cross-train

Focus baby, just focus.

/ Sloan / Leave a comment

Typical conversation amongst friends:

“What do you want to do tonight?”

“Oooh, I dunno, grab a drink [at a loud bar with TVs], catch up [get drunk]?”

“Sounds good.”

 

Right? We’ve all had this conversation when trying to make time to meet up with people that we don’t see too often. It’s easy, convenient, and who doesn’t like a drink at happy hour?

 

Well, if you’re reading this you are either my friend and are just being nice (you know who you are!) or you are an active person and I bombard your Facebook or Twitter page every time I post—but somehow you get sucked back into reading this. (Thanks by the way!) We’re active people and most likely we surround ourselves with other active people.

 

I just had an extended trip back to where I lived, worked and went to school last week, I spread myself thin between Grand Rapids, Holland and St. Joe Michigan. My old roommate and I decided that instead of meeting up at dinnertime and drinking a few too many beers, we wanted to catch up over a morning coffee and then hit the matt. The yoga matt I mean! Emily has been going to Satya Yoga in Saugatuck, MI for a while and knew I’d love a class. This was the best way to begin the day and begin our day of catching up and making plans for future visits.

 

After my trip, I made plans to visit a friend in Pittsburgh, (about halfway home! Perfect!) Mid drive he texted and asked if I was into going to a Hot Yoga class that evening (heck yes! I screamed, and then promptly texted the same response back to him.) While the yoga in Saugatuck was more restorative this class at Amazing Yoga was not only amazing but was one hell of a work out! The instructor forced us to focus. Focus on our breathing, focus on our bellies, focus on the muscles we were using and focus on making sure we were using them correctly.

 

This is a new concept for me. Focus. Focus. Focus. It’s a great word. Not only am I focusing on using my muscles while I’m using them, I’m trying to focus on them to work harder and make sure I am using the correct ones to get the full effect of a run, cycle, yoga class, boxing work out…

 

Focus is a theme I’m trying to thread into the rest of my life as well. Each conversation we have is important, catching up over a beer is great, but focusing on what your friend is saying is what is going to be what’s important. These conversations we have everyday make us better friends, better companions and better people.

 

As you catch up with friends in life, move forward in your own life or make changes to, well, change, I urge you to remember to focus on what you’re doing in that moment. Work on one project at a time. Just be for a moment.

 

Whether catching up is over a beer, coffee, before you prepare to work your body. focus on what you are doing. It is so easy to be distracted by our phone, (which are now virtually computers in our pockets,) by television or by anything else that is around you.

 

I’m finding that the relationships I have are worth building and worth keeping, and the only way to accomplish both is to focus that energy to work the muscles, work the brain, and work the heart.

 

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Gotta…

/ Sloan / Leave a comment

The Boston Marathon is Monday. Anyone running that race, FYI: you are a bad ass! Congrats, run hard, run fast, run smoothly. I wish you the best, you’ve trained hard all winter, this is where it matters.

I’ve been out for… hell, I’ve lost count. I don’t even know what running feels like any more, I’ve forgotten the feeling. I have been at the gym, I have been working out, I’m lifting, cross training, I went stand up paddle boarding with an account the other day—it was fabulous. But nothing beats the feeling of the wind in my hair, my legs moving swiftly, smoothly, effortlessly through the city or on the trail.

I’m waiting. Still waiting for that wave, still waiting to feel better than I feel now, I’m sure I could run but I don’t want to push it. I’m at the point where listening to my body isn’t the right option. Listening to my body would have me running and back tracking faster than I can lace up my running shoes. I’m listening to my body and then adding a week of cross training again, I want to be sure. I want to be sure I can run and not have to stop.

Because sometimes you just gotta run…

…run and keep going.

My Wave is Coming.

/ Sloan / 3 Comments

I’ve been avoiding writing a blog for a week or two due to the fact that once I really write about it, it makes it real-er. What is ‘it’? ‘It’ is the stress fracture that my doctor saw on the MRI I got. A stress fracture in my sacrum—which, according to my almost-doctor-roommate, doctor friend, and actual doctor I went to see—it’s a hard bone to fracture. I guess I’m just that talented! So besides going crazy what am I doing, you ask? I’ve been lifting, biking, sleeping in, listening to my body. I’ve had to listen reallllly hard. Usually I ignore those aches and pains and power through the pain and just attribute it to soreness—but this time it’s different, I truly need to let my body heal. And this is going to take time. Today is week 6.

 A while ago a man I met on the road gave me a book. He’s a fellow runner and athlete and gave me the book called The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean. Nothing to do with running really, but about the people in Hawaii chasing the biggest wave they can find. Catching that high that makes them get up in the morning, head to the beach and get on their board to surf this crazy ocean that seems angry, the water gets so big and so powerful I wonder why anyone would want to put themselves in the middle of that fight.

The book is great, I’m fascinated with this lifestyle. But then I hear about how these men, all of them, have suffered broken bones, impalings on the reefs, cuts, bruises, sprains, stitches and concussions. Yet they still go back. They heal, they bounce back and maybe they’re better for it. They’re out for weeks, maybe months healing, watching their friends catch the big waves and supporting them while they have to sit on the beach and watch. That’s me. I’m sitting out. Every week I get an email from my running group, Bob tells the group how far they need to run to be in condition for their spring time marathon, where and when they’re meeting. Then I text my friend and wish her a good run, and she texts me back saying she’ll miss my company on the run but “get healthy!”

The running community is a great support. I’m lucky to be a part of it, but I’m broken right now but I will be back, I will train for that rogue, freak or giant that is out there for me to conquer. This time off is just going to make me stronger for it…

Off to the recumbent bike and some weights! For those of you training, those of you who have been supportive to me in my craziness—thank you. Good luck in your races! I’ll be cheering for you!!!