How to Be a Runner (Borrowed from Runner’s World)

If you’ve read Runner’s World magazine, you’ve most likely seen their spotlight on a runner on the last page called “How to Be a Runner.” Over the years, they’ve featured famous runners to everyday runners. I always like to read this section and I feel like it’s a fun way to get to know other runners, which is why I thought it would be fun to do here. The idea is to choose one of the word prompts that you feel best describe you. Some of the words are vague and others are more obvious. Here’s mine with the ones I chose highlighted in orange:

Wave                Nod

Heart Rate       Feel (1)

Lead                 Follow

PR                     Finish (2)

Stride               Glide

Athleisure       Sweats

Gel                    Chews (3)

Hat                    Gloves

Morning          Night

Swift                Strong

Struggle           Slay

Hot (4)              Cold

Low Socks       Tall Socks

Shoe Store       Online

Uphill               Downhill

5k                      Half Marathon

GPS                   Naked

Stop (5)            Go

Start                 Finish

Heel                  Toe

Calves              Quads

Headphones    Inner Voices (6)

Bagel                 Banana

Treadmill         Frostbite

Medal               T-shirt

Warm Up         Cool Down

Distance (7)     Time

400s                  Hills

My daughter picked these flowers for me during one of my races

Let me explain:

(1) I tried heart rate training before and just didn’t keep it up long enough to see results. (2) When you run enough races for as long as I have, you realize you can’t PR all the time. (3) I’ve tried a bunch of different gels and chews and the only ones I can stomach are by Honey Stinger, which I take on all of my long runs. (4) I do much better in hot weather than cold weather. (5) I stop at all stop signs, lights, and road crossings; there are far too many distracted drivers out there. (6) I like to run my long runs with my AfterShokz to listen to podcasts but the rest of the time I don’t listen to anything. (7) I like to run both by distance and time but if I had to choose one, I’d choose distance.

Have you read this section of Runner’s World? What do you think of it- a silly waste of time or fun? Feel free to do your own version of this.

Happy running!

Donna

 

 

How Travel Has Helped Me Cope With the Coronavirus Pandemic

While I feel like I probably travel more than the average American, by no means would I consider myself an expert on travel (whatever that even means). However, I’ve chosen to travel to some off-the-beaten path destinations, at least for an American, and this has ultimately changed me forever as a person. I was thinking recently how travel has impacted how I’m dealing with Coronavirus, specifically not being able to travel or leave my house except to run or go grocery shopping but also all of the trickle-down effects of travel on my life.

By traveling to tiny towns in Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Austria, Germany, and other places where the locals didn’t speak much if any English, travel has helped me become more resilient and to deal with issues that arise. Travel has also shown me that life often doesn’t turn out as we plan and we’ll be much happier if we learn to go with the flow. Instead of losing my temper or panicking when I got lost or couldn’t figure out something because of the language barrier, I would take a deep breath and try to figure it out. When my travel plans for April were cancelled because of the pandemic, sure I was sad my vacation wasn’t going to happen, but I knew it was better that way and eventually I will be able to travel safely.

Although we missed a connecting flight to Malta, we eventually made it to this incredible country

I’ve learned to make the best of what I may find in a grocery store and figure out how to make meals for my family with what is on the shelves. One of my favorite things to do when I’m in a foreign country is to see what their grocery stores have to offer and how much things cost in stores. It’s always been an adventure and more times than not, I’ve ended up with some pretty delicious meals out of what I’ve found on the shelves. I may not have been able to fully read the labels, but that’s just added to the adventure. At least in the US, I can read the labels (unless the food is imported). I have been to countries where they routinely have had shortages of things like toilet paper, with the difference being due to hoarders in the US and more of a routine problem with supply in other countries.

This market in Peru was HUGE and quite the experience to walk around

One of the things I love to do as a stress-reliever is run outside, whether I’m on vacation or at home. I can do it virtually anywhere, although there are places where I would not run for safety reasons. Another bonus is all I need are my running shoes and appropriate running clothes. I can run outside or on a treadmill if running outside is not an option (assuming there’s a treadmill I can use). If I can’t run, I can do body weight exercises like lunges, squats, core work, and push-ups. I can also make up my own yoga routine no matter where I am. Being able to exercise on my own while traveling and at home has been a huge asset to my well-being and overall health and something I’ve always been grateful to have in my life but perhaps even more so during this pandemic.

