The recovery week is beautiful. Although it’s funny, during this “down time” I had five, nine mile runs on the schedule. (I broke them up a little differently than originally scheduled, taking no rest day and shortening Wednesday & Friday’s runs a bit)  I’ve kept them all around 8:00-8:20 pace and it felt good. It can be difficult to think of how much faster and harder the actual race will be when you train so much slower for an entire week, but I know it does a body good and I enjoyed all of the carefree running.

This coming week, the training is pretty intense and the long run is pretty scary. What’s important is, it will keep me honest about the work I need to do to get where I want to be at the finish line at Shamrock.This is my last big push before tapering. I fully intend on working my hardest this week to ensure that my body is physically ready to take on the challenge and that mentally I know I can do it.

The race is going to hurt. I can already hear the mental games that will go down and I’m already working on the positive mind games I will play back.

Here’s a look at what I was up to last week and what’s ahead for next:

Rest Week:

Monday – 9 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Tuesday – 9 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Wednesday – 6 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Thursday – 6 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Friday – 7 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Saturday – 9 Mi at 7:30-8:21

Total Miles: 46

*You’ll notice, the pace range is the same on easy days for the rest week and the build week, however on the rest week I generally keep it closer to 8:00-8:15 and build week I keep it closer to 7:30-7:50.

I like having the option to speed up or slow down in those ranges though, in case I’m having an off day or just feel like picking it up. 

Next Week:

Monday – 10 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Tuesday – 10 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Wednesday – 10 Mi, 6 at 7:03
Thursday – Rest/XT
Friday – 10 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Saturday – 20 Mi, 5 X 3 Mi at MP (7:26)

Total Miles: 60

Halfway through the week Glenn emailed me with a marathon pace workout for the long run.

It looked like this: 

Joe, Barb, Tom & I before the race.

Joe & I finishing the 5K

•  My legs were fatigued because I ran my tempo on Wednesday way faster than the plan called for
• Was scheduled for 6 at 7:14- but despite a terrible nights sleep I felt good and ended up adding a mile to the tempo and picked up the pace quite a bit after two miles.
  Mile 1- Warm up
  Mile 2- 7:14
  Mile 3- 7:14
  Mile 4- 7:08
  Mile 5- 7:03
  Mile 6- 6:53
  Mile 7-6:40
  Mile 8- 6:53
  Mile 9- Cool Down

  
  

• At the 1.5 MP part of the ladder workout, I thought I’d have some fun and speed up my marathon pace to 7:19 and add some hills in the “break” the run up even more. Based on my early leg fatigue, I probably should have just left the speed and old incline alone…there was still a lot of running to do
• I didn’t eat enough
• I took way too much time in between my BoMF run and my actual training run- a good hour at least. I should have taken off soon after the run… OR gone with the original plan and ran early… OR had a bite to eat and waited to run in the afternoon outside once the sun warmed everything up.

I’ve never recorded my miles so precisely until this training, but I’m almost certain it’s the highest mileage I’ve ever ran in a week. 58 for the week so far- and I think I’ll do 3-4 recovery miles tomorrow, which would put me over 60 for the week.

While I’m not totally discouraged, it did feel like a bit of a workout fail. This week was a lot of miles at decent paces on some days, quite the difference from my oh so cozy rest week last week. Moving on though.

As time went on, I started to realize I wasn’t willing to give the time necessary to execute everything that could and should be done with the job. There is a lot of exciting stuff going on right now, including the launch of a new team with Wheeler Mission, a potential new race and the list goes on. The position deserves more than I can give right now.

I love what I do with Back on My Feet (communications, PR, event planning, etc.) and am very passionate about our mission. I have learned a lot and grown so much, both personally and professionally. On top of that, I have been given the opportunity to meet some incredible people along the way.

Some of my favorite BoMF Memories:

Running James’ first marathon with him in 2011.  – Read about it here.

This was before a 5 miler I ran with Joe, one of our very first BoMF Members. Marshall was born three weeks after this race and sadly Joe passed away three weeks after that. I’m so thankful I had the opportunity to run one of his last races with him. We miss him dearly.  Here is the BoMF post I wrote after he passed – Remembering Joe.

