Trail Smitten Mom: What is FOMO minus the FO? Mo!

I have a weakness for jargon and acronyms. To speak in what appears to be a shared language, but have little of what you're saying understood, for whatever reason is satisfying to me. My field of education uses a ton of jargon and acronyms. I might talk with my collegues about IEPs, students who are DHH or have ADHD or how the school-wide PBS is working. We attend meetings to beef up our skills to assist students who are LD or ESOL. Each year we bemoan the OAKS window and hope that Firefox doesn't crash when students use their SSID. Have I lost you yet?

Would you like to participate in the conversation? Let me switch languages. How's your IT Band? My PF has finally healed. Have you acquired a new PR lately? I'm still chasing that sub 4 marathon. Have you ever run a negative split marathon? Do you prefer yasso 800s, cut-down tempo runs or fartleks? Don't you wish you had a VO2MAX like Anton? What kind of LSD are you doing this weekend? Is your gait neutral or do you pronate? Do you prefer the Stick or foam roller for your piriformis? Do you lock your Garmin's bezel?

Runners can talk about their clothing, equipment and training in the midst of non-runners without the former group knowing what on earth they are talking about. I think about my dear running partner Laura (check her out at http://runmommarunnews.wordpress.com/!) and the giddy texts or emails we exchange prior to our weekly long runs. They are the perfect example of this sophisticated language. Such messages might go something like this:

What are you wearing tomorrow? I'm going to go with a level 3 top, but will pair it with level 2 capris since we're running swamp Pisgah. Should I wear the masochists or the asics? Beanie, earwarmers or drywick cap?

I'm all out of Gu. Do you have any Just Plain to spare? If we eat enough Lays, do we still need S-Caps?

Are you taking a handheld or your Nathan? Will you fill it with GuBrew or water?

I know we only ran 25K, but I think I'll need 24 pounds of ice for my post-run bath. My glutes are sore!

After reading the January issue of trailrunnermag.com, I added the acronym FOMO to my runner specific vocabulary. FOMO stands for Fear of Missing Out. It is something, like shin splints, with which I find myself regularly afflicted. Hearing about a race a friend just signed up for and purusing the latest issue of http://www.racecenter.com/ especially seem to bring it out of remission. Sometimes it doesn't take more than reading a running related facebook status update, smelling a brand new pair of running shoes or reading an inspirational blog to bring it to the surface. Now that I'm running, cycling, swimming AND surfing, I have it coming at me from four sports angles. I just don't seem to have enough time or financial resources to do all that I want to do fitness wise. FOMO, you MoFo, you've got me and you've got me good!

I thought FOMO was bad enough, but then I discovered something far worse. The "fear of" portion isn't nearly as challenging as the "missing out" portion. Last week, I underwent a surgery that requires six to eight weeks off ALL exercise. While I'm happy I had the surgery and am feeling fortunate that I'm healing so well, I'm in MO Land. I am missing out on participating in the sports that have come to occupy so much of my time and energy and provide me with countless opportunities for endorphin rushes and social bonding experiences. I feel like stamping my foot like a pouting toddler. I don't like missing out! I wanna play too!

After sending this entry out into cyber space, I'm going to attempt to use these many weeks off enjoying the extra time with my family, tackling tasks I've been procrastinating and catching up on my sleep, reading, tv watching and movie viewing. When I come back, February 22nd to be exact, I'll be refreshed, revived and chomping at the bit to take on as many of those races and experiences as I can. Watch out world!

Happy New Year and happy training readers!

If you like running jargon as much as I, you might want to check out my posts