Inspiration Monday - Keeping it tight and happy

As I have written about in an earlier Inspiration Monday, I recently began running.  Now, I have not been hard core clocking in 50 miles a week, but I have enjoyed this new trick my body can do.  It started last summer when Cliff and I scored a treadmill at a church yard sale.  We haggled the guy down to twenty dollars and when we asked if it worked or not, Cliff answered our question by saying, “Well, what are you going to do – lie to us?  We are at a church!  It’s kinda bad Karma! We’ll take it!”

I began running on the treadmill in my basement – a very safe place for me to begin this new experiment of trying out the sport.  I have always envied some people as they run – they look so lithe and athletic.  I have tried on and off many times in the past, but I have felt clunky and blubbery with no rhythm whatsoever.  So I have stop started many times or just resorted to going for walks.  But walks can be boring and I wanted to overcome this insecurity I had with running.

But then, we purchased this treadmill I could really try and run in the privacy of my basement.  I was able to lumber and wog (walk and jog) and no one has to see me wheeze and figure out my groove.  I knew there would come a point when I would take my jogging outside – and two things changed my point of view and kicked my insecurities on their ass and pumped up my confidence.

The first was music – if it wasn’t for Mary J. Blige or freakin’ Foghat there is no way I would push myself as hard as I have sometimes.  Many times of the day I crave silence – but not when I am running.  I need it thumping and pumping and I am always looking for something else to get me moving.

The second confidence change is  – I pretend while I am running.   I pretend that I am my good friend, Renee.  Renee has an athletic perseverance to her running that I admire – and Renee is never afraid to be vocal as she runs.  So I pretend that I am Renee – because it gets me out of my head and it pushes me to run harder.

So as I am jogging  around the neighborhood and  I am listening to 90’s R&B cranked up high, I am most likely embarrassing the heck out of myself, as I do a lot of loud, “Oooh’s!” and “Alright!”  And I even throw in a “Do it!”  At any given moment, I may be air guitaring (which I never, ever do in real life)as I am snaking through the hood. 

In many ways I am in better shape than I was in my twenties – there was no way I could have ran two miles back then.  I have no idea what I look like, but I imagine that I look tough and strong – and I am having a ton of fun.