Some of the amazing people of BoMF, before the Carmel Marathon last year.

And here I am back to work, at the Back on My Feet 42K Relay- post Marshall. I look happy and content… and  really I was… for the most part. BUT I had a break down in my my friend Emily’s kitchen when stopping by to borrow a table for the race the night before. I had been so busy planning this race that I felt like I hadn’t spent near enough time with Marshall. It was hard. I’m still glad I tried.

Needless to say, My heart was torn. 

Torn. Because every time I leave the house for work, I linger around (ask the babysitters) and don’t really feel like leaving. At the same time, when I do go in to the office and have a great meeting or get excited about a new project, I come home feeling rejuvenated and excited about what’s going on. And also excited to see Marshman.

Then… we have the days when I’m home all day, and I’m ready for a drink the second Glenn walks in the door. That being said, I’ve got a lot on my mind when I’m home with him all day- constantly trying to buy time and get work done while he naps and feeling stressed knowing what I need to get done once he’s in bed.

There are a million different things I could say about this decision. A million positives and negatives for both working or staying home in my situation. But I’ve made my decision to stay home with Marshall and as much as I might have doubts sometimes, I have to go full steam and be confident that this is what’s right for our family.

I hear people all of the time tell me, they wish they could stay home. I understand a lot of people just can’t, BUT at the same time, by no means was staying home something that was a snap of the fingers, easy decision over here. Sure, I work nonprofit and by no means am the bread winner in this family, but it still effects us financially in a pretty big way. (we are and have been making changes. we cut our cable, (no dvr… ahh!), and are cutting out other extras we don’t need (without being crazies- no seriously I read a blog about a guy who hadn’t ate out at a restaurant in 4 years… um no). And lastly, it sure as heck effects me emotionally. I’m going to miss my work. I’m going to miss having the alone time that you get when you drive in to work… ALONE. It’s gonna be a transition. 

I so clearly remember, three weeks after Marshall was born, swinging on the front porch swing with him, while babysitting our niece Giovanna, feeling completely sleep deprived  thinking- this is not what I want. I do not want to spend all day, every day taking care of kids, I want some freedom, some me time.

I’m not going to say that I went back to work or that I will soon be staying home from work to sacrifice for Marshall. Because really, we all know that Marshall would be just fine weather I stay home or not. If I take an honest look at why I  went back to work in the first place and why I have now decided to stay home. It was for me then and it is for me now. Because I know if my family is going to be happy, I have to be happy myself.

I had hoped that in going back to work I could find that perfect balance, but what I ended up being was fearful of (and still am) blinking and wondering where it all went. I know that will happen either way.

In general I enjoy a busy schedule, it makes me feel satisfied to check things off my list everyday. Which is why I was excited to go back to work and check off my BIG LIST everyday. After all, I’d have that flexible schedule. Why not get up at 4am and knock out a few hours of work before the rest of the world rises and then once 7am rolls I’ve already accomplished a lot.

Turns out I like the thought of being busy more than actually being busy. Yes, I need purpose to be happy, but not necessarily “busy purpose” and being busy doesn’t mean you have purpose.

It also turns out, I like to sleep. Now, if becoming a mom has taught me one thing, it’s that you CAN function and be productive on a lot less sleep than you think. But I don’t want to live like that. I just don’t.

Now, what I REFUSE to do is get stuck in a rut and get depressed about being home all the time. 

There are organizations and issues I am passionate about, but I know I can’t give the attention I’d like to give them if I’m so busy, not sleeping a lot and running around checking things off my list all the time. 

Believe it or not, I’m also excited to start cooking more (happens about 1-2 times a month right now, Glenn pretty much cooks dinner every night… don’t hate me, he actually likes to cook, but will very much appreciate me stepping up in the department). 

I hear people say all the time- don’t waste your time always making sure you have a clean house- embrace the messy and spend that time with your kids. Well guess what, if I’m going to be home – I can do both. I’m generally a much happier person when my house is clean and orderly. I get similar endorphin’s getting my house clean as I do running 10 miles. 

