Miss Zippy

• Home
• Contact
• About
• Coaching

One of the best aspects of being a FitFluential ambassador are all the new blogs I am exposed to–blogs I might not otherwise have found. One of my absolute favorites is MizFit Online, written by rockstar Carla Birnberg. When I say rockstar, people, I mean it. She is an amazing example of fitness and her blog has such widespread reach–well, it’s enough to turn you a deep shade of green. Except that Carla deserves this widespread reach because she can write and expound on an idea like nobody’s business. Which is why I want to share her work with you in this post she so graciously let me “borrow” from her site. And if you can’t get enough of her here (I understand) you can find her on her blog, Twitter, and YouTube.

Now read on and see what I’m talking about: 

Ahhh people.

Ive rambled ad nauseum about my struggles to find my new kindergarten-groove.

Far less than feeling sad & alone & untethered without my sidekick Ive found the newly shortened days (bus pick up at 8a & hardstop to the work day at 330p) have caused more frazzle than floundering.

As a result Ive focused less on exploring new passions than I planned/otherwise might have.

Ive neither gone anti-gravity nor have I re-found my tween writer friends.

And Im ok with that for now.

Baby steps to finding my new routine are just fine with this misfit.

And, it was in the name of those baby steps, I made time for a NINETY MINUTE hot yoga class last week.

A mere ten years after I took my first one.

I arrived early. I unfurled my mat. I stayed & sweated through the entirely 90 minutes. I cried. And I discovered a few things about myself.

Im leading a fear-based fitness life.

I pride myself on NOT leading a fear based life. I happily do one (or more!) thing each day which scares me. The hot yoga experience, however, forced me to face the fact Im leading a 100% fear based fitness existence.
I simply sat on my mat during poses I’d normally attempt without hesitation. There’s healthy caution & theres fear. During those 90 minutes it smacked me in the sweaty face mine is the latter.

Ive been repeatedly told yoga is not merely an athletic endeavor it is a spiritual endeavor. That we gain strength/ability to hold poses only when places in our body which are block with unresolved issues and energy are released.

I still dont know if this is applicable to my experience (for me there was a straight line between not attempting a pose & fearing reinjury) but it’s a concept Ive been pondering ever since the class.

Perhaps it’s time to loosen my attachment to my self-definition.

I dont think this is a factor in my fear based fitness existence (?), but I received the message loud and MATclear it might be time to loosen my attachment to my self-definition.

The mere thought of exercising for NINETY minutes annoyed this misfit. It irritated me. I had to stifle the urge (I wont lie) to pretend I had some sort of emergency and rush out of class early.

Im a believer in the universe sending us messages and the fact I reacted so strongly was, to me, an indicator I might need to return. With baby steps. One time a week. 90 minutes of working out (!). It wont kill me and it might make me stronger: inside and out.

I am what I profess to be.

It may not sound like a big deal–but given the fact I was sniffling on the mat I found this reassuring. I didnt care. I didnt give a thought to what the others in the class may have been thinking until later that day as *I* reflected on the experience.

I may be mildly offtrack, searching for my new routine and leading a fear based fitness life—but I AM comfortable in my own skin.

Im an unapologetically weeping on the yoga mat misfit & the reminder of that fact felt great.

This post took me a long time to write as I realized, with each revision, I still possess no answers.
I didn’t really enjoy the yoga class much and I think, for me, that’s a message I need to return.

The discomfort I felt happened because I was forced to confront ideas I’d previously been able to avoid (fitness ruts will allow you to do that!).

In my heart of hearts, in my quiet morning moments, I know this discomfort will help me achieve much needed (non-muscular) growth.

All I know right now is Im returning to class tomorrow.

And, right now, that’s all I need to know.

Related Posts:

• My 11 randoms
• The conversations of a long run
• Lucy Hatha leggings (review/giveaway)
• The road back so far…
• What do you want from a race?

If you follow me on Twitter (you do, don’t you?) you saw that last week I got a new toy, namely a MacBook Air. I’m like a kid with this thing–so much to discover! And so much to learn. I’m getting there, in bits and pieces.

My brother is the tech junkie in the family and when I saw him this week, he immediately seized my new toy and started playing. (He also helped me figure a few things out that were beyond my extremely limited capabilities). Anyhow, we played with the video recording and thought I’d share this brief video of him poking fun at my love of running. (It’s ok, he’s just jealous ’cause I can whip his a^& at any distance). You can find this video and a couple of others on my new YouTube channel. Subscribe and follow me there, too!

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

Happy Valentine’s Day! If you haven’t seen it yet, the guys over at #RunChat are asking everyone to list the 10 things they like about running as a way to mark Valentine’s Day. I can tell you, this is hard to narrow down for me. Just 10? But here goes my attempt:

1.  A chance to get outside and exercise, no matter what the weather.

2. The sense of accomplishment after the run.

3. The high I get while out there.

4. The social aspect of it–there’s not much else I’d rather do with good friends than go for a long run.

5. The sense of strong I feel.

6. The smile it puts on my face.

7. The way it sets up the rest of my day like nothing else.

8. The chance to work toward a goal.

9. The variety of scenery I get to experience up close and in person.

10. Experiencing progress when training goes smoothly.

What’s at the top of your list? 

Related Posts:

• Are you kidding me?

Finishing with smiles on our faces

I told you Friday that my Saturday long run plans would include 30k on trails as part of a 50k relay. All I can say is that Saturday’s 20-plus miles were some of the most fun I’ve ever run.

The conditions couldn’t have been worse. It had rained and dropped a tiny bit of wet snow the night before, so the trails were nothing but mud. And when I say mud, I mean sometimes shin-deep mud. My leg of the relay, which I ran with my friends Jess and Janelle (sounds like a band, no?), didn’t begin until the 3rd loop of the five 10k loops, so it already had the impact of hundreds of feet all over it. Read: super slippery! I’m pretty sure each loop took us more than an hour to slog through.

Before

Just staying upright was a challenge. By some miracle I managed not to fall, but Jess fell once and poor Janelle was on the ground five times. By the last loop, she had had her share of kissing the mud. We were all slap happy at that point, and I laughed until I had tears in my eyes.

A few comments on people who run ultras–what a fun, laid back crew. They’re out there for the joy of running and many don’t get caught up in their times (the way, ahem, some of us road racing peeps do). And can you beat the aid stations at ultras? Cookies, pretzels, PB & J sandwiches, the works. Gotta love it. Big props go to Phil Lang and Bullseye Runningfor pulling off a first-class event in the first year.

After

And of course, since it was Feb. 11, I ran with my Sherry Arnold bib on. I didn’t know her, but I can imagine that as a runner who lived in a beautiful state like Montana, she would have appreciated the quiet peace that can be found on a trail in the woods. It was an honor to wear her name and see many others doing the same.

Run for Sherry

How was your weekend run?