Hello there.
Can I be honest for a minute? (Not that I’m ever anything but, but you know.)
Someone said last week something about being glad I was back to my “blogging roots,” and that comment struck a chord with me. (WHAT? ARE MY ROOTS SHOWING? I JUST GOT THEM DONE.)
As blogging as an “industry” has gotten bigger and bigger, it’s made me more conflicted about what I want from this little space.
To be honest, I read some blogs and know I’m a better writer. From working in social media and reading everything I can get my hands on about it (I’m just trying to crack Facebook’s algorithm, NBD), I know what to do if I really want to grow this blog.
IF.
I have a day job I like. I have no “product” to sell or coaching service. As a single lady who lives alone, I enjoy (60% of the time, all the time) working in an office with other people, all working towards a similar goal. But if I have to be honest, in the past few years, having some green-eyed monster re:blogging has led this blog astray somewhat. Feeling like I need to have Something Important to Say every single time I write has taken a lot of the fun out of it for me (and feels strained, to be honest) for something that’s just supposed to be a fun outlet that makes me some extra cash. What does this mean going forward? I don’t really know, to be honest. Trying to make this more of a conversation? Not trying to write some Long, Deep Post every time I sit down to write? Just having more fun with it for me, which I think you’ll be able to see, too.
You still there?
Cool, let’s talk about some workouts and stuff.
Last week I blogged about setting up a schedule for myself, and this week I’ll check in. That’s always helped me out, and I’m going to try to stick to it again.
LAST WEEK
Tuesday: Uplift at 6:30am << CHECK! I did their Endurance class (like their old HIIT class), and it is a sweaty, sweaty beast of a cardio class. It is TOUGH.
Wednesday: 4 mile run << yup!
Thursday: Yoga in the morning << yup! I ended up having a super stressful day at work and picking up a good friend from a procedure she had done at Sloan Kettering, so I was glad I got my yoga in in the morning. I threw out my old Lulu yoga mat in the move because it’d gotten grubby beyond repair…what’s your fave decent yoga mat right now?
Friday: Run with Nike Run Club — they usually cover about 4-5, so I want to do 1-2 more miles on my own before or after << totally overslept and then chose to go for happy hour instead after work to celebrate/mourn a good friend giving notice at work
Saturday: cleaning up a park all day for NYJL << check? I wouldn’t stay this counts as a workout, but I was definitely moving for a good portion of the day, so?
Sunday: Long run — 8 miles << well…no. I swam instead.
OK, let’s talk long run. Now that the weather’s better and I’m generally sleeping a little better, it’s getting easier for me to get up and out in the mornings during the week. But on the weekends? I really just want to lay on my couch, and I end up doing so for too long and I rush some short run instead. I am disappointed in myself about this, but I’m trying not to be too hard on myself right now since there’s a lot going on in my life. I’m trying to run as much as I can, with the understanding that Brooklyn will probably suck if I don’t get my long runs in…but there we are.
On the food front, I went to Trader Joe’s tonight and grabbed a bunch of easy to heat stuff so I can save some money on food and eat better stuff for me.
This week’s fitness plan:
Today: Did an awesome li’l tempo-ish run — 1 mile warm-up, 2 miles tempo pace, 1 mile cool-down. I’ve been wearing my Apple Watch and just using the regular workout app, so I’m not sure what my tempo splits were, but my overall pace for 4 miles was 8:36 (yessss! It’s coming back!), so I’m happy with that.
Tomorrow: Row House in the morning. SWEET, that means I can stop at my favorite coffee place after that is the opposite direction from work, so I don’t usually go.
Wednesday: Morning run with Ashley
Thursday: Y7 Yoga
Friday: Morning run with Jordan
Thinking I should do my long run Saturday and get it over with, and have Sunday be a glorious rest day.
And, as usual, my friend Liz is continuing to kill it on her blog about everything self-care and healthy habits.
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View Comments
Manduka prolite is my favorite mat of all time!
I totally was the commenter. I hope you took it as a compliment, because it was! You have an authentic voice and your honestly is always appreciated.
You are a MUCH better writer AND far more interesting, intelligent, and multi-dimensional (sorry sorry, I know you're friends with some of them...) than other HLBs. Your blog is the only one I read that is at all relatable. Keep up the great work!!!
@Sasha: Yes! I've stopped reading other blogs because I know even in their "emotional" posts they are still selling something. I love your writing because I can relate to it the most, and yes we all have a sponsored post once in a while, but its not every week, and for that I thank you!
@Katie: That said...I do have one tomorrow, ha.
@Theodora: bah! I have the worst habit of calling things before they happen....last month I jokingly refused to go to a meeting because i didn't want to be let go...and they announced that a team in another division was being let go. (shameful truth).
@Katie: oh man! I have weird intuition too and also guessed the same before it happened here last year. Or maybe it's paranoia. ha
The Manduka Pro mat, HANDS DOWN. It's thick, works great for yoga and any other mat work. Plus, they have lifetime guarantees. It's well worth the investment.
I've been feeling the SAME WAY. I miss just opening up my computer and writing! I am going to try to do it are :)
I was an early reader of yours for many years and then stopped reading just around the time you made the switch to Preppy Runner. The primary focus at the time, to me, was running, which wasn't something I was so interested in. I recently checked out the blog again and have been reading for a few months and actually am so enjoying the mix of workouts, personal struggle, personal triumphs, moments with your mom, etc. It feels to me more like what my life is like. I can find plenty of fitness blogs with women who rock out their kale salads and half-marathons. What I love about you then and now is the completely personal touch and quality that feels like you're a real person, not an amalgamation of what you want your readers to see. So...just want you to know that roots or not, I really dig your personal posts as they are all personal to me. You seem to have little filter and in this highly-filtered world, I need more real-world stories to help ground me and remind me that I'm not alone. Thanks for that.
@Verhanika: Thanks :) I think I'd sort of tried for a while to be what I thought readers wanted to see...and that's exhausting and not me. And I think it would be such a disservice to me even to pretend to myself that my life was perfect, much less to pretend to my readers. I know the posts and blogs I like the most are ones that are real, that make me feel like I'm not alone in this crazy world. At the same time, my filter is always "What would my CEO think if he read this?" Considering he came up to me recently and said he met someone who knew of DB because of my blog...I am glad I have that filter :) PLUS I love this kind of conversation far more than comments about how awesome my kale is! Or how fast my run was!
I love how open and honest you are about when workouts/runs don't go according to plan or you just don't want to do them sometimes. It happens to me all of the time so it is always refreshing to read that I am not the only one. I am actually taking a break from running/training because I just didn't like it any more.
Also, quick apple watch question. Do you have to have your phone with you to be able to use the watch for tracking, music texts, calls, etc?
Supposedly you don't for tracking/music...but you def do for texts/calls.
To be honest, most ''Big blogs'' suck. No one like or care for a succession of sponsored blog post that never really feel genuine.
I like that you're not effraid to admit your struggles. For the last few months I also had this thing with long runs and running during the weekend ... I have such a hard time, all I want to do is lay on my couch and watch tv. I used to get up at 7h30 am every sunday in order make my long runs happen and for the last few months I have zero motivation. It's so bad that I did a few long runs on monday evening. And I struggle to run anything over 10 km. I ran 5 marathons in the last 5 years so it's not like I'm not able to do it. It's nice to know I'm not the only one struggling tho. And I admire you for getting up early in the morning in order to run. The only way I'm ever able to do it is if I have a group workout planned but now that my ice canoeing season is over I don't really have options. I guess I need a good kick in the butt