And then there’s the running. We all know I like to run. I like to workout and yes I’m going to be one of those stay at home moms at the gym and target in the middle of the day on a weekday. I’m really grateful I get to be one of those moms. 

And you know the kids club at LA Fitness will be my saving grace most days. Two hours of childcare. Those ladies are going to grow to hate me and know me as the woman who leaves her kid in there for exactly 1 hour and 59 minutes. And for $10 extra a month on the membership? Done. 

Basically, what I’m saying is, I’m going to try my hardest to kick ass at this stay at home thing. I know it won’t always be easy but I will set goals for myself and our family and it’s gonna be alright. 

Let me know if you know any fun, awesome stay at home moms in Indy- I’d love to connect. 

Marshall on a mission to knock those blocks over. How many times a day will I play this game in the next 6 months? Here we go….

Lot’s of alone time with you and I coming up buddy. Are you ready?

Anyway, I’ve got 5 or 6 more weeks on the job and lot’s of running going on, so I’m going to embrace the busy for a few more weeks.

The extent of my training for this race was really making sure to get in a 15, 17 and 20 miler. All the runs in between were what I had time for between balancing Marshall, not sleeping, going back to work and life in general. I did manage to squeeze in a handful decent tempo runs with some speed and that felt good. I was running around 35 miles a week on a good week and there were days my confidence was high and I thought, just maybe I’ll PR.

I had all kinds of good Back on My Feet stuff going on race week– lot’s of great news piece from NBC and Fox 59, not to mention that many of our Members would be running the farthest distance of their lives on Saturday. (check out the NBC piece on James, who I ran this race with last year.) My point is- I was pleasantly distracted with the hustle and bustle of race week preparations for work.

Here’s the Back on My Feet Indy crew leading all 10,000 runners in the Serenity Prayer pre-race. This is what it’s all about. I’m in the blue and black hat shoving the microphone in Residential Member Michael’s face. Last year we had issues with the runners hearing us and I wanted to make sure they heard us loud and clear. Thanks Michael.

Ideally, I would have ran it this past Saturday, three weeks out, but I had our big Back on My Feet race that day and I was absolutely exhausted on Sunday so it wasn’t happening then.  I planned on taking a day off work this week to recoup from the relay and figured Tuesday would be my best bet.

We have no babysitter on Tuesday’s. My mom was coming up to Indy to do stuff with their new house, so I thought maybe I’d run 10 with the stroller and then drop Marshall off at my Mom’s and finish out the other 10 sans stroller.

At 9:30am Marshall was ready for his first nap, so I thought, if I’m gonna do even 10 with him, I better go now. 86th street is my turn around on the monon for a 10 mile run. At 41 minutes, I was 5 miles in and felt good. I figured I might as well go up 2.5 more miles and that way I could knock out 15 and only have 5 left when I drop him off. BUT, the farther I ran, the more I just wanted to do it all with the stroller and hang it up for the day.

Marshall woke up around mile 6. Oh no, that is early on in a 20 mile run. I trucked on past the Monon center at mile 7.5. Marshall still awake but just hanging out. I needed to go north 2.5 more miles. My hope was that I could at least get back to the monon center and if I needed to stop and feed or change him I could. I’d be 12.5 miles in and it would be a good break point.

Miles 9-12. He started losing it at mile 9. Oh boy. I turned around at mile 10 only to realize I’d get to run straight into a nice headwind the whole way home. Baby crying, headwind, legs starting to get a little tired, 2 little hills. Yikes. There are essentially only 2 hills on the entire monon and they are right around miles 11 and 12 on a 20 mile out and back for me. I probably looked like a mess. Struggling pushing the stroller up the hill, while trying to stuff a pacifier into a screaming baby’s mouth. If the people who saw me knew I was attempting 20 with this baby, they’d think I was nuts. Mile 12 turned out to be my second fastest mile as I was trying to book it to the monon center.

Marshman at mile 10. In between a freak out session. Half way done buddy.

