is the pinnacle of many runners’ careers. Runners from all over the US and all over the world dream of running in this race, and here you are. You are HERE. You are about to run.  You are becoming a part of history; a part of a century-old tradition, and this is happening NOW.

And I’ll be somewhere in Mile 25 eating handing out Swedish Fish to those who need a little glucose kick (and maybe throwing back a mimosa or two). And for that, that makes you better than me (for today). You have trained your butt off, you have logged countless miles throughout a long, cold winter in order to get ready for today. You have dedicated your weekends to long runs and your social life has taken a back seat to the pavement. For that, I applaud you. Whether you’re an elite, a weekend warrior, a war veteran, running for a charity or simply to put a check check-mark on your bucket list, know that today you are amazing.

As much as I joke on this blog about how much I hate running, I have the utmost respect for all of you. The reality of the situation is, I couldn’t do what you’re doing today. The time, the commitment, the training sessions, the final event; I know it’s not in the cards for me. But you’re about to complete one of the most incredible tasks of your lives. I applaud you for everything that has brought you to this moment, and I will continue my applause all day, from the sidelines, because not everyone has a marathon in them. YOU do.

You are strong, you are determined. You may be fast, you may be slow, but all that matters is that you’re here, and you’re about to run.

And to my friends Kristen, Steph, and Corey who are running today, this message goes out to you three especially. Good luck on the course, have fun, and most importantly, keep an eye out for me at Mile 25. I’ll give you Swedish Fish. And maybe a mimosa if you ask politely. ;)

You can also check out my Marathon Monday post from last year if you’d like, complete with some thoughts about the inspirational men and women who run this race every year. Enjoy! Happy Marathon Monday everyone! 

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Motivation Monday: What’s Your Intention

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I see you. You walk into the gym and hop on your stationary bike to warm up.  You stare at the clock on the display until it reads 10:00. There. Warm-up done. You meander into the weight room, set up your equipment, grab your dumbbells, or hop on a machine. You go through the motions, lift-release, contract-relax, like a pre-programmed weight-lifting robot. Or maybe you don’t even go into the weight room because it makes you anxious, nervous, or you think it’s just for guys.  So you go ahead with the same workout you’ve been doing, for months,  years maybe.  Maybe you’re making progress, maybe you’re not.

STOP IT.

I don’t know…I thought maybe an angry lion would scare you straight.

I see you, and I know what causes this. You’re bored. You’re unmotivated. You’re uninspired. Maybe you’re feeling a little lazy (it happens to the best of us). Maybe you’ve hit a plateau in your training and you just can’t push past a certain weight on your squat. Maybe you just need something new to reenergize your workouts, to get your muscles firing in a little bit of a different pattern. Maybe you just need to figure out where your inspiration lies or why the heck you’re doing this in the first place.

I think we all lose ourselves in the gym at some point in our workout/training careers.  Whether you’re a beginner or are someone who is more comfortable in the weight room than anywhere else, at some point you’ll probably hit a wall.  As most of you know, I spent very little time in the weight room over the past two weeks because I hit that wall. I was unmotivated, tired, and just needed a little bit of time to recover both my muscles and my mindset.
A Lazy Lion[Source]

Angry lion loses motivation —-> Lazy lion napping in a tree

How can you get out of this rut? Think about two things:

1) What are you doing this for? 

2) Are you actually working toward your goals? 

First things first, you have to figure out why you’re in the gym in the first place.  Are you trying to lose weight? Be healthier for your children? Look hot in your new jeans (and/or out of your new jeans)? Whatever your reason, be honest with yourself. Most of us do workout for aesthetic reasons just as much as for health reasons, and it’s ok to admit it. I spend a lot of time in the weight room because I want to be healthy and strong, but a lot of my motivation also comes from wanting my shoulders to look like this:

Hello, deltoids!

Secondly, you have to evaluate whether your fitness routine is actually getting you closer to those goals that you have set. (Here’s a hint: If you’ve been doing the same routine for the past 3 years and haven’t seen any progress, it’s probably not working.) So you want to have jacked shoulders and glutes that you could bounce a quarter off of? Riding the elliptical probably isn’t helping you any. You want to be able to run a 5k in under 30 minutes? Those bicep curls probably aren’t doing the trick.

