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Perspective

You know those days when you just feel like you need to step away to put everything into perspective?

Today was that day.

I don’t take lunch breaks on a daily basis, instead normally doing the unhealthy thing and multi-tasking through my meal. Therefore, late this afternoon when I needed a few minutes away from my desk, I felt very little guilt just stepping away. I know that it’s better for me to take a 30 minute break than push through when I’m just in a stressed out mode.

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Let me tell you. That 3 mile run was the most amazing stress relief and made this month’s membership to Equinox all that much more worth it since I was able to hop on a treadmill, just one block from my office, and pound out a very fast 3 mile run while listening to Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Then, a few hours later, while enjoying my grilled chicken sandwich delivered to my front door compliments of Seamless Web, I read a blog post that just hit home. Sometimes we can only do so much. Maybe you’ll sleep through the alarm for 2 entire hours. Maybe you’ll feel like an idiot because your face is peeling all day and you know your co-workers think that you either have really bad dandruff or just don’t know how to properly apply aloe. Maybe you packed your lunch and left it on the kicthen counter, so the cheese stick, Chobani, and salad could all go bad. Maybe your in-laws are coming to visit tomorrow and the house is a mess. Even if all those things happened to you in one day, as they did me, you still woke up and conquered the day. Sometimes, that in itself is enough.

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Not everyday in a city is filled with sunshine. Nor does each day come with it’s own pair of rose colored glasses. But, at the end of the day, I’ve found after years of trying to be perfect that it’s far better to focus on the attitude with which you tackle the day. I’ve also learned that having a dear co-worker with whom you can vent is invaluable. Having a family member or friend who is 100% unrelated to work is also valuable. Knowing when to say no is never easy and sometimes the hardest thing to say. At the same time, sometimes following through with a commitment you’ve made is also the hardest thing to do but you will feel 100% better after you do it.

And, hopefully, if my hand doesn’t hit the snooze button ten times tomorrow, I’ll remember how wonderful a long run in Central Park before work can feel.

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Check back in tomorrow for a fun giveaway that will come in handy for long summer days!

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ashleyd /

When Things Don’t Go As You Plan

Happy Wednesday gang! I hope you all are having a good week so far. This morning I headed back to Barry’s Bootcamp for the first time in 10 days and the intense workout was exactly what my body needed to reset 100% from traveling and partying. As of now, I don’t travel again until April when I head down to Savannah for some quality time with my family! I can hardly believe it at this point since I feel like I’ve been traveling weekly for the past few months. 

This week’s marathons+moderation guest post hits home for me as many of the same feelings Jamie talks about are ones that I had this year when I finished Philadelphia but Bo chose to hold out for NYC 2013. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do and head on over to her blog to show her some support!

Hi everyone! I’m Jamie and I blog at From Couch to Ironwoman.  My husband, Mike, and I started running using the Couch-to-5K program and relatively quickly built our way up to a half marathon only six months after we started running.  Since our goal is to do Ironman Louisville in 2014, we knew we couldn’t stop at the half marathon distance.  Last December we registered for our first marathon, the Wineglass Marathon in Corning, New York, and we trained for it diligently together throughout the summer.

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Mike and I have trained together since the beginning.  We completed all of our training programs together: Couch-to-5K, Bridge-to-10K, our first half marathon and our first triathlon training program.  It only made sense for us to do our first marathon training program together, sure there were days when we couldn’t run together because of conflicting schedules but for the most part we were together.

On the days when we were supposed to do our “marathon pace” (which we just guessed at since it was our first marathon), I would run slightly behind Mike.  I ended up never running my goal marathon pace, I ran it slightly faster.  We ran our long runs together and suffered through some pretty horrible training runs, and celebrated the good ones.

Our 20 miler went really well for me, but Mike struggled through it.  Even though we had both had some difficult runs (19 was NOT good for me), I never had a doubt in my mind that we weren’t both going to become marathoners.

On the morning of the race, I could tell that Mike was really nervous. I don’t think that it helped that his mom was talking about running almost the entire car ride to the marathon, so I just tried to get them to change the subject.  When we got the race, we did our thing and saw two of our friends who were also running the race. Then, we all went and found our respective spots with the rest of the runners.

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Although Mike and I train together, we don’t race together. He is a lot faster than me so he lined up with the 3:55 pace group and I fell back somewhere behind the 4:10 pace group.  This was a little bit faster than what we had been planning for but we both knew we felt relatively good.

A little while after 8am, we were running our first marathon.  The first 10 miles I was averaging 9:30 pace (which was a bit faster than my goal marathon pace) and that’s when I saw Mike’s parents for the first time. His mom told me that Mike was doing well, and under his goal pace too, so that made me happy.

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I hit the half marathon point at 2:07 and then I started to feel fatigued.  I kept pushing but there were times when I had to walk.  At this point, I still didn’t doubt that I would finish the marathon but I knew that I might have gone out too fast in the beginning. I saw Mike’s parents again at mile 16, and his mom said something about Mike and his paces but I couldn’t understand her.

Then, at mile 18.5, everything changed. I saw this guy that looked like Mike on the sidelines cheering me on and then I realized that it WAS Mike. I was so disoriented and confused, but I asked him what he was doing. He told me not to worry about him, but since we’re married I did just the opposite. I remember motioning and willing for him to come with me, but he wouldn’t. I even said, “well then I don’t want to do this either”.

From that point on, the race was “over” for me and really over for Mike. His legs and hips had cramped up so badly he couldn’t continue.  Looking back on it now, it was the right decision, but in the moment I couldn’t believe that he wasn’t going to achieve what we set out to do.

