Be Boston Strong: Donate Blood

11 years ago • 0 Comment • Uncategorized

I even got a free t-shirt!

After the 2013 Boston Marathon, I made a pledge to myself that I would try to donate blood as close as I could to every eight weeks, the maximum donation schedule. I just donated my second time since the marathon.

Donating blood is my way of being Boston Strong, a unified Boston, part of a greater Boston community that I hope can react to tragedy by being better to one another.

I encourage other runners to donate blood, or find their own way to give. It feels great to know that my blood (and I’m O-, the universal donor, so they get super excited when I show up) could save someone’s life, help a seriously injured person heal, or revitalize someone who is chronically ill.

If you’re a runner, then there’s a good chance you’re healthy enough and strong enough to give. Consider visiting the Red Cross website to learn more. You can find blood drives near you and make an appointment so you won’t have to wait to give (a must if you’re paying a baby-sitter!). The discomfort is minimal compared to sprinting that hill, running an interval, or finishing that second week of Couch to 5k. If you’re strong enough to keep going when you want to quit, you’re probably strong enough to get over the fact that no one really likes needles. Or maybe you’d rather be strong enough to do Habitat for Humanity, or volunteer some other way.

I am so grateful that I am healthy enough to run. I am so grateful that my husband, who ran the 2013 Boston Marathon, wasn’t near the explosions, and that my sons watched him at the halfway point and not at the finish. I am grateful that I am in a position to give blood, rather than receive it.

When I give blood, I take time to feel grateful. The little things don’t bother me as much for a while after that. When I come home, I have more patience and perspective. It’s an important reminder, an opportunity to help, and a chance to share my health with someone else.

What can you do?

If you see one of these trucks, chances are there’s a blood drive going on… consider stopping in and giving!

Running Thought

11 years ago • 2 Comments • Running Thoughts

Some Thoughts on Competition

11 years ago • 2 Comments • Motivation

What happens if you’re racing yourself… but someone else thinks they’re racing you, too?

I’m lucky to be such a beginner in some ways, because no one comes up to me after a race and gets in my face about what my time was because they were hoping to beat me. This is in part because I run pretty slow. Chances are good that if you’re competitive enough to be looking for a rival, you’re faster than I am already.

But I’ve crossed paths with some more serious runners, and heard some stories about competitiveness that made me think. If you follow my blog at all, you’ll know that I think running should be fun, people should figure out what makes them happiest about running and pursue it, and that everyone who gets out and runs is doing something great.

Sometimes competition is a great motivator that helps people with those goals, but sometimes it’s a complete buzz-kill because someone else is using your running time to make themselves feel better. What does your running time have to do with them, anyway? It has to do with you, how you felt that day, how you’ve been training… it has no bearing on their success.

Some great uses for competition:

Do hills workouts with a partner and use racing to the top as a motivator to keep both of you going
Challenge a friend to run a certain number of miles a week to increase accountability for both of you
Challenge yourself to keep up with a more experienced runner for a short distance
Challenge a more experienced runner to catch you doing intervals…. after giving yourself a substantial head start. Repeat until you figure out the point at which you finish together.
Compete with a friend to see who can stick most closely to their training plans, percentage of runs completed wins, not fastest runner
Join a running club and push yourself to get closer to the pace of other runners… without telling them what you’re doing
When it motivates you to work on your running so you can keep up with those girls who run at lunch
When you and another runner of similar abilities both enjoy trying to beat each other in a given race, it makes you each run faster, and you’re both laughing at the end (even if one of you is now paying for dinner)

When competition isn’t working well:

When you forget that no two runners start a race with the same body, age, gender, or training, and therefore comparing your pace with someone else’s actually says nothing. Unless you’re running for prize money, what should matter to you is whether you were able to pick a challenging but achievable goal, work hard towards it, and achieve it.
When there’s a one sided rivalry. If someone is pestering you about your times because you’re a similar enough runner for them to want to beat you in all the local races, you may want to remind them you’re not competing with them. Or you can just feel bad for them because they’re not internally motivated and therefore probably not happy. (But if they keep coming up to you after each race and smugly informing you of their slightly superior race time, maybe you should ask them multiple times if they’re sure they’re all right, and wouldn’t they like to see a medic? They’ll start leaving you alone. Especially if you get your friends in on it, too.)

The best competition ever:

When Will had just learned to walk, he delighted in chasing after any runner who went by us on the nearby Brook Path. He would run after them as fast and as long as he could, then collapse in laughter and meander down the path until the next one went by and he could chase them. It was the most beautiful thing to watch. He knew he couldn’t catch them, but he felt such joy and pleasure in the chase that he would do it every time one went by. If you can find pleasure in trying to do something you know you’ll fail at, then you may do it often enough to make the dream a reality.

Happy running 🙂

He’s having so much fun trying! That’s what it’s really about.

Sprinting Hills

11 years ago • 1 Comment • Running

Recently I ran with a local running club through my local mother’s forum that meets once a week, half a mile from my house, and goes on a 3 mile run together. I had such a great time that I’m hoping to start going regularly. I had a chance to run with an experienced runner who was willing to take it easy to jog next to me, and chat with me about running. Her presence helped me push myself harder on my run, and we had a great conversation about kids and running.

I told her I’d love to drop my pace time some, but have been scared to push myself too hard since I’m also focusing on a distance goal.

Her recommendation was to run a hills workout once a week where you start at the bottom of a hill, sprint to the top, recover by walking down, and repeat about 8 times (or until you fall over, I guess… whichever comes first. This sounds really hard.) She also recommended strength training a few times a week, even just at home with an on-demand fitness program or video. Yeah. I should probably be doing that. Do you think hefting two toddlers up and down off the changing table counts? No? I don’t really think it does, either.

I completed my first hills workout on a nasty little hill near our house that my mother calls “calf-killer hill”. I did a mile warm-up, then the hills, intending to finish with a mile long cool down. I seriously over-estimated my motivation, because my cool down was walking my sorry calves home to hop in the shower. I had to write “1.3 miles” on my running log as a run. Next time I think I’ll do an easy 3 mile run first, because I’m not in the mood to run more after!

Here’s the log of my Garmin so you can see my motivation DIE at the last hill sprint!

Do I really have to do this once a week to get faster?! (Honestly, I’m willing to try!)