Thoughts for today:

• Cross training on the bike is not as fun as running. Or swimming. I can’t seem to get the cardio benefits from it and I’m wondering if it is hurting my knee. Yesterday after my ten miler I had some knee pain. Thoughts about this? When I ride my husbands bike it hurts my knee becuase the seat is too high. I can feel my knee actually click as it goes around. But on my bike, I don’t feel this, and so far it has been okay (up to 8.5 miles). Yesterday I did ten and it hurt when I ran today (and last night, but I rolled it out).
• Swimming rocks. I love it. It has to be the best cardio after running. If I ever become too injured to run I am going to swim.
• I might join the Y. I hate indoor treadmill running, but the heat may get intense this summer. Even if I don’t use the treadmill there, I can go to yoga and pilates classes, which would be nice and would definitely help this knee issue with the stretching. Plus my kids could go to the gym’s daycare, and then to a few of the classes and the pool they have on campus.
• Creating a birthday party based on fairies and 5 year olds may be tougher than running a marathon. Maybe. I’ll get back to you on this one!

Happy Running!

This has been a week of epic proportions in my home.

My four year old strolled down the aisle during preschool graduation, making that change from little girl to kindergartner.

Too fast. Blink, and it is gone.

I posted about it here. I won’t go into it all again. But still, life passes quickly.

My mind has been on her graduation, a friend’s upcoming wedding, my mom’s birthday . . . a lot of stuff! So I missed my regular posts. I had a great question of the week; now I forget it. I’m sure it will come to me again.

In all of this I have hit some strides in running. I gave up my Garmin for a few runs this week. I thought, I know how far it is: Why wear it? And so I didn’t. I didn’t know how fast I was running, just that I was running. One time I did want that watch. I knew I was flying, my shoes lifting off the pavement catching air. I was soaring, and I wanted to know just how fast I was going.

But it didn’t matter in the end. I made it home. I broke a sweat. I just ran.

I gave up a day of running, too. It was my X training day, I would do a few miles on foot and then some on bike. I decided that the foot part was really burning me out. Five days of running right now is a lot, so I dropped it. Instead I picked up another mile or two on the next day, when I would have run a little less had I run that fourth day. It worked out. I’m down a mile or two each week, but does it really matter?

Maybe it’s the rain that has me so melancholy, but the fact that life passes quickly has caught up with me.

My daugther was a baby. Now she’s going off to school.

I spent a lot of time in the past five years worrying about things that didn’t matter. Stressing over whether or not breast or formula was best, if she was getting enough to eat, if I should let her watch half an hour of television each day, if she should wear long sleeves in cold weather though she is never ever cold.

I would stress. Then I would run.

My running brought me through these past five years, among other things. Putting on my shoes and getting out there, that is the point – not so much how fast I go or how far I go, just that I go.

I ran through the birth of two daughters. The death of a great aunt whom I loved. The death of a wonderful friend whom I thought would always be here. My mother’s stroke. I ran through medical issues with my second daughter and colds and flus they both had. I ran through rain and ice and heat. I ran 26.2 miles, not once but twice. I ran through baby days and preschool graduation.

I just ran.

I hope you all are going out for a run on this soggy weekend! If you feel you can’t, remember you can.

Remember you can and you will feel so much better once you do.

Life goes by quickly. Don’t pass on a good run!

I’m running into an issue: Time.

As you know, I have two children under the age of 5 (at least until the end of the month!)

I run 5 days per week. One of those days I only do 2 miles, and then I bike ride – usually, right now, around 8 miles. I’m increasing each week a little.

That’s my only biking day.

Then I want to add swimming into the mix. Problem is, I can’t fit it into my already busy morning workout routine.

And, if I try to wait until later in the day, I have two children with whom I need to do something while I swim.

My running schedule is such: Sunday, 10 or so miles; Monday, 5; Tuesday, off; Wednesday, 6; Thursday, 2 and bike; Friday, 4.

I thought I could do my swim on Mondays in the afternoon and, possibly, another one on Friday. I love swimming and wouldn’t mind adding it in for two days.

But how to fit this all in when I already have a full schedule?

And do I need to do these back to back? If so, I’m probably out of luck.  But I would think splitting it up is okay.

And how often do I need to do a bike and a swim in order to compete in a sprint triathlon? I’m hesitant to cut back on running miles (right now around 30) because I love running first and plan to do a marathon in October; I’d like to keep my schedule as is until I increase mileage for the next long race.

Am looking for great advice from my great tri friends!

NRR: There is a tri this weekend, but I’m not going. Can’t do it with childcare, busy husband, etc . . . Next one, I’m in. I want to go, so badly. But, that’s the way the tire rotates lol. One day my kids will be big and won’t want to spend the weekends with me. Then I can race. For now, I need to love on my children. :0)

For all of you racing this weekend, good luck and keep me posted!

One thing I”ve been asked a few times is: How do you do it? How do you keep up the workout schedule when you have two young kids and a part time from home job?

My answer: I don’t know. I just do.

This week, though, I’m tired.

In order to fit in my workouts I have to get up at 5 AM most days of the week (4 of them, anyway); and since I like to be home fairly early on Sundays I have to get up around 6 to do my long run, which can take up to two hours or so.

This week, I’m tired of the schedule.

I would like to sleep in, at least sometimes. I would like to be flexible and run when I feel like it, just sometimes.

That’s the hardest part about being a mom who runs.

That and the fact that there’s a tri and a 5K (same race) this Saturday and I can’t do either of them. Why? Husband is busy, no one to watch the kids, so I can’t go.

