A Descriptive Body Chart for a Dedicated Athlete

On her refrigerator, my mom has a giant chart full of cartoon faces. They're all characterizing different emotions. Presumably, this is so she can look in the mirror and determine which one she looks the most like. Maybe so she can differentiate between the degrees of one larger emotion, or make little blanced equations out of them. If I had one, it would have at least ten different varieties of sore, and fifteen kinds of tired.
Some examples:
 
Long run+fast swim= full body morning stiffness

 Light weight lifting(fast track intervals-adequate recovery time)+/-appropriate calorie intake=grumbly stomach(leaden legs)

Killer speedwork+long runs(2 weeks)=Post Race Podium(elated feeling of success)+mild temporary cognitive function loss.

Maybe it would be better in this case to print off thousands of those body diagrams you find at the doctor's office so I could just color in where I feel sore or tired. Maybe my niece could loan me some crayons and we could establish a color legend. It would all be very complicated.
  If I had that chart, though, half of it would be dedicated to the feeling of joy. Physically, my legs and arms and definitely my core might disagree with that, but "deleriously happy" applies to almost every post-workout evaluation.
  Some examples:

 Butt kicked in track workout by faster older people+long, grueling uphill ride home=exhaustedly happy

Interoffice competition for most yards swum in a month/burning desire to win EVERYTHING(free time)=feeling of joyful accomplishment(mild loss of cognitive function+inability to hold things steady in hands)

I can't tell if it's because I haven't seen the fruits of my labors demolished by faster, more experienced folks, yet, that I feel so elated to be so regularly brutal to myself. Maybe it's a state of constant fatigue producing these sensations. But I suspect it's probably that I finally have the chance to quiet down all the other voices clamoring for attention in my life (my favorite visual is a jar full of loud, angry mice, with a volume control on the outside, courtesy of Anne Lamott) and two or three times a day outrun, bike or swim them to some sense of meditative satisfaction. I encourage you to do the same, however it comes for you.

Sorry for the lapse!

It has been a great stretch of time since I last posted in here, and there's much to update on. I was injured shortly after my last post, and didn't attend the race in Shelton. It's a lingering back strain, it's been haunting me since I gained some weight back in December. I'm working on it though, and part of that training involves doing the Saint Patty's Day 5k in Seattle.
As part of this blog, it's my duty to tell you all about this race, and all the things you might need to know in order to attend it. Next entry!

First of the Year

This year should prove to be interesting. There's a cross-the-country move on the table, as well as a long list of races that will hopefully culminate in a stab at the Age Group Nationals Olympic distance race in Burlington, VT. All that might take a while, so the first thing I've decided to do with my new year is participate in the Shelton Harriers Mason County Cross.
It's an 8k in the deep, dark heart of Shelton, Wa. Maybe not your first stop for a tourist destination, but if you want a good cross country race, I have a feeling this is where you'll find it.
Terrain and gas money aside, I have a feeling I'll be getting some bang for my buck. The race is only $10.00 on Active.com and $15.00 day of. You can form teams or run solo. All in all, the websites make it sound like a fun adventure. Weather Underground predicts 40 degrees and a chance of horribly, nasty, foul, cold rain, which is the standard winter weather for this area.
What could be more fun than running through buckets of mud and cold in a huge group of people? If you're like me, you know the answer to that is not much. I personally worship at the church of mud and when I say Sunday Best, I mean my Adidas Adios, some bodyglide and not much else.
Happy trails, kids.