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Marathons & Moderation Guest Post #6

Greetings from Washington, DC!

 I’m spending the next two days down here learning a lot about my new role and the business. This means that the next few days will be just like yesterday, going non stop with the customer until a late, amazing dinner and finally a midnight bedtime.

It’s exhausting but I’m learning a great deal so I don’t regret it one bit! I enjoyed an amazing chef’s tasting menu at CityZen last night and this morning I was up by 5:30 lifting weights and incline walking on the treadmill!

 

 

Before I head out for the day, I’m excited to bring you this week’s Marathons+Moderation Guest Post! Becky is an amazing and inspiring lady who has shared her journey to marathons on her blog, Beck on the Run. I first met Becky’s smiling face at Healthy Living Summit and most recently was able to spend time with her in New York City during the Mini 10K weekend!

I hope you enjoy this weeks guest post!

Hello, readers! Recently, Ashley asked me to participate in her Marathons+Moderation series.

My initial reaction was, “I can’t.” Why? Because last week I deferred my registration for the Marine Corps Marathon in October.

Last October I completed my first marathon in Newport, RI. It was a challenging, but truly magical day.

The marathon high lasted a long time. I wore my medal proudly and wanted to feel that adrenaline rush, that sense of accomplishment all over again. Without much thought, I registered for marathon #2 – National Marathon. I trained for that race through a snowy New England winter and completed 26.2 miles on March 26, 2011.

 

Those experiences bring me to today. I am not going out for a run. Instead, I will go to yoga and get in the pool for some laps. I am not training for marathon #3. Not yet. And that’s what I would love to chat about!

Marathons are demanding. They require strategic planning and a good amount of time. When you’re not running, you’re thinking about running, talking about running, stretching, eating bread, peanut butter, and bananas.

If you are training for a race with your whole heart, that’s exactly how it should be. There are so many ways for marathon training to enrich your life.

You bond with fellow runners during long runs. 

You learn about your body and what it likes.

You push your own physical and mental limits.

And you feel proud, happy, accomplished!

The key is heart. Your heart has to be in it to get the most out of the experience. Marathon training should not be a chore or a bore. There is no right or wrong time to train for a marathon. There’s no rule that you have to run a marathon every season or every year. When you feel ready to take on the marathon challenge, the time is right for you. I am a teacher enjoying the summer off. I have plenty of time to train for a marathon…but I’m not. I don’t feel 100% dedicated to the race, which means it’s not the right time for me. Someday, the time will be right again.

BeckOnTheRun is the place where I ramble about running and other random things. Running is fun. Life is fun. Enjoy every day!

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ashleyd /

Bo’s First Run Since Surgery

Today’s run was awesome for one primary reason. It was Bo’s first outside run since his knee surgery in April!

IMG_2639 (640x478) This is the face of a very sweaty but happy runner!

We woke up at 9am ready to tackle our 6 mile run before the summer heat took over the city.

IMG_2637 (478x640) Lucky for us, I forgot to buy regular peanut butter at the grocery store this week. Oh well, PB&Co Chocolate Dreams did the job and was like a pre-run treat.

I chose to forego my CamelBak today since it was a six mile run that would keep us near plenty of water fountains and bodegas if I got thirsty.  We also decided to avoid hills since it was Bo’s first run outside since his surgery. His doctor and PT both recommended doing at least 2 or 3 flat runs outside before conquering Central Park.

The run was amazing until mile 5.5 which is when my shins randomly started killing me. I’m going to wear my recovery socks tomorrow and continue stretching and foam rolling in hopes of staying injury free. But, I was able to maintain negative splits, starting at close to ten minute pace and ending around a 9.

From Bo’s perspective:

“Coming back after almost six months of not running (prior to my torn meniscus I was plagued with calf injuries) definitely felt amazing.  One thing that I would recommend for anyone in a similar situation is to hit the leg lifting prior to your first run.  My trainer has been killing me with lunges, power cleans, squats, and sumo squats for about a month now and my legs certainly felt strong due to all the gym work.  One other thing that you need to remember is that, even if you’ve already been on the treadmill, this is your first time outside and thought you might feel strong for the first three miles or so, your endurance is likely not at the level that you were used to in the past.  For example, we ran the High Line for miles 3.5 – 5 at which point I picked up the pace and left Ash in the dust.  However, I was really dragging during the last mile as my body wasn’t used to the constant pounding that is running outside.  I hope this provides some interesting insight to anyone coming back from an injury.”

