Category: Uncategorized

Well, well, well … here we are with less than one month to go! I know it usually seems like pregnancy flies by to everyone except the expectant mother, but I gotta say this one seems to have flown by for me as well.

I am currently 36 weeks pregnant and am also currently recovering from COVID. How lovely?! Thankfully, I seemed to have turned the corner for the most part. I do seem to have some lingering symptoms that randomly make an appearance, but from what I’ve heard, this is normal (ish). As far as my sickness went, I got what I thought was either just a cold or allergies (well except for that I don’t have allergies (insert facepalm)) during the first week of January. I had a runny nose, watery eyes and was sneezing like crazy for a few days. Those symptoms went away fairly quickly (two to three days tops) and then I felt fine for a few days.

About a week after the original symptoms started, things took a turn for the worse. This time I had a sore throat, cough, headache, chills (but no fever), body aches and a lot of general fatigue. I tested positive on January 14th. Those symptoms hung around for about a week and now the aches and fatigue seem to make an appearance every third day or so. Granted, I don’t know how much of the aches and fatigue are related to being 36 weeks pregnant vs. recovering from COVID, but my guess is that it’s some combination of the two!

I debated whether to post the bump progress picture or not, but honestly I love seeing these when other people post them, so I’m just going to assume that others of you out there are also interested. Gotta give the people what they want! Ha.

I have a few thoughts about the growing bump and body changes in general that I will go ahead and over share as well. When I took the 6 week and 12 week photos, I legit thought that I looked pregnant. What in the world?! Perhaps there are some body image issues lingering around that I had no idea I was still dealing with pre-pregnancy. At this point, I have gained between 25-30 pounds, which is right within the “recommended” range. Side note: there are plenty of pregnancy weight gain calculators out there if you care to compare your progress that way.

I tried not to really nit pick the data as far as that goes. It gets really tricky sometimes because I truly love data and numbers, but I also know myself well enough to know that there *is* such thing as too much of a good thing on that front sometimes. I assumed that seeing the scale climb up and up (and up some more) would really mess with my mind, but I am happy to report that it didn’t bother me as much as I expected it to. The most important thing all along was that baby boy was growing appropriately and it feels really good knowing that I have given him a chance to do that. While I might not be in the best shape of my life from a fitness perspective, I actually do feel like I am healthier than I have ever been. I realize that probably sounds very cheesy, but I am okay with that.

This year-to-date, I have only run 22 miles. I have taken 9 complete rest days (we’re talking < 1k steps per day on those days). This is probably more rest days than I’ve taken during entire years in the past! While I still *can* run, it doesn’t feel good during or afterwards, so it seems silly to continue trying. For those of you who just don’t like running, I totally get it now. I don’t like it right now either! Ha.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t ready to get back into running though. I haven’t expended a ton of mental energy on what the postpartum “comeback” will look like yet, mainly because I don’t really know when I will be able to get back into it. There are way too many variables that I can’t control! Whenever the time does come, I think I’ll be ready! After about a year and a half to two years of no “serious” training (as defined in my brain by my pre-2020 training logs), I am starting to get the itch to get back to it. The bottom line is that I’m excited about the fact that I am excited about it (if that makes any sense!).

This year-to-date, I’ve done 99 miles on the elliptical, which I guess isn’t too shabby. The weirdest thing is that in the exact same amount of time, I can do either 5.5 miles on my home elliptical (Sole E95) or 11 miles on the gym elliptical (Life Fitness 95X). They are different brands and the style of the machines varies slightly as well, but even after about 6 months of using both, the difference seems crazy to me! When I first got the home elliptical, I couldn’t stand it because I knew how many more miles I could get if I did the same time and for the most part gave the same effort at the gym.

