Running For Redemption

I'm just a girl trying to squeeze running into my jam packed life. I am a part-time mom, part-time wife, part-time employee and full-time ringmaster! My life is a circus.

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Thankful today and thankful everyday! Happy Thanksgiving! #blessed #thankful #familytime

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Plantar Fasciitis got me like...😐 Doc says easy for the next few days. It's tough being a toe striker with some seriously tight calves. Time to start making stretch and recovery a priority. Frustrating. I usually just push through knowing that I am not doing any long-term damage. But, I think it is time to run pain free. What's worked for you if you have struggled with this?

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Lighting up Holly Springs with some neon on my run today. Had an awesome run planned. Can't seem to slow it down. Ugh! 4.6 miles done. Felt good! I'm coming for you, 13.1.

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Positively Tuesday

Turn that frown upside down. Yesterday was one of those days where I was jonesing for a run and it just did not work out. Instead, I hopped on the spin bike for a few. It did not bring me the same joy that a 4 miler would have. However, I grumpily turned my legs and poured a few beads of sweat. Thankfully, I got in a beautiful, hilly, fun run thanks to my hubby picking up the babes today. He even had a pasta party waiting for me when I got home. 👊🏻 Side note: last night did inspire me to switch it up. I do miss spin. Maybe getting back to teaching is in my future. It sure would be different on this side of town. And I definitely need (and crave) more yoga in my life.

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Thankful for my amazing 9 miles this morning. Longest run since before Va Beach Half. I had my very first gel this morning. I repeat. I had my very first gel this morning. A big deal for me! Never thought these were necessary for half training. If I am completely honest, I still don't. However, if you are like me and can barely think about a 100 calorie banana before a long run, you need to seek nutrition elsewhere. These are pretty nifty and convenient. I know--Welcome to 2016. I think I am going to like it here. 😜 By the way, we live in a beautiful town. You folks running the HS half are in for a treat. I was excited to enjoy our local scenery and even more excited about the company.

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Comfort Zone: In or Out

Hey! Happy Sunday! Today was for 5 miles. Last mile was straightaways on a track! So I started thinking--not unusual for us runners, right? Am I running too fast? My first mile was in 7:34. I feel like I don't have as much give as some other runners, since I am really only running a solid 3x a week. I have days with zero running that are taking the place of easy runs. Today, I was aiming for 8:15 pace. But, I felt good and to be quite honest I was inside all day yesterday. The weather was amazing today. Ok, but I think that we should always be pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone. However, running injury free is equally as important. So, as I continued running, I just figured I'd see where this goes. This is somewhat new territory for me. I have not really run consistent miles sub 8 min pace for more than a 5k. This is relatively new. Actually, miles over a 5k at all are relatively new for me. Back in June when I committed to training for a half (giving up one time consuming hobby for another), I knew it may be challenging to get back to where I was prior to two pregnancies. I hadn't run consistently since I was about 6 months pregnant with Alexa. She was one when I dove back into the running thing. And, it has literally been about 6 years since I ran anything over 4 miles. Eek! So, I am out of my comfort zone! Yes, yes I am. How am I supposed to get faster if I don't run faster? The important piece is that we have to listen to our bodies. Evaluate. Evaluate. Evaluate. I personally evaluate every mile. I set a goal at every mile. Very informally--obvi. Do I want to make it slower, faster or consistent? Or, in some cases--don't die. I ended up running all miles under 8 min pace today. After my run today, my heal was hurting a bit. It hurt after some intervals on Friday too. But, feels ok after a day of rest. It is time to step up my 'kicking some plantar fasciitis ass game!' Anyway, my body felt strong. Here's to staying comfortably out of my comfort zone! Are you In or Out?

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Making it fit...

Hi! This one is going to be short and sweet. I have committed to a solid 3 to 4 days a week for running. I try to make it every other day since I get kind of antsy when I go longer than that. I'm feeling pretty antsy this morning at home with my four year old trying to 'do it all!' He wants a bagel, wants to snuggle, needs a drink, wants a movie on. I'm trying to get my vpn up and running on my new laptop so I can get some work done today. Waiting on IT. Stripping the sheets and tidying up before the housekeeper comes to clean--I had to sub out something!! I will do my best to get 3 easy miles in this afternoon before my packet pickup this evening for a fun 10k tomorrow morning! I did a speed workout on the treadmill on Tuesday. That is the last time I ran. Ah! Going a little cray cray. Just wanted to remind you that it is not always easy to make it all fit. But, we make it work!!! Happy Fall Friday, ya'll!

