Onto Friday's adventures...

After a strong cup of coffee and a short segment of Callilou, we were ready to embark upon the day's journey. I didn't lose my temper at all as I cooked breakfast for the girls, got them ready, packed the day bag, packed S's backpack, and skaddadled out of the door. You see, I was in a spectacularly happy mood. I was going to pick up my bicycle! I felt like a kid at Christmas. Was the giddiness from the winning portion or actually getting a bicycle? Either way, it was bringing out the kid in me. No wonder I related more to my girls that morning:)

I picked up S from Billygoats early so that we could get to the Biketown Ceremony on time. If you haven't caught up on my previous post, check it out. For a couple of years now, L and I have been talking about joining theBicycle Coalition. We weren't bike activists or even bicyclists, but we think that they are a solid organization. We noticed a discounted membership in Green Zebra and took that as a sign to support the Bicycle Coalition. Since gas prices have been increasing for the past couple of months and I was also looking for an alternative form of exercise (I'm a runner), I've been thinking about cycling. I wrote to a cycling friend and asked her to be my mentor, I stumbled upon a cool ride in August touring Organic Farms in Sonoma County, and I had researched local bike shops where I could go to find a used road bike. You see it was fate when a few weeks ago I was perusing the Bicycle Coalition weekly email and spotted a contest to win a new bicycle. The post stated that you should forward the email to family and friends because they assume that most members of the Bicycle Coalition already have a bicycle! Well, I didn't and I seized the opportunity. Bicycling.com supported this program called Biketown. They selected 5 cities this year and gave away 30 bicycles in each city. Of course the purpose is to get more people out of cars and onto bikes. Having a bike not only could help with the obesity crisis by getting folks to exercise more, but it could also help save the environment and our wallets by reducing our consumption of gasoline. I wrote a 50 word essay telling them why I deserved a free bicycle and how it could "set me free." Obviously, I was chosen, which brings me back to Friday...

A couple of my friends met me down at Justin Herman Plaza to watch the girls while I was fitted for my new helmet.

After a short ceremony where they described the program and what they hoped to accomplish by giving away all of these bikes,
I got to get on my bike!How do you like that cheese grin? Simone was very excited too. I love this photo of us.
After a quick lunch with our friends, we came home and took a very long nap. It was great. I slept for about 45 minutes and the girls slept almost 3 hours! It was lovely. When S woke up, she said, "Remember yesterday, you said after a nap we could make cookies." I just smiled and said, "You're right. How do you remember everything!" We made yummy chocolate chip cookies together and then delivered them to a couple of neighbors. We ended up having tea and chatting at our next door neighbors C&L's house. It was lovely. After our nightly soiree, we came home and easily fell asleep.

It was a wonderful day!

My New Bicycle

Well, I don't have it yet, but I'm getting it this Friday! I'm so excited that I can't wait to share all of the details. What I can say is that I wrote a 50-word essay describing how a new bike would set me free. I received an email yesterday morning that my essay was chosen and I'm one of several people in San Francisco that will get to cruise around on this sweet bicycle.

I've been thinking about getting a bicycle for about a month or two now. I joined the bicycle coalition and in one of their weekly emails was an opportunity to get this new bike. Again, I'll write more details, once I sign the release form and actually get the bike on Friday.

Woohoo! I'm so excited:)

Obsessive Running

I'm an all or nothing gal. It's either happening or not. I'm all in or I don't want to play the game. I either love you or hate you. I'm committed or I quit. I'm 100% or 0%.

It doesn't really have to be that way. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I can find the middle ground and find happiness there. The trick is to find out how. Easier said than done for me. One way I've been working with this concept is with my exercise program. For the past few weeks, I've been on my treadmill running. It's been great! I'm sleeping better and my body is not quite as achy as it has been. I just have to keep telling myself that if I miss a day, it's okay. If I don't feel like running "hard," it's okay. If I need (or want) to walk a little bit, it's okay.

You see, that's not quite how I've trained, ahem, exercised in the past. In the past, I had to sign up for a race to motivate myself to run. A race with Team In Training (with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) was especially motivating because I'd be commited to all of the people who helped me raise money. If I had people asking me how running was going or how much money I'd raised, I'd certainly better keep up the training. I needed that to get up in the morning to run.

The past half-marathon I ran back in February was a bit different. I trained with a friend and my motivation was to get back into shape after having CC. She was only a few months old and I was ready to hit the pavement to try to get my body back in shape. Part of the motivation was also to get out of the house and have some alone time without having to take care of my two children and husband who was recovering from a broken hip. All of this seemed like good motivation, but the reality was that I'd get out there and start the run, but throughout the whole run, I'd be focusing on the end. The stories in my head were: I didn't want to be there, I wasn't in good enough shape for this, my side hurt, I couldn't wait to be done so I could get coffee. That last story was the most prevalent, "Just keep on going, not much longer and you can walk and enjoy a wonderful, hot non-fat latte!" It became so obsessive that I barely noticed the gorgeous landscape that I was running past. I was enjoying the conversation with my friend, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking of that latte. Lattes became my motivation.

It took a while, but I finally realized that all of these diversions weren't serving me well. What happened to running for the sake of running. Running because it made me feel good. Period. My running was competitive. I wasn't competing with anyone else, just myself. It was crazy. I noticed this and the very next run in Golden Gate Park, I tried not to obsess about lattes. (Of course, I thought of them, but only 2 or 3 times.) Everytime I found myself fantasizing about my java, I'd divert my attention to my beautiful surroundings. I noticed the trees, the other runners, the smell of the park. It was liberating. Don't get me wrong, we went out for lattes after the run, but it wasn't consuming me:)

What I'm learning through all of this is that I don't have to be obsessive about running. I don't need a race to motivate me to run. I don't need a latte at the end to motivate me to "get through it." It doesn't have to be all or nothing. It can be somewhere in between. I don't HAVE to run every day. If I skip a day, it's okay. As long as I'm true to myself,and actually get the exercise done, it'll all work out.