A Torrid Affair by Jill

This is the story of my love/hate relationship with The Potato Masher.


It began several weeks ago in a virtual world called iTunes. I stared across the page and locked eyes with it. I heard the angels singing and the light from heaven shined down and illuminated the Couch to 5K app for my iPhone. Alas, it was $4.99 and I am more of a free app kind of girl. Several days go by and I cannot get it out of my head. I need it. I have to have it. It gets the best of me and I download it. And I hear it for the first time. Ahhhh!


App: "Welcome to Couch to 5K. Begin warm-up now."

Me: "Well hello lovely. Your steady voice welcomes me and calms me. I no longer need to do long math problems of addition and division to figure out where I am in the program. This is going to be amazing. This is the beginning of something beautiful."

App: "Run now"

Me: "Oh I love this. I can just listen to you and you will guide me and I feel safe holding onto you. I am running and I'm not doing math. This is great.
(time lapse)
Man, how much longer do I have to go? When are you going to call out me? When will you remember I am waiting for you? Say it! Say it! Say it right now!!
(time lapse)
How you hurt me. You care nothing about me. Everything is on your timetable, your schedule. What about me? What about my needs? Don't you care I'm hurting? No you don't. All you care about is what you want. You selfish little jerk... I oughta throw you in that lake right there.

App: "Walk now"

Me: "Oh thank you thank you thank you! You do care about me. You do care about how I'm feeling. I was so wrong about you. This situation is so much better than me being on my own. I need you. I can't do this without you."
(time lapse)
Now because of you I can notice the birds singing and appreciate the beauty of nature all around me. You have eliminated my stress about the schedule. Thank you for loving me enough to plan for me.

App: "Run now"

Me: "Are you freaking kidding me?! That was not 3 minutes. You promised me a full 3 minutes and you lied. How can I trust you? Did it ever occur to you that I don't feel like running? That maybe, just maybe, I wanted to keep walking? No it didn't. Because you never ask me what I want. You just tell me what to do all the time, with no regard for my wants, or my needs. Man, I can't believe I fell for you. Please, I want out of this. I can't take it anymore. You are too difficult to deal with. Look at me! I'm crying! You did this! You did this to me and you don't care at all. I HATE YOU! I never wanna hear your voice again."

App: "Cooldown"

Me: "Oh my goodness! I was so wrong. Please forgive me. I should have never have doubted you. You're right, I feel so much better now. You do just want what is best for me. You do want me to succeed. I know that's why you push me so hard. I was so wrong. I do wanna hear your voice. You make me feel like I am on top of the world."

App: "Workout Complete" (check mark appears in box)

Me: "Thank you for making me a better woman. You complete me."

Week 6 - We're Still At It

For those of you who aren't familiar with our training schedule, usually Jill and I run together every Wednesday because I have the morning off. Two other days of the week, we run separately since we have different schedules.

This particular Wednesday started with me getting the following text message at 8:37 a.m.:

Jill: Can I come now? Let's lay in bed for a little bit. I'm tired.

So when she arrived, we went upstairs and got under the covers. What you don't understand about Jill and me is that we come from a long line of Studdard women. Women with this family name have "lay-in-bed-under-the-covers-for-long-periods-of-time" firmly encrypted into their genetic code. We just can't get away from it. So this is what the first portion of our training day looked like:


Untitled from Cassie Hendon on Vimeo.

At 10:00 exactly, we got up from bed, and proceeded with our training.  We did our 5 minute warm-up, an 5 minute run, a 3 minute walk, an 8 minute run, another 3 minute walk, and a final 5 minute run, with a 5 minute cool down.  We were on a roll once we started running, and actually ran further than we ever have!  Unfortunately, this was due to us NOT hearing the voice of The Potato Masher (the endearing term we use for the voice on our Couch-to-5K training application that tells us when to walk and run), telling us that we'd reached the halfway point.  We actually ended up going the full distance of the 5K, and in under 45 minutes.  That was really encouraging since we're only on week 6, and we know our endurance and speed will increase as we continue training through week 9 in prep for our 5K on March 6.  


After such a great accomplishment, what did we do?  Well, check it out for yourself:

 
Untitled from Cassie Hendon on Vimeo.

P.S. For those of you who doubt that we ever left the bed and went on our run, please note that my clothes are different and my hair is pulled back in video 2!

Week 5 - Not Only Do We Run, We Do It Upside Down!

