Or feet, as the case may be. These are my running shoes:

Or they WERE, before my trip to the clearance rack at Duhnam’s. Note the blowout in the left toe (so THAT is why my feet kept getting wet!) and the worrisome wear pattern that tells me that I have one funky stride.

I ran in my new shoes tonight, and it was great, and yet, I’m sad. Those shoes took me a lot of miles, and I get strangely attached to things sometimes. I cried when my husband sold his truck.

I ran my first tri in those shoes, and my first 5-mile, and my first 10 K, but what makes me most nostalgic is thinking of all the long, lonely miles with just me and my shoes, one foot after the other.

At my husband’s suggestion, I am retiring them to a box with the “bling” I won while wearing them, and printouts of my times from my 2008 racing season. I’ll tuck it in the back of my closet, and someday they’ll be a fun memory to uncover.

Check it out!

And tell me what YOU are reading, especially if you share my interest in middle grade and young adult books, both fiction and non-fiction, and especially “faction,” otherwise known as historically accurate fiction.

I love to read! Cookbooks, dictionaries, picture books, backs of cereal boxes…

OK, so I am reading the book Feed by M.T. Anderson, and in the opening chapters we learn that everyone in this futuristic novel has an implant in their brains that allows them to be online in their own heads, all the time, with effortless, instant access to information of any kind, and customized downloads that react to individual impulses and thoughts.

And my initial reaction was, “COOL…”

So now I am Googling to see if I can locate a therapist to help me deal with my addiction to the Internet.

I’ve been in an inexplicable (there’s that word again!) motivational slump lately. Makes no sense! I ran in some of the crappiest weather ever, over the winter, and now it is finally getting warm and I can hardly drag myself out. I’ve just been in a funk, and am not in the mood at all to try and figure it out. I would give ANYTHING to go work my fingers to the bone up at the cabin. A weekend full of cutting wood and hauling brush and raking leaves is usually just the antidote to the blues for me, and being outside almost never fails.

Ran for the first time in several days last night, and it felt great, both mentally and physically. And I actually want to run TONIGHT, too. We’ll see if I am still in that mental space after a long day of keyboard wrangling.

Do, or do not. There is no try.
–Yoda

I added this page to try and start some conversation about what everyone is reading, so this requires YOU, all three of my readers, to actually post something! Kath, I’m counting on you. I know it’s spring break, and you haven’t slept in days, and you’ve graded until you’re incoherent… Just ONE little comment, honey, you can do it…

I am just a happy camper today - the sun was out for a bit (clouds now), and I can hear birds in the backyard (which just really has to be raked). I can think of 20 reasons why I should be anxious and stressed. But I’m not! Am I finally cracking up?? Is this just simple denial?

You know, I don’t think so. I think sometimes that we are born naturally happy, or natually morose, to varying degrees, just like we are born with brown hair or green eyes. I’m very, very grateful to fall naturally on the happy end of things, because some people I love very much are definitely not, and that can be a long, tough road.

Oh, sudden thought - maybe if I were more anxious, I would accomplish more, be more driven to succeed in business-type ventures. It would be interesting to do a correlation study on natural happiness levels plotted against material success. Just a thought.

Requiem for the girl I used to be:

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”
- Helen Keller

One would swear Helen was a mother….

I can’t take credit for locating this most excellent quote, though like the admirable Sarah Miller, I have been fascinated with Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan from early childhood. No, that quote came from a blog I have just discovered, called Carma’s Window. Another blog, added to my “must read” list.

I understand the temptation of illegal stimulants, sometimes. NOBODY could get everything done that I should get done. NOBODY.

I did a strength training workout on Wednesday that has my legs so sore I can hardly walk. I feel like such a schmo! I am old enough to know better, and could tell I was pushing too hard, but was ticked because I could not do this 20 minute workout without feeling like I was going to die… And so my perception of my fitness level got a harsh reality check, and I can’t run until things loosen up. Double whammy!

I’ve been wearing my just-a-little-too-tight jeans to remind me not to over-eat, but maybe that is a mistake. Maybe keeping myself focused on the negative is doing more to hurt than help. I need to get out of this negative energy cycle, but being cut off from my running is going to make that tough right now. At best, I’ll be ready to run again on Sunday, but probably Monday or even Tuesday.

Why does it seem like EVERYTHING requires so much more effort as you get older? Trying to stay current in your career? Have fun with that - it is harder to learn as you age. Trying to stay fit? Muscle mass declines every year, so you have to work harder and harder (and longer and longer) just to maintain the SAME level of fitness.

Well, what a DOWNER. And the sun is even out… usually that is a sure-fire cure for me. Maybe if I clean the bathrooms, I’ll at least feel like I accomplished something. I’ll let you know.

I subscribe to “Fitness” magazine, and lo and behold, they printed a half-marathon training guide in their March issue! When I trained for the tri last year, I did everything wrong, because I got way too much conflicting advice. This time, I’ll actually follow an organized plan, and see how that works.

I found a different training plan at runningplanet.com, but it was a little too intense for me. I WANTED to try that one, but I just knew it would be another “suck up your whole life, but you can’t quit now” kind of thing. And I’ve got a graduating senior and four other kids to worry about, and that little thing called trying to find work, so, well, REALITY had to trump my kick-ass fantasies.

I’m going to keep track of my workout progress on a spreadsheet, so I can tell how the Plan works out. I’m also going to start tracking my increasingly frustrating quest to lose the rest of my winter weight, which comes off slower and harder every year. I have eight pounds to lose.

I think I can do that in eight weeks, eating around 1900 calories a day. So, to keep me honest, I’ll be tracking my totals, and adding that to the spreadsheet, too. Gulp. PUBLIC ADMISSION of my epic appetite. Seriously, I can eat more than my husband (which he is infuriatingly quick to point out).

So, I ran 4.1 today in 37 minutes, and feel like I slacked. That was the first workout, I swear! I’ve been doing pushups and squats off and on, out of guilt.