The topic for Tuesdays on the Run today is "Best Race Ever." When Patty, April and I came up with the idea, it immediately brought to mind my friend, GBA Girlfriend, who always has the #bestdayever. And why is it the best day ever? Because there is something good in every day. And I feel much the same way about any race I complete. … [Read more...]
March 2015 Ultimate Coffee Date!
Good morning! I'm actually shocked I got up before my kids today, but I think the snow plows woke me up. There's just something wrong with hearing snow plows early on a Saturday morning. In March. In Virginia. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Anyways, that means I'm up in time to have virtual coffee with my friends Deborah, Coco, and Lynda. If we were having coffee, I'd tell you I need that entire truck up there to get me moving these days. The combination of running lots of miles (I did 17 miles and 10 miles back to back last week) plus kids out of school for snow and sickness plus just having a few too many things on my plate has my schedule completely discombobulated. I've been going to bed too late even for me. Yawn. … [Read more...]
The winter that would not end
I woke up at 4:45am today. Not because I wanted to, but because the school system texted: Schools closed. There may have been a few curse words uttered in response. I had expected a delay, but it never crossed my mind that they would close. (Turns out, it wasn't a bad call - I saw a dude wipe out on a sidewalk that was in full sun an hour after the kids would have gone with a delay.) Solid ice was still coating everything when I got up two hours later than I normally would. But I have 17 miles to run today. Umm, yeah. … [Read more...]
Crazy weekend + Skirt Sports Happy Girl Skirt Giveaway
I admit it. I'm over winter. Take my Wisconsin girl card, send me south, and call it good. Ok, maybe it's not that bad, but I just could not convince myself to run outside on Friday. I.just.could.not. So, I ran 8 miles on an indoor track. 8 laps per mile. There are only two good things I can say about it: 1) I ran each half lap in 40-43 seconds, thereby running my most perfectly paced miles ever and 2) I ran in my new Altra Running One(2) and it was like running on clouds, bouncy minimalist clouds. I'm totally in love. Saturday morning I skipped my short run so that I could go watch Shoo play indoor soccer. It was an amazing game and he scored the winning goal, so it was totally worth the missed run. Then Beer Geek and I headed to … [Read more...]
Blog Spotlight: Life as a Running Mom
I hope everyone is having a lovely Labor Day! We had a ton of fun at an impromptu party on Saturday and then we went out on our friends' boat yesterday. I'm a bit sunburned and a lot tired and a somewhat sore, both from running 3 times in 24 hours this weekend (Ragnar, I'm ready!) and from our wild boat ride home as we raced the storm! Today, I'm featuring another Half Crazy Mom. Want to be featured? Email me at mcmmamaruns at gmail.com. I'd love to feature YOU! Erica is a busy running mom, living in the beautiful state of Hawaii! I'm only a little jealous. (I'd probably be a lot jealous if I wasn't so over summer at this point LOL. And I'm having the hardest time spelling her name right since I spell mine with a … [Read more...]
Getting back on track with the Mizuno Baton
Remember all that running I did this past winter? I logged mile after mile in training for five half marathons in five days and my ultimate goal of 13 half marathons. In fact in the month of March, I ran 200 miles. Guess how many miles I've run so far in June? Umm, I haven't been tracking, but I'm pretty sure I haven't broken double digits. And by that I don't mean I haven't run a double digit long run. No, I don't think I've run 10 miles total in June. Oops. In my defense, I haven't been sitting on my butt. At least not completely. I did run a ridiculously sweaty 3 miles while I was down in Florida last week. I also did a workout with one of the IMG Academy trainers. This past weekend, I hit up Revolve for a … [Read more...]
#IfEverybodyRan
Mizuno posed this question and had the University of North Carolina Business School do an analysis of studies that were already out there. Obviously, there were some assumptions made and some leaps of faith taken, but the conclusions were interesting. Here are some of the interesting findings: 29.3 million happier marriages 48.1 million fewer cigarettes smoked daily exercise can reduce anger rates by 83% 14 billion fewer hours spent online My favorite though: 135 million more victory beers Here's their reasoning: Beer math: Half of all current runners enter races – so if everybody ran, and half of all new runners also entered a race and had one victory beer afterward, there would be millions more celebratory suds down … [Read more...]
The run that didn’t want to happen
Did you ever look at your calendar and realize that you're going to have to do some serious run juggling to hit your training goals? Usually my schedule is pretty flexible, but I have a really busy week ahead. As luck would have it, I also need to run at least 42 miles. We have an event all day Saturday and, assuming I am not hurting too badly (AKA sweating beer), I have an event Sunday morning. The end result is that I need to run those 42+ miles in the next 5 days. Ugh. Today's plan? I sent the boys to the movies with Beer Geek and I was going to run at least 8 miles. Fail #1: In my rush to buy groceries and get the boys fed and out the door, I forgot to eat breakfast OR lunch. Oops. So I started my run on nothing but … [Read more...]
#beautifulrun and Treadmill Tell-All
Yesterday, I ran a half marathon. Not a race. Not even a virtual race. I just ran 13.1 miles because I could and because the sun was shining. In fact, the sun was shining so nicely and the temp was so balmy that I was horribly overdressed. Until mile 9 when the cold front started moving in... It was another one of those amazing weather days that have dropped in our laps in between the horrible, very cold days we've been experiencing. I'm thankful I was able to set a bunch of other stuff aside and get out there. Tomorrow we head back into the deep freeze and I'll be hitting up the treadmill again if the feels like temps are in the single digits, sigh. Speaking of treadmills... I saw this on Run with Jess' blog last week (she … [Read more...]
#megsmiles
Saturday morning, I was supposed to run the JFK 20k. For a lot of reasons, I just wasn't feeling the love. I tried to argue myself into it and just couldn't. So I DNS'd it and went for a run in my neighborhood in honor of Meg Menzies. There are many posts out there in honor of Meg. And they put into words what we all feel so much better than I ever could. But I need to process my feelings a bit as to why this runner in particular hit home. I'm an urban runner. With the exception of one run a week, I run surrounded by cars. Even that run crosses roads multiple times. I cross major intersections. I run on roads with no sidewalks. I run surrounded by some of the world's most aggressive drivers. I have been lucky. I've had … [Read more...]
“That” point
As of Tuesday afternoon, I had not run in 5 days. I did have moments of activity in those days, but there were also too many moments of doing nothing active. I don't think I've missed 5 days of running since the week after my first marathon, but circumstances conspired to make running impossible this past week. Tuesday afternoon, I reached "that point". You all know it. I'm sure most of you have felt the same feeling at least to some degree. I had to run. Running was no longer an option. It was a requirement. It was a matter of life or death (or at least a matter of having any ability to be a decent mom. For those who don't know, running is what keeps me from needing anti-depressants. If I don't run, I get depressed and it … [Read more...]
