A wise friend reminded me this week that life has seasons.  Not all of them are joyful, but not all of them are bad either.  As we discussed this in the car, I realized that my season of life is getting in the way of my running, but I'm learning to be okay with that. My little ones are small, but mighty!  I  mean, with faces like that, it's hard not to be okay with making sacrifices for them and their well-being.  But, I'm human and some days I struggle with it. My wise friend reminded me that during this season where I have toddlers and a husband away from home, working hard for his family in service to his country, I need to let go of perfection and trying to please all people.  Life is more enjoyable when you can find the joy in the everyday parts of the season you're in, rather than wishing it away. Ouch, totally guilty some days. As a typical type A (or so overly type A we call it triple-A in my major) personality, I plan, I organize, and I o...

I was so excited to meet my (Sole) Sisters for our usual Wednesday run, even if it was 90-some degrees in the shade.  I busted my butt to get home on time, got dinner made and was out the door to pick up the kids in record time.  We were going to make it! Then, everything went sideways...Murphy's law, I know. Discussions about behavior, cranky, crabby, and otherwise unhappy, my kids were not cooperating with my plan.  To top it all off, I realized when I did get home that in my rush to get out the door I'd turned OFF the oven I'd preheated, so the dinner I'd busted my butt to get done early was not even halfway cooked. Sigh... What to do?  Skip the planned run or find another way?  I opted to take the kids with me to the gym and run on the treadmill.  The alternative, no run at all, was even less appealing than the "dread mill." Dutifully I stepped up, wondering how I was going to combat the boredom that seems to creep its way into just ab...

This training cycle has been full of ups and downs.  Lately, it seems more downs than ups.  As I tried to study for my upcoming neurology exam  surfed Facebook pretending to take a "study break", it occurred to me...I've been WAY too hard on myself. I'm admitting it:  I don't give myself nearly enough credit for what I have and do achieve.  I'm realizing how true this picture really is for me at this point in my life. I have not let myself be the runner I am right now.  No wonder I'm having trouble being the runner I want to be.   I downplay and diminish what I am able and trying to do nearly constantly.  Why?  I don't know.  It's something I've always done.  But, I realized that when it comes to my running, for some reason I expect the performance of and critique myself at the level of an elite runner (um, Kara Goucher anyone?).  However, the truth is my training, nutrition, etc. is not that of an elite runner - it'...

My stomach is fluttering, my head is saying "Why?" and muscles are clenching in anticipation of the soreness to come.  As anxious as my body is acting you'd think I'm a pansy this was my first time running.  The truth is I've been on the DL for several weeks due to pain in my foot from a partially healed stress fracture. I haven't run in four weeks and I'm nervous.  Will I remember how it feels?  Will my body cooperate?  How bad is it going to be?  Then I remember things like this: Though I never really gave up on running, I felt like I had because I couldn't run, silly as that might sound. Yet, it's motivational pictures like this one that give me hope that my first run post-injury won't be all bad: It starts to click...Oh yeah, I remember that! It may have been a while but I still remember how good I feel after a good run (or sweaty spin class!) And though I feel like I'm starting over, I realize I'm not, really.  Yes...

I'm injured. Again. This pretty much sums up how I feel: Ask my family, especially the Gotta Run Husband, and they'll tell you I haven't been much fun to be around.  Crabby, moody, frustrated, and injured without knowledge of what it is or how to fix it are a recipe for disaster certain combination for arguments and a grumpy runner and family.  After nearly a week of worry, pain, and no a little running I finally gave in and went to the doctor today. I really thought I might have a stress fracture the way my foot was not responding to rest, ice, and ibuprofen.  An X-ray of my foot revealed an old stress fracture (that I had no idea was even there!) of the third metatarsal, but no new stress fractures!   I've never been so happy in all my life to hear the words "severe sprain." That was music to my ears, let me tell you! So, it's another injury that will keep me down for another few weeks (guess I'll get quite a bit of work done on my mast...

This is is my first official training cycle. For my first half marathon.  I've run races before, so how is this the first time I've trained?  Well, up until now I wasn't all that serious about my running nor was I tackling distances that required actual training. A view that's becoming entirely too common for my husband and my children. :( During this training cycle (this is week 8 of a 15 week plan) I've been injured twice (sprained ankle and a sprained LCL).  After two injuries it finally clicked - I need to adjust my thinking when it comes to training. Until recently I'd treated training the same as running for enjoyment, just doing it more frequently with a plan dictating distances to shoot for. Now I realize:   training is serious.  The more serious you take it and the more you put into it, the more you're going to benefit from it.  I'm dressed, my head is ready...now  if only my body would cooperate! All that being said, I...

I've never been good at letting go of incidents that upset me.  This picture I found from  Runner Girl X  sums up pretty well what I needed to do but had a hard time doing. In the back of my mind I've always known how much my emotions affect the rest of me and how I function.  Yesterday's run brought that lesson to the forefront again. Earlier in the day I'd had a run-in that deeply upset me and left me very emotional the rest of the afternoon.  Tearful conversations with my husband and neighbors left me feeling a little better, but really, the last thing I wanted to do was my 7-mile training run. I dutifully dressed and laced up to head out anyway, knowing if I skipped the run I'd just feel worse than I already did because of guilt.  Heading out to one of my favorite trails, I should have been in a great mood and ready to put some mileage on my favorite pair of Newtons.  Instead I was still fighting back tears and wanting to go home and curl...

I love beginning a new project. Carefully laid plans, fresh new supplies, the anticipation, hard work, making progress and the reward of accomplishing a goal...What's not to love? With the encouragement of some of my Sole Sisters, I signed up for Women Rock  as my first half marathon.  My BRF (best running friend) promised to run it with me too, so that sealed the deal.  To top it all, at the finish I'll be handed jewelry and champagne by some very "lovely" assistants, if you get my drift.  I figured if that didn't get my rear across the finish line, nothing would! For weeks I pored over training plans in books and websites, searching for the one that was just right .  I found it in the book Train Like a Mother  by Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea .   Fifteen weeks of workouts that clearly specified which days I could bail out if needed and which runs were absolutely necessary. Retyped and color coded, I was ready to go with a start da...

Let me just start by saying: I don't know what I'm doing. That's right, I have no idea what I'm doing with this blog.  Yet.  What I do know is that running and a couple of special blogs have influenced me greatly.  So much so, that I am inspired to share my experiences.  One year ago, I sat with my two children (then 21 months and 1 month) wondering how I was going to do it.  My spouse had just deployed, I started graduate school for speech-language pathology in August,  and the walls were closing in.  I was scared, stressed, and overwhelmed to say the least.   Fast forward to November.  I'm a basket case of stress, anxiety, and entirely too busy to enjoy life.  As I thought I couldn't handle one more thing, all hell broke loose:  my father-in-law passed away.  Several tough phone calls later, my husband was on his way home for emergency leave to attend the services.  This truly was the t...