run

Quirks

/ Sloan / 6 Comments

Who are you? We are all so many different people through out the day. At home you may be “Mom” or “Dad” or “Honey/Babe” you might just be your name or a cute nick name from your roommate… it’s okay to be single and not have children or a significant other IT’S OKAY! (This is what I tell myself as I wander aimlessly through my 20’s.)

Around your friends you may have some crazy personality quirks that come out. My friend Mike goes by “Turbo” with his work friends, he’s a raft guide and I’m not sure what earned the name Turbo, but I’m sure it’s a great story.

At work you could be “Boss Man” (that’s secretly what I call my boss.) you could be the ‘Coffee Bitch” (great title, I’d prefer to be that actually.) The other day at work I got called “Baby Girl” and now one of my co-workers refers to me as that sometimes.

Needless to say we all are different people throughout the day, right? Can we agree? We all have our quirks and ‘things’ that we do in different situations that make us who we are and feel comfortable in different social situations. Things we’re really good at, things we obsess over and make happen at different times. Little insignificant things we do that make us feel better.

At home I’m a mess. My bedroom is covered in clothes and stuff but I am obsessively neat about a few things. Like hanging my earrings or the way I tie my running shoes. I have to, I mean HAVE TO put the left shoe on, then I put on the right. Then I tie the left (carefully lacing it evenly) and then I tie the right. If someone hands me the right shoe I can’t put it on, it doesn’t feel right, (no pun intended.)

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At work I hang shorts—obsessively. I trace this back to my first retail job at Gazelle Sports and my first manager, Beth. Beth and I bonded right away, curly hair, loud laugh, a customer made my cry and she gave me the best (and most needed) hug ever, (do you remember that Beth?!) But Beth taught me how to hang shorts/pants and I soon became obsessed with making them perfect.

I’m not going to explain how to hang the short perfectly but I just want to thank my friend Beth for creating a super obsession with the way shorts are hung. At my current job that’s what I do when there are no customers, when I got shopping that’s what I do when I don’t see anything I want…it’s a never ending task. I should be called “The Hanger” instead of Baby Girl.

Not sure where the shoe-tying thing came from, or if I do anything specific in other parts of my life but these are two things that are quirky and cannot go unnoticed by me.  These things help make me who I am. Help mold the awesomeness that is Sloan. Who are you? Do you change what/who you are from situation to situation? I try to stay pretty true to myself in every aspect of my life, but my friends probably don’t know about my obsessive shorts hanging and re-hanging. My co-workers don’t know that I have to hang my earrings up before bed or how I can’t be ‘matchy-matchy’ when I get dressed (I didn’t talk about this one, that whole other blog post/obsession.)

What do you do?! People who read this MUST have something to add, don’t leave me hanging after admitting these weird things.

Beautiful day + restless legs = a [sad] attempt at running.

/ Sloan / Leave a comment

So I posted earlier on how I was letting my body rest from being sick. And I had all good intentions of doing that today until I realized I had no coffee in my house. And having no coffee in my house means I get a headache by 10:30am, just like clockwork, so I got dressed in a cute summery dress, walked to Noble Coffee (aka, the best roasters in the Valley) and sat outside with my book and an amazing Americano.

            As I sat in the sun, got tanned, enjoyed conversations and quiet time my legs kept crossing and un-crossing themselves. I noticed cyclists in their cool outfits and runners in their shorts pass by me. My foot jiggled in the need to run, bike or DO SOMETHING. After an hour of this I walked home and psyched myself up for a run. I had a chat with my tummy and told her that we were going to make it through a short, slow run. Out and back, maybe a hill or two, nothing crazy.

            Fast forward to coming down hill from a small climb, me keeling over and seeing breakfast again. Not cool Tummy, not cool—we talked about this. Fast forward again to me having to walk the walk of shame home…again. Lameski.

 

Lesson learned. Let the body rest.

 

On a side not my shorts tan line IS coming along nicely.

Unable to do What I Want

/ Sloan / 1 Comment

 

I don’t want to run. I don’t want to go to the gym. I don’t really feel like doing much of anything. I’ve been stupid sick the last week and it’s not only left me feeling weak it’s left me feeling like even if I wanted to go work out hard I couldn’t lift a single bar bell or run a mile.

 

What a horrible feeling.

 

But sometimes I think being forced, as I have been, to take some time off can be a good thing. It’s made me appreciate my body and all it is (or was and will be again) capable of. Just because I hurt now doesn’t mean I won’t bounce back. I’m definitely on the mend and ready to work out hard… tomorrow.

 

One more day of rest. My body needs it, I’m sure. The plan is to kick it’s butt tomorrow at the gym and then get some longer/slower runs in this week. Ease my way back to normal life.

 

In the mean time I’ve become sorta famous. Well, no, not famous. But in my efforts to coach a 5k training group the local news decided to follow us and then feature me, YES ME, in a short video on how to prepare for a race, how to get fit for shoes and even how to cross train.

 

Check it, yo.

Click HERE