Running Nerd

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This Christmas I loaded my Amazon wishlist with a bunch gear to accompany my running hobby- a headlamp, fancy ponytail hat, muscle rollers and safety gear out the wazoo. My dear mom bought me this hot little fashion piece I’m modeling in the picture above.
I created a chart to show the cause:effect relationship between running, cars and safety gear:

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I feel like a total running nerd when I’m decked out like this, but I like living. Weird like that.
The other day we were laying around our house feeling that apathetic, frumpy, blah-ness that comes with a winter day without much movement. I never worry about being lazy anymore. When I am on- point for exercise I usually hit about four to five workouts per week. It’s rare for me to hit more than five workouts per week or less than two. I’m a good kid, which is a totally unique experience for me regarding my fitness. I’m proud of my activity level, but didn’t know how proud!
So I was kind of grousing about feeling lazy and the bruisy feeling from lazing around with an iPad for far too long when Bradley went and said it was because we were ‘out of shape’ with all the sitting around we’d been doing over the past several weeks. Ooh, SNAP! Well, that ruffled my feathers right up and I came back, finger waving and head bobbing, defending myself and my working out, that I only stopped when I was sick, I ran all through my Christmas break- every single day of it except once- and I am in shape, how dare he…
Lol. He was talking about why he was feeling cruddy. Not me.
Defensive much, Tamara?
My poor husband.
Even though that was a misunderstanding, it did get me to thinking. As we tucked into our final mile for the 5k yesterday I felt good. Bradley remarked at how amazing we were doing, how much endurance we had and how we really were in better shape than he thought. Of course I ran my jaw at this, how awesome we’re doing, how consistent we are, how athletic and in shape we really are, but I think we say these things because of our unique perspectives. He uses negatives to motivate himself. He tells himself he’s out of shape and guilt gets him moving. If you lay guilt on me, I get hurt feelings and give up quite quickly, lay down and call it a day, so it ticks me off to have to defend against that, I think. For me, I constantly tell myself that I’m amazing, a badass. I am strong, fierce, powerful and an athlete. But it will all go away if I stop, so I have to keep moving forward. I suppose that’s the use it or lose it model.
Today we ran again, and while I can say I’m in decent shape, I can definitely feel those two big runs two days in a row on my thighs. They feel huge and swollen and painful, just like a couple of well worked out muscles should.
Can you tell I’m feeling it? That I’m determined, motivated and moving forward? Life is good, these days, and I’m trucking forward on my 2015 goals. Here’s to keeping going, safety geared up running nerd and all!