Every Mile Earned

Training Cycle Recap Very late in the spring I hired a coach. Very shortly after that I registered for the Philadelphia Marathon. My poor Musician finally broke down and agreed to the race. He knew first hand from drying my tears, how badly marathon training had gone for me in the past.  It wasn't my original intention. I didn't like the marathon distance. I had two very rough training cycles, struggled with the long runs and was injured by the time I got to the start line of both of them. After I finished Philly in 2015, I swore I would never run another one. I thought I hated the distance. Coach Silver Fox gave me some pretty tough workouts but the hardest thing he asked of me was to slow down . I know the training methodology, I've used it with my athletes but I never applied it to myself.  I never wanted to. I liked running hard, all the time.  It seriously was THE HARDEST thing to run the easy paces he assigned.  But I did it. I knew I had to be all in ...

Breathe.  Breathe in. Breathe out.  Easy, right? Not this week.  Breathe. It's what My Musician says.  Breathe. It's what Coach Silver Fox says.  Breathe. It's what my Princess Unicorn says.  It's just a race, is what my Tinkerbell says.  Thanks kid.  I haven't talked much about how I'm feeling with anyone except My Musician.  I've chatted a bit with my coach and with my Unicorn but not to the extent that I'm struggling.   Why? I hate feeling weak.  I mean I can be vulnerable and share dumb things from my life, share moments of struggle but at times like this, IN the moment, I don't know how to reach out and share the depth of what I'm feeling. To share it IN the moment is admitting I'm feeling weak, afraid, uncertain (stupid, I know.)  That's what I'll try to do. I'm not looking for anyone to help me feel better. I know this is a battle with my mind and that the battle is effecting my...

Right before the finish line **sorry in advance, there are a lot of pictures.  It was a mini runcation for us too, not just a race ~ scroll to near the end for the race recap** It's been about two months and I still don't think I've fully processed my marathon and all the emotions attached. This was my second marathon.  My first was in 2010.  It took me 5-1/2 years before I was ready to run another one, even then I'm not sure I was really ready for this one. It was an emotional weekend all around.  We spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday visiting Philly for the first time.  It's a beautiful city. Officially my second favorite city after Boston.  I love the historic cities. Thursday night I made chia seed pancakes. I have come to love them for my fuel. They are natural, healthy and give me lots of energy! I'm so grateful to my friend, TW, for introducing me to these! Friday morning, we put Tink on the bus, finished packing and hit the...