Whenever you put your ideas out there into the universe, it's always scary and, from my perspective, takes courage.
Yet whether you're a painter or a director or a choreographer or a writer, regardless of your intention, once you make your stuff public, it's like a free-for-all. It's 100 percent up to your audience to make sense of your message, interpret or reinterpret your ideas, and like or dislike your work or even you.
Read More“How would you feel about categorizing your book as self-help or personal growth?”
I was having a telephone conversation with an editor at a publishing house about my memoir. I had finished the manuscript in August and had been pitching the project to literary agents and publishers, taking online workshops on how to publish a book, and tweaking the pages based on feedback from readers.
I was never sure whether it was a good idea to call my book a memoir. I’m always visiting bookstores to look at what’s on the memoir shelf or the self-help, psychology, or personal growth shelves, so I get why she was asking the question.
It’s my fitness journey, that’s true, but I wouldn’t say fitness defines me.
“Sure,” I said, “I’m good with that.”
Read More"We need to head home early so this one can get into bed," Bob gestured at me as he told our friends at a Vassar event at the National Museum of African American History and Culture last Saturday night that we'd need to duck out.
"She's got an early race tomorrow."
It was true, I did need to be up by 4:30 am Sunday morning, but it's not like I'm a professional or even competitive athlete. I've been running and doing these races for 3 years, and this idea always crosses my mind.
But still.
Read MoreAmong the many political signs at last Saturday's half marathon was this one, my favorite, because whenever anybody asks me about my experience as a runner, I always say that I'm a 50-something who wanted to go to lunch but went for a run instead.
We were lined up at the start when a group of three women around my age asked me if I would take their picture. Through the lens of the iPhone camera I could see one of them wanted to be at brunch instead of shivering on 14th Street and about to run 13.1 miles in 26 degree weather.
"Have you done this before?" I asked.
Read MoreBy last Thursday afternoon I was feeling the effects of the upper body workout I did with Zach Schumaker, my trainer, on Wednesday night. My pecs were so inflamed and sore I wasn't 100 percent convinced I wasn't having a heart attack. In general I welcome delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) because it means I'm placing stress on my muscles, allowing them to adapt.
But then of course I'm forced to change up my training. So on Friday, instead of cross training on the elliptical or swimming, I did walking intervals on the treadmill at a 12 percent incline; no stress on the upper body but I got my heart rate up high enough to feel great getting ready for work and throughout the day.
I was planning to do a long swim Saturday morning but still felt sore. A year ago I would have pushed through but if I've learned anything through all of this it's the value of deloading. So instead, with my head still on my pillow, I smiled.
I'll do an easy run.
It wasn't the run that made me smile, although I enjoy these shakeout runs.
It was the bagel. With peanut butter.
Read MoreI reconnected over the summer with a woman I first met when I was living outside San Francisco and our daughters had become friends. We were having coffee in Palo Alto late one afternoon when she told me she had lupus.
The subject came up because she was apologizing for meeting me in her workout clothes as she was just coming from the gym.
Really? Everyone in Palo Alto looks like they're in exercise clothes.
She told me that one of the ways she copes with bouts of extreme pain in her joints is by exercising regularly.
This memory popped into my head a few weeks ago as I woke up after sleeping nearly 12 hours. The last of my Thanksgiving guests had left late on that Saturday, and I practically passed out within minutes.
My plan had been to do a longish run that Sunday morning, but when I stepped out of bed, my sides and lower back were so sore and stiff that I nearly crept down the stairs to make myself a cup of coffee.
I assumed I had suffered a sleeping injury by being in bed so long.
Read MoreThere are those runs you know are gonna be hard, and you head into them as if you're about to do battle.
But when you finish you feel all the more celebratory.
That's where I am with this morning's Parks Half Marathon, which meanders through Montgomery County's gorgeous parks.
At packet pick up yesterday at RnJ Sports in Rockville I overheard a woman tell her friend that although there were 2,500 people registered for the race, 20 percent probably won't show up.
"Because of the weather?" I jumped in.
"For whatever," she said. "Just because."
Read More"If you don't believe in yourself, why should anyone else believe in you?"
"You have to love yourself before you can expect another person to love you."
These phrases were etched into my being years ago, but in the past couple of weeks I've had a bit of an epiphany.
I used my early morning walks to catch up on podcasts after my finger surgery when I could not run or swim or bike and zoomed in on an interesting connection from one podcast to the other.
Sometimes it makes sense to hang back and let someone else have confidence in you.
Read More“Will this affect your exercising?”
My cousin Jonathan was hosting his annual summer barbeque for the Washington Belkins. While most of my family members are still in New York, there’s a respectable number in Washington as well as in Florida.
It was a little more than 24 hours after Dr. David Moss, a hand surgeon, removed one of the joints from my right ring finger and fused the bones together with 3 wires.
“Yes,” I started to say, “more than I anticipated.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Jonathan’s mother, Leslee, was visiting for a few days. Stanley, Jonathan’s father, died not too long ago. He was a celebrated master chef, and Jon himself does an awesome spread year after year.
“It’s ok. Thanks for asking."
Read MoreHere’s the thing about doing races.
Running is hard. "Easy runs" always appear on my training calendar, but they’re never easy.
Whether I’m sprinting and doing intervals or going easy or going long, running is always hard.
So signing up for races keeps me motivated. It’s just that simple.
Because although running only gets easier but never easy, like anything else, the more you expose yourself to difficult or uncomfortable things, the less difficult or uncomfortable they become.
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