5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

Happy Friday, my dears! Time for a little countdown for the weekend.

5. The number of days until I fly to VISIT SAN DIEGO TO SEE JOE. I'll be there for the majority of July hooray, hooray, hoorayyyy.

Tough Mudder, November 2013. Paint, not blood.

Ohh, the differences in our lives...

4. The number of songs I'm currently obsessed with.

Please note: My blog is a judgement-free zone, thank you very much. And with that...

Skid Row - from Little Shop of Horrors (just smile and nod)
Love Runs Out - OneRepublic (little late on this bandwagon...)
World Championship Finale (2) - from Pitch Perfect 2 (the Bella's winning number ;) )
Platinum - Miranda Lambert (I'm brunette)

3. The number of pairs of shoes purchased recently.

New Balance 775s (left), New Balance Fresh Foams

I'm loving both of these pairs of shoes... which is nice, considering I had a near mental breakdown hoping they were good choices. The 775s took some runs to get used to, but the Fresh Foams felt as if I had been running in them my whole life (in a good way)! Also, I like how this picture makes them seem smaller... cough-I-wear-a-size-10.5/11-cough.

$8.50 from Old Navy, say whaaa!?

And the above are my other current loves. I don't run in those...

2. The number of salad pictures taken this week.

Spinach, tomatoes, onions, almonds, eggs, Sriracha.

Spinach, peas, corn, green beans, carrots, cottage cheese, tuna, BBQ sauce.

1. The number of months left until I start graduate school.

This has been a very weird time in limbo for me, and I'm ready to be done. If you recall, I graduated from undergrad with a BS in math, worked in DC for two years, then quit my job in May so I can start grad school (sport and exercise psychology, woop woop!) in August. For the time between, I have moved home to live with my parents. I guess in my mind I had this picture that coming home for this summer would be like coming home for some sort of break during college - all of my friends from high school would be around, and we'd play and laugh and la-dee-da forever and ever. Yeah, no, they aren't here. I've had travels to visit family, and I have my aforementioned long ass visit to California, and I've had occasional encounters with some other friends and acquaintances from my past, but I'm so ready to have structure again. Give me classes! Give me papers! Give me tests, exams, stress!

On second thought, keep the stress.

Pick a number and give me a fact! Please.

Blessings and Curses

But first! My current top 5 country songs:

Anything Goes - Florida Georgia Line
Cheap Seats - Dallas Smith
Real Life - Jake Owen
Sirens - Lee Brice
Crash and Burn - Thomas Rhett

I tell you these because 1) I'm obsessed with them, and 2) I've put them on my RUNNING PLAYLIST!

Yes, you read correctly, running. I was released from physical therapy last week (!!) and instructed to keep my runs between 3 and 4 miles until the pain goes away completely. Each run has moved me closer to negligible fatigue and farther from leg-dragging pain!

Yesterday, I ran outside at a normal pace for the first time in six months. I smiled the whole time; I felt as if I were flying. I pumped my arms and yipped a bit... I probably looked slightly insane.

You all know this feeling.

A little tidbit I learned from PT (disclaimer: this is one therapist's casual comment, not a medical certainty, but it's something I like to repeat to myself): When recovering and after being cleared to workout, feeling some pain is okay and common. What really indicates healing is how quickly the pain subsides after exercise. Last Monday, I ran three miles on the treadmill and was pretty much out of commission all day. Any movement hurt. Yesterday, I ran three and a half miles outside with much less pain during the run (like hardly any), and it went away in an hour. Progress, not perfection.

Now for the blessings and curses: summer and technology.

We all know summer running is hard. We all know summer running slows you down. I am thankful for these facts - coming back from an injury, I'm going to be slower due to lost fitness... but I can also look at my times and not feel SUPER down, because I know some of it is due to the time of the year! Yay!

The curse part? Summer running is hard, and summer running slows you down.

I use a Garmin and RunKeeper on my phone to track my workouts - sometimes one, sometimes both (I'm a little crazy).

All the gadgets!

I LOVE being able to look back at past runs! I love being able to give myself a little boost of confidence after viewing my stats from a hard run, and I love being able to see progress! But... while it's true that heat can slow me down, I can also look back at runs from LAST June and compare. Yikes.

I'm working really hard on not comparing. I'm pretty sure I've commented on that notion 39,233 separate times on ya'll's blogs. What I want to remember is that feeling I had yesterday - that smile, that mid-run fist pump. Wish me luck!

Any country music suggestions?
Anyone else a victim of comparison?

All the World's a Stage

As embarrassing as this is to admit, sometimes I get so wrapped up in fitness and activity and moving, that I forget it's not one of everyone's top priorities. What I mean is that some of us relate so closely with "athlete" (there go those damn labels again... I don't mean to bucket us into groups, so hear me out) that it doesn't always occur to me that others consider themselves more in tune (ha, it's going to be a pun so get ready) with other hobbies.

I'm talking about musical performance. (See!? I'm so punny).

I've been raised around music. My mother was a voice major for a bit in college and has participated in musical theater her entire life. I used to play the piano and cello. My college graduation present was to go to London to see The Phantom of the Opera.

via Giphy via Tumblr

I love music a lot, but I consider running and building physical strength bigger parts of my life. Others find their passion in singing or playing an instrument.

With the Tony's this Sunday and with my hometown choral society putting on a little Broadway show this weekend also, I thought I'd talk about this type of performance.

Being on stage is difficult. It can be nerve-racking and stressful, but it can also be fun and rewarding. And it has so many parallels with sport performance. The same focus and concentration used to shoot a basketball is used to hit a note. Memorizing football plays is kind of like memorizing Broadway dance numbers.

But he could do both... Giphy/Cheezburger

And in a lot of events, you're watched. Not only do you have to execute a certain "game plan," be it a song, a piece, or a play, but you have to do it in front of people. Free-throws are technically solo acts. There are spectators at races and an audience at a show. All the world is a stage - a real stage, football field, basketball court, running route...

Where am I going with this? I'm not sure, I'm kind of letting my fingers do the talking typing.

I think an important thing is to always remember why we do what we do. Why do we run? To compete with other runners or because we love it? Why do we sing? Why do we play the flute? Why do we drum? To out-sing, out-play, out-beat someone else? When the world is a stage, it makes comparisons easy. The stage doesn't display the work done alone, behind closed doors, on solo treks, in practice rooms.

I think the stage is where we should show the why.

Why do you do what you do?