Unfortunately, vimeo has an occasional issue with iphone videos not uploading properly that has yet to be fixed by their tech staff. However, for our adoring fans who question whether or not we're still on the running wagon, this video is proof.


Even the birds are cheering us on! :-)



Week 5 from Cassie Hendon on Vimeo.

Week 4 - Like A Rockstar!

Ah, week four. Aside from my deep chest cold and stuffy nose that forced me to breathe like an asthmatic elephant, and Jill's "amish bangs" that plagued her during this run, we are progressing quite well. See for yourself:



Week 4 Running Spuds Vlog from Cassie Hendon on Vimeo.

Visualization for Athletes (That's Us) by Jill & Cassie

We found an interesting article about how athletes (that's us) can use visualization to help them achieve their goals.  We thought we'd share it with you, and add in some of our commentary, wisdom gained over FOUR WHOLE WEEKS of running.  Our comments are in parenthesis. 

VISUALIZATION PREPARATION FOR ATHLETES

For some time, visualization in sports has been granted "weird" status by many who do not understand it (oh, WE understand it). In spite of that bias, visualization has continued to grow as a valuable tool used by nearly every Olympic and professional athlete (That's us.  We're runners.  You're not). There was also a time when people pooh-poohed the idea of using computers to analyze physical movement and train for improvement, but that is now commonplace also (My pooh poohing wasn't commonplace either, but I took the Activia challenge and it fixed that.)Whether you call it visualization, imagery, mental rehearsal, or mental practice, the idea is to place importance on improving your cognitive performance along with your physical performance.

...It is also important that we use all 5 senses in the process. When you examine the methods and even the language we use in sports, you can tell how important these senses are. A good visualization should include all your senses, even when the image is relatively short-term. Here's how they relate:


Sight - It is important to actually "see" what you will do (Cassie:  I see my tight, taut, tanned legs with no cellulite, draped in cute Nike running shorts.  I don't SEE my legs rubbing together when I run.  Nope, they DON'T do that. Jill: I visualize finally wearing a sweatband, crossing the finish line with my entire family wearing Running Spuds t-shirts and greeting me there with signs that say my name in glitter, and a Five Guys cheeseburger). Again, think of those bobsledders at the Olympics, golfers, etc.who stand and "see" what they are about to do, then go and do it. We even use the term "you have that look in your eyes", as though we can recognize when someone looks as though they are about to succeed, though we can certainly see determination or concentration or seriousness of purpose (yep, we got all that). 


Touch - What will you literally feel during the activity? (I feel sweaty.  I feel tired.  I feel like I need a nap.  And there's a brief point right before the halfway mark that I feel really angry and just wanna hit that cute running mom with her sporty jogging stroller.  How dare she pass me so arrogantly as I sit here and pant for my last breath!  Then of course that feeling passes, and I jog up next to her and say, hey, isn't it great that we're runners?)  It may be the touch of the ball/bat/club in your hands or the grass/turf under your feet. We talk about an athlete having "that feeling of power" when they are performing exceptionally(Hopefully what we don't feel is the dog poo under our shoe on the track.).


Smell - Will there be popcorn (we HOPE!!), fresh grass, rain or water, locker room odors (oh God, who forgot deodorant?), etc. in connection with your activity? ...We often hear the phrase "the sweet smell of success", even though we know that success has no actual odor (Shoot, our kind of success smells like it needs a shower afterwards!).


Sounds - There are lots of natural ones that occur in games and practices - bat hits ball, pads crash, swish of the net (swish of my swishy pants) - so it is important for us to filter the ones we enjoy into our visualizations. We say, "It sounds good to me".  (After the first initial groans of the run, we just mainly hear our asthmatic wheezing as we take the last corner and head for the car.  We hear the beautiful sound of the lady on our Couch-To-5K running app, also known by us as The Potato Masher, saying "Walk Now".) 


Tastes - In sports, these are not always the greatest things (They must be in the wrong sport.  Have they tried competitive eating?). We might taste our own sweat, blood in our mouth, acrid odors, etc. (which, by the way, can all be washed away by a post-run chocolate chip cookie), yet we recognize others as positive. We say that victory is "sweet", and that losses are "bitter".  (Wait.  Who's competing?  I thought we were doing this for charity!)
It is vitally important that when you are structuring your visualizations, you incorporate as much from your senses as possible, so the image will be as real as possible. The more real your imagery, the more successful your technique will be.