Here’s an example: I set a goal a while ago that I wanted to be able to do 5 unassisted chin-ups. At the time I could only do 2-3. Guess how many I can do now? 5. I can also do 5 parallel grip pull-ups and can consistently perform 1 unassisted pull-up. I didn’t reach that goal just because I’m lucky, I reached that goal because I changed my upper body work over the summer to maximize strength increases in the muscles that would help me to my pull-up goals. Had I just kept up with the same type of upper body work that I had been doing for the entire year prior, most likely I would still be stuck at 3 chin-ups, 3 months later.

The most important part of training is working towards your goals, but first you need to be honest with yourself and crystal clear about what those goals are. If you’ve been stuck in a rut or have hit a plateau with your fitness routine, maybe it’s time to step back and reevaluate where you’re headed and why.  Not sure whether you’re doing this or not? Try this:

Sit down with a pen and paper. (That’s right, we’re going old school).

On one side of the paper, write down your fitness goals. On the other side, write down something you’re doing in your routine that has helped you to make progress toward reaching that goal. If you can’t come up with something for each goal, it’s time to change things up a little bit. If you stare at that paper, and realize that everything you’re doing is not getting you anywhere in terms of your fitness potential, figure out what changes need to be made, and then, here’s the kicker: make those changes. Easy enough, right? Now get to it.

if you want something youve never had

Is your fitness routine actively helping you reach your goals? Have you ever hit a training plateau or a rut and how did you get out of it? When was the last time you switched things up in your fitness routine?

Inspiration(?) and Good Reads

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Uninspired

Un-in-spired: adjective. not inspired; not creative or spirited; dull or ordinary

While I don’t think anyone that knows me would classify my as dull or ordinary, I am feeling rather uninspired on this beautiful Friday.

No, it’s not Writer’s Block. You should see the amount of drafts I have started and the ideas floating around in my head (actually I’m glad you cant see the ideas floating around in my head). I have plenty of things to write about. Coming up with material is not the problem, it’s finding inspiration to make it readable, to make it worth Your while, to make it good excellent.

For some reason, I’m sitting here with not an ounce of inspiration. So instead of leaving you with some uninspired drivel, I’m giving you a few good reads that I’ve found lately! Posts from folks who have had better luck finding inspiration than myself. Hopefully after this weekend I’ll be back with something that’ll just blow your mind.

That’s right, some of that good shit.

Until then, read these!

4 More Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Do Kettlebells. - A catchy title and even better post about Kettlebells, from Tom Basson.

Is It Ok To Feel Attractive - From the Figure Feminist. A must read for all you ladies out there.

Stop Weighing on the Scale - From Nia Shanks. This one goes handily with the link above, and is another must read for all you ladies… Especially the scale addicts! (Pay special attention to the before and after picture about halfway through the article)

A Tale of 10 Chin Ups - From Kristen over at StrengthSwag. My girl worked her ass off to reach one of her goals…and lived to tell about it!

Can You Be Overweight and Healthy? - Found this one on Spark People, and it has some excellent points. Read it and mull it over because I have a post coming out soon about this very topic!

And now that you’ve read all of these, please go and do this:

Try this once in awhile.

Also don’t forget about this week’s fitness challenge!! Get outside, get creative, and do a playground workout. There’s no better way to creep out some kids and their nannies than doing bulgarian split squats off the end of the slide! :)  Make sure to send me pictures/descriptions of the exercises you come up with by Sunday evening so that I can include them in a workout post next week. 

And now, I’m off to the beach! Have a wonderful and healthy weekend everyone! 

Putting Your Goals on Blast

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Last week I asked readers to send me their fitness and nutrition goals. I got a handful of responses, and I just wanted to take todays post to highlight some of these goals and to have a little bit of a discussion about them.

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One of my lovely readers, Lynette, told me that her goal was to lose 3 inches of belly fat.

Another reader, Michelle, sent me several goals, including:

  • Toning her midsection (notice a theme here?)
  • Creating more definition between hamstrings and glutes, as well as upper arm/tricep area
  • Improving posture
  • Compete in a mini-triathalon (AWESOME!!)
  • Including more fruits/veggies, and decreasing consumption of fried foods

Lori, a faithful reader (who just happens to be my best friend) has goals to:

  • Keep eating healthfully, including more veggies and less sugar
  • Work out before she goes to work in the morning
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Meg sent me some very exciting goals (and recent accomplishments!)