Literally 2 minutes before approaching the center, he calmed down and went into a trans like he might fall back asleep- so ON I WENT. I thought I’d try to at least make it to the bathrooms and benches at 96th street. By that point, he was out cold. 6 miles to go. The nice thing about all my worries about him crying and what not- it kind of distracted me from obsessing over how I was feeling at each mile.

Whenever I run a far distance north on the monon, I always just think- get me back to 86th street and I can handle the last 5 miles. Then whenever I get to 86th street, it’s – get me to Broad Ripple and I can handle the last 2.5.

OUCH. Those last 2.5 were freaking hard. (take a look at my last 2 mile splits. I worked for those slower miles… they hurt bad) My legs were shot, my body was tired from pushing  into the headwind and I was ready to stop. Not to mention my water bottle spilled and I was without water for the last 3 miles… unwilling to stop at McDonalds to fill up. (Are you kidding me? Stop? Baby is sleeping. If I stop this stroller, he would surely wake up.)

We made it over the Kessler Bridge and Marshall woke up with one mile to go. I could handle a screaming baby for 1 mile if I had to. But he just stared at me bright eyed the rest of the way. We finished in 2:44:36 and I knew my last two miles were my slowest, but I didn’t care, I just wanted to finish without slowing down to a 10 minute mile.

The lactic acid build up in my legs once I finished felt the same as when I’ve finished some marathons. It was intense. I scarfed a banana and some of my morning smoothie while I fed baby boy. So happy and proud to have finished 20 with a stroller at a great pace. It was really rewarding and special to finish my first post baby 20 miles with Marshall. We’ve essentially been running together since day one and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. He ran the Monumental with my last year and although he won’t be running it with me this year, he trained with me! I love our special running times together.

I’m going to run the Monumental on November 3rd. I don’t think I can PR, but I do think I can run around a 3:30-3:40 if I have a good race. Although we won’t go back to Boston anytime soon, I’d like to at least qualify as a goal. I don’t really have the training or miles in to realistically PR, but I’m going to believe it’s possible and we’ll just have to wait and see what kind of game both my body and mind bring to the table for the race. And I can’t help but already be praying that Marshall doesn’t have me up all night the night before. 

Stats from the 20 today: 

Splits:

Mile 1 – 8:37
Mile 2 – 8:02
Mile 3 – 8:08
Mile 4 – 8:25
Mile 5 – 8:11
Mile 6 – 8:07
Mile 7 – 8:17
Mile 8 – 8:08
Mile 9 – 8:03
Mile 10 – 7:59
Mile 11 – 8:10
Mile 12 – 7:56
Mile 13 – 8:04
Mile 14 – 7:59
Mile 15 – 8:14
Mile 16 – 7:52
Mile 17 – 8:00
Mile 18 -8:36
Mile 19 – 8:39
Mile 20 – 8:55

The weird thing about running this time, is usually when I go out for a stroller run, I do 3-5 miles at around a 9 minute mile. Never a serious run. Before today the farthest stroller run I had done was 6 miles. Who said we couldn’t do it. 

Time: 2:44:36 
Pace 8:14
Hydration & Energy: 1.5 mini bottles of water (not enough), one honey stinger and one citrus GU.

If you are a seasoned marathon runner, I highly recommend running a marathon with someone who has never gone the distance. It is truly a rewarding, fun and real experience. You know what it meant to finish your first marathon. You know the feelings you had when you crossed the finish line. What better a feeling than to experience that with someone else.

James and I running with our friend Dave, who we met at mile 8 and ran with until mile 20. We never found Dave after the race but hope he had a great last 6.2 miles!

James has overcome so much in life and today he uses running as a means to move forward in life. The week before the marathon Mary Milz, reporter for WTHR came out and interviewed James – she did an amazing job portraying his story and you can read about it here!

After the finish- time 4:46, which destroyed the goal of breaking 5 hours!

Needless to say the news coverage about James and his journey to the Monumental Marathon was very helpful in our journey to finish 26.2 miles. The whole race, random strangers would run by and say “your the guy!” “way to go- you are an inspiration to me” “keep it up man, I saw you on the news”. There was even a random lady in a car waiting in traffic that yelled out and called him by name to cheer him on. We were overwhelmed by the support of the community and can’t thank Mary Milz enough for sharing the story with Indianapolis.

