Living Up To The "Hell Yeah!" Blog Post

It's always interesting which blog posts hit a nerve and make the rounds. To this day, the most popular post I've put up (at least according to the Squarespace stats) is this post about eating a Snickers during my 24-hour ultra. Who knew "Snickers" was such a popular search word? 

Lately, however, the "Saying 'Hell Yeah!' to Life" post has been making the rounds, especially after Kim Williams was kind enough to repost it on his wonderful blog, Wishful Preaching. 

Writing a blog post and living it are two different things, however. Fortunately, I have friends and family to hold me accountable. For example, my friend Christie and I e-mail our workout schedules each week to see where we might match up for a run or a Bodypump class together. This week, I e-mailed her my schedule and for Friday typed the note - "I can do an 8 a.m. spin class if you'll do it with me." 

Christie--knowing I had actually walked out of a spin class on my birthday after 5 minutes on the bike because I HATE SPIN--e-mailed back and suggested we do a side-by-side 40 minute workout on the stairmaster instead, a workout we'd been talking about for some time. 

"Are you kidding me with this spin nonsense?" she asked. "I know you're not feeling any hell yeah for that class." 

She's absolutely right. The only reason I suggested it was because I felt like I should do a spin class for cross-training. I had not only zero but negative "hell yeah!" feelings for the class. But a new workout with music and my BSS kicking it by my side? HELL YEAH!!

Right now, I'm trying to sort out my feelings for this summer's marathon training. I'm signed up to run the Richmond marathon in November, preceded by a 24-hour ultra in September. I'm definitely feeling all "Hell Yeah!" for the ultra. Can't wait to go out and beat last year's time of 11 hours and 53 miles. But Richmond? I'm not feeling it. 

I think it's because I have no real goal for the race. Last year, I was all about running a a sub 3:30 marathon. At 3:29:45, I just made it. So what's the new goal? Running a 3:25? It would be nice but eh... I don't find motivation in that. 

I'm going to start the training--probably training for a 3:25--and rely on that to carry me through the ultra. As for Richmond, I've already paid so I'll wait until closer to the race to decide what I'm going to do. Race it? Pace a friend? Drop down to the half? Who knows.

I just know that I want to feel a big "Hell Yeah!" for whatever I choose. 

Cheers,

Dena