Dueling banjos.
A forbidden love affair.
One keeps me up to the wee hours of the night.
The other has me rising before the sun.
This wreaks havoc on my sanity, my level of consciousness, my adrenal glands, and my metabolism.
So, the burning question is this: How does one balance blogging and distance training?
BLOGGING - During this training “off-season”, I have invested more time into my blog. I joined Blog365, and as of today - I have written posts every day of this year. Uh-huh. Some days I’ve even posted 2 or 3 times! It seems the more I write, the more I write. I used to think writing helped me clear my head. Now I think that more writing makes me think more… then I write more… It’s a vicious self-feeding cycle.
All this writing has change me. I used to see life around me as circumstance… now I see life as stories. Stories are happening all around… bad ones, funny ones, sad ones, unfortunate ones, boring ones…
I tend to lean on the funny stories. Actually, I tend to try to “make funny” out of the mundane… I have deeper things mulling about as well, but that requires more of me. And for some reason I am really struggling with true depth… about motherhood, womanhood, spirituality, ethics and morality. Some of that will come. Honestly, I am avoiding things too. I have drafts and drafts in que to refine… it just takes a level of investment I just can’t (or won’t) tap into these days. A therapist might call it “denial”. I call it “processing”.
TRAINING: My last event was the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Since then my workouts have tapered off in intensity and frequency. This is due to several factors - my knees needed some rest, my adrenals needed to regroup, it was getting pretty cold outside, the holidays, and with the new year - Blog365, people!
Over the last month I have been losing some of my exercisinal drive. Yes, I made up that word. I feel a bit bored with it. Getting up at the butt-crack of dawn is not as exciting as it used to be. Yes, it was exciting, and know I am not normal. Katie and I have been looking at the calendar and have a goal. On June 8th we will be doing our 4th half-marathon. Now I need to fork over the dough and sign-my-unmotivated-booty-up. We’ll start “official” training in a couple of weeks. I’m sure once it starts really warming up outside and we get into the groove I’ll find that passion I know and love. I hope.
Our goal for the half is to beat our Seattle-half time: 2 hours and 52 seconds. See, I’m getting excited already. The course we’ll be running in June is known for personal bests, so we hope to break the finish in under 2 hours. In 2006 we did the Seattle-half in 2:18, and in this event last June we finished in 2:05… I doubt we’ll shave off another 13 minutes, but it is totally possible to cut some time. Golly, we only need to take off 52 seconds. Over 13 miles… that means we need to take off 5ish seconds per mile. We’ll see.
Oh, and then we want to do an Olympic distance triathlon. That is my real love. Triathlons. We actually want to fit in 2 this summer. Maybe one Olympic length and then a sprint-distance. And then there is a marathon (full) in Portland in October. It has a great reputation for first-timers. I would like to do one full marathon in my life. Is this the year? This IS 2008 - Blog365… can it be done??? Two worlds colliding…
Even as I sit here… I have made a trade. Instead of throwing on my running shoes and taking advantage of a little bit of sun, I am sitting on my couch… writing. One activity tones my butt, the other mushes it. Fussypants has the Best. Tagline. Ever. “We both can’t look good. It’s either me or the house.” I wish I had come up with that. I need a cute country sign with that written on it - to hang over my front door. But, Miss Fussy? May I play with that concept for a sec? Please???
It’s either my Blog or my Butt…
We both can’t look good.
Or can they? Is there any hope? I am not even touching on the fact that if my house is clean - I am unclean… but if I am clean and shiny, then Hazmat rushes out to tape my my house off. Is this really what it’s like to be a woman/mom/wife/dancer/blogger/wannabe-runner-biker-swimmer-person? Folks, you don’t even know how hard it is to be as interesting a person as I am. It is such a heavy burden…
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I hear you sista’. It feels impossible to do this and live this full life we should be having. I walk 5-6 miles a day but sometimes I am a complete dud and cannot get off my butt because the computer has this gravitational pull that is too strong. We’ll forgive you for your butt but oh no, don’t slow down the blog…no, no, no.
I hear ya’ too!
Hilarious, my friend, absolutely hilarious!
Mwah, Alli
I see you fleshing out the details in your blogs…..you can see people’s reactions–it’s great, isn’t it? Reaching people on that level is very satisfying. Depth might seem like a curse (because it’s so uncomfortable, scary), especially when you are really struggling to bring it forth, but remember: you never know who you can affect with your words–you never know the true meaning of the thoughts in your head until you either say them or write them.
One of these days I’m going to make my blog public….probably after the book comes together. It…is…frightening….fear is good.