Recently though, I have tried to really embraced the home elliptical for what it is. I still get a killer workout in! I would actually venture to say that I have to work harder to go half as far at home than I do at the gym. It reminds me of doing a tempo workout on a really hilly route or with a headwind or with some other perceived obstacle in the way. Your data might not *look* as impressive to the outside observer (i.e., the Strava stalkers), but in actuality you nailed the effort and your fitness is higher than it appears! It also reminds me of how vastly different treadmills can be. One can make you feel like a gazelle effortlessly gliding through the desert sands and the another can make you feel like a hippopotamus trudging through thick mud. Maybe the secret is to embrace our inner hippo in training and then run like a gazelle on race day!

Thanks to the aforementioned love of all things data related, here is a tally of all of the pregnancy activities thus far (mid-May through today (late-January)):

• Walking: 124 miles (longest was 5 miles)
• Running: 1,124 miles (most of these miles were in the first and second trimesters and the longest run was 14 miles)
• Elliptical: 569 miles (longest was 17 miles)
• Pilates: 17 classes

Whew! It’s been real. I’m more than ready to move on to the next phase of meeting and loving our baby boy!

For any of you mother runners out there who have worked with an amazing coach that was knowledgeable in all things postpartum, please hit me up in the comments with recommendations! Feel free to drop in some non-stressful advice re: raising a tiny human as well.

Hi friends! Coming at you today with a training update AND a RACE RECAP from my first (and likely only) race of 2021!

I kept an 18 year “racing” streak alive by running in the Battleship 12k (7.45 miles) a couple weeks ago. Over the last (almost) two decades, there have been years where I have only run one race, years where I have run over 20 races and years of everywhere in between. While there is still some time left in 2021, I have a feeling like will be a “one and done” year for me. I debated whether or not to even run a race this year (more on that to come), but decided that the chance of regret was really only present if I decided not to run, as I rarely (if ever) regret actually participating in race.

Before we get to the race part, let’s back up a tad and take a look at what my training has looked like since we last chatted.

Training Update

About a month or so ago (mid-October), which is coincidentally exactly where my last post left off, running stopped feeling quite as “good” as it used to. There were good days sprinkled in, but there were also some days that were just not pleasant and those days made me question why I was really even still trying to run every day. My main observation was that it was taking me much longer than to recover than it usually does. Given the fact that my body is doing A LOT of other things (you know, like growing a human), I guess this makes sense! Isn’t it annoying when logic and common sense mess up your plans? Ha.

My lower back and groin were also getting very sore after each run. I talked to my doctor about this and he basically told me that it would be strange if I wasn’t having at least a little bit of discomfort. He also said that as long as I wasn’t having contractions, it was fine to continue running. This made good sense, but later I started wondering what exactly a contraction feels like and if I would even know if I was having them. Things that make you go hmm … Once I experience them I will probably look back on this and laugh, but I mean how do you know until you know?!

I decided that the best plan would be to only run every other day and to sprinkle in some other forms of cross training on the in between days. The elliptical has actually become quite enjoyable, which has not always been the case in the past. Thankfully I have no pain before, during or after the elliptical! I like to “pretend” that I am running when I am on the elliptical and I keep up with my splits, etc. like I would in a race or workout. The time flies by and I really feel like I am getting in a solid workout. My elliptical “PRs” are a 32:58 10k, a 51:20 10 miler and a 1:10:46 half marathon. I mean, if only I could run that fast! As silly as it sounds, I’ve actually gotten a lot “faster” on the elliptical over the last month. It’s rewarding to see progress, which is one of the main things that I have always loved about running. Hopefully my cross-training fitness will translate back over into some postpartum running fitness. We shall see!

A typical week at this point looks something like 20-25 miles of running, 5-10 miles of walking and 25-30 miles on the elliptical. Oh! And one 45 minute session of Reformer Pilates! I’m still enjoying that as well. I am not pushing the pace whatsoever on the run. I’m running about 1:30 to 2 minutes per mile slower on my easy runs than I did pre-pregnancy and I also sprinkle in walk breaks periodically (if I feel like I need it). Interestingly enough, according to Garmin, my VO₂ Max is only down about 5 points from my “peak” in the Fall of 2019 and Spring of 2020. I have no idea if this is true or not, so take it with a grain of salt, but for now I am just going to pretend that it is accurate and be happy about it!