We were a sweaty mess at the end but had a blast running together after so long.

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We rewarded ourselves post stretch and foam rolling with delicious, cold smoothies!

IMG_2642 (640x478) IMG_2644 (640x478) Bo loves the Mango Mantra smoothie with a shot of whey protein. I, on the other hand, stuck with the berry monster light.

IMG_2647 (480x640) We’re off to enjoy some sunshine with Theodora before parting ways this afternoon. Bo has a boy’s night while I’m going to enjoy some pampering at Bliss this afternoon!

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Marathons+Moderation: Guest Post #5

Happy Wednesday everyone! This week’s Marathons+Moderation guest post comes from Amanda, one of my favorite runners.  Over the past two years, I’ve followed Amanda’s blog as she has battled through injuries, trained smarter, and grown through the process. She is one of the most honest bloggers that I know, often talking about the emotional and physical effects of training in a safe and open forum which also inspires readers to comment about their experiences.

Therefore, I was beyond excited when this busy lady offered to contribute to my marathons+moderation series. I hope you all head over to her blog to see what she’s all about and gain some inspiration!

BALANCE IN ALL THINGS
When the idea to write a guest post about how I find balance with marathon training appeared, I jumped up raising my hand and exclaimed ”OHHH I want to do it!”

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A classic sign of the marathon overachiever, who tries to run more miles than the schedule calls for, while still fitting in every normal daily life activity. Then because of my it must be great attitude about all things didn’t have time to fully do it justice, so thanks to Ashley for patiently waiting.

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UNDER CROSS TRAINING
I am going to focus on the area of balance that was severely out of whack for nearly 8 years…cross training.  As I fell in love with running, I wanted more…for 4 years I maintained a steady 50 mile per week average while rarely running a race. Then in year 5 I wasn’t getting faster, I was just enjoying the movement…then to no one’s surprise I was injured…a lot…badly..and annoyingly.

Even with these injuries I still didn’t see the benefit of cross training or the joy.  Luckily this year I made a commitment to myself to cross training full bore for three months. This was inspired by a number of things:
-Reading posts like Ashley’s about amazing new workouts she had tried
-Realizing I couldn’t lift things if I needed to
-Being completely exhausted if I tried to do any other kind of workout
-An amazing race season that had really wiped me out

OVER CROSS TRAINING
It was becoming pretty obvious that might lack of variety was impacting my overall health, which was going to hurt my running. With my commitment I began to try EVERYTHING that came my way from yoga, Core Fusion, Biking, Swimming, Weights, core work, ki-hara…and again balance was out the window.

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I believe this is in some ways the trait of a runner. We simply go full boar until we can go no more, but I’m learning now that cross training can be fun, make me a better runner and create a new type of balance to my entire life.

BALANCE
Cross training like running needs to be fun and for me it needs to allow plenty of running time during marathon training.  To ensure that both marathon training and cross training could exist within the same week, required some planning…but less than you might imagine!

Monday and Wednesday I do 20-30 minutes of weights/squats/lunges and Tuesday/Thursday I do a killer 10-20 min core routine.  Neither of these require a great deal of time and therefore can even be done while I’m watching TV in the evening with David. I have also made a commitment to try a new workout monthly! It’s amazing what shaking things up can do to remind you of muscles you are neglecting and excite you to keep going with your cross training…it turns out 1 new thing a month, instead of 20 is much easier to do and enjoy.

I’ve also begun to have a weekly date with my hubby where we go bike riding. He loves it and it’s a great cross training workout for me, so it’s a win/win!  I love finding ways to workout with friends whether taking a walk to talk, biking or a running group these are the workouts that create amazing memories.

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There you have it…RunToTheFinish is about my passion for running, but more importantly living a joyful life. Balance is a large part of living joyfully and probably a process that will be ongoing forever!

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