Cold...again

I'm such a sucker. Every time it gets warm, I think "wow this is great, it's not going to be cold any more this winter!" Even though I know full well that it is going to get cold and shitty again in a day or two, and that it will be months before it is actually nice out again. I've been living in the northeast for almost 22 years now, but I get my hopes up anew every time there is a warm day.

Training in weather like this is tough, real tough. Over winter break, when I had no one to run with, I resorted to something that I thought I never would... running with an ipod.

I used to condemn ipod runners. But it got to the point that I just couldn't mentally handle another day of slogging through the freezing, howling cold, on the same road that I've been running on every day for the last two weeks. I got an ipod shuffle for christmas, and one fateful day I clipped the little bastard to my waistband and set off in shame.

I am now eating my words, it is actually quite enjoyable to trot along with some of your favorite music playing happily in your ears. The singer is always happy, no matter how terrible the weather is.

So go ahead irunners.

Motivation

Running is a sport that requires a lot of motivation to succeed. You have to be motivated to train, motivated to race, motivated to eat well and get enough rest, motivated to do the drills and all the little things that make a big difference but are easy to forget about. As distance runners, it's not always easy, and often times it is guilt that gets us out the door to run on days when we really don't want to. Guilt is generally a bad thing, but in this case, it is something that we have worked for years to cultivate in ourselves. No matter how much we may want to stay on the couch, we can't shake that nagging voice in the back of our heads that makes us feel guilty about being lazy, the voice that says other people are out there running right now, and they're getting faster than you.

Lately I have been more motivated than ever to run. I've been running more than I ever have, and enjoying it more than I ever have. Training has been going great, but race times have not even come close to reflecting what I am capable of. For some reason I just can't seem to get motivated to race like I did in XC. I've sort of lost that cutthroat attitude I had. I need to get that back. I need to focus in on the race. I was talking to Jeff Marrone last night (a scholarly man) about how it's hard to have that focus and drive every weekend for the whole year. I'm trying to get that focus back.

Shamus Nally, a man that can focus!

Puking up yellow stuff

I know that I have been a bad blogger lately. I apologize to my readership for my blog neglect.

As this was originally intended to be more or less a blog about running and sports and whatnot, I guess I should post something relevant to that.

This is a something that has happened to me a couple of times, the phenomena known as "puking up yellow shit" (that's the medical term). It's always brought on by running, but not necessarily from running too hard, like after a race, and it's not from being too full of food or anything. The most memorable instance was on a certain 20 mile run last winter with Shamus and Jeffrey, a half-mile from the end, I just randomly stopped and threw up yellow liquid onto the sidewalk as Jeff and Shamus cheered "YEAHHH SEND 'EM!!"

The reason I thought of this is I came across this picture on the interweb, I don't know who it is, but she seems to be throwing up yellow shit as well.