Always look on the bright side of life...

Joy here...It has come to my attention that some of my blog posts of late have had a kind of whining and complaining tone - whether it's been me feeling like a loser because my 110minute run on Saturday doesn't compare to my half marathon, or my numerous entries about how darn cold it is here (like this one about my water bottle freezing or this one about it being -17 C), or my post about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) that I keep referring back to again and again - and then if my posts aren't actively whining about something, they're full of a kind of fake optimism as I try to convince myself to overcome something - like my varied attempts to turn over proverbial new leaves or to be positive no matter what - and I know that I'm not alone in grappling with these sorts of feelings.

It's not just the weather.

It's not just me.

Many other sporting friends out there (like Nomi herself, as well as Simon in Malaysia or Bryan in Burlington) are grappling with motivational issues.  So I know it's not just me and the crummy Ottawa weather (which is, by the way, delivering one heck of a blizzard right now as I type).

So I've decided to hear the Monty Python jingle in my head any time I feel a complaining or negative thought creep into the corners of my brain.  I've also decided to try my luck at winning the lottery.

Yep, that's right.  I've bought a year's subscription to the Ontario Lotto 649.  I may never win the lottery, but I figure that everyone needs a little bit of crazy hope and fantasy in their lives, and if buying lottery tickets is going to give me something nuts and wild and fun to think about when I run, then it's worth it!

My little piece of winter hope!

So when I went for Tuesday's run, I just let my mind wander as I considered being able to invest a large chunk of capital (say something like a cool $3mil.) and live comfortably off the proceeds.  I imagined where The Man and I would live, where we'd get to travel, and the kick-a$$ party we would have on a resort island with all our friends and family from both Canada AND Malaysia in the same place for once in our life!!!  And to tell you something, I do think all that positivity and fantasizing paid off, because I had a great run.  It felt like I was running for fun with Nomi, and I was even able to work in 6 strides.  I don't even remember the last time I did strides, but the path had been newly shovelled, so I figured "what the heck!"  And just ran, ran, and ran.  It was great!

Here are my hopeful run stats from Tuesday:

Ran for  total of 1:09:58 for a distance of 11.98km with an average pace of 5:50min/km.

(Note, I don't think I've run under 6min/km for a long time; it seems impossible in this kind of weather, but I guess these stats prove that anything is possible.)

Over and out,

Joy