Running Into Joy

Happy Tuesday, friends! Today, I am writing about one of the things that regularly consumes chunks of my life, 10-days at a time: Racery events with my online running communities. I suspect I've mentioned the Potterhead Running Club (formerly Hogwarts Running Club) here before, but it's worth mentioning again. This community, living primarily on Facebook with a healthy dose of Charity Miles and IRL meetups, is one of the places I go to find a sense of belonging. It's also one of the ways I stay motivated to be active. Virtual races like the ones hosted by PHRC often get a bit of a head tilt when I first mention them. You sign up on line, run or walk the distance yourself, and receive a medal in the mail. It's a different sort of togetherness than the community of a real life event, but one that nevertheless can motivate you to earn your race bling. In PHRC, these medals also earn house points towards the annual House Cup competition (which my beloved Hufflepuf...

Hello, hello! Today is January 21st. It also happens to be the 20th day in Yoga With Adriene's 30 Day yoga journey for 2020, called HOME. As we are ever so slightly over halfway through the journey, quest, challenge, I've been reflecting on the experience so far. For those who don't know, Adriene Mischler is an online yoga teacher, guru, and all around amazing creator who has been bringing free yoga to YouTube for years. She's got a massive following and is truly a celebrity in her own right. She also happens to my first teacher of yoga, and still my favorite. This is my fifth year dedicating the month of January to a daily practice with Adriene. Since 2015, Adriene has created a 30-day yoga series, one new video released for every day of the month of January. And since then, I have been one of those people following along day by day. I haven't managed to stick to it every day for every year but nevertheless each year on Thanksgiving I start looking forward to...

It's been a bit, I think, since I've done a more general update type of post. This week, I'm taking a week off running and doing low impact cardio instead because I've got my first injury of the training cycle: shin splints. Is it weird that this feels like a rite of passage, like part of being a "real" runner? Anyway, the week of rest combined with the fact that my boyfriend is away on business and my closest Pittsburgh friend is traveling means I've got a lot of introvert time on my hands. As I've had more solitude than usual, I've been reflecting on what I'm enjoying right now and figured I may as well share it. Part of taking care of yourself is taking time to do what fuels you (and not try to turn everything into a "side hustle" all the time--it's okay to like things just to like them!). So, I've been: Listening... To The Glass Cannon podcast . Admittedly I did a lot of that in 2019 (like, a lot ). This week...

I write to you from the hazy fog brought on by a string of heavy symptom days with occipital neuralgia. For the last few months of 2019, I enjoyed blissfully low to no symptoms and, in truth, felt very much like I was "better." And then... the tense headache warning of what's to come. So, as much as I love a crisp new planner and the start of a new year, I'm struggling to find optimism. It's hard to feel like it's a fresh new year when I'm carrying over the same old chronic pain that met me in August of last year. In spite of this, I carry the lessons with me that going for a run will actually improve symptoms, not make them worse. And so, as the year of my half marathon (fingers crossed) begins, I'm continuing my training plan. Yesterday, I met a challenge that feels both distant and familiar. My symptoms were heavy, shocking pains coming frequently and a tell-tale tightness in my right neck muscles. I debated skipping the day's 45 minute ru...