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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 /

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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Marathons+Moderation Guest Post #4

Happy Wednesday! I hope you’re staying cool as it’s supposed to be HOT outside today! I can’t believe we may hit 100 degrees in NYC today or tomorrow!

This week’s Marathons+Moderation guest post is from one of my new favorite bloggers; Monica! I finally had the opportunity to meet her in person last summer at Healthy Living Summit! She is as hilarious and real in person as she is on her blog! This lovely California girl knows how to kick it on the asphalt (she’s super speedy!) and at the dinner table. I hope you enjoy her guest post as much as I do! Also, if you’re interested in submitting a Marathons+Moderation post just leave a comment or email me at healthyhappierbear at gmail dot com.

Hello my name is Monica and I have a little blog called Run Eat Repeat. It’s about running and eating – not necessarily in that order.

I thought it was funny when Ashley asked me to write about moderation because I normally practice gluttony and sloth. But, those were her wishes so we’ll see what we can do 😉

Here are my tips for Training for a Marathon While Keeping Moderation in Mind
1. Run a lot. Then, run some more.

2. Eat a lot. This is my favorite part. I spend the last few miles of my run thinking up what I’ll eat after. Carb loading has never been a problem for me since my guy and I usually have a date night before my long runs and often hit up pizza, Thai or sushi – all loaded with deliciousness and carbs 🙂

3. Take Rest Days seriously. I am religious about my rest days. The day after every long run I don’t do anything at all. I basically get on the couch, order in Thai food delivery, get a bed pan and turn on The Real Housewives. That’s it.

4. Sleep. In addition to running and eating more – I sleep a lot more during marathon training. If you’re asking a lot of your body make sure you are giving it proper fuel and proper rest.

5. Have fun! I think this is one of the most important things to remember while marathon training. Unless you are getting paid by Adidas to run this race, treat it like a hobby. Find running routes you enjoy. Look forward to your runs, not with dread. Remember this is an amazing accomplishment and be proud of every run you cross off your training plan.

If you have any questions for me feel free to reach out at Run Eat Repeat.

Have a great day!

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