New Adventures for a worn out shoe

Earth day is just around the corner, April 22nd. I love that this day falls in the spring since that is often when I am cleaning out all the worn out or otherwise useless items I collected over the year. And living in a 650 square foot space does not leave a lot of room for items that serve no purpose.

As an athlete, there is no getting around all the gear that goes along with training and racing all year. It also means I go through a great deal of running shoes and other equipment during my many hours of training. As much as I love having a pile of muddy, most often smelly, shoes taking up more space that I don't have, I have found a much better home for my old beaten up foot ware. Nike's Reuse a Shoe program is one of the best programs I have found. They take any sport shoe that doesn't have metal on it, (sorry, no cleats allowed). Don't worry about the brand, they will take anything. Check out the link below and look up the closest drop off point. They are often found at Nike stores. Throw all your shoes in bag and drop them off at the store. They will then be broken down and used to help make new track surfaces, tennis courts, playground flooring or even new Nike products. It sure beats throwing them all into the land fill.


http://www.nikereuseashoe.com/where-it-goes/recycling-processashoe.com/

A seasons end

Another racing season has come to an end. They always seem to go by so quickly. I now find myself back in Caribou catching up on projects I have been putting off since last spring.
A a winter athlete, the spring time is a great time to relax a bit and let your body rest. I find this harder than it probably should be. The spring is also the perfect time to look back on the past training and racing season and do a good evaluation. What was good, what wasn't, did you reach your goals, if so why not; the questions seem endless. I also find many of these questions and other like them to be quite challenging to answer honestly.
Quite frankly, I didn't reach many of the goals I set out for myself this past season. Why did I come up short? I think there are a number of factors. And I am still sorting through them all. I will say balancing things in my life better will help me become better at everything I do. At this point in the game, it doesn't do me much good to beat myself up about any of my short comings this past season. What I can do is learn from this year and make the necessary changes to make sure I reach my goals in the year ahead. I still have a great deal of number crunching, brain storming and evaluating to do to make sure I start the 2011-12 season off right. But for now I am going to give my body and mind a little longer break from all that.
Spring, summer, Fall and of course winter; it's all been busy and filled with adventure after adventure. The good, bad and the ugly all made their own appearances. I am now working on my plan to keep the bad and ugly out of the game in the year ahead. Wish me luck.

cheers, BethAnn