The Outdoor Edit: Your Why, Flow State + Shred Girls Swag Discount Code 😎💰🚲
Hey everyone—
Nursing a minor injury is frustrating, as it turns out. I've had a week of mini-runs, hikes, walks, strength and swimming, and I still feel like I'm 10 steps behind because my knee is just twitchy enough right now that I don't feel like I can go full-gas on it. Added to that, a weekend that was packed with FUN but meant minimal sleep and a lot of chilly time spent standing/walking in sub-freezing temps means I woke up today feeling a little bit under the weather. But that's just fall... so I'm remembering my 'cold prevention' favorites and taking it easy... which is never easy for me, but always ends up being the smart move.
OK, let's get to it!
XO, Molly
PS: Respond to this email or hit me up on Instagram... I would love to hear from you all, what you're into, what you want to see more of, etc., so feel free to respond to this and let me know!
1 WHAT'S YOUR WHY?
We seem to be coming back to this theme a lot this fall, and for good reason: Both Peter and I have made pretty big shifts in our work and our athletic lives in the last couple of years, and a lot of my racing this summer was sort of figuring out what my athletic WHY is, what brings me actual joy versus what I'm doing out of some sense of obligation. We recorded a whole podcast on the topic this week, and I'd love to hear from you all about what motivates you to train and race!
You can download, rate and review over on iTunes here or listen and read the shownotes here: How To Find Your Why
2 COLD PREVENTION
It's freaking COLD out and I have a cold and I am grumpy about it. For me, that means being smart, taking it a little easier with training, and doing a few things to keep myself healthy. If you haven't read my whole article on it in the past, I wrote about a few of my favorite things to do/take over here. But really, what I've learned over the years is that a day or two taking it easy and not going hard in training usually means I salvage the whole week instead of losing a bunch of days. I think that is a HUGE thing that athletes (even the most casual of athletes) can learn... especially those with full work and family responsibilities, honestly: when you're a pro athlete, it's a bit easier to focus on recovery, but if you're, say, a mom working 9 to5, your recovery time isn't going to be quite as optimal, so don't expect to be able to recover as fast! Grant yourself permission to chill if, in your gut, you know you need it.
3 EASY MEALS IN MINUTES
I am absolutely obsessed with Instant Pot recipes lately, especially after we ended up buying 10 frozen heritage chickens. Because they're really great quality and hormone/antibiotic free, they're also tiny, so getting two meals out of them is tough. But we cook ours in the Instant Pot and use the majority of the meat (usually with a huge salad) on one night and then the next night, I use the soup setting for 30 min to make a really great stock with what's left, then strain it, get rid of everything but the stock and excess meat, then add a TON of veggies, some herbs and spices and a bit more water, hit the SOUP setting for another 30, and boom! Second dinner. It's the greatest invention since the slow cooker, and I think it does a better job in way less time. (I also wrote about a few other easy recipes over on Outside mag's website here.) PS: If you have someone in your life who you wish would eat healthier, I really think an Instant Pot is a perfect gift!
4 GET 20% OFF IN THE SHRED GIRLS SHOP
I made a coupon code for all of you—USE THE CODE 'RAD' to get 20 PERCENT OFF ALL SHRED GIRLS MERCH! (Like these SICK tank tops! I’m super stoked that when Pip of Rune Creative was designing the awesome limited run Shred Girls caps, she also made a great design for Shred Girls tshirts, tank tops and cell phone cases.) Ahem... holidays are coming!
Visit the Shred Girls store!
5 FIND YOUR FLOW
This month's Athletic Bookworm read is "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi... I've been loving it so far. If you've ever heard of FLOW STATE, this is the guy who invented the term. I figured it was time to finally go straight to the source and read the original work instead of reading about the original work, and so far, I'm learning a ton!
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That's it for this week—if you found anything inspiring in here, do me a solid and forward to a friend!