I recently received the book The Runner's Brain when I was at the Runner's World Half and Festival. I am just about to start it and will be reviewing it when I'm done, but I wanted to share my own thoughts on the role your brain plays in marathon running before I read what the "professionals" had to say. So today, I'm Thinking Out Loud with Running with Spoons. As you know (I mean, I'm certainly not that runner who didn't talk about it LOL), I ran Marine Corps Marathon just over a week ago. It was my slowest marathon by a few minutes, but in many ways it was my most successful. Before the race, I knew my body was not trained to run a PR. In fact, I wasn't sure I was even trained to fully run a marathon at any pace, even an easy run … [Read more...]
TOTR: Running free for all
All of us over at Tuesdays on the Run have a little bit of crazy going on in our lives right now, so we decided to make this week be a "free topic" week. So write about any running related topic and link up with April, Patty, and me this week. Real topics resume next week: August 11: Fall Race Schedule August 18: Running Role Models/Runners You Admire August 25: Running Bras I'm packing like a crazy woman (the boys and I are leaving Beer Geek here and heading to Wisconsin). I've also been busy attempting to evict a squirrel from my attic. OK, actually, we did evict him, but he (or probably more accurately she) would like back in and has spent the last two days chewing. Me? I spent the day squirting her with the water hose … [Read more...]
Top 5 posts of 2014
I've been noticing these posts around the blogosphere, so I was curious to see what I'd find in my own statistics. I mean, I take a look at my stats on a regular basis, so I kind of have a feel for what is popular, but I wanted to see what posts came out on top. And there were some surprises... 1. Five Stages of Running a Half Marathon This did not surprise me at all. It went a little viral on Facebook when I published it. Honestly, I think it's my favorite post that I have ever written. And I have yet to run a long race that doesn't go down pretty much the same.exact.way. 2. Mental Side of Running These tips were written as much for me as for you. I really struggled with my running this fall and these are the things I … [Read more...]
Tuesdays on the Run: The Mental Side of Running
I'm gonna be honest here: lately training has sucked. My long runs haven't even made it to long run status and my short runs have been minutes off of my normal pace. Yet, I still manage to pull out decent races most of the time. Know what that tells me? My problems are mental, not physical. So, for today's Tuesdays on the Run topic, Patty, April and I decided to talk about breaking through the mental barriers while training. Here are my tips for getting through the rough patches and keep going. [Tweet "Tips for breaking throuhg the mental barriers in training #fitfluential #iamarunner #motivation"] 1. Stop worrying about your pace. When I'm struggling with a run and start worrying about how slow I'm going, it starts 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...]
Running for sanity
I knew this week would be crazy. I knew I'd be exhausted. I knew I wouldn't want to run. Let's recap: I'm driving 2-4 hours a day to take Jones to and from camp. Meanwhile, I'm trying to finalize my decision on a new car. (I've narrowed it to a Toyota Prius or a Kia Forte. Just need Beer Geek to sit in each at this point.) I have a job. I know, I forget sometimes too. Needless to say, I was feeling a little ragged earlier in the week. But I got a phone message on Wednesday that forced me to run: "MCM Mama, this is your neighbor, there are firemen going in and out of your house..." As you might imagine, I flipped out. I'm not at home and Beer Geek was at work. I spent the next hour calling around to the fire … [Read more...]
What’s Beautiful: Embracing discomfort
I've always loved this quote. I am not a thrill seeker (you won't find me jumping out of planes...), but I believe that stepping outside of one's comfort zone can lead to amazing experiences. If we always play it safe, we can't know what life changing thing might be just around the corner. (I totally reminded myself of this when an attempt to get into crow in yoga nearly led to a face plant on a tile floor.) Right after I wrote my post about looking for a goal, I was invited to be part of the Under Armour's "What's Beautiful" campaign as a sponsored member of Fitfluential. I'd been tempted before, but guess what? I was too afraid to put myself out there. Being part of the sponsored campaign pushed me to join, but my previous fear … [Read more...]
The Joy of running + WIAW
Lately, all of my running has been done for one reason: to train for this crazy ass goal of five half marathons in five days. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about my goal and a lot of my runs have been enjoyable, but they all have a goal: to build my mileage high enough that I can run 65.5 miles in one week and not get hurt. Not very exciting, huh? I'm just plodding along for a really.long.time. every day. In fact, running has become the thing I schedule everything else around. When a run is going to take up more than an hour every day (and often more like 2.5-3 if you consider the getting dressed and ready, running, eating, showering time), it plays a major role in the daily planning. If I'm not running, I fill my day to the brim … [Read more...]
Is it Mental?
I had two crazy good runs this week. Both were about 5 miles and both came in under the 10 minute pace. I have no idea why they were good. They just were. And I've learned not to complain when run goes good. ;o) Enter the "long run". It's not even really all that long. 8.5 miles. I purposely started slow and took it easy. It was chilly, but not cold and not a lot of sun to overheat me. And it kind of sucked. Again. I'm beginning to be convinced that my long runs are awful because my mind decides that they will suck. Somehow it's become ingrained in my head that running long is intimidating. That it's going to hurt. And I'm filled with dread. Nevermind that I had two awesome runs that really weren't that much … [Read more...]
Post-Sandy + mind strengthening run
Today I had 7 miles on the plan. It was the only day that I could get in a "long run". I had been cold all day, so I decided to run near home in case I got to warm from overdressing or didn't warm up enough and needed a jacket. (As it turns out, a half zip long sleeve and capris were exactly what I needed to wear.) Anyways, I wandered through my neighborhood, assessing the post Sandy state. As it turns out, most of us got very very lucky. The number of trees down was small compared to previous storms and the number of trees who had dead on hits on houses were small. Seriously, the majority of trees that came down fell in the only possible way they could have fallen and not done devastating damage. (This is not to say that the … [Read more...]
My run is sneaky!
After four days off running, I woke up to a cool, rainy day yesterday. While I usually love running in that weather, I hadn't had much sleep the night before and the grey made me cranky. (I'm a little bit stressed about keeping this stupid gecko alive. I swear I'm worse than when I had newborns.) Anyways, after dropping the kids off, I puttered around the house for a few minutes, making a grocery list and figuring out all random things I needed to pick up at the pet store. (Note to all considering a reptile: the animal was cheap, the stuff he needs, not so much. And I have live crickets and mealworms in my house. By choice.) Finally, I told myself I had to run a mile. There was no way I was going to come on this blog and tell … [Read more...]
No rhyme or reason
Sometimes I have amazing runs. Sometimes I have runs that completely suck. Some days my legs feel fresh, others not so much. On any given day, my stomach can rebel. Or not. There are certain factors that are likely to make a run better than others. Cool weather=good run. Rest days=happy legs. Eating right=happy tummy. All pieces of an equation that you try to put together to make a good run. And then you have a run that surprises you. It's warm out. You start kind of dehydrated. You've eaten enough tomatoes to feed a small country. It's so humid your elbows drip sweat. And you think "this run is going to suck". But somehow it doesn't. Your legs turn over smoothly. A faster than usual pace feels easy. Nothing hurts. At the end … [Read more...]
