So this is Christmas... I lift!

Hmmmm.... lifting...

Just a quick pop in here (mostly because I did my first at-home lifting workout just a little bit ago, and I have the feeling that I won't be able to move my arms to type later...).

Got this great surprise this morning for Christmas from my DH and DD. I went out of town with my best friend for the few days before Christmas, and while I was away my husband and daughter converted our basement into an at-home gym complete with some weights, a bench, a covered floor, an exercise ball, a medicine ball, some sort of squishy ball thing I don't yet know how to use, some rings that are yet to be hung, and other assorted surprises. How amazingly cool. I have access to the fitness center at school, but I have always wanted a space to do an at-home lifting workout, and now I've got it. 

Now, to use it.... workout one down. I used the Runner's World "Strength Training for Runners" workout today. It will be a while before I outgrow that one!

A Lump, Some Lifting, and A BIT of Reflection--Summer Interruptus

Summer Mode--Lump and All

About a year ago, I went to see my doctor because I wasn't losing weight. It didn't make sense to me. I was running 120+ miles per month, eating well (I thought), and not taking any medications that would prevent me from losing weight. The doctor ordered up a thyroid blood test and did a physical exam. The thyroid blood test came back normal. The physical exam did not. I had a lump. 

At the time, I had already signed up to run the Dopey Challenge. I'll spare anyone reading this the details, but it took a full four months before I got in front of a doctor who could tell me, "Yep, that lump should come out, but you can also run Dopey." (There was also crazy angst over all the other important things in my life--lumps are freaking frightening; for the purposes of this blog, though, we'll focus on the Dopey angst.)  I admit I cried a bit in the doctor's office (as he looked on in mild amusement) in relief that I could still run Dopey. 

Fast forward another six months. Dopey done. School year done. And yep, it's been quiet since mid-February in my running world. I scheduled the surgery (June 20), and I needed some downtime from running. 

I DID do some lifting, though. Six full weeks of it before the surgery. I went and met with a trainer at our school, and she gave me a program. It's only five exercises, but they are five good ones. And I got into a rhythm of three times a week. Post-surgery, though, I can't lift until I get back together with my doctor. But hey, I lift now. I do. It's what I do. 

Also, summer is here! And we are headed out for Maine. Looking forward to running in 9 different states in 21 days. (Or at least dreaming of running... but right now I'm planning to run...).

So just coming out of the shadows a bit with a "why I've been quiet" post. Hope folks are off enjoying the heat. 

On strength training and habits and deeds and forward motion...

I hate lifting. I hate burpees. I hate strength training. I hate planks. Yeah. I've said these things for years. When I first started out training and racing for triathlons, I could rely pretty heavily on the balance between swimming, biking, and running to make up for any deficits I had even though I wasn't strength training. So rather than do an upper body workout with weights, I'd swim a couple of miles and call it a day. And man, my arms were ripped, so I didn't see the point of lifting. I looked good; I felt good. I was a hella fast swimmer compared to most of my competition. Why lift? I was also often doing two-a-days to try to get in the mileage in the three disciplines, so who has time to lift? And why should I do something I don't want to do when I'm getting the results I want doing the things that I want to do? 

Watch your thoughts. They become words. Watch your words. They become deeds. Watch your deeds. They become habits. Watch your habits. They become character. Character is everything.--attributed to just about everyone but me...

I often see this on an inspirational poster in a classroom or quoted in some leadership text. I'm sure you've seen it or some version of it. And I am a firm believer in the power of language to inspire and effect change, so some of this certainly rings true to me. I don't know that I see the relationship between "words" and "deeds" and "habits" the way that this speaker implies, but this isn't a philosophy blog, it's a running blog, so I need to dial back the teacher brain a bit.... on to the point...

I think that I have been saying that I hate lifting and burpees and planks for so long that it has impacted my ability to find a way to do them. My words have become deeds and habits and... well, not character, honestly. That's taking it a bit too far. Really more just like excuses. "I hate burpees" isn't about character. Let's be clear. 

But my physical reality has shifted substantially in the 18+ years that I've been training and racing. My daughter is now 7 1/2, and in the 7 1/2 years since she was born, I have spent nearly all my training/racing time running. Not biking. Not swimming. Not competing in triathlons. Missing-in-action is my ripped upper body (for now, at least), and it's been replaced by arms perfectly capable of swinging a 7-year-old girl around when she wants a dizzying spin in the yard, but those arms are unrecognizable to my triathlete self. And out of the mouths of babes, add to that the fact that my filterless-mouthed daughter so nicely pointed out to me that the skin on my arms looks a little like the skin on our Basset hound (OUCH!). She thought it was funny. I cringed. 

My "I hate" words have come back to bite me in that I've allowed my dislike for lifting and burpees and planks to override what my body needs. I am amazing at moral licensing--that mental glitch that allows me to think that because I'm doing something good (running 100+ miles a month), I am somehow licensed to also do something not-so-good (skipping the stuff I've mentioned here). And I just have to do better.

Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do in order to be able to do the things you want to do. 

True that. I wonder, though, if it would be more useful (herculean?) for me to change my thinking about strength training altogether so that I start to think of it as a thing I want to do. (Is that even possible?)  I certainly want the results that it promises. So perhaps focusing on the results will help me overcome this mental hurdle? For now, though, I'm taking the "streaking" approach. If I don't like doing something, I just do it a whole lot until I like it. Like every day. So I started this morning--planks and burpees at the end of my run. And planks and burpees every day until they become habits. And results. Wish me luck. Relentless forward motion, friends.