With all that being said, I know that my fitness is still decent, but I am not willing to push myself on the run. This made the decision of whether or not to “race” last weekend a bit tricky. Basically it came down to an issue of pride. Could I show up to a local race knowing that I am a) not going to give it my all and b) not going to win? The decision was harder than I would like to admit and more freeing than I realized it could be!

Race Recap

The Battleship 12k is a patriotic run on Veterans Day weekend to honor those who serve our country. I’ve run this race twice in the past (2016 & 2017). It’s a great race that supports a great cause! The race starts on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, runs across the Bay on the Causeway and finishes at the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. 

My race plan was this:

• Have fun!
• Enjoy the beautiful weather (sunny and 43 degrees!).
• Be thankful to be able to run.
• Be appreciative of our veterans.
• Bonus points to be awarded if I made it the entire way without needing a potty break (IYKYK).

Race day morning was quite different from what typical race day mornings have looked like in years past. I picked up my packet the day before the race, which meant that I didn’t have to arrive earlier than necessary on race day. I had no plans of drinking coffee or eating anything pre-race. There’s too much going on in my tummy as it is and unfortunately, I have discovered that the only way to run semi-comfortably is with nothing extra in my stomach. There was also no pre-race warm up on the agenda, as running 7.5 miles without stopping was going to be a feat in and of itself! With all that being said, I woke up around 6:45 and left the house just after 7 for an 8 a.m. race start. Once I got to the race start and found parking, the only other task to complete was to wait in line for the porta potty. The lines looked to be extremely long, but thankfully moved really fast. I made it to the start line with a minute or two to spare.

Lining up on the start line was definitely a bit strange. Instinctively, I went up towards the front of the corral before realizing that I had no business being up there. I expected to run just at or slightly under an 8 minute per mile pace, which would be a good bit slower than the lead runners, who I figured would run just under 6 minute per mile pace. I moved back several rows and hoped that I was far enough back that I wouldn’t have to run faster than what felt comfortable to avoid getting trampled.

The race has a gentle downhill start, which is really nice! I had to hold myself back a little bit during the first mile. The pace felt effortless, but we were running downhill and we had 6.5 more miles to go! My first mile split was 7:37. I thought about trying to maintain that pace the rest of the way, but I wasn’t sure if that was going to work out or not. I didn’t want to overextend myself or crash and burn, so I decided to go ahead and slow my roll a little bit.

Miles 2 through 5 were fairly uneventful. There aren’t a lot of spectators along the course, but you are running across the bay, so there is plenty of water and scenery to take in. We had to go over a few small bridges with only a very slight incline, but we also got to go back down the other side of each incline, which made it nice. I chatted with people almost the entire way. Some were people I have known for years and some were runners from out of town. The common question among the people that I knew was, “What are you doing back here?” Ha. The common question among the people that I didn’t know was either, “Do you mind if I pace off of you?” I was happy to be consistently ticking off the miles and more than happy to have people to run and chat with! My splits were 8:01, 8:09, 8:08 and 8:10 for those 4 miles.

Once we passed mile 5, I picked the pace up a little bit. Aside from being very overdressed, I felt amazing! The low the morning of the race was mid-30s, but it warmed up to mid-40s before the race even started. I’m pretty sure it was closer to mid-50s towards the end of the race. I definitely dressed warmer than I would have if I had been running harder, but even still I’m pretty sure I could’ve done without the gloves, the ear warmers and the long sleeve top. Miles 6 and 7 were 7:21 and 7:02 and my last half mile was 6:52 pace. I was thrilled to able to run those paces and not be out of breath at all. Woo! I was on a runner’s high after that for sure!

At mile 7 we turned into Battleship Park and there were volunteers at the last water stop handing out American flags for us to run in with. I really love this thoughtful detail. It’s really special to carry a flag across the finish line. I loved the race again this year and I would highly recommend it to anyone (near or far). There are so many men and women that sacrifice their lives to protect our freedom. Participating in a patriotic event on Veterans Day weekend is a wonderful reminder of just how much we have to be thankful for.