The rest of the race I struggled; my paces plummeted to over 15 minute miles at times. And I probably walked more than I ran. I also stopped taking in fuel, mainly because mentally I didn’t care anymore.  The only thing that got me through was our friend Mark who saw me with about 3 miles left to go, and knowing that Mike wanted me to become a marathoner.


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I finished my first marathon in 5:01:23 and I cried as I crossed the finish line. Not because I was happy, but because my training partner, my husband, hadn’t done the same. I felt guilty and I had a hard time calling myself a marathoner (I still do) for a long time.

I know that 26.2 miles is a long way and that anything can happen, but I NEVER expected anything like that.  It felt like nothing was going right and I really wanted to quit, but I didn’t.

Mike is going to become a marathoner someday, and I hope that our next marathon is one that we will remember for the good times and not the bad.  We’re registered for two marathons this year: the Cleveland Marathon and the Mount Desert Island Marathon. In fact, we registered for the Cleveland Marathon the same night after my first marathon finish. We needed redemption and we will get it.

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Say It, Do It: 2/18/03

In 28 days, I hope to cross the finish line of the 2013 NYC Half Marathon with a huge smile. I hope to finally achieve the half marathon PR I’ve been working to achieve for the past few years.

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Each half marathon something different has happened along the way to make that goal a distant memory whether piss poor training, excessive heat, excessive cold, or just an off day. At about this point, during any other training cycle, I would be a bit worried about my training to date.

I have only done 2 true long runs to date, 6 and 8 miles in distance, both along the West Side or East Side highway of New York which means that they were perfectly flat. I’ve traveled to 5 destinations in the past 6 weeks to St. Croix, Paris, Geneva, Geneva, and Puerto Rico, each of which has been less conducive for half marathon training than if I was in New York City.

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But, among all this travel, I’ve also learned a bit about myself. I need exercise to be happy. I need some semblance of healthy food to feel good. Therefore, even though I fully believe in enjoying myself on these trips which were taken for a mix of business and pleasure, I also have returned from each trip without gaining weight or feeling the vacation glutton. This weekend, while in San Juan for a much needed and very relaxing girls’ weekend away to celebrate Theodora’s 30th birthday, I worked out 3 times. Just like I try to do at home in New York City, I started out each day in a healthy manner, sipping multiple cups of water and enjoying a healthy breakfast.

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Except for today, I didn’t start drinking beach or poolside until later in the afternoon. This decision tends to serve me well for more than just the health and waist line benefits. If I know I want to last until the wee hours of the morning whether bar hopping or dancing, then I can’t day drink. Day drinking for me results in an early alcohol induced bed time due to heavy eyelids.

While in New York City I’ve fallen head over heels for Barry’s Bootcamp, an investment choice Bo and I made after we parted ways with our personal trainers. Barry’s has been a far more economical decision and their early hours have allowed us to enjoy 5am workouts together before sharing a coffee and commute to the office. This workout however has done something for my running that working with a personal trainer never would. It has helped me realize that I do have the power and strength to push my body to new limits in regards to hills and speed. Don’t worry, my rose colored glasses don’t have me thinking that I can maintain a 8:15 pace for 13.1 miles including 6 miles of hills in Central Park. No, my friends, I’m not drunk or delusional. But, what is does mean is that hopefully when the going gets tough during the half and my quads are starting to scream or my lungs are short of breath, I’ll remember what jogging on an 11.0 incline for 2 minutes feels like and realize that I too will survive this momentary pain. Bo and I have learned to push ourselves from a cardio standpoint more in the past 6 weeks just after 7 sessions at Barry’s Bootcamp. The combination of this, along with running and our boot camps we do together at the gym or that I’ve done while traveling, have left me feeling stronger than I’ve ever felt from a mental standpoint.

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This strength helped me push through running Mount Saleve with Renaud last weekend in Switzerland and now I am going to apply that strength to the next 28 days of half marathon training. While the first half of the schedule has barely been that due to my travel and a short lived cold I’m looking forward to immersing myself in training these next few weeks so I can feel physically and mentally prepared for Harlem Hill and the 3 rolling hills of Central Park come March 17th.

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So, now it’s time to commit to this week’s workouts. Just like the past few weeks, this week will continue to be busy at the office as I continue to find my way in this new role. Therefore, I’m going to focus on morning workouts but will put in italics any evening workouts I hope to squeeze in as well.

Monday: 9 mile long run in Central Park so I can remind my legs and body what the constant hills of Central Park feel like after a few weeks away.

Tuesday: 5am Barry’s Bootcamp with Bo+ yoga with Theodora after work

Wednesday: 5 mile run before work along either East River or in Central Park

Thursday: 5am Barry’s Bootcamp

Friday: 10 mile long run in Central Park before work as my in-laws are in town this weekend and I find it easier get my long run out of the way when friends or family are in town. This also allows for more evening enjoyment of the vino type because let’s get real, I don’t do my best long runs dehydrated.

Saturday: Short shakeout run followed by either an Equinox or Uplift class

Sunday: Rest day

Also, as I’ve received a few questions about it, I’ll address our Equinox membership. I’ll be honest, right now both Bo and I have questioned our membership to Equinox more than one time. But, at the same time, especially during the cold winter months or stifling heat of summer, knowing that there is a treadmill or indoor workout option, is reason enough to keep our membership. After calculation, even my January membership paid out just based on the number of times I went to Equinox and I traveled more in January than I ever expect to travel again.  In addition, we both start triathlon training in the next few weeks which means more spin and swimming, both of which are part of our Equinox membership.

 

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