Some of the stunning water views I got to enjoy while running in Hawaii

I’ve learned that family members need a break from each other every now and again. When you’re traveling with family members, you’re in close proximity to one another for days on end and even the best of us can get tired of all of that one-on-one time. This is one reason why I’m such a huge fan of staying at Airbnb properties, because if we’re staying in a house, we can stretch out a bit more, have a kitchen to cook some of our own meals or just snack if we’re hungry and have a place to store our food, and usually we have more than one bathroom (although certainly not always). We all like to have some time on our own to catch up with friends through various social media apps, listen to a podcast or music, or just read a book in a quiet room to decompress. Being stuck at home for weeks on end while the Coronavirus pandemic has been going on has reminded me what a good idea it is to give family members a break from one another.

I’m sure there are more things that travel has shown me to help deal with the Coronavirus pandemic, but these are the first things to come to my mind. Are there aspects of travel or other parts of your life that have helped you deal with the pandemic? If so, I’d love to hear about them.

Happy travels (someday),

Donna

 

 

Book Review- Running Outside the Comfort Zone: An Explorer’s Guide to the Edges of Running by Susan Lacke

If you’re a runner long enough, you’ll find yourself bored and stuck in a rut. Races that you run every year and you used to get excited about can become ones that you dread. One way to deal with this is by signing up for a race doing something you normally don’t do, like an obstacle race if you normally run road races. Or a marathon if you’ve never run a marathon before. Or how about the Empire State Building Run-Up, where you race up all 102 stories of this skyscraper? How about signing up for an entire year’s worth of crazy races that completely put you out of your comfort zone?

That’s what author Susan Lacke did. One night after realizing her boredom with running despite just scoring a 9 minute PR at the Huntsville Marathon in Utah, she signed up for races around the world that would get her out of her comfort zone. She signed up a wide variety of races from the Pony Express Trail 50 where you have to carry absolutely everything with you including your own waste to the Coffin Race where you run with a team to carry a makeshift coffin with another person in it to Cooper’s Hill Cheese Roll in England where runners chase a wheel of cheese down a steep, treacherous hill.

In the book, she starts with some background information about herself including some from her childhood. Lacke is a writer of endurance sports, professor, and author of the book Life’s Too Short to Go So F*cking Slow. She also happens to be deaf and she weaves this element of her life into the story naturally.

To begin her journey, Lacke ran the Huntsville Marathon in September and after that she ran the Red Bull 400 later that month. If you’re not familiar with the Red Bull 400, it’s a race where you run (climb, really) 400 meters up a ski jump in Park City, Utah built for the 2002 Winter Olympics. She had my respect as a runner when I read that she ran a marathon in the same month as running the Red Bull 400. But she didn’t stop there.

Every month except November (why nothing was scheduled for November is a question I have for Ms. Lacke) for the proceeding year, she ran in what I would call an extreme running event. Some months she ran in multiple events, like in May when she ran Bay to Breakers in San Francisco, Cooper’s Hill Cheese Roll, and Caliente Bare Dare 5K. Just running one of most of these events would scare the hell out of most of us runners, but to run in all of these events in one year is truly astounding.

Throughout the book, she has a chapter for each running event which she describes in perfect detail from beginning to end. Lacke has a real knack for storytelling and the crazy events she participated in make for even more interesting stories. She also writes about how she started running and about her best friend that got her interested in running who has since passed away.

If you can’t tell by now, I absolutely loved this book and found myself not wanting to put it down when it was time for me to go to sleep. The short chapters make for a quick and easy read. If you enjoy reading about running adventures, I believe you will also enjoy this book. I haven’t even described all of the races she ran, not to give it all away, but there are even more, some of which you may find yourself actually wanting to run them after you finish reading about them, as I did.

The book is 242 pages and you can find it at your local bookstore, library, or Amazon.

Susan Lacke’s website

Have you read either of Susan Lacke’s books? I haven’t read her first book but after reading this one, it’s now on my list to read. What’s the craziest race you’ve ever run or want to run?

Happy running!

Donna