Extremes

Hello! It’s Friday-Eve (aka Thursday). Time to do some thinking out loud …

First, a quick update on the Fitbit progress (because I know you are all so interested) … it read 7.8 miles for an 8 mile run this morning. That is some serious improvement! It wasn’t as accurate during my workout yesterday morning, but that makes sense, because my stride length will not be the same when I am running faster. I’m just going to have to accept the fact that it will not ever be exactly perfect. Wait, what?

We will have to save the perfectionism talk for another time. I’ve talked about it before. I’ll talk about it again. The current state of my life is definitely work in progress in that area.

Lizzie and I got in 8 miles together this morning. It was a wonderful start to the day! She texted me to tell me that she was going to be a few minutes late because she had to put on all. the. clothes. I told her that it was 46 degrees, so she probably really didn’t need that many layers. Ha. It was definitely warmer than she was expecting, especially once we got going. We decided that there needed to be a step-by-step instruction guide for how to properly clothe yourself for runs in the winter time.

This got me thinking … I wonder if something like this actually exists. Well turns out … it does! Check out the “What to Wear” tool from Runner’s World. It’s so cool! You enter the set of conditions that applies, whether or not you are going for an easy run or a race (or somewhere in between) and whether or not you prefer to be cool or warm (or somewhere in between) during your run and it gives you suggestions of what to wear.

Summer is so easy. It’s just always blazing hot. Throw on a tank top and some shorts and you are good to go. Unfortunately winter is a totally different animal. There can be so much variation, depending on the dew point, wind chill, etc. that even the same exact temperature doesn’t really feel the same from day to day. It seems like here in LA, it is either hold or cold. We never really have a long season of “in between” weather. It is summer or it is winter. Spring and fall don’t seem to really even exist!

This got me thinking about a topic that I have been wanting to write about for a while. Black-or-white, all-or-nothing thinking.

Do you sometimes view people and situations as right or wrong, good or bad and hot or cold? I think this way all too frequently (actually I think that may just be the default setting in my brain), which unfortunately, prohibits me from seeing things the way they really are and fully experiencing everything that life has to offer. I think it probably just makes me feel more secure to think that life is really this simple.

It takes a conscious effort to choose to see some good in a situation that otherwise would’ve only been bad, to let go of preconceptions and start thinking that anything is possible. There is an entire spectrum and everything doesn’t have to fit neatly into a tiny, well-defined box. We have to accept all of the possibilities and allow ourselves enough wiggle room to make some mistakes along the way. Inevitably, we will all make mistakes. This doesn’t make us “bad” people. It makes us human. Don’t beat yourself up about it!

See y’all tomorrow!