I finished in a time of 57:52 (7:46 pace) as the 122nd overall finisher and 28th female finisher. Going into the race, I honestly thought that I would be unhappy with however I placed, but as it turns out I proud of myself for getting out there and getting it done regardless of time and placement. I’ve always known that there is more to running than times, paces and breaking finish line tapes, but this race definitely helped to reiterate why I love this sport.

I got to visit with friends briefly after the race, which was also an added bonus of doing the race. It seems like everyone’s lives have gotten so busy or perhaps it’s just that we’ve just settled into our own routines and we rarely see each other any more. I guess this is somewhat of a natural progression as life changes, kids get older, etc., but it also makes the times when we do get to hang out (even briefly) all the more meaningful.

I hope you guys have a wonderful week! Have you ever run an odd race distance?

Whoa! We’re halfway there?!

If you are silently finishing that sentence by singing, “Whoa! Livin’ on a prayer!,” then congratulations! You’re brain is the same as mine. On second thought, that might not be something that you want to celebrate. Ha! As a side note, I always sing that song in my head when I cross the halfway point in a race. I don’t know exactly when it started, but it’s a mid-race tradition that has withstood the test of time.

Let’s catch up on the weeks between my last post and now, shall we? Great!

The second trimester has been really good thus far. Seriously, it’s so much better than the first! Baby is now the size of a papaya. He weighed in at a whopping 14 oz. at our 20 week ultrasound. So close to a pound. Grow baby grow! He has all his parts and his heart and brain look completely normal. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to find all of that out. Growing a tiny human is a wonderful, but also a helpless feeling. It definitely takes a lot of faith (did I mention “livin’ on a prayer”), because pretty much the entire thing is out of your control. How lovely.

Baby and I are now fully vaccinated! When the vaccine first became available we had just had a miscarriage and I wasn’t entirely sure what to think about the vaccine and it’s impact on fertility in general. Obviously there is a lot of misinformation out there and everyone is encouraged to “do your own research.” I’m honestly still not entirely sure where exactly I am supposed to go to find said research. I know how to research tax law, but medical stuff … not so much. Basically, I got to the point where in my mind where the risk of getting COVID and harming the baby outweighed any perceived risk that I had about the vaccine negatively impacting his development. Of course, my doctor fully supported the decision, which was definitely a plus.

The vaccine itself wasn’t too bad. I did feel pretty crummy for a couple of days after the second shot. BUT … now I can now go to the grocery store, the gym, church, etc. without feeling like I am putting the baby’s health at risk and the peace of mind that comes with that was absolutely worth the [literal] headache of the vaccine. I also got a flu shot for the first time in my life (also based on my doctor’s recommendation). Might as well bring on all the shots while we are at it!

I had a bit of an unexpected “turn of events” during week 15 and by “turn of events” I mean a turn of my ankle. I rolled it pretty badly coming down the stairs. I was in a hurry (more on that in a minute) and not being as cautious as I likely needed to be. When it rolled, I kinda just sat down, so thankfully I didn’t fall or anything crazy like that. The ankle immediately looked like there was a tennis ball under the joint, so I knew it was at least a decent sprain. For a couple of days I thought I might’ve torn a ligament, but I don’t think that ended up being the case. I did about as much RICE-ing (rest-ice-compress-elevate) as humanly possible for about a week and that seemed to do the trick! I know your ligaments get looser during pregnancy, but this was a bit much. Sheesh. No more quick descents on the stairs! Lesson learned.

I was actually in a hurry to come outside because I had really good news to share with Richard. The good news was a bit clouded by the ankle incident, but was good news nevertheless. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet, but I started a new job (WORKING FROM HOME!) in July. The timing of this was absolutely incredible in so many ways. I have wanted the option to work from home for quite some time (i.e., many years). During the past two years it seemed like the everyone in the entire world except for me was able to work from home, which was really silly and also very frustrating because my job could easily have been done from home the entire time. To make a long story at least a teensy bit shorter, I decided to change jobs. I am now a supervisor at the 40th largest accounting firm in the United States (quite the change from the family-owned, five-person firm that I worked at previously). I interviewed and accepted the new position before I knew that I was pregnant. We actually found out during the last week of my two week’s notice. I took a week off in between the two jobs and Richard liked to joke that I was “pregnant and unemployed.” He wasn’t wrong.

