Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Run Like a Girl on Amazon
The book doesn't come out until March, but if you like to be the first girl in your 'hood to have the latest thing...you can pre-order Run Like a Girl now online and it will arrive on your doorstep in late February, likely before it even hits the bookstore shelves.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Running the Old Fashioned Way
I've been running, a lot, again. Pretending to myself that three ramped up weeks of training will be adequate for the Africa adventure of running 200 miles in six days. I am not totally dumb though. I am smart enough to be scared! But this article by Christopher MacDougall (author of Born to Run, a book much beloved by me) provided a new source of inspiration and calm.
MacDougall reminded me that what I'll be doing is really just running the old fashioned way, that is, through the veld at a moderate, continuous pace, what was in "olden times" just enough to keep the animal you're chasing in sight until it keels over, because it doesn't have the benefit of being able to breathe and sweat at the same time, as we do. And luckily for my vegetarian self, I get to leave out the hunting part. But what I get to keep is the social part, which was, as he points out, an essential key to such running.
So what I'll actually be doing is hanging out with friends for some long hours, while we happen to be on our feet.
Excellent. Any more takers?
MacDougall reminded me that what I'll be doing is really just running the old fashioned way, that is, through the veld at a moderate, continuous pace, what was in "olden times" just enough to keep the animal you're chasing in sight until it keels over, because it doesn't have the benefit of being able to breathe and sweat at the same time, as we do. And luckily for my vegetarian self, I get to leave out the hunting part. But what I get to keep is the social part, which was, as he points out, an essential key to such running.
So what I'll actually be doing is hanging out with friends for some long hours, while we happen to be on our feet.
Excellent. Any more takers?
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Just Out of Sight
Conversation at breakfast this morning...
Why are we here?
Here, as in, our purpose, our raison d'etre, in this world, on this planet, walking the earth, having an egg white fritatta for breakfast.
As my partner said, it's one of those questions with a perpetually elusive answer. Every time we think we've come to a tentative conclusion, found a possible answer, it--the answer, that is--ducks around a corner, just out of sight again, so that we have to pursue the same or a new line of reasoning again, until...wait...there...just beyond our field of vision or understanding...we glimpse the answer again.
Frustrating. Provocative. Energizing.
Even without the answer, we know when what we're doing is NOT our reason for being here, right? We know when we are killing time or covering over time or filling the minutes until...until what? Until the next thing that's more "real" than our present state of being?
Sometimes we use our sports in this way, as fillers, as cover-uppers, as paste on pain patches to help us forget other things, as means to an end, not an end in themselves. There's nothing wrong with that. Sports are so much better fillers than too many other things.
Yet, don't lose sight of the other way we use our sports--as a pure source of joy in itself, a way of being, of connecting with ourselves and the energy of others and, I'll say it, the energy of the universe.
Why are we here?
I don't quite know, but let's make the most of it!
Why are we here?
Here, as in, our purpose, our raison d'etre, in this world, on this planet, walking the earth, having an egg white fritatta for breakfast.
As my partner said, it's one of those questions with a perpetually elusive answer. Every time we think we've come to a tentative conclusion, found a possible answer, it--the answer, that is--ducks around a corner, just out of sight again, so that we have to pursue the same or a new line of reasoning again, until...wait...there...just beyond our field of vision or understanding...we glimpse the answer again.
Frustrating. Provocative. Energizing.
Even without the answer, we know when what we're doing is NOT our reason for being here, right? We know when we are killing time or covering over time or filling the minutes until...until what? Until the next thing that's more "real" than our present state of being?
Sometimes we use our sports in this way, as fillers, as cover-uppers, as paste on pain patches to help us forget other things, as means to an end, not an end in themselves. There's nothing wrong with that. Sports are so much better fillers than too many other things.
Yet, don't lose sight of the other way we use our sports--as a pure source of joy in itself, a way of being, of connecting with ourselves and the energy of others and, I'll say it, the energy of the universe.
Why are we here?
I don't quite know, but let's make the most of it!
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