Shouting through an open window

As I'm one to do, I was listening to a podcast on a recent run. Due to some glitches with my itunes account and a slow reorganizing of my room I didn't have my normal WWDTM podcast to rely on so I switched to Radiolab for my quick run around Wash Park. Typically Radiolab, This American Life, and Risk are saved for longer runs when I really need the motivation to pound the pavement in my  now familiar neighborhood. It was one of their update podcasts so I assumed it would be shorter, perhaps with not much new material. I was wrong.

The recent podcast "Update: New Normal"from October 19, 2015 looked back at their podcast "Normalcy" from, I believe, 5 or 6 years ago. In the intro story Jad Abumrad brings up an antedote written in the New York Times by Martin Bunzel a philosphy professor. As an 18 year old, Mr. Bunzel over hears something on a plane in 1966 regarding race. He remarks that given the particular time period, 1966, the man who made the comment was in an interesting spot. Had he said it a few years earlier it would have been common place, had he said it a few years later it would have been intolerable. However the time he said it America was on the cusp of change, a grey area. Mr. Bunzel said it was as if the man was "shouting through an open window between worlds".

There are a lot of points in our lives where we feel we are between worlds. When you transition from high school to college, when you transition from college to the "real world", when you get married/divorced, etc. These are pretty big worlds to transition between and are a lot more obvious to chart and see. What's more nuanced are those smaller shifts in the world and in your life. These shifts may take a long time to recognize, if at all. You may be shouting between two worlds and not even realize it.

Spare me the groans for a moment, but the best comparison I can think of is dating. No not Tinder, Tinder is it's own potentially interesting blog post related to running at a later date. What it feels like is that grey area where you have a friend and a great friendship and everythings fine, but there's maybe a possibility for a new type of relationship with that person. You can sense that things will change with this person but you don't know how. Will our story be the next big Hollywood RomCom or will we be a cringe worthy memory? I'm not talking about the actual shift, when that change happens. That's usually a pretty obvious time marker. What I'm talking about are those moments before that shift that actions and reactions (the shouts) that signify what everyone hates: the grey area. An innocent text here, a chance meeting of just the two of you there. A few years prior it may have meant nothing and in a few years after it might mean lot more but for now that "hi (and emoji?)" is a shout through an open window between two worlds.

Harvest Moon 2015 Champs!

I'm feeling that way about ultimate frisbee and running right now. I'm super excited about my upcoming race (and slightly terrified). I also got super excited about ultimate this past season with women's masters and RUA. Now, coming off the high of a big Harvest Moon Championship (Christmas Town!) and the thought of "what am I going to do December 6th?"

My current friendship with ultimate and running has been figuring out how to do both (logistically and physically). I love how things are right now but I can sense a shift coming. We've been making due with some tweaks here and there but it's been working for the most part. A few years ago I thought I made that leap when I quit competitive women's frisbee and started setting my sights on ultra running. And up until this year I would have thought my shout was the Molly Brown end of season party and my "roast" to Lauren Boyle. I snuck in a little line in my poem to her about running and that was it...ultimate and I were more just friends and ultra running and I were going to fall in love.

I've grown a lot as a runner since then. Conquering my first 50 miler was a big piece of that, but so was learning a new way to train and prepare my body for this type of work. I came off this summer healthy and relatively unscathed. I signed up for a 50 miler in December and began setting my sights for 2016 and a possible push for a 100 miler.

I've also grown a lot as an ultimate frisbee player. There was Master's Nationals with Jezebel. A semi-finals appearance was awesome but more exciting were the awesome ladies and the laid back fun of playing ultimate for just that reason; fun with friends. There was MHU league with Shiny Happy People and Part Time Models. There was RUA and regionals. At the end of regionals this year, sitting in a circle with my team, all I could think about was how much fun I had playing and how much more I felt like I grew into myself as a player this year. The timid, always worried about making a mistake women's player got out of my head and the ultimate player started to take control. I felt a passion for a sport that wasn't out of fear of failure for the first time in a long time.  

The interesting part about the New York Times story is that shift, that shout between two worlds, was only really identifiable when that shout reaches the new world and you're in it. I don't know if that new world will be all ultimate or all running or a new hybrid of both or even neither. The ground is shifting beneath my feet.

The Simple Joy of Running

With Ultimate in full swing I haven't had much chance to do a lot of running outside of practice. I try to get out at least once a week, but my schedule has been spotty. I've missed so many podcasts of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me it's killing me! I managed to sneak a run in between the storm clouds and it was great.

I forgot how great it is to run when you are not trying to make a cut, catch a frisbee, or chase someone on defense. You really get to notice what is around you and the clouds swirling to the North and South were amazing. I did my normal route around the lakes, one which takes me right by the Lakeside Amusement Park. They just finished redoing the paths around the lake and there's a great gravel/dirt path on the side you can run on which is heaven for your knees and makes you feel like you're not running right next to I-70. As Peter Sagal made another terrible listener limerick challenge pun I looked to the East and saw arcs of lightning and I looked to the West to see (and hear) people screaming on the wild chipmunk. It felt good to be in the city and a part of the city without anyone or anything making me run. No races I've signed up for so this run was just a run to get my muscles moving, the blood flowing, and some piece of mind.

