Sunday, September 20, 2015

Spontaneous Sunday!

For someone who likes schedules and plans and preparation, I can be extremely impulsive.  When I get excited about an idea, I often leap forward full speed ahead without a ton of deep forethought, stubbornly convinced it's a good thing to do.  This is occasionally a huge fault, and occasionally a huge asset.  I'm pretty sure this time it's an asset, but with all of my spontaneous decisions, only time will tell.

My sister and I at the 10K point of our
very first half marathon
Last night (so I guess on Spontaneous Saturday...) I read my first issue of Runner's World in a really long time - probably not since shortly after I got injured after the marathon in January 2014.  My subscription inexplicably ran out and since I couldn't run and felt depressed about it, I didn't renew.  It's an excellent magazine and I forgot how every single time I read it I get a massive burst of inspiration and excitement.  As a result, before I had even read the last page, I had decided to register for and run the NYC Half Marathon in March of 2016.  My big return to distance running was going to be the Brooklyn Half in May, but I counted out the weeks and my rough estimate of my training needs and decided I could do both.

From there, I naturally started thinking about one of the two things currently on my bucket list.  Item #1 - Have a baby.  Not ready for that one yet, and that would've been a weird thing to think of next, so it was obviously Item #2 - Run the NYC Marathon.

As a New York Road Runners member, I can gain entry if I run in 9 races and volunteer for 1 in the 2016 calendar year.  I've thought about it for a loooong time over the years, and my injury put an indefinite hold on my fantasies of crossing that finish line in Central Park after running through all five beautiful boroughs.  I'm feeling strong enough though - and more importantly, much smarter about my body than I was pre-injury - that I think it's time to put a real live actual date and goal out there.

November 5th, 2017.  It's gonna happen.


The next spontaneous thing is slightly less earth shattering...or at least it would be if I were a little less neurotic.

I deleted Facebook off my phone.

Half of those reading this probably wonder why this is a big deal at all, and the other half are probably shuddering in horror.

I'm not deleting my account  - there's no way I could cut myself off from that many baby pictures from all my family and friends and students and clients - but I have so much to read both for doula training, running, yoga, and pleasure, and Facebook absolutely dominates my commute.  More often than not, I stay on it longer than necessary and get sucked down a rabbit hole of political depression and upsetting news stories.  That's not to say I won't follow news or political issues important to me anymore, but I just need to be a better guardian of how much energy I'm putting toward something that isn't giving me a whole lot in return.

So there you go.  Spontaneous Sunday.  Decisions both big and petty - it's all happening.

Resurrection of a blog (and a hip)

One year ago today - on a much cloudier, much colder, and quite frankly very hungover morning - I went out to run.  My goal was either 4 mil...