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!

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.

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!

I’ve taken a week or so off of writing. I did so not out of desire but necessity – I had two larger work projects and quite a few home projects that needed attending to, and in my quest to learn more to relax and unwind I had to let something go. Since I didn’t want that something to be my sanity (as I have difficulty holding on to it as it is!) I decided it had to be my blog.

I’m back! One project down, two clients yet to pay (what do I need to do, go up to their homes and beat down their doors?), a ladies night that involved karaoke and some hysterically funny ladies and a family night, where the adults hung out and chatted and the kids got to run around like rebels, eating ice cream and pushing chairs across the floor.

My training is going WELL this week. I put in almost 30 miles (by the time I do my 10-12 tomorrow morning). They were strong miles, too. No knee pain, felt like continuing. Great miles. Tomorrow is my long run and I hope to do 10-12 tomorrow, depending on how I feel when I wake up. What i have learned through this ’slight break’ is to listen to my body, not my head. My head says keep on going; my body sometimes really, really needs to stop. This past week I listened to my body. It needed a break, and now I feel better.

So I’m signing up to do my first triathlon! I’m excited. Jacksonville, Florida has a sprint series that I’m going to try out. This is the calendar for the year, and I’m thinking July 18 because my mom will be here already for a performance my daughter will be doing through summer camp.

I know I can do the run; it’s just three miles. THe bike is only 10 and I’m now doing 7 with no issues, around 5 minutes per mile and sometimes in the 4s. It’s the swim I have to prepare for, but I’m a strong swimmer (at least in a pool where there aren’t a million people swimming over me!) so I’ m hoping that it won’t be too tough for the first one.

The heat, though, will be a killer. Luckily the race begins early. I’m guessing the swim and bike will be okay heat wise, and the run is only three miles – less than 25 minutes – I can do it, right?

So, it’s going to be that one or one in August. I’d like to do a tri before the end of summer, since I want to do a November marathon. I’m looking forward to the cross training and the thinking of doing something that is not straight running for hours on end. I think the transitions will be nice and fun to look forward to.

Now, off to help paint the porch! Happy weekend runs, my friends!