Every magazine, every blogger, every coach says the same thing about running: “You are your only competition.” It doesn’t matter if you’re an Olympic athlete or the person who limps their way across the finish line as the course is closing. Are you stronger, faster or better than you were yesterday?
Being Type A, I try – and often fail – to remember this in all aspects of my life. Maybe I’m not the wealthiest writer or a famous novelist. Maybe there are marathoners who can run 26.2 miles in the time it takes me to run a 10K. It’s ok. I’m improving every day on all fronts of my life. That’s what life is about: learning and growing.
I’m racing against myself, I mumble as a zen-like mantra. Just myself. No one else. I listen to the sounds of my footfalls and my breathing. Just myself. I only have to be faster than yesterday’s me. And ooh, maybe that woman right ahead of me. I could totally pass her. Ha! Got her! Watch me go!
Maybe I need to work on this zen-like thing a little more.
Five weeks ago, I had my annual appointment at the eye doctor. This place also has a rockin' selection of eyewear, so I also selected a pair of glasses and a long-overdue pair of sport sunglasses from Ray-Ban, carefully chosen by their eyewear professional to best protect my eyes from the ...
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There's an elephant in my office. It's the elephant-sized sofa that takes up half the usable space. And it simply must go.
Like most home offices, mine didn't start out that way. When we first moved into this house, that room was ...
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This is a ridiculously easy overnight marinade that tenderizes and flavors the flank steak. It's perfect for summer cookouts because it grills quickly. Scale to whatever proportions you need, but always keep the 2:1 juice-to-soy sauce ratio.
Ingredients
Flank steak, 1.5-2 lbs
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
5 cloves of smashed garlic
1/2 inch of ginger, sliced
Splash of ...
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I never understood XM. Why would someone pay for the radio when you already have AM and FM for free? Are these people just signing up to listen to Howard Stern, and if so, why?
When I bought my new car in April, it came with a three-month XM trial. I wasn’t even ...
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I've made some references to a new project on the horizon, and it's finally here. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce my new blog: What Would Betty ...
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All my life, I wanted a nice pen. My father had a golden Cross pen and pencil set, and I just loved it. The weight conferred a sense of importance upon anything written with it, from my fourth grade Social Studies paper to my college applications.
When I graduated from ...
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I went into my training program assuming that I'd never progress past the runwalking that I'd always done. Eight weeks ago, we did a one mile benchmark run to test our speed, and I struggled to run for the full mile. On Tuesday, we repeated the timed mile and... well, you'll have to scroll down ...
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Ever since I read this blog post from Steve Gordon -- a.k.a. RDQLUS -- I've been thinking about the creative professionals that I've worked with during my career. "I'm so sorry," they say by way of preemptive apology. "I'm not much of a writer."
I ...
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The cold or allergy attack or whatever it was that thwarted last weekend's run was still rearing its ugly head as I kicked off week 8. I took it slow on Monday, but then decided to show the cold no mercy and fight back with hill sprints on Tuesday night.
The ...
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