My Inspiration this Year and Commitments for 2021! Episode 013

Intro/Outro 0:02

Welcome to Inspire Virtual Runs Podcast, whether you are new to running or seasoned, get tips in the inspiration that you need to achieve your health and fitness goals. Now, here’s your host, Richard Conner.

Richard Conner 0:21

Hi, everyone, Welcome to Inspire Virtual Runs Podcast. 2020 has been a roller coaster of a year. But I’m most excited about how the Inspire Virtual Runs community has grown, and come together to inspire and motivate each other to run and general health and fitness. And I’ll tell you what, all of you have inspired and motivated me, between the guests that we’ve had on the show the listeners and the community in the Facebook group. And throughout this year, I have heard your stories and I really reflected on how I can apply some of your inspiration and some of your learnings and the things that you’ve done in my own life. I’ve noticed that through these conversations, I’ve made some commitments. I call them the IVR commitments and I want to take the time to share those commitments and also talk about the reason why I’ve decided to take on these IVR commitments. Let’s dig in.

So to start off, on mentioned that they’re five, and I’m really excited about these, because again, these are something that I’ve been talking about for quite some time, you may or may not noticed it, but I really feel like these could help me in my own running journey. And I just want to share this with you. So let’s dive in.

The first one is embrace the winter and cold. This stems from my conversation with David Hampson and episode four. And he talked about the winter, and how much fun it can be running into winter, he talked about how much he really didn’t like running on the treadmill. And I thought this is really interesting because I myself do not like the winter or the cold. And I feel like this is a way to keep up with my fitness. Since the the gyms are closed, well, the gyms are open, but I don’t really feel comfortable with going to the gym. So this is an opportunity for me to continue running through the winter in I’d say less than an ideal situation, but overcome something that is not really pleasant for me, which is running in the winter in the cold. So this, this is number one. And I had a great conversation with Dave, and he continues to write and post on this. So if you have a chance, check out “How to run through the winter: a beginner’s guide”, you could check out the blog post on the Inspire Virtual Runs website.

The second IVR commitment is a running streak. And this one is really connected with number one. In order for me to embrace the winter in the cold, I need some sort of inspiration or some sort of motivation to do that. And I think the running streak is perfect. And that one came from the conversation with Brian Doerr in episode six, where Brian had an amazing running streak. And I really was inspired by how he did it. And he took it seriously and he even continued to do it right up until the end when he had an injury which forced him to stop, which was absolutely the right thing to do. But again, it kind of inspired me to say, Well, if I’m going to run through the winter, which is not something I’m really looking forward to, this might be the way to do it and really hold myself accountable to do it. So thank you, Brian, for that idea. At the time of this recording, Today’s the first day, it’s December 21, first day of winter, and I’m going to run through March 20 everyday, I’m not necessarily going to run outdoors everyday. So if I can find an alternative, I guess, to the gym to get in my runs, then I’ll certainly do that. Or if there happens to be a blizzard, I’m gonna have to run in the house or something to get in, to get in that run. I’m gonna try to do at least one mile per day. But that is going to be my goal is to run mostly outdoors, but run at least one mile every day through the winter. Brian had shared with me a way to track it, which I think is quite cool. So there’s an app called StreakTrackr. So it’s very simple app that allows me to put in my picture and my start date, and it just tracks my running streak. I’ve already started posting in the group in the social channels for Inspire Virtual Runs. And I’ll continue to do that throughout the winter. So you can certainly hold me accountable and look forward to seeing more posts around that. My hope is to run mostly outdoors. But more importantly, this is an opportunity for me to just keep moving during the winter, since I’m not running any races during this time, or don’t plan to at least over the next couple of months, and I really want to increase my strength training, my running is going going to lessen quite a bit compared to what I was doing in the summer/fall. But I’m going to keep at it. One of my goals for 2021 is to get faster, I have some specific goals around the time I want to hit for a 5k, 10k in half marathon. And the only only way to do that is really just to keep it up. So I don’t start over in the spring. So really looking forward to this opportunity to number one, get over something that or overcome something that has not been pleasant for me in the past, but also kind of continue running throughout the winter. I’ll say one more thing about the running streak. It’s about a personal experience that I had recently, over a couple of weeks, I just couldn’t stick to my fitness routine, I made a lot of excuses why I couldn’t do it. I had a lot of commitments, I focused on other areas of my life. And I really just couldn’t get to it. And I made all the excuses in the world, why couldn’t and it really brought me down mentally and physically, it really felt it when I wasn’t doing my normal fitness routine. And I just decided one weekend enough was enough, I was going to prioritize my fitness and get back on track and get back on a regular routine. And I really feel like this run streak will help me do that. Even though I’m not necessarily preparing for a race or anything in particular over the next few months, this will help me stay focused and have something to work towards. So you know, life will get in the way. But it’s really up to you to kind of make that choice on where your priorities are going to be and where you’re going to spend your time. And health and fitness is an important part of your life. So just make that decision to prioritize it, and really get after it. So that’s the last thing that I’ll say about the run streak.