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Racing as a spectator sport

Good morning! Happy, Happy Saturday! Or, as Zachary refers to it-'family day!' So last night Rob and I stayed up until about 3am binge watching The Blacklist. We have not done that in a very long time. Binge drinking on the other hand...I kid, I kid. 😐 Anywhosies, we both were up early this morning. About 6:30am, ouch. Rob headed out for a nice 6 miler and I took the kiddies to spectate a local 5k for our Police Officers, which my awesome running buddy was participating in. Does anyone else get super emotional when spectating? Gosh! I have not been to a ton of races as a spectator (aside from high school and college racing). One of the first races I attended as a spectator was the City of Oaks Marathon while I was pregnant with Zachary. I stood at the finish line doing the 'silent cry!' I chocked it up to my hormones and the fact that it would probably be a while before I got back to running. Well, we all know I was an emotional wreck a few weeks ago as I crossed the finish line. But, today standing with my two babies cheering on the runners as they finished their races was awesome. As the first runner came into sight, blue flashing lights leading the way, my heart started racing. I felt so excited for that runner. My eyes started to well up. I turned Zachary and Alexa. Start cheering! Zachary was silent and Alexa clapper her hands. I started screaming!!! Let's go, finish strong. Then a few minutes later, the first female. let's go girl! You've got this! Am I the only one that loves this?! Oh my gosh! I get so pumped watching runners from that first runner, the police officers in uniform, the military guys running with a pack that probably was almost my body weight, to the walkers supporting our local police officers! Zachary was handing out high fives soon enough. We even cheered on some younger kids. I think he is looking forward to getting out there. I will probably be doing the silent cry the whole race when the time comes for us to run a 5k together. Thank you to all of the runners today for the inspiration and motivation. And, thank you to all of our police officers everyday for all that you do.

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Just me and the trail for a fun interval filled 3.5 mile run this evening. I am not sure what my 5k pace is, but I ran at 5k pace for three minutes with a 90 second recovery. Fun stuff. Pretty hot. My music was not the greatest and my shorts were the worst. We had some serious riding. Thankfully, I was the only one on the trail. Not pretty. But, felt strong.

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A little Wednesday motivation.

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Bringing back the visor.

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Squeezing and Shifting

Hello! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone is squeezing in some time for themselves this week. I can tell that crisp fall air is right around the corner here in NC-gets me hopeful for some awesome running weather. Ah! Me, running, fall weather. Gets me giddy just thinking about it. But, it's not here yet. Definitely. Not. Here. Yet. It was a hot one for sure. So, I want you to know that I wrote a long-that may be slightly understated, post this weekend as promised in my first post about the 'gory details' about the half marathon a few weeks ago. I wrote the post during nap time on Saturday and was interrupted by our littlest one waking and ready to play. Alexa is on an Elmo kick. I gave her my phone to watch Elmo's song over and over and over. And, she must have hit something that deleted the draft. Eek! That sucks. With that being said, I'm sure you all were over that and ready to move on anyway. The bottom line is that I did not take care of myself the day before the race. In my daily reality, my family-my amazing husband and two pretty awesome kids are my world. They are my number one priority. My job is second. And, little old running takes third. However, I learned in order to reach goals, these priorities must shift. If Rob is taking care of the kids-putting the kids in spot numero uno, I can move running or job up to hold that spot. We all know this concept. It should be common sense. However, it can be difficult to put anything for yourself in that top spot-especially when you have little ones. Tonight my amazing hubby picked up the kids and got dinner ready so I can get the wiggles out with a nice 3 mile tempo run and some acceleration straightaways on the track. Total 4 miles. Felt strong, thirsty and hot. Whew! It was a hot one. So thankful for my run. And, I came home happy to my happy little family.

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4 mile RUNch. Hot and Hilly. Getting back to it! #redtag #roadtoredemption

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Welcome to blogging?

Hi! My name is Jen and I recently decided to try out this ‘blogging thing!’ Through some research, I have found lots of running blogs, lots of mom blogs, lots of running mom blogs. But, the blog I have been looking for, I have not found–which does not mean that it doesn’t exist. However, I believe there are few people that have mastered what I am looking to accomplish. I am a full-time employee with pretty typical 'in the office hours.’ I have an amazing husband and two pretty awesome kids. I recently ran my first half marathon in 6 years and I am ready to turn this running thing on and up. But, how am I going to work full time and not leave my family high and dry? This is my attempt. And, I am going to document it for all of those Moms & Dads that are trying to do the same. (This blog is not only for runners or parents. All are welcome!) First, I want you all to know and realize that I am adding this 'blogging thing’ to my already chaotic life. So, I will do my best keep my grammatical errors to a minimum. I promise they will annoy me more than they annoy you. However, this 'blogging thing’ has to be speedy. So, autocorrect may give us some laughs. And, we will all have to be okay with that! Got it?! Next, there is a reason that I am turning this on and up! I will blog about this in another post–coming soon with lots of the gory details. Here are the cliff notes; I had a solid 8 or 9 miles during my half marathon-pace between 8 and 8:20. Held on until 10 and then crashed and burned and struggled (but, at the end triumphed-kinda) the last 5k. I want lots of runners to learn from my amateur move-nutrition, nutrition, nutrition). I also want my redemption race. So, here is my blog. Here lies my road to redemption. #dropthemic #roadtoredemption #redemptionrunner #motivated