On Friday, we did get our first babysitter for a night out since Russ was born! We’ve both been out separately but not out together and left all three boys at home. We checked out Tinker Street and Livery. Got appetizer and drinks at both. Both very good but I think I’d got back to Livery again first. Food was equally as good at Tinker, but they are only beer & wine and I really liked sitting at the bar at Livery.

I just started the week with a nice and easy 8 mile run here in on the hills of Bloomington and and trying to decide when we’ll head home. Nobody sleeps good here (except Russ- he slept like a champ last night) Big Lou, however wasn’t in bed until 9pm and was up at 5am. That is 5-6 less hours of sleep than his normally “I love sleep” self gets. PLUS he never napped yesterday, so he’s about as pleasant as a 2 year old on that lack of sleep can be, but he’s still a loose cannon.

Here’s what the past week in workouts looked like:

Monday: Rest Day – Rainy Day Home with the Boys.

Tuesday: 8 Mi Total with 5K Time Trial on Treadmill (21:11 for the 5K- 6:56, 6:49, 6:44 down to 6:15) Looking back I started this workout too slow, but I was worried I wouldn’t be able to hang on if I went out faster. I had it in my to break 21 but set it up a little too slow. Next time! (re-checking my fitness with this every other week!)

Wednesday: 6 Mi Easy on the Monon

Thursday: 1000 Swim – super tired today

Friday: 13.1 Mi on the Treadmill. It was windy out and I really just wanted to read my kindle and zone out listening to podcasts so treadmill made sense.

Saturday: 7 Mi on rolling hills – Treadmill -3.0 up to 5.5 incline throughout the run

Sunday: 3 Mi Easy + 500 swim

Total Mileage: 37 Mi + 1,500 Swim

On another note, I’m looking into getting a babysitter on the regular once a week, because the work from home, stay at home mom thing is getting to be a little tough. I’m able to get done what I need to get done each week, but I’m not left with any time to get more creative and dive deeper into things I want to do with the podcast.

More than finding the time when the craziness of the boys settle, (naptime, after workouts at the y, after bedtime) it’s that when there is time, I want to put my feet up and not think and my brain feels like mush, so the productivity is so low that it’s not even worth it at that time.

Now I just need to decide what day of the week to find someone to watch the boys! Wednesdays perhaps?!

OH and look- here I am quoted in a Runner’s World article about running and pregnancy! Thanks Teal for including me in your write up!

Are you guys all caught up on last weeks podcast with Mary Katharine Ham? It’s a good one! We talk about her career in political journalism, what it’s like being a regular contributor on the national news,  (she currently works for CNN) and we also talk about the tragic loss of her husband in 2015 when he lost his life in a bike accident while she was 7 months pregnant. She talks about how she held on to the possibility of a happy life even though she was walking through a horrific situation. She is one strong momma for her two little girls and I was honored to have the privilege of talking with her about everything.

Listen to the episode HERE – and while you’re at it- share it with a friend!  

As Glenn was heading out the door later than usual at 8:30 this morning, I stopped him- knowing that we were leaving in the next 5-10 minutes to get Marshall to pre-school and said “HEY, if you would leave 5 minutes later and just help me load these kids up in the car, that would really help my Monday morning and also help us get there on time.” I feel like that would have been the obvious thing to do, but sometimes you gotta shout it out. AMIRIGHT?

Also, I have a confession. I had a glass of wine last night. I’m still committed to the mostly no booze in January, but here’s the deal- I was feeling ansy- probably about it being Sunday night. The Sunday night blues that come even when there’s no reason for them. I wanted to relax and decided a glass of wine would do the trick and it did. Glenn was all shaking his head, but he’s still in the game- 4 days in!

I had a 60 minute run with a 20 minute fast finish scheduled for this weekend, but the legs were not feeling it, so I saved it for today.