Sometimes, sometimes, I would really like to have the ability to be flexible with my schedule.

But that just comes with the territory. Once you have kids, you give up that luxury and you begin to work around someone else’s schedule. You run when you have to run, not when you want to run. You give up the idea that training can happen at any time, and you realize that cooking dinner, giving children baths and putting them to bed is really more important than getting in a 5 miler. So you schedule the 5 miler before dawn, just to make sure that it happens.

There are those lucky days, though. The days when you think you aren’t going to get up one more day early, so you sleep in late, and then you reschedule so you can take the baby for a run in the jogger. Or someone calls and invites your toddler over for a playdate, so you get to sneak in a quickie around the block.

There are those bright sunny days when you get outside to exercise though you thought it wouldn’t happen; and those days are great.

And it is then that you realize the early morning runs are a lot of fun, too, just in a different way.

That scheduling isn’t always all bad. Sometimes, actually, it works best because you know if you do it, it is done, and you got it in.

I’ve gotten faster with age. Partly, I think, because I am workng on it, but partly, I believe, because I have to be highly dedicated to working out in order to get it done. It has become one of my top priorities, so I get up early and I do it.

Flexibility is nice; it is great; it just isn’t the time right now.

And so, I schedule.

So have you ever had this conversation with someone:

You: “I like to run.”

Them: “I only run when something is chasing me.”

I think the statement is hysterical. I can just see this happening; someone who never runs gets chased by large furry animal and they run like the wind.

I don’t understand it, of course. How could one not like to run? How could anyone who has ever pulled on a pair of jogging shoes and taken a run around the block not actually enjoyed the sweat, the heart pounding, the release, the tension reliever?

Nah, can’t get it. But still think it is hysterical.

On Sunday, as I ran my 10, I considered this statement, and then I thought: Perhaps all runners are running from something!

It may not be a large bear, or a thief, or a jilted lover.

It could be the fear of being complacent, or the desire to do something more than we believe we can do.

So my question of the week is, you guessed it: What’s chasing you?

My answer: The knowledge that if I can make my body do things that I think it can’t do, I can really do anything. I want to see that answer. I want to experience that phenomenom. When I pull on my shoes and run, I’m showing myself that I really can do it all. When I crossed that finish line at 26.2 miles the first and the second time, and when I crossed it numerous times when I did dozens of 5Ks and some shorter races, I was proving to myself I COULD.

So, what’s chasing you?!

NRR: 1: Was invited to do a tri with a girl I’ve recently met. She’s probablyt he funniest girl I’ve met in my life and it would be a great time, but husband feels the house has to be in tip top shape before daughter’s 5th birthday in a few weeks – so I’m passing. Sadly. I really wanted to try it. But she says there is another in September, and if it is not deathly hot I will do the one in July in Jax. And I know even if I can not finish, she would be there to keep me laughing across the finish line.

So this week I started my tri training. I’ve been back on the bike for a while, and that is going well; this week I started swimming, and did a thirty minute lap swim in the pool. It is still a bit cold but feels great once in. I plan to do a second lap swim today, thirty minutes again, working up to 45 before July’s triathlon.

I’ve invited my mom to come. My husband has a tough time bringing the girls to these things, since they have to get up and ready so early and since it takes me a while. But I want someone there at the finish line, especially since this is my first: And I know my mom will be proud. She won’t even complain about the July heat!

I had a lot of great runs this week. My overall mileage has been:

Sunday 8.5

Monday 5

Tuesday 30 min swim

Wed 6 miles

Thurs 2.5 miles and a 9 mile bike

Friday 4 miles, and I will swim in a bit

I’ll do 10-12 on Sunday.

I will be moving that Tuesday swim to another day of the week when I’m already exercising. I found I can do a lot of cardio in one day, but I need those two days a week off from all cardio. When I don’t have it, I get too run down and tired. I’ll juggle that around as I train.

In non running news, I’m looking for some cute marathon shirts with great sayins – anyone know where to find great running apparel?

Stretching:

Just a reminder, get in your stretches. I’ve been devoting at least half an hour each night to stretching while watching television. I do my back and legs, concentrating on my hamstrings since I’ve had so much knee pain. And it has been very beneficial! Increasing my mileage generally means some knee tenderness but I haven’t had that lately. I’m using the foam roller as well – and I know that works from my injury after Disney. So, get in your stretches this week!

Happy Running Friday Runners!

This morning I wondered what question of the week I should throw out there.

Then I stopped and had my mid-run snack: A granola bar. I wished it were a caramel chocolate power bar, but alas, none were stocked in the cabinet.

Which made me think this: I love long distance running. How else could I eat a chocolate caramel bar for breakfast?

So, my question of the week: Three reasons you love to run!

My answers:

• I eat everything I want. And I mean everything. I love long distance running because I can eat what I want when I want it without worrying about calories. The only thing I have to worry about: how will it sit in my belly during the next morning’s run.
• Energy. It wastes mine. I have an abundance of unused energy that must be filtered out somehow, someway. Running does it. It gets rid of my antsies!
• Sensations. I love the way running feels. I love the smells I smell early morning, like rain on the grass or fresh flowers blooming. I love seeing deer and lakes and waterfalls and the ocean when I’m running. I love early morning sunrises. The sensations of running itself, the sweat and heat, the heart pounding, the sweat, I just love it all.

When I run, I feel alive.

What three things do you love about running?

RR: 8.5 miles today in the dark. Start my swimming tomorrow, can’t wait!