{"id":16965,"date":"2014-09-25T11:41:41","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T17:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/?p=16965"},"modified":"2014-09-25T11:41:42","modified_gmt":"2014-09-25T17:41:42","slug":"dropping-the-runner-label","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/2014\/09\/dropping-the-runner-label\/","title":{"rendered":"Dropping The Runner Label"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a good chunk of my life I was a runner. \u00a0That’s how I classified myself and for a while, how others classified me. \u00a0I was a distance runner who ate half marathons for breakfast. \u00a0I lost weight and got back in shape by running. \u00a0There’s a lot of people that I met through running and they know me as a runner. \u00a0It was a huge part of my life for a long time.<\/p>\n

Moving to\u00a0Colorado has come with a lot of changes, all of them personal and all of them for the better. \u00a0I can see that now, hindsight and all of that. For a while though, I was a little lost.<\/p>\n

Running has been a constant struggle since the move.\u00a0 When we first arrived, I was coming off an injury and still had a solid foundation but no distance. \u00a0Elevation is not my friend when it comes to running. \u00a0Running became something I hated instead of loved. \u00a0I could never catch my breath, my legs constantly cramped up, and I could never get past a damn mile without wanting to crash on the ground.<\/p>\n

As a “runner” and being used to distance like it was nothing, this was a confusing and frustrating time.<\/p>\n

I’m a runner! I have to be able to run! \u00a0Everyone who knows me as a runner is expecting me to run. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Those were just a few of the thoughts that ran through my head constantly. \u00a0I would beat myself up over the fact that I wasn’t getting the hang of running here. \u00a0Everyone told me to just keep plugging away at it and eventually things would work out.<\/p>\n

Except that is exactly what I was doing. \u00a0For two years. \u00a0It’s been two years and I still can’t run even a mile without a lot of issues. \u00a0This was stressing me out. \u00a0Naturally I gained weight which made things even more stressful. \u00a0I’m not “me”. \u00a0I don’t feel like me and I certainly don’t look like me. \u00a0Being in a new city, meeting new people all while not really feeling like me<\/em> because I didn’t have running to turn to, yeah, I was completely lost.<\/p>\n

\"Priscilla,<\/a><\/p>\n

Then a bike showed up in my life. \u00a0The town we live in is amazingly bike friendly. \u00a0It’s pretty easy to bike from one place to the next and ever since we moved here, Scott and I have been wanting to get bikes.<\/p>\n

We finally made the plunge and our bikes arrived earlier this month. We each purchased hybrid bikes, nothing fancy, a pretty basic bike. \u00a0I hadn’t been on a bike since middle school so I was a little nervous at first. \u00a0Of course you never forget how to ride a bike but maneuvering one and managing turns and hills does take some practice!<\/p>\n

I’ll be fully honest, the number one reason we bought bikes was to start biking to breweries and bars instead of driving. \u00a0Priorities and all. My thoughts on biking didn’t extend any further than that.<\/p>\n

I never considered biking as serious exercise before. When I was running, I thought that was superior. \u00a0Oh sure, cyclists can go long distances but runners have to do it on their own, not with the help of a bike. \u00a0I know, I know, that’s ridiculously elitist sounding.<\/p>\n

The first time we headed out on our bikes, we went to a brewery and then we biked around downtown for a bit.<\/p>\n

That first bike ride\u00a0kicked\u00a0my ass and made me seriously rethink my stance on\u00a0cycling as exercise. \u00a0That’s all it took for me to fall in love with biking.<\/p>\n

It also made me realize that I don’t have to be a runner any more. \u00a0I don’t have to live by that label.\u00a0As simple as that sounds, it was a hard realization for me to come to.<\/p>\n

Biking has given me freedom and validation that I’ve been looking for for two years. \u00a0Freedom in breaking free from the runner label, validation in that, yes I actually can\u00a0do serious cardio at elevation. \u00a0This is kind of a big deal and very much a WHOA moment for me.<\/p>\n

So for now I’m ditching the runner label. \u00a0Maybe I’ll try running\u00a0again at some point but currently my focus is on biking. \u00a0This is where life has taken me and I’m happy here.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PS: I’ll share more in another post about exactly why I love biking and why it fits my lifestyle right now.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a good chunk of my life I was a runner. \u00a0That’s how I classified myself and for a while, how others classified me. \u00a0I was a distance runner who ate half marathons for breakfast. \u00a0I lost weight and got back in shape by running. \u00a0There’s a lot of people that I met through running […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"status","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[58,52,51],"tags":[111],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4KYWa-4pD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}