Good habits spill over

I have to say that this "success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines" stuff has affected me more than just running more consistently, which was my original goal. I'm seeing other things in my life that are changing for the better as a result of this stuff too. It's pretty funny to me, and I hope everyone else is seeing the same sort of thing. I'm also sleeping better (usually) and do have more energy during the day.

I'm going to try the mp3 player on my cell phone once more this Saturday before I embark on an ipod journey, and I hope to avoid buying one. Not that I don't like them, I'd lovet to have one, but that is money I don't need to spend if my cell phone will do the trick. I'd planned on taking my cell phone with me for the marathon and this would just shorten the list of stuff I have to tote. We'll see if it works. I have a bunch of good music ready to load, so we'll see how it goes. The drawback is that my cell phone only has a 1 gb memory stick, and that's not a whole lot of music. We'll see if it can get me through a marathon. See everyone tomorrow, bright and early.

Oh, I have to admit that I ran on Friday just as an experiment today. I was used to running on Friday way back the last time I was consistent with running, and it didn't tire me out. It may now, but I'll know for sure tomorrow. I did do just an easy run today, slower than usual, etc. We'll see if I feel great or if I pay for it tomorrow. And on a better note, I joined Baptist HP last night, so I'll be going there a couple of times a week (at least) to get some weights and other crosstraining in. I'm quite excited. Can't wait to use it.

Outrunning my buddies

I used to have to walk and pray that my Belhaven running buddies would slow down and wait for me, or at least loop back to pick me up, but now it's the other way around. We ran 4 miles this morning, it was pretty humid and warm, but it felt pretty easy. It is worth mentioning, as we've talked about in the past, everybody has an off day, slow run, didn't feel great, whatever, but you'll notice as your fitness improves that those off days are fewer, and they're not as off as they were earlier. It's really getting to be rewarding now, it is tough getting past that "getting into running shape" stage, but once past it, the running gets fun again, and those off days are pretty much a thing of the past. They still come up occasionally, but not nearly as miserable as they were. You'll see it too, if you haven't already.

Every week a record . . .

Well it's funny. My friend Bob always asks me how far we are running this week and I always tell him, "oh, only 10, or whatever, no biggie." He always rolls his eyes, tells me I'm crazy and talks about the longest he's ever run (which is 10 miles). It always reminds me when we have this same conversation, about the fact that before I started MM, the farthest I'd ever run was 7, and that was on a treadmill. So it's cool to realize every week (and we have this same conversation every week) that I just did a new personal best. I bet that's true for many of us. It is certainly motivating to think of it that way, at least it is for me. And to think that well, I just ran 9 last week, so 10 can't be all that bad. Should be a can of corn (I'm a baseball fan). It's funny how the mindset and attitude is SO much more important than what our bodies can physically do. It's all in what we think we can do.

I have to tell you that I usually go eat lunch after we run on Saturdays (I do shower first), and we've been going to Ichiban lately. Of course there's a fortune cookie, and mine recently read this: "Only she who attempts the absurd can achieve the impossible." Wow. I think that's me.

Cudos to Cindy Windham, aka Cincha, for running her 10 miles in Vicksburg Military Park this past Saturday. She won't tell you this because she apparently gave up blogging for Lent and it stuck, but she did it, did it fast, and was still on her feet Saturday evening for a cookout and home made ice cream. I run in Belhaven without any problem, but I'm not nuts enough (Mark and Scotty) to voluntarily run in V'burg. You people are crazy, but amazing. Way to go!!

It was also very cool to discover that Debbie's brother-in-law was my high school band director. It's amazing what connections you can discover with people standing around chatting after runs, or on these blogs. Just a happenstance that she mentioned that her husband Ed (or is it Edd, Debbie?) was a band director earlier in life, and it struck me what her last name was, and of course there can't be more than one Ed or Joe Brashier in the music business. Too funny!! It made my day.