  • Complete an unassisted pull-up (She’s very close because she recently completed her first unassisted chin-up!! Woo hoo!)
  • Increase height in box jumps
  • Eat more variety, and eat slower
  • Do more yoga, be more patient, think only positive thoughts when looking in the mirror, and decrease stress.

And finally Ethel the Dean said that her goal is to run before work every morning.

So what’s the point here? What does it matter who wants to do what?

The point is that no matter what your goals are, no matter where your starting point or your projected end point lies, we all have things we can learn from each other along the way. While my goals may not include a decrease in belly fat, I do have goals that require the same type of dedication and hard work that that will require. I might not have a goal to run every day before work (oh God that would be torturous), but I do have fitness goals that will require me to push through times when I might not want to be out there running sprints and completing interval sets.

So no matter what your goals, we are in this together. Even though there were only a handful of people to send in goals, there are a lot more of you out there and I know that you all have goals of your own. (And feel free to keep sending them in to me if you wish!) So I want you all to use this as your sort of contract. Now you have it out there in writing for everyone to see, that these are your goals.  It doesn’t matter if the rest of the world doesn’t know who you are. YOU know who you are, and you are the only one who can push yourself to reach these goals.  And if your goals aren’t written up here, maybe you can find something in common with those that are, and use this to hold yourself accountable, knowing that others are doing the same.

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So next time I give you a god-awful challenge like 200 burpees in a week (Who does that?!?), think twice before saying “I’m not doing that”. Think about why you’re saying no, and then think back to your goals. If you can honestly tell me that any specific challenge is not useful to you, not worthwhile to you reaching your goals, than so be it. But be honest with yourself, and remember that sometimes the things that push us a little bit outside of our comfort zones are the things that are most beneficial to growth and progress.

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Don’t forget about this week’s Burpee Challenge! Take a picture of yourself doing your burpees, or even a video and send it my way! I’ll post it on the blog for everyone to see how badass you are. 

Anyone else want their goals posted on here to keep you accountable? Are you doing the Burpee Challenge this week?

Motivation Monday and The Marathon

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Ah,

The Boston Marathon. The world’s oldest, most awesome* annual marathon. 

*Ok, I may have added that part in myself.

But The BAA Boston Marathon is amazing.  A race that many runners strive for their whole lives; Boston is a benchmark for success. A true piece of American History. And it just so happens that it falls on Patriot’s day (which I’m convinced is actually just a made up holiday so that Boston can actually celebrate Marathon Monday under the guise of another holiday).

Marathon weekend in Boston is one of the best times of year here; it’s electrifying. The energy around the city is palpable, even if you’re not a runner. Knowing that the best of the best of the world’s runners will be completing this course on Monday is exciting and inspirational in itself. Standing down at the finish line while thousands of runners push themselves to the extreme just to complete the race is an experience every Bostonian should have.

Watching the marathon, you will see every kind of motivation you could ever wish for:

  • The Elites: Let’s be real here. They run a marathon at a faster pace than I can sprint!!
Ryan Hall, Just before the Finish Line, 2010 Boston Marathon 
Another marathon icon, Meb Keflezighi, Boston 2010

  I’m not kidding.

  • The wheelchair racers: if this doesn’t inspire you, you probably don’t have a soul. 
Boston 2010
Yep, I had a good spot that year
  • The military men and women who run in full gear, including fatigues and combat boots. For 26. 2 miles. IT’S CRAZY AND AMAZING all at the same time! 
  • The Average Joe’s who push themselves so damn hard to finish this one race; to make it past Heartbreak Hill in one piece; to just get to that finish line on Boylston and maybe even hit a PR. 
My friend Corey, pictured here, kicked total ass in 2010 
And, to make it even more ridiculous, Boston is slated to hit the Mid 80′s today by mid-day. Talk about making one of the toughest races even tougher.
So, with this quickie post, just stop and think about the thousands that are going to be sweating their way down Comm Ave today, and know that if they can run 26.2 miles in 85 degree heat, you sure as hell can get your workout in today.  Use their determination as your own inspiration, and get after it in your own workouts this week!
Have any of you ever watched the Boston Marathon? Have you ever run a marathon yourself?