Small Movements

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I read an article last week that stressed the importance of small movements in daily life. I usually blow by these articles with their standard "take the stairs instead of the elevator, park far away in the parking lot instead of circling for a spot, yada yada yada" advice. 

I run 23 miles a week including a sprint workout. I lift weights 2-4 times a week. Sometimes I throw in yoga or the stationary bike or 20 minutes on the stairmaster. Daily movement? Thanks, but I'm good. 

Or am I? What popped for me in this article was a study that found that hard core exercisers were often some of the most sedentary people out there. It's as if (ahem!) a hard 5-mile run gives a person permission to sit at their desk or veg out on the couch for the rest of the day/evening. 

That hit close to home. How many nights do I spend immobile on the couch, reading a book or watching TV, smug in my knowingness that I've "earned" the right to do so because I "killed it" in my workout earlier that day?

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Unexpected Gifts

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My favorite gifts are the unexpected ones. A friend going to an Elie Wiesel book signing in Boston and sending me his memoir with a signed dedication to me. Another friend stitching the name of my next cat book onto a running visor. Blair sneaking Krispy Kreme pumpkin spice doughnuts into the house and surprising me with one for breakfast. And a friend gifting me the most awesome workout tank ever.

Here's how that last one came about. Last Saturday I headed up to Virginia to the 24-hour Crooked Road Run to help pace a few friends through some miles.

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My Lack of Love Affair With Audible.com

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It takes time for me to adapt to technology. It took years for me to get a cellphone and only within the last few years did I get a smartphone. I just started texting a little over a year ago. I mocked friends who were early joiners of Twitter and for a long time thought people who had more than 100 friends on Facebook were just lying and sad. I still don't embrace FourSquare (I really don't want you to know where I am every second of the day plus being mayor appeals to me waaaay too much.) and I've yet to cave and join Google Groups.

And yet, I thought I'd like audible.com. Friend David Horne suggested I try the site that lets me listen to books on my smartphone. The appeal is that since I have a 30-40 minute drive into and home from Greensboro most days, my time would be better spent listening to novels instead of the newest Taylor Swift song. ("We are never ever ever getting back together. Like, EVER.")

My first book selection was/is the novel Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. Amazing writing. Stunning descriptions. Laugh out loud humor. And this is all in the first three chapters... which have taken me almost a month to get through. 

I can't do it. I listen raptly for 10 minutes, then my mind starts to wander. I pull it back and force myself to pay attention to the narrator. But by the 20-minute mark, my mind is elsewhere and suddenly I realize the narrator is reading dialogue between characters I don't even recognize because I blanked out. 

I suspect the problem may be I'm listening to a novel. I listened to a non-fiction self-help sort of book a couple of months ago and loved it. Maybe I need the self-involvement element for car reading to work for me. 

I'm determined to get through the book but at the rate I'm going, I'll be lucky to wrap it up by Christmas. Still, as someone whose cat now has over 5,000 followers on Twitter and who has close to 900 (dear, close) friends herself on Facebook, maybe I'll come around. Maybe audible.com will save me from a lifetime of knowing all the words to every current bad pop song out there. 

Here's hoping. 

Cheers,

Dena

What do Deer and "Hell Yeah!" Have In Common?

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I was talking to a friend the other day about living joyfully. Writing, relationships, exercise, chores... everything in life flows so much smoother on the days I approach life with a playful "let's just see what happens here" type of excited expectancy. I think the Universe works to bring us what we want when we don't spend so much time and energy fighting for what we think we need. 

I was thinking about this on today's trail run. I've been doing a trail run once a week after I work out with a friend. We work upper body for about 45 minutes and then I run. Last week, I was miserable. My arms and shoulders hurt from the workout and I brought this into my run. My mantra that day was something along the lines of, "Ow, this hurts, this sucks, I'm not going to make it."  Guess what? I had a crappy run, walking a good part of it. 

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