Running and Confidence

I love strava. I knew I would when everyone was all over it and I wasn’t using it yet. I didn’t track my runs when I was pregnant so started with it after Louis. Such a good way to track miles. At the end of this post, you’ll see my last four weeks of workouts. Thanks to strava that was easy to throw in here.

I took a whole week off to give my hip that had been bothering me a rest and had Melody come over and do some work on it. Man did it hurt, but I needed it. I had a lot of stuff going on, well everywhere it seemed, but lot’s in my lower back, lower side of abs whatever muscle that is and hips. Melody working on it, paired with the week off really helped. She did a lot of trigger point and what I’m gonna call deep tissue. It’s feeling almost 100%. This is me encouraging you to not be afraid to take a week off if you need it. After my week off, it took me a good week or so to get back to feeling back to where I was but that’s no big deal. (And by the way, I’ve since had Melody come over to work on my achilles. Thankful to have found her. She knows her stuff and truly tries to get to the bottom of the problem and address it)

We’ve been trying to get out on the trails more and have been somewhere around once a week, which has been fun. Trails to me are so much more fun. Hard work in a different way, but so much nicer to your body once you’re used to them.

I was planning to race the firecracker 6 to see where I was speedwise. I had done two pretty good tempo runs two weeks in a row, that indicated I could do something around 6:40, but then with the week off for my hip, I was feeling kind of off. Instead of racing that, we went to Brown County, ran 15 miles on the trails the day before and then ran Firecracker for fun.

We started off around 8:00 min pace and somewhere around mile 3, decided to go with a fast finish, which proved to be a little challenging after 15 miles on the trails the day before. Harder for Glenn than I though, as he was pushing the double. AND he busted ass to get downtown by 8am with both of the boys pushing the double. (It’s always the days you want to get somewhere early that they want to sleep in) I had to go early to set up the Annex tent, so he met me at the start line where he showed up at exactly 8:03 after busting a 6:40 mile to make it. (We live around 3.5 miles from downtown where the start was)

Then this past weekend, I raced the Joseph Maley 5K. Wasn’t quite sure what I could do. They started a new thing where the have an “elite” start. I used “” because you have to be under 21 for female, 18 for male. So I went ahead and signed up for the elite start for a couple reasons- 1. I was certain I’d be under 21. 1. It started at 8:00, and the open race started at 8:30- this way I could get my race in first and then cool down with the family in the open race 2. I thought I might push myself harder running with all those fasties.

The race started on the track at IUPUI- and you do a lap to start and a lap to finish. Well, everyone went out blazing. I stayed in the very back of this crowd and still was running around 5:45 for the first quarter mile. I quickly checked myself. It was hard because I was already in the back and slowing down even more was kind of mentally challenging.

Splits- 6:19, 6:37, 6:26. Time: 20:06. I kind of became a baby during mile two- just holding on trying to not go slower than 6:45 at any point. Mile 3, I got it together a little bit. I think I had a good 15 seconds in there I could have shaved off if I’d decided to be a little tougher… but could have would have right? I didn’t. I’m trying to work on not being nervous for these kind of races- just do what I do and enjoy that I can work hard and what the end result is. My 5K PR is 19:24 on a hot day two years ago. Big goal for now is to break 19. But first, let me get my first post Lou sub 20. 🙂

And let me rave for a minute about the Joseph Maley Foundation.  I met with John and Maggie to talk about the race and Athletic Annex becoming a supporter of the race. Since then, they’ve blown me away with how awesome of an organization they really are. Check out what they’re doing. Seriously. And then go surround yourself with people like this, because they will lift you up. And we all need that.

I thought the plan was to then cool down with my family in the open race. We started somewhere in the middle of the crowd- around the 9 minute milers I’d say. Glenn starts speeding up to a 7:00 minute mile out the gate and I was like UMMMMM, hold bro. So I just let him go. I think he wanted to see what kind of time he could put out with the double. He ended up running around 21 minutes. Got bottle necked a bunch. All I know is I would have been a little pisses if he beat my time haha. Mostly because that would prove that I in fact was kind of being a baby.

Another subject- I have to just add this in regarding summer running. I will be the first to admit, I used to be very self conscious running in a sports bra unless I felt 100% with how my stomach looked. I would stand in front of the mirror and check it out from front and back to make sure the love handles weren’t too crazy and the jiggle wasn’t out of control. (This is all relative I know)

And even a few months ago after having Louis, I started thinking, I wonder if I will be in good enough shape to feel confident running in a sports bra this summer. (for me, theres no other way to do it on these crazy hot days). Somewhere in that time, I decided I just don’t care. I’m comfortable. I don’t have a flat stomach right now, I usually don’t. I most definitely have no definition of any sort of abs. We eat healthy and “clean” most of the time. But, I like cookies and I like beer. I try to make sure what we eat is good quality, but I don’t restrict. Because you only live once and if you live restricting what you eat to look good in a sports bra while you’re out for a run at 31, you’re gonna look back when you’re 80 thinking, man I should have ate more cookies.

I say all this because when I first looked at the picture above, I thought, ugh my stomach looks terrible. That is just where my head went. You feel me right? We’ve all been there. The natural thing would be to either use a different picture, not use that picture at all or crop out my stomach. Decided not to do any of that because that’s not real life is it.

I’m not using having a baby as an excuse to not care, but I’ll be damned if I feel bad about my body. This kid was housed in there for a good nine months. And even if he wasn’t- I’d be ok with what I’m working with. Thank you 30s for bringing a new, I don’t give a shit what you think I look like confidence. (MOST of the time- we’re all human here)

So when I’m not running you can catch my pushing a stroller drinking a two hearted. And I’ll never say no to a homemade cookie. (because I’m no fool)

Last four weeks:

07/12/15-07/19/15

Monday: Rest Day

Tuesday: 5 Mi with Double Stroller @ 9:50

Wednesday: 10.3 Mi downtown alone @ 8:24

Thursday: 4 Mi at Fit Livin’ Night

Friday: Probably Rest

Saturday: Red Eye Relay (Glenn and I are splitting up 55 miles)

Sunday: Rest

Total Mi: 50ish Miles

07/06/15- 07/11/15

Monday: Run with super pregnant Ashley @ 9:31 + 500 yard swim

Tuesday: 8 Mi with fast finish progression @ 7:40 (last three miles 7:18, 7:00, 6:27)

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 10.1 Mi @ 11:08 – Morgan Monroe trails with Glenn and Cadence

Friday: Circuit workout with my mom and sister in basement. 20 Min run, 10 min row, 10 min bike, trampoline

Saturday: 8 Mi – Joseph Maley 5K @ 6:26 with 2 mile warm up, 3 mile cool down

Sunday: 16 Mi with the whole family. Glenn pushed the Double. @ 8:13 (I did a little 4 mile progression at the end)

Total Mi: 49 Mi

06/29/15-07/05/15

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: 7 Mi Double Stroller @ 9:37

Thursday: 5.1 Mi Single Stroller @ 8:59

Friday: 15 Mi Brown County Trails @ 10:43

Saturday: 6 Mi Fire Cracker 6 @ 7:22 (Ran easy first 3, progression last 3) Glenn on the Double.

Sunday: Rest

Total Mi: 33 Mi

06/22/15-06/28/15

Monday: Swim 2,000 yards

Tuesday: Swim 1,500 yards

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: Test Run – 6 Mi @ 8:36

Friday: 10 Mi with Ashley and Allie @ 9:13

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 10 Mi with the whole family, Glenn on Double @ 8:44

Total Mi: 26 Mi