The third IVR commitment is get into yoga. This one I’m particularly excited about. Because I had such a great conversation with Danielle Nardi in episode five, about yoga, and how we could help runners. And I feel like this could give me kind of that. I don’t wanna say competitive edge. But I kind of feel like this is going to help make my running experience better, more enjoyable, by taking yoga. And I may have shared this before in previous episodes, I’ve had all these misconceptions about yoga. And I’m really excited to try this out and see how it can help me in my running. So I’ve already started towards that. Towards the tail end of my half marathon, I took a handful of of yoga classes with my younger daughter, and which were a lot of fun. And we’re really just looking for to incorporate this as part of my regular routine. And that’s what I’m going to be looking to do in the coming weeks. So that’s number three, get into yoga.

Number four, hike in the Adirondacks. This one came from my conversation with Kevin Gregory, episode two. He’s my very first guest, my mentor, my friend. And we have such a great conversation not only about running, but just about all the things that the Kevin does around just general health and fitness. And you know, I kind of consider Kevin is like the epitome of fitness and motivation. And doing what he did in the Adirondacks was awesome. And it’s something that I shared with him that how I’m afraid of heights, I’ve been doing things to get over my fear of heights, mostly around the Spartan races, but I feel like doing something that’s outside of running specifically. And still being able to overcome my fears is a nice activity. Even though this is not running related. Kevin talks about the importance of time on your feet. And I’ve shared this you know, in other episodes, and I think the hiking is a good activity, where you’ll be on your feet. And again, it’s not running but it’s still physical activity. And you get to see some of the beautiful parts of the country, which I’m really looking forward to when the weather clears up. In addition to that, it’ll also allow me to have an activity that includes my family. So a lot of the running. I do, I do on my own, I don’t necessarily run with friends or family. But this is a nice activity hiking that I can do to incorporate with my family. So really kind of looking forward to that as well.

Number five, is to run and share more information about virtual races. Our community is called Inspire Virtual Runs. And there’s two elements to that there’s the virtual element of the community where we inspire, motivate each other to run. But then there’s the actual race itself. And there, there are different options for races. Some folks in the community prefer live races, and they’re waiting for the day that it comes back. Other folks in the community love virtual races. And that’s what they do. And maybe they do a mix of virtual and live. And then maybe if you’re not, quote unquote, a runner today, or don’t think you’re a runner today and not ready for a live race, I’ve been positioning virtual races as something that you could work towards. without all of that pressure of a live race. When they eventually come back. It started with our conversation with Sonia Gonzales, and episode three, she is the run then line organizer, I ran the virtual race and it was a lot of fun. She had, you know, great t shirt and medal and wine glasses she sends to to all of the all of the participants, which is really cool. So you probably seen my posts on social media. So I’ll be looking for more opportunities like that. Looking forward to hopefully Sonia, you run it again next year and for other virtual race organizers, I’m just looking for more virtual races. And I want to bring that to you. So I’m gonna look for ways through the Inspire Virtual Runs community to bring these types of races to you. And so you can participate. That’s, that’s number five. And that’s really what I wanted to share with you today.

My five IVR commitments, and I’m really looking forward to getting getting into these and sharing more about them over the coming weeks and months. You know, looking back to 2020, yes, has been a roller coaster of a year, there’s been some downsides. And there’s been some upsides and one of the great things I think about when I think about this year is this community. And everything that you guys have done individually, everything that you’ve shared, and helped others helps motivate others, give them that confidence or give them ideas about what they can do in their own fitness. We can’t hear from everybody, but I’m sharing how this has impacted me. And it’s been in a very positive way. So really just want to take the time to reflect on 2020 and share that with you. 2021 is going to be even better. We have more amazing guests who are lined up to come on the show. Some of them are runners and they’ll share their inspirational stories with you. And then others are health and wellness experts again to kind of share those tips and their stories with you as well. So really excited about the lineup that we have for for 2021. And excited to bring that to you. And you can expect many more exciting things for the community as we expand Inspire Virtual Runs in 2021. So just want to close out and say stay safe, enjoy the time with your family, thank you for being part of the Inspire Virtual Runs community, and we’ll talk again soon in the new year.

Intro/Outro 13:33

That’s it for this episode of Inspire Virtual Runs Podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review. Also, be sure to click the subscribe button so you don’t miss an episode. Thanks for listening.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai