Thoughts I Had While Running Today

1. Why is it so hot?!  I didn't get out quite as early as I meant to today, and omg if that hour didn't make a huge difference.  There is a perfectly good reason why I called this blog RunOnTheSun, but today it was in the 70s as I got ready to go out.  70s!  I guess it's that good ole heat island effect tho, or just my total intolerance for being too warm, bc I overheated in the first fifteen minutes.  There is something about the sun being out that just makes any temperature feel hotter, and I have to get the hang of what that is, and how to counteract it...or move!  83 by the ocean is nothing like 83 in Phoenix. 
And yes, I know I have a good 40 more degrees coming my way.  Just firing up the complaint machine!

2.  I have done this before, right??  I've lost a lot of ground since spraining my ankle in December.  It's not bothering me per se anymore, but I keep getting surprised by how hard a time I have once feet meet road!  I think, oh, I'll bang out 3 miles and then do other stuff--but then that three miles becomes a total project and I'm feeling like it's couch-to-5k all over again.  I'm going to try and reserve judgement as I get back into the swing of regular running, and assume all these little things are going to work themselves out the way they did before...but they better!

3.  OMG NYC is going to be soo long...  Almost every time I go out I calculate and recalculate, "if I ran the whole thing at this pace, it would take xxx to run that whole race!"  When I slow down and walk a stretch, I think "this is going to bring my imaginary overall marathon time down by xxx".  Ha I guess a hero dies a thousand deaths...and I'm running that marathon (badly) in my mind over and over again.  I guess the James isn't the only one having anxiety about what we just committed to! 

If you lived here you'd...probably be one of my neighbors.

4.  There are a lot of interesting things in my neighborhood I never knew about!  We're not the most neighborly of sorts (we blame it on our unsuitable neighbors, ofc), and I'm not too proficient at the smelling of roses- so we tend to head straight in and out of our neighborhood without bothering much about it.  But today I ran a totally circuitous route through a bunch of local streets I've never been down, and I saw cool shit.  Someone has a huge plastic bass for a mailbox.  One house has a totally overgrown front lawn, but it's overgrown with these giant flower stalks that look like a petunia had a one-night-stand with a sunflower.  I learned that 60% of my neighbors see a need to post their family names on placards by their front doors.  (Did I not get this memo in my welcome packet?  (HAAA if you could see this neighborhood you'd know why a "welcome packet" is totally hilarious around here! That was awesome. ) )  I've been in Phoenix so long there's nothing for it but to get to know the city in incredible detail--I am completely immune to getting lost now anywhere in the city--but turns out there is a lot of detail close by I'd left off my list.  Maybe I'll take a camera next time and show you.



5. It would be awesome to do something unexpected on these neighborhood runs.  Like leave a plant on someone's doorstep.  (Note:  November thru February only!)  Pick up some trash.  Leave a note.  I ran by someone's house who had a placard outside, saying he was a Korean war veteran; it occurred to me to leave a note in his mailbox just saying "thanks for your service".  I didn't have paper.  Maybe next time.  Just a little kamikaze goodness...maybe it would take my mind off how fast I'm (not) going.

6.  I need to rein my brain.  When I started this distance running venture those long (ha) three years ago, I had only one goal: get out there and do my time and only think happy thoughts.  I knew the road to my goals was going to be a long one, and that I'd only stay on it with a little bit of pixie dust; if I went at this with the usual grimness people allow about exercise, I'd be on my way back to the couch and jalapeno potato chips with my headphones still in.  So that was my rule- think about anything, but just make it good.  And once I made that connection, it made all the sense in the world...then I'd hear friends say, "ugh, I have to go to the gym today" or "I hate to exercise, it's so boring", and I'd cringe.  Why do you suppose you hate it?  Self-fulfilling prophecy much?  Who the hell's going to make it fun if you're bitching in your head the whole time! 

Okay, I guess this works but if Jillian turned her back for one second you know that girl would be out the door like a comic book character.

      So, that's served me pretty well through my little journey...but I'm having a different kind of experience now.  Now that I'm (a little) more experienced, I know just enough to raise all sorts of questions.  How do I get faster...How can I pr...Is my run harder today bc I ate something weird yesterday...Will I do better cutting out sugar or dairy...Do I need to have my gait analyzed/hire a trainer/just run more miles/cross train differentlyaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh...  So now, instead of slipping into a nice zen state and trusting it all to add up in the best possible way, I'm slipping into constant coach mode and analyzing every detail of every statistic.  This is not working better for me.  Must return to happy moments running.  How I'm going to do this, I'm not sure...but, don't they say admitting it is the first step?