I started the run off feeling pretty great. Like I was sure I would get real comfortable 30 minutes in and be ready to run hard for those last 20. NEGATIVE. I warmed up around a 9:00 mile for 10 minutes and slowly started speeding up until I reached an 8:00 minute mile 35 minutes into the run. Going into the run, I wasn’t sure what “fast finish” would be to me where I am right now. It’s a slow progress to get back to where I was. I was heavy breathing at that 8:00 minute mile. Grrrrrrr. With 20 minutes to go I sped up to a 7:30 mile (which felt like 6:45) and held on there for 10 minutes, took a 30 second breather and finished off 5 more minutes between 7:08-7:15, cooling down the last 5 minutes of the 60.

The run wasn’t super discouraging, it could of been, but I choose for it not to be. I mean I was a little annoyed that the effort felt so challenging. (I was huffing and puffing and grunting up a storm those last 5 minutes). I feel as though I’m in better shape than what I felt during the workout. I’m definitely a far way from where I was this summer and where I want to be, but this workout should serve as a good reminder that whether we are in peak shape or “just getting back at it” shape, there are days when things just feel off and the speed isn’t there. And that’s ok.

I’m gonna ride the bike for 60 minutes tomorrow and am trying a Barre class at Liverite fitness with some Athletic Annex ladies, so that should be fun. I do plan on being hella sore after the barre class!

Who’s a regular at Barre classes? They are kind of expensive and I have a hard to committing to that when there are so many great free classes sort of similar at the Y.

I’ll go ahead and call my younger sister out – she is the queen of excuses and she knows it. It’s not usually “I don’t have time” it’s that “I’m lazy, I don’t want to”. Ok, well at least she’s honest.

She says she doesn’t believe in endorphins. I don’t buy it.

I realize that coming from a  “stay at home mom” (I really don’t prefer that title but don’t know why else to call it) there could be some eye rolls shooting in my direction. “Girl you have all the time in the world, you have no idea.”  But I do know. (rest assured people, I have things that fill my time outside of being HOME with my 2 yr old) but I do know that we can all make plenty of excuses. MOST of the time,  they are usually garbage. Today I had 50 minutes between dropping Marshall off and having to be at my next destination. It was the only time that made sense to squeeze anything in and it would only take me 10 minutes to get to where I was going. So I parked my car and got out and ran for 30 minutes. I made it work and my day was better because of it. I ALWAYS have an extra pair of clothes with me. Change the clothes quickly, wipe off with a towel, put on deodorant, through some bronzer and lip stuff on – boom done. Would I have preferred a shower? Yes, but wasn’t gonna work out.

And this is what I have to say if your excuse happens to be I don’ have time: Freaking make time. If someone tells me they don’t have time, I will tell them-30 minutes is not a whole lot of time and if you can’t find that in your day I want a play by play of everything you did today.

What you will get from that 30 minutes of exercise- MORE ENERGY to do what you are so busy doing that you don’t have time. You will be more efficient with the your time and you will feel better. You will be happier, kinder and stronger.

My Best Friend Sarah, is a great example. She is also the person responsible for my obsession with running. I’m sure it would have found me later in life at some point, but she’s the person who convinced me to run cross country in high school. She’s been extremely busy with work lately and recently took an unplanned break just to run -something she NEVER does.  She came back refreshed, energized and ready to tackle what she was stuck on. I’m hoping the run bug sticks with her. She has been on a one year hiatus and of course I’m advocating it’s return.

With Best Friend Sarah on her 30th birthday.

So just stop making excuses. I don’t want to hear them. I know your probably busy. Everyone likes to talk about how busy they are. If you aren’t taking care of your mental or physical health though, it doesn’t really matter. 

That’s just one of the things I LOVE to so much about getting to coach runners. I’m able to hold people accountable – it’s a lot harder to make excuses when you know someone is working hard to create a plan for you and going to be checking in along the way. Don’t give us your excuses, unless of course they are seriously legit and maybe we’ll cut some slack…

No excuses here. Get the work done & then accomplish more than you ever imagined you could. 

What’s your excuse? 

How will you push the excuses aside?