This run reminded me that I'm part of a bigger community, not just of runners, but of everyone that is out and about in the city doing what makes them happy. Running can be a pretty solitary endeavor so it's great to be reminded that there are other humans out in the bigger world.

I've found it's easy to forget the joy of running or working out because so much of it is tied to specific goals. While going on a run is part of a bigger plan of working out and being fit to play ultimate, I didn't let that dictate why I was out there. It was just me using my feet to be part of the cityscape.

I love any reason that gets me outdoors; whether skiing, frisbee, hiking, running, or biking and each has something different to offer. Molly Brown is headed to our last regular season tournament of the season over Labor Day - The Pro Flight Finale* - and there I'll get the chance to play around in the rectangle. Sure there will be a purpose and a reason I'm there, but this run reminded me that the best part is using my two feet to be part of something bigger.

*If you want to follow the action at the Pro Flight Finale go here.

Running Motivation

Mileage total this week (Sunday-Friday) = 22.5miles
Total Miles since Ultimate Season ended = 35.5miles
I skipped Sunday and Wednesday.
Last week I only really count as half a week since I was in Florida I got 13miles in (Running Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday).

I've had a pretty successful running week thus far and I'm happy to report that I think of gotten back in to the rhythm of running which is not easy to do. A lot of people have a hard time getting into running because in all honestly it's not that much fun to do on a consistent basis when you first get started. Sure that first run is invigorating, you feel awesome cause you just did a run. Then the next day comes and you realize you have to do it again because the run yesterday only counted for yesterday. I've always found it easier to run with a schedule that is usually tied to a race. For example it's easier to say "I'll run those 10 miles because I don't want to die during the marathon" than it is to say "Oh hey, it's -20 out I think I'll run 10 miles". So obviously a good way to get in to running is to get yourself committed (monetarily) to a race and tell everyone you know you're doing it.  Why tell everyone you're doing it? Because of a few things: they won't get mad at you when you're busy and can't hangout because you're on a run, they don't judge you when you eat a 10" pizza* by yourself because you'll probably run it off, and they will ask about it and your training. People will ask you how your training is going, so you can't be a liar liar pants on fire and say you've been running when you haven't. So go on that training run because nobody likes a liar. But beware, that doesn't mean they want to hear you talk about your training, they are just confirming that you are still their weird friend who pays money to run races.

But what do you do when you don't have a race to set up a training schedule for? Like I do right now. Which is not totally true since I have some races in the queue I just haven't paid my entry fee yet. When you get in to running you're sort of always training because you are trying to get faster so you can get a certain time. However, it's still not easy to get yourself excited to go out multiple days in a row. I was finding this really hard right after Ultimate ended. I wanted to give myself a fat week to just laze around, but I couldn't. I needed to jump in or I would continue to find a reason to not go for a run. So I just did it, I went on a short 3mile run and set myself up for miles of fun in the coming months. I was jazzed on Wednesday, so proud of myself as I wrote a three next to the date on the calendar, imagining all the mileage totals I'd be racking up. How pumped I'd be to tell the world in this blog how much I've been running. Then Thursday came and I realized that three I wrote can't also count for today. Thus I had the fight in my head, "do I really need to go running". If you've run you've probably had this same internal conversation; "you did run yesterday, and your body is still recovering from ultimate, and you deserve to ease into it....etc". No I had to ignore it. I needed something to out shout the voices in my head. Would it be rock and roll? Hip Hop? Could I blast it out with some Thrift Shop echoing into my head from my ear buds? No I needed something more. Something that would block those thoughts out for good so what did I choose? What was my secret weapon?

You guessed right! Peter Sagal and the crew of "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" the NPR news quiz. A couple things to quell you naysayers. First of all Peter Sagal is a runner. He actually had a great article in Runners World about training for the Chicago Marathon to beat his PR. He's run a lot of races and he chronicled his journey along with some great pictures. There was one of him peeking out from a port-o-potty but I couldn't find it so you get some nice white thighs instead. I also knew that I had a buttload of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me podcasts on my ipod that were begging to be listened to. I wanted to listen to them so I made a deal with myself - you can listen to the podcast, but you have to go on a run. It was prefect because podcasts are about 45minutes long and I needed to go on a 5 mile run. So that has been my secret weapon all week. Listening to NPR. The most obvious choice to inspire any athletic endeavor. I'm sure it also amuses those I see while on my run as a blond haired runner hops by giggling to herself about something Mo Rocca just said.

But really if you need to find motivation to get yourself out there maybe you need to give yourself another incentive not a punishment for not running. For me it was getting to listen to a great podcast. For you it could be a book on tape, or maybe you love sour gummy worms and you stash them in your pocket and you get to eat one every half mile, or maybe you want to look at Christmas lights in your neighborhood. Running is fun, and after you get into your routine it's pretty easy to want to go out for a run because it just becomes a thing you do. But there's nothing wrong with combining it with something else fun.

*who am I kidding, I can't finish a 10" pizza by myself. Although the guy at Hops and Pie last night did say when I ordered it "is that all you want?".