Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Grumbling gone wild

I'm crabby lately, in total Grrr mode. My foot was hurting yesterday, plaguing me with sharp, stabbing pains. My immediate thought was another stress fracture from trying the orthotics my Dr. gave me that seem to roll my foot to the outside. The hot spot didn't hurt running, but it was definitely sore throughout the day. Rather than fret and complain about it, I'm going to lash out at others. Ha. Ultimately, I just have to be careful and see how it goes. It's taped and feeling better this morning, so I'm guessing it's probably a soft tissue thing. I hope. Man though, I envy people who are chronically sound!

Despite my efforts to be more positive or at least more informative in my posts this summer, I seem to have fallen in the habit of being overly critical. I can't help it right now. The state of the world is getting to me. Blogging is therapy though. No wonder we're all so whiny! I'm joking, of course, only maybe not in my case. Maybe having to deal with the public most days at work is part of my problem. I work in an art gallery. There are plenty of nice clients. I can't deny that; however, watching some people with money screw over those who are struggling is draining. It's always a pleasant surprise when that doesn't happen. Whoever thought that the trickle-down theory would work consistently has never met a man with too much money on the hunt for a bargain. You see, rather than those with money who can afford something actually paying for it, very often they are the ones who demand the biggest discounts. It's always the guy with three houses who makes the most insulting offer on a piece, but because everyone else is desperate, he almost always gets his way. Oddly, those who save and scrimp to buy something rarely ask for anything off the piece. It's all very backwards, and I often leave work with a sick feeling in my stomach. Unfortunately, it's just the sad reality of how things are right now.

Lately I have become tired of reading blogs in which the author is either WAY too up with people or CONSTANTLY a Debbie Downer. "Give me real, don't give me fake," as Chris Martin would cry. I think I have a nice selection of blogs on my reading list though. It's just that I occasionally stumble onto other blogs not on my list. Hey, it's great if you happen to be blessed with an injury-free body and sane mind, but shame on you for flaunting your high spirits if you're putting people who often struggle to get through the day down in the process. Is it necessary to take that little dig instead of simply explaining what you do? For those of us who don't wake up at the crack of dawn and leap out of bead singing, it's not about not wanting to see a sunrise or not wanting to achieve success, it's about dealing with the cards we were handed. When your body hurts all the time, for example, it's harder to skip out the door with a smile on your face at 5 AM, especially if your night was a chain of cat naps instead of 8 solid hours of rest. Good for you that you don't have to struggle through the downs though. That's awesome. I just wish you would stop judging people who don't do the exact same routine as you, and quit assuming my occasional lack of enthusiasm or confidence means I'm fundamentally flawed. I have a hard time believing anyone is happy and feels good and motivated ALL THE TIME, but maybe it happens. (These perpetual upbeat writers are the Rebecca Blacks of the blogging world.)

On the other extreme, there are the ones who say 20 million times that they're out of shape, drunk every night and hate all people on the planet. "I'm falling apart, but I'm still better than you, because I BLOG!" Yes, we get that you think this. You said it in the last 700 posts. I'll admit that I sometimes get caught up in reading those types of passages, because they're often well written. There are a few of these blogs that are extremely well done. There seems to be a correlation when it comes to bad moods and good writing. (Excuse me, my insecurity is spilling out all over the computer screen.) Sometimes the dark posts are funny, which I assume is the intent. Most of the time it's too fatiguing to hear the same complaints repeated ad infinitum, but I'm more drawn to these types than the overly upbeat crowd. Gee, I wonder why? I do make a few exceptions and read the "Yay life!" blogs when the writing is good, and I'm not at all opposed to positive blogs as long as they seem legit. I just question the ones written by people who never have a bad day, ever. (Reading the gloomy mood blogs is like listening to Interpol. It is SO cool at first, but three songs later, I've had enough.)

Sigh. No more ripping on others though. I promise my next post will be all unicorns pooping cupcakes and baby animals in tea cups. No really, I get that complaining about others serves no purpose. I was having a moment. Plus, it got my mind off my foot. Even though it's very much the trend, I will refrain from excessive criticism, at least for a little while. Before I do, I will say that I cringed when reading a passage by someone I admire as a writer. I guess even the best make mistakes, though using that instead of who is becoming quite common. I say this knowing I make plenty of errors, so who  am I to judge? Still, what's up with all the commercials with terrible grammar lately? Treat you body good? Really? Argghhh!

I'm on a road to nowhere here, so now for some something a little less negative...

As I said, I'm very happy with the list of bloggers I follow. I already mentioned Horse Junkies United as one that I really enjoy, but here are two more blogs I recently discovered:

http://godonnybrook.com/v3/ Great writing, wonderful critiques sprinkled with bits of dark humor and the occasional musings of Sid Pink. What's not to love?

http://ultrarunnerpodcast.com/ Finally someone has made running extra long distances seem cool. These guys are the punk rockers of the running world. I can't say that I suddenly want to run 100 miles, but now I feel the urge to hear and read about those who do.

I can't remember exactly the breakdown of equating music genres with running events that some friends and I created. It was something like the following:

Track = classical (very controlled and precise)
Cross Country = heavy metal (messy and rough)
Mountain Running = grunge (a little more messy and not as popular)
Ultra Running = punk rock (extremists)
What I do now = soft rock  :/

                                                                       :/


I've always been a little intimidated by ultra runners. After limping across the finish line of the PPM one year, I vowed I would never race down a mountain again. I couldn't walk for days after that. It's scary to think that the marathon is only a quarter of those 100-mile races. My knee stopped functioning about 20 minutes into my descent. It wasn't pretty. I'm just not good at running when there's a drop in elevation. These days, my long runs are anything over an hour. Hats off to those hardcore athletes who go the extreme distances. I don't know how you do it.

Since I brought up music in this post, I might as well direct people to my channel on youtube. I haven't been updating it recently, but there are some interesting playlists, including one that got me through many, many, MANY stationary bike workouts when I was stuck in a cast and unable to do much of anything else. The channel can be found at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/user/ggirlboulder?feature=mhee







Oh! Using this little tool, I discovered that I have a world record in the 10K: http://www.paulryantimecalculator.com/

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