Why Another Blog?

You might be thinking, "Megan's food blog is cute, but why does she think we want to hear more babblings from her?" Here's my answer: "not everything I do involves cooking!" And while Cooking With Willis is absolutely fantastic and I appreciate the support from my readers, there are other things I want to talk about besides food (and it doesn't mean you have to listen)! Mostly, I would like to have some sort of blog forum to discuss with other fitness junkies, especially runners, how to stay motivated, share tips and advice, and help achieve (running) goals. I am in no way a great runner or perfect yogi, much less certified in anything, so what I offer here may not be of much help to anyone! However, I am hoping to gain some insight from others as to how to improve my training so I can be a better runner and more fit overall.

Now, the really ironic part about this is, I imagined this blog up while on a long run Sunday and when I got back to my car, realized my favorite bumper sticker would make the perfect name. Then on Monday, I woke up with sore ankles (an underlying bout of tendonitis, I believe, that I am f-i-g-h-t-i-n-g) and then I wrenched my back at the gym doing ab twists and now can't turn fully to my right. That was after a little IT band scare in my left leg on Saturday night, that calmed down after some icing. So the name "Pain Now, Wine Later" really rings true today and when I get home tonight I'll be pouring myself a nice glass of Cab Sauv to recuperate and figure out why the hell my body is freaking out at me. Again, I hope this blog can offer an avenue for others to share advice about how to combat problems like these when all we're really trying to do is keep ourselves healthy. I mean seriously. Body, get with it.

Anyways, you may also be wondering why I would want to blog about running/yoga/working out at all. Those of you who have known me for years know that for a long time I was all "ughhh running who would want to do that? Seems stupid" or "working out is ridiculous" blah blah blah. I admit: I said all of those things. I still sometimes believe those things. But as in many other aspects of my life, and most people's, I have grown up and come to recognize that things I have written off in the past deserve a chance. So last May, I joined a gym (not the first time) and was diligent about going 3-4 times a week (I had done this over a summer before). I even had a personal trainer because there was some sort of special going on. Will and I bought a bike for me and I would do flat paths with him. I learned to kayak. I started practicing yoga more religiously and found a studio I liked and shelled out the $$ for classes. Life was grand. Then school started and I realized that for once, I would not let the school/practice/work schedule take over and I would manage to fit these things in. Because guess what? I was looking better and feeling better and why wouldn't I want to keep doing that?

Flash forward to December, where I had been pretty good about waking up at the crack of dawn to drag myself to the gym and Will and I had squeezed in biking on busy weekends, as well as scrambling to yoga classes a few nights a week and on weekends. I have some piano students who run, one who does kid triathlons, a former boss who is a triathlete, and a coworker who runs, blogs, and Facebooks about her fitness all the time, usually before most of us are even awake! Between all of them, I realized I should attempt to tackle the elusive idea of running, one that had never made sense to me (why run around for no particular reason, unlike soccer where you can chase a ball to score a goal) and that I had avoided because of my patella femoral pain syndrome in my knees. However, not having experienced many knee problems down here in Tallahassee, I figured I'd give it a shot.

All I can say for the first couple weeks is "ow." Then I went and got fitted for shoes at Capital City Runners, bought a pair online (eventually went back and got fitted and bought shoes there-a worthwhile investment) and immediately things were better. Then I started running more because it didn't hurt my ankles as much, and after a frustrating dress rehearsal for my masters recital, Will and I went out and ran a 5K distance with no problem. We signed up for Run for the Cookies the following week and never looked back.

I hope you'll join me in exploring the various means of fitness that are out there, but more particularly in my running. In the following blog posts, I will be posing questions and asking for advice, so I hope you will help me out along the way!