I decided to title this post Frustrations and Choices today for several reasons. I will just list them now and get them out of the way and then proceed with my usual rants.
1. I have had this sinus headache for about two weeks and today every time I stepped with my left foot I thought my brain was going to explode. After about 3/4 of a mile this finally subsided, but
2. I was out of breath. I found myself working really hard to run this morning. Maybe it was because my music was not playing on my iPod and I remember now why I run with music because I hate hearing myself breathe. I sound like a dying cow. I decided to check on my iPod to see what my pace was to make sure I was not running too hard when
3. I realized that my iPod had frozen. It was not recording any distance or time. So here I am running without getting any credit. This made me severely angry. I was already struggling(I forgot to mention I was running in my new shoes and they came untied while running also) and now this. I have to have my stuff recorded or I feel like I really did not do it. Don’t ask why, it is just something I need. I must have my results. I stopped, reset my iPod and took off when I thought it was working. For some reason it told me there was no music, but at least the Nike+ app was working. Being still angry I wanted to know how far I ran so I backtracked and ran the same distance again to measure. I ran 1.1 miles. I was furious by this point and decided I would still go run the 5 miles to have it recorded. I struggled for another mile as I was still angry at my iPod for not recording and not playing music. I have to listen to my feet hit the ground and myself breathe which both frustrate me more.
Finally, I tell myself that I just got done talking with my son about controlling his anger and how he needs to learn to get himself under control. We talked about techniques and how getting so angry does not help with the situation at all. I relaxed, got myself in control and discovered how much energy I was wasting by being angry. I started to run better, have better breathing, and felt good the last 3 miles.
After teaching class at the middle school this morning, I have come home to write this post up. I plug in my iPod and guess what? There is an error and it needs to be restored to factory settings. Yes, my run was not recorded after all that. Thankfully, I wrote down the info because I was afraid something was not right.
We all have things that happen in life that drive us nuts. We have two choices to make when we face adversity or in this case small things that drive you insane. One, we can stay mad and let it ruin or day and cause the stress and anger to affect or bodies and well being. Or, two, we can move on as we cannot control these things and there is nothing we can do about it. There is nothing I can do about except, record the workout manually, be proud of running an extra mile, remember that my new shoes felt great on my feet and enjoy the rest of the day with my family. That is what I am choosing to do. We all have choices in life and our future is based on those choices. Anyways, I ran 6.1 miles in 52:20 and feel good about that as I was scheduled for a 5 mile easy run this morning. I just have to move on.
I leave you with the following quote which I think fits in this post and will fit future post as I officially registered to run the entire Chicago Urbanathlon last night. It makes me nervous, but provides a good final test to my willpower for the year.
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