I am amazed at how great James felt the whole race, it is a true testament to the importance of solid training. Our Program Director, Brian Meyer did a great job putting together the training plan for the team and the hard work paid off on race day.

James, with his hard earned medal. Photograph – Green Sky Media

Now for my favorite part of a marathon race report! I either do a section break down of the ups and the downs or my favorite moments. This time around, I think I’ll touch on my favorite moments:

Full marathoners with Chris Thronberry- one of our amazing volunteers with sick photography skills. photograph – Green Sky Media

Since I last posted, we ran the Flying Pig Marathon in Ohio on May 1, as Lindsey blogged about the other day. It was fun to run the marathon with Erik, even though he took off at mile 10. It is always fun to experience someone’s first distance attempt. It was a great weekend! It was fun as well to run with Lindsey the last six miles, despite my lack of food attack at mile 23. All in all a good marathon.

The following weekend was the Back on My Feet 5k, which was the first timed 5K they ran and was in conjunction with the Indy Mini downtown. They were loving the massive crowds! I’ve got to say it is pretty cool to see 40,000 plus people at the start and all together, even though the actual course sucks I think. So that was a great time to see all of them racing. My plan was to run the 5k with Mitch but we were separated at the start. I guess I ran the weave through the slow moving traffic a little too fast. I ended up running an 18:43. So that was pretty cool. The legs definitely felt tired from the previous week. The only thing that kinda sucked about the race was I ran under someone else’s bib so I can’t get any time glory…oh well guess I will just need to run another 5K.

The next weekend found me in the back woods of the Ozark National Forest of Arkansas doing the Syallamo’s Revenge 50 mile mountain bike race. Let me just start by saying that the first 27 miles of this race were by far the absolute most difficult trail I have ever been on. The race started down in Blanchard Caverns and went straight up a steep fire road for about 1.5 miles upon which time you entered he$$, also known as the trailhead. I knew it was going to be difficult riding but I would have never imagined the amount of greasy roots, up hill and down hill rock gardens, and mud that I encountered in the woods.

Greg, Lindsey’s Dad, and I decided beforehand that we were going to ride together. I usually leave him at the start of these things and do my own racing but it was actually a lot of fun to have someone to suffer with…even though we were moving slower than I prefered…no big deal though.

All in all, Syallamo’s was a great time. A hard time but a great time nonetheless.

The next two weekends were spent hanging with our respective families in Crown Point and Bloomington for my Mom’s birthday and then Mother’s Day.

May was definitely a hectic month but a fun month. I don’t think that we would have it any other way….we wouldn’t know what to do if we didn’t have something going on every weekend

I’ll see if I can do a better job of keeping up with this…I do have triathlon news to talk about now.

-Glenn

I had the privilege of running with Eric Arnold, who is a member of team Progress House. During the training process I have had the opportunity to run with a good handful of the guys on the team- each one of them special to me. On race morning I had pretty much decided that I would be running with Eric for the race.

I honestly had the most fun in a race that I have ever had…. and I have ran a lot of races. For the first five miles, I was running back and forth between different team members while taking pictures and videos. After those first five- I decided to stop being the crazy girl with loud footsteps, a backpack and a camera sprinting back and forth between runners and stuck to running right with Eric the rest of the way.

We worked hard, we laughed, we met new friends and learned a little bit about what it means to be a real runner. You have to OWN the hills! (Right Eric?!) Other than the tiny incline the team used to think of as a mountain, we hadn’t been training on hills.  If you are familiar with Indianapolis at all, you know that there are no hills downtown! Well, there were quite a few long, gradual hills waiting for us up in Carmel. We all marched right up those hills like we were born to do it.

