In one corner, standing 5 foot 7 inches, weighing...umm, lets not talk about that right now...She's tough! She's fierce! She runs 13 miles and then goes to work for the rest of the day! She gets up at 3:45am to kick asphalt before her family wakes up! She follows Hal Higdon's plan to a T! The one...the only...
Bad-ass- committed-to-marathon-training Amanda!!!
In the other corner, standing, well standing the same height and again, forget about the weight...She's determined! She's stubborn! She juggles 4 schedules in her head all night long, all the while planning meals, packing lunches and trying to keep the peace within her nutso household. The one...the only...
Desperately-trying-to-balance-it-all Amanda!!!
Does anyone else feel like they are constantly at war with themselves? I've been feeling this way a lot lately.
More on that in a minute...
It's been almost a month since I last wrote. When I logged on just now, I was reminded that I actually did start a post two weeks ago. I can see why I never finished it. It was the day before school started. Things have been really crazy, but I am happy to say that my training has been going really well! Here's what I've been up to since the beginning of the month:
The couple of days before my 18 mile training run, I put out a post on the Moms Run This Town Facebook page that I was running 18 and I had a couple of people lined up to run with me. Plans changed at the last minute and then I had no one to run with. I was bummed, but it wasn't going to stop me. I woke up that morning, grabbed my phone to turn off the alarm and to my surprise, one of my awesome friends, Geri rearranged her schedule just to run 18 with me that morning! It was hard, but we pushed each other (and the mosquitos helped to get us moving in some place too) and we got it done.
Bad-ass- committed-to-marathon-training Amanda!!!
In the other corner, standing, well standing the same height and again, forget about the weight...She's determined! She's stubborn! She juggles 4 schedules in her head all night long, all the while planning meals, packing lunches and trying to keep the peace within her nutso household. The one...the only...
Desperately-trying-to-balance-it-all Amanda!!!
Does anyone else feel like they are constantly at war with themselves? I've been feeling this way a lot lately.
More on that in a minute...
It's been almost a month since I last wrote. When I logged on just now, I was reminded that I actually did start a post two weeks ago. I can see why I never finished it. It was the day before school started. Things have been really crazy, but I am happy to say that my training has been going really well! Here's what I've been up to since the beginning of the month:
The couple of days before my 18 mile training run, I put out a post on the Moms Run This Town Facebook page that I was running 18 and I had a couple of people lined up to run with me. Plans changed at the last minute and then I had no one to run with. I was bummed, but it wasn't going to stop me. I woke up that morning, grabbed my phone to turn off the alarm and to my surprise, one of my awesome friends, Geri rearranged her schedule just to run 18 with me that morning! It was hard, but we pushed each other (and the mosquitos helped to get us moving in some place too) and we got it done.
The next weekend, I only had 13 to do and I figured that in the spirit of training I was going to try something new. That's what training runs are for, right? So I ran from 0-1.0 miles, walked 1.0-1.1, then ran to 2.1 and walked to 2.2, etc. for the whole 13.1 miles. (I added the .1 at the end, because the OCD in me was not going to just run 13 and not go the extra .1 to make it a half-marathon distance...who would??? I would argue that no one would just run 13 miles...) It worked extremely well and it led me to think that I might just have my new strategy for wrapping my head and body around 26.2 miles this second time around.
That weekend I also got to run a race with my youngest. We ran the 3 nautical miles portion of the Fort 2 Base race at Great Lakes Naval Station. Ben and I set our things out the night before:
That weekend I also got to run a race with my youngest. We ran the 3 nautical miles portion of the Fort 2 Base race at Great Lakes Naval Station. Ben and I set our things out the night before:
We had to get up at 5:15am! But we had a really great time together. I'm not going to lie. About a mile into the race, I did literally tell him that he was being "poopy." But once we got to Lake Michigan and Hero Hill and all of the soldiers were encouraging him and calling him "little man" he perked up big time and he finished strong, despite the rain
Last time I trained for a marathon, my longest training run of the whole program was 20 and I only had one before the race. This time around, I have two 20 mile training runs and I did the first on Friday. I got my kids out the door and on the bus that morning and hit the road. I hopped onto the Prairie Trail and was golden into the double digits. My best friend, Tara met me at Richmond Burton High School with her bike. At that point, I was almost 9 miles in. We went north another 2 miles before turning around.
At this point, things were getting tough. But the time we got to 14 miles or so, I was taking more frequent walk breaks. But getting to talk with my bestie helped a lot. She truly is the best. She offered stories, motivation and perspective that touched my heart. She got me through to 20 and I felt great about the time we made!
At this point, things were getting tough. But the time we got to 14 miles or so, I was taking more frequent walk breaks. But getting to talk with my bestie helped a lot. She truly is the best. She offered stories, motivation and perspective that touched my heart. She got me through to 20 and I felt great about the time we made!
Back to the war within...
I've been happy with life for a while. Things have been going really well and I feel like I had been cruising along very nicely. Then all of a sudden, the road has gotten bumpy and the horizon has become hazy. I've been feeling like I've been losing focus in so many areas of my life. I feel like l can't focus on anything because I'm constantly thinking about all of the other things happening.
So I did that 20 on Friday. Saturday I obviously didn't exercise. Today I should have done 5. When I woke up this morning I was still pretty tight and I figured I'd knock it out in the afternoon after I had had time to loosen up. Playdates and cleaning and a birthday party drop off/pick-up later and I still hadn't run the 5. I was at war with myself. I really didn't want to do it, but my head was telling me I should go do it because it's a busy week and I couldn't afford to not do it on a non-work day.
Do you think you know how the story ends? Who won the battle?
Turns out Desperately-trying-to-balance-it-all-Amanda won.
I did yoga instead. Now I'm all nice and stretched out and calmed the heck down...for now, anyways.
I'll knock out 5 tomorrow with some awesome ladies and then I'll figure the rest of the week out. It doesn't have to be perfect...I don't have to be perfect...why the hell is that such a hard concept to get through my skull?
Have a wonderful couple of weeks, friends! Thanks so much for reading! Be kind to yourselves and I'll try to do the same.
I've been happy with life for a while. Things have been going really well and I feel like I had been cruising along very nicely. Then all of a sudden, the road has gotten bumpy and the horizon has become hazy. I've been feeling like I've been losing focus in so many areas of my life. I feel like l can't focus on anything because I'm constantly thinking about all of the other things happening.
So I did that 20 on Friday. Saturday I obviously didn't exercise. Today I should have done 5. When I woke up this morning I was still pretty tight and I figured I'd knock it out in the afternoon after I had had time to loosen up. Playdates and cleaning and a birthday party drop off/pick-up later and I still hadn't run the 5. I was at war with myself. I really didn't want to do it, but my head was telling me I should go do it because it's a busy week and I couldn't afford to not do it on a non-work day.
Do you think you know how the story ends? Who won the battle?
Turns out Desperately-trying-to-balance-it-all-Amanda won.
I did yoga instead. Now I'm all nice and stretched out and calmed the heck down...for now, anyways.
I'll knock out 5 tomorrow with some awesome ladies and then I'll figure the rest of the week out. It doesn't have to be perfect...I don't have to be perfect...why the hell is that such a hard concept to get through my skull?
Have a wonderful couple of weeks, friends! Thanks so much for reading! Be kind to yourselves and I'll try to do the same.