Less Time Online

I've been experimenting with trying to spend less time online. Checking e-mail only 10 times a day versus 40 (seriously), not going online after 8 PM, choosing to get up and walk away if I don't have a purpose for being online (versus hanging out on Facebook, seeing if anyone has updated their blog, or googling random topics). 

It's been... okay. I have a serious addiction to e-mail and find I'm nervous if I go over 30 minutes without checking it. Shockingly, it does not appear I am so important in the grand scheme of life that anyone can't wait the extra hour or two for me to get back to them. 

I really enjoy walking away from the computer at night and on weekends. I'm able to more fully relax. I breath deeper on Saturdays knowing it's a "no computer" day.

It's a matter of establishing new habits and getting other people accostomed to those habits. Since people are so used to me responding instantly to e-mails, I've gotten a few "Are you there? Did you get my last e-mail?" follow-ups. But my friend Laine is a good role model. I know Laine checks her e-mail around 11 am and again in the late afternoon, so I don't expect to hear from her until one of those two times. Now, the chance of me checking e-mail only two times a day is non-existent. But that's okay. Baby steps. 

It's not even the being online that I mind. It's the mindlessness of so much that I do online. I'm trying to take a more active role in how I choose to spend my time. Tonight, for example, I could pick away at a few projects but I know I don't work well at night so, instead, I went to the library and am going to spend the night losing myself in a novel. 

Starting right now. 

Cheers,

Dena

DJ Kitty In Da House, YO!

I can't stop laughing...

The Blue Ridge Relay Is In The Books

It's over! We did it! Team MG Easy ran 208 miles in 30 hours, 45 minutes, and 41 seconds. That's an 8:52 average pace. 

I thought I would write a long post about the race but I don't think I'm going to, for the main reason that an experience like this is so hard to capture and I fear not doing it justice. I could tell you some of the details - maneuvering a 15-person white cargo van up twisting mountain roads that aren't wide enough for a moped; stashing wet smelly clothes in airtight plastic bags; eating GORP by the handful; tracking our kills (runners you pass on the course); the snap bracelet; the jokes (Nathan - You go, girl!); the dark hours between 1 and 5 AM when it was cold and everyone has passed the point of exhaustion and we still had to suit up and run; how much we looked forward to the transition zones so we could see Van #2 and hear their stories; the total camaraderie of being surrounded day and night by runners on the same crazy adventure as you... it was an all-encompassing experience. I feel like I've been gone for a month versus 48 hours. 

I did okay on my runs. I started out way too fast on my first leg and it cost me. Lesson learned. Start slow, finish fast. 

The other thing I learned is that the human body, particularly my body, is capable of handling much more than I give it credit for. My former way of thinking which looked like, "I can't run hard today because I just did a leg workout yesterday and I need to rest" no longer cuts it. If I can run up a mountain after being awake for over 30 hours, most of that time spent in a van, I can handle a P90-X workout followed by a run, don't you think?

Now that I've caught up on my sleep (I slept almost 16 hours yesterday), I already miss the race. I would totally run this monster again. I'm headed outside right now to plaster the 208/36 sticker on my car. 

We earned it.