A couple of highlights from my race with Eric-
1. The sarcasm & humor through the whole race- even when it was painful
2. Running with Brian Donnelly for the first 7 miles
3. Seeing all of the BoMF supporters along the course working water stops and cheering us on
4. When I told him we were doing great and nobody was passing us- and as soon as I said that it seemed as though herds of runners came stomping past
5. The friend we met at mile 10
6. Finally catching up to John & Guy – and working together to finish a strong race
7. Sprinting it in on the last straight away
8. The hugs & tears at the finish line
9. Eric donating his hard earned medal to Medals for Mettles without thinking twice about it
10. Cheering on our teammates once we were done

Check out this amazing video that one of our Non-Res team members put together honoring team HVAF and their accomplishment in completing the race! 

One of my favorite pictures from the day!

The Black Keys in Indy June 10, that is the night before Back on My Feet Indy tries their luck at a half marathon in Carmel…so that should make for an awesome weekend!!

Eddie Vedder solo on the Uke in early July @ the Fox in St. Louis with a couple other of Pearl Jam freaks. PJ releated roadtrips are always a plus.

Follow that with the aformentioned Decemberists in early August, and to round it all out will be The Avett Brothers in October.

Snuggled in between that folk rock/bluegrass jem of The Decemberists and The Avett Brothers is the possible weekend Pearl Jam festival. Nothing is official yet but the current rumor is that Pearl Jam will headling a “festival like” 3 day concert event @ Alpine Valley on Labor Day weekend. The internet is already a buzz as Mudhoney has announced Canadian tour dates around this time as the opener for Pearl Jam. One can only dream that the rumors become reality.

Lindsey will be joining me for everything except the Pearl Jam related activities. She lost her ticket to those after a sleeping incident at a Pearl Jam concert in DC in June 2008. I have never seen anything like it.

So my spur of the moment concert decision was to go the see Arcade Fire on Wednesday with Butters and some friends. Lindsey and I had talked about going but decided against since tickets were $50 and we didn’t really know Arcade Fire music that much. But Wednesday afternoon, Butters called me saying his buddy had an extra I could have for cheap…so I said why not I’ve heard good things about the show and have always enjoyed what I did hear.

Man was I glad that I went, they freaking ROCKED it hard on Wednesday. Great set, great energy. It was pretty cool to see 8 people stage trading instruments depending on the song. Arcade Fire was well worth it on Wednesday and I am know the proud owner of at least one Arcade Fire CD.

Hope to see everyone out at the Lawn over the summer enjoying the music.

-Glenn

Here is why and how I find myself making excuses….Monday, Wednesday, Friday the alarm goes off at 4:45am and we get to practice at 5:30.  Even though the runs are 1-4 miles, it’s still 6:45 by the time I get home and I’ve lost motivation to run or workout before work, and then I tell myself… at least I did something. And don’t even try to get this girl to do her own runs on Thursdays.  On Thursdays I get to Legacy practice with the kids at 3:00pm and am there until 6:00…. on my feet for over two hours, running/walking/yelling at kids the get their butts moving. Since most kids do a run/walk, 9 miles takes every bit of 2 hours and once you calculate stretching, announcements and the whole deal… you are quickly at three hours.

So now we’ve also decided to do a weekly “office” run.  Beth wants to train for the half marathon some of our Back on My Feet team members will do in June. I’m going to do her long runs with her, which I am really excited about!  I love being with people when they cross off an accomplishment in their running journey.  Last Friday, we set out to do 6 miles, which was her farthest distance to date. I decided to just wing the route and base it on time and how many blocks we ran.  Of course I wanted to make sure we overshot the distance instead of going under, so we ended up doing 6.8 miles, which felt awesome… and next week we’ll run 8.  Yay!  She’s addicted already.

So between all of this awesomeness I’ve gotten myself involved in- I just need to figure out how to make time for some “me” runs. I LOVE sharing the experience with other people, so if someone I know wants to run with me…YES – when and where… I’m there. 

I think I need to make myself a promise and commit to saving three times a week for me… a long run, a speed workout and a strength training day. I can balance it all, I just have to commit.

Regardless of when and how I get my runs in, one thing holds true whether I am running alone or with other people I am building relationships with…. I am doing what I was meant to be doing. I am so fortunate to be given the opportunity to share my love and passion with so many wonderful people.