run

How Do You Be?

/ Sloan / 1 Comment

Sometimes I feel like I need to be ‘reset’. The other day I got home from a run, put a pot of coffee on, hopped in the shower (I know! Shocking! But I did have to work later.) After I performed my socially necessary hygiene I grabbed a hot cup of coffee, got my book and sat back in bed, still wrapped in my towel, wet hair patiently drying into ringlets and I read.

My roommate walked by my room and poked her head in and said I look peaceful.  You know, I felt peaceful. My absolute favorite part of my day is the 20 or so minutes I try to allow myself after a run and shower. Enough time to relax, drink a cup of coffee and just be for a moment.

 

What do you do to just be?

 

Book, coffee, love

Book, coffee, love

My Mother is going to be SO PROUD!

/ Sloan / 4 Comments

SourceURL:file:///Users/sloandorr/Desktop/TheSoleSeach/How%20often%20is%20it%20really%20ne.doc

How often is it really necessary to shower? I mean, I know some people HAVE to take a shower every morning to wake up. I even have a friend that takes a shower before he races, weird, right? Usually I like to tie my blog posts into something sorta philosophical, but this one is pure curiosity.

I had my running group yesterday at 6:45am, so I ran to our meeting place (2.2 miles) we ran to the track (1 mile) did 2 miles worth of speed work then ran back to the YMCA (1 mile) then I ran home (2.2 miles) Needless to say I had a solid running day. I was home by 9am and had zero plans for the day. Unless you count a date with my new book and the sun plans. Soooooo, I didn’t shower. I laid on the couch with a fresh cup of coffee and read, I eventually ventured to my friends and chatted while we soaked in some vitamin D and then went back to my book for the afternoon.

I (accidentally) napped and was woken up by my friend calling asking if I wanted to get a beer later, sure, I said, as long as I don’t have to shower. And you know what her response was, dude, I’m not showering. And so she came over, we decide to not have a beer and just catch up with our smelly selves instead, but still, we were both fully ready to go to the bar sans-shower. I ask you, is this okay?

Wait. I guess this saga isn’t done yet. I then fell asleep, with no shower, and woke up to go to work. I totally forgot that I hadn’t showered, good thing I work at a gym and am amongst smelly, muscley guys all morning! So I went to work and then worked out. I ran a bunch of errands and just now got back from a visit with my neighbor and lunch. Now here I am, writing this blog, about to read my book and I’m two workouts deep and the only reason I’m probably going to shower today and not after my run tomorrow is because I’m getting a hair cut tonight and I was told to come with clean hair.

 

 

 

Maybe I just need a shower buddy?

Maybe I just need a shower buddy?

 

Does anyone else live like this? Or is it only me and my other friend who runs/mountain bikes a lot?!

 

 

Dogs, bears, mountains, OH MY

/ Sloan / 3 Comments

Yesterday’s long run was more or less supposed to be a gauge on how my body is feeling. A gauge to see how my body is functioning, if I can continue to train hard, up my mileage and attempt to keep up with some of the big boys. Well, I know that I’m just too slow to actually keep up with them, but being able to talk about the trails, knowing them, having higher mileage to show off—to me that’s keeping up.

Notice that I didn’t write about running in NYC. I was there for a week and sadly I guess I have to admit that I only went for one 35-minute run. Embarrassing, I know! I KNOW! I did walk a lot! Like, a lot a lot! So that counts as exercise, right? I think so! Anyway, I went from running roughly three miles the week before last, so you’ll be as surprised as I was when I counted up my miles this past week—I ran a total (roughly, trail miles are hard to calculate) 35 miles! I’ve never run that many in my life! Pretty sweet. Sweet, just like my long run with my friend Darcy and her herd of doggies yesterday.

Abby after here mud bath at Four Corners

Abby after here mud bath at Four Corners

Ember

Ember

There was one other doggie, but he wouldn’t stay still enough for me to get a picture. These girls are like speedy bullets and probably ran twice as far as we did! Ember ran super far ahead of us and then was a speedy bullet on her way back towards us and just about knocked my legs from under me! Pretty sweet dogs if you ask me!

There were a couple really awesome reasons my run was so awesome yesterday morning. First: we started at like 7:30 and the temperature was PERFECT. And we basically had the entire mountain to ourselves. There were a couple mountain bikers but they were cool so that was okay. Sometimes mountain bikers are kinda rude and think they own the trail, but these guys were really nice.

Next awesome thing: we saw a Mama and baby BEAR. Maybe they were hanging out for an early Mother’s day, I don’t know. But they were HUGE and pretty close and it was amazing to see them!! I was sorta worried about the dogs, but they were fine and the bears just ignored us and walked along on their way.

The bears. Okay, there were a little more ferocious than these

The bears. Okay, there were a little more ferocious than these

Conversation. That’s the next awesome thing. There’s something about running with a good friend that can be more helpful than paying a therapist to listen to you talk. Have you ever had that experience? I feel like some of my best friendships have been formed over long runs.

So, perfect temperatures, bears, good friends and lots of miles. You really can’t beat that. Later in the day I tried elevating my legs to recover, I read that somewhere that works and I’m not so into ice baths. So I decided not to bathe and read my book with my legs in the air. But quickly got bored and went to lounge in the sun with some friends and go for a bike ride to the Goodwill. I’m a bigger proponent for ‘active recovery’.

My favorite socks: legs up!

My favorite socks: legs up!

I think the bike ride and sun bathing were the best ideas. So far I feel pretty good today. We’ll see how I feel after 6 hours working retail. But over all a great running week, pretty stoked on it!!!