I started the new job knowing that I would be out during my first tax season with the firm. Eek! To make matters worse, the firm policy regarding maternity leave is that you have to be with the firm for at least one full year to be eligible for any maternity leave. No bueno for a newly pregnant new employee. I let HR know on my first day and asked what, if any, options I had. Unfortunately at that point it seemed like there wasn’t much that could be done. I sat with this for a while (for eight weeks to be exact) before deciding to pursue whether or not I truly had any other options. During those eight weeks I was able to “prove myself” so to speak and I got a lot of positive feedback from the people I was working with.

I decided to put myself out there a bit (definitely not a comfortable feeling!) and I sent an email to my boss stating my case and asking for a prorated maternity leave. I basically asked if I could have 8/12 (2/3) of the normal maternity leave as I will have completed 8 months of the first year when I have the baby. This seemed reasonable to me, but it also kinda seemed like a shot in the dark as rules exist for a reason. A couple of days later, my boss set up a conference call for us with the HR representative to discuss (and I quote) “what she hoped would be good news.” It ended up being NOT good news, but INCREDIBLY FANTASTIC news! They are giving me the FULL PAID maternity leave. I was and still am blown away. To take it one step further, they have actually decided to change this policy companywide going forward. Y’all. That’s a big deal! If you don’t advocate for yourself, who will? I asked for something that I thought I deserved and ending up helping other women get what they also deserve in the process.

And that my friends, is the very long-winded story behind why I was hurrying down the stairs and turned my ankle. Now that we are back from the rabbit trail, let’s talk about running! I did a long run of 14 miles during week 14. In hindsight I am even more thankful that I got that in when I did because the whole ankle debacle went down the very next week. The expiration date on running the number of miles per week would’ve been very short-lived anyway, but I thought I might be able to take it to a run + walk combo and get a few more weeks out of it. One and done was probably for the best!

It took the ankle a week or so to get back to its normal size and it was a tad stiff for another week, but after about two and a half weeks it seemed to be completely back to normal. Thank goodness! I know that I likely will not be able to run throughout the entire pregnancy, but I really didn’t want it to end at 15 weeks. The longest run I’ve done since then is 11 miles and I doubt I will go much over 10 miles from here on out. Running still feels pretty good, but it definitely getting a bit more uncomfortable each week and it takes a bit longer for my body to recover at this point.

At this point I feel like I am (very slowly) running a metaphorical marathon and while I may be halfway there, there is A LOT more than half of the work yet to be done. Fortunately, I got a sneak peek at the finisher’s medal this week and it is BY FAR the cutest prize on the entire planet. I can’t wait to cross that finish line and have him hug my neck.

For those that are interested, here are the weekly deets:

Week 14: 54.4 miles + 45 minutes Pilates
Week 15: 22.4 miles + lots and lots of RICE-ing
Week 16: 36.3 miles + 120 minutes elliptical
Week 17: 51.4 miles + 45 minutes Pilates
Week 18: 45.0 miles + 45 minutes Pilates
Week 19: 47.0 miles + 60 minutes elliptical
Week 20: 44.5 miles + 60 minutes elliptical + 45 minutes Pilates

(*** Spoiler Alert ***)

In case the title didn’t give it away … we are having a BABY! Woo hoo!

Shortly after my I posted my last training log in June, we found out that we were pregnant! I had just started adding back some quality workouts and I planned to do weekly training log posts, but as soon as I found out, I immediately switched over to only easy running. There’s only so much to say about an easy run and since most of the people who are interested in those details follow along on Strava, I didn’t really see the need to continue the weekly posts. Also, we weren’t planning to “announce” the pregnancy until the second trimester and it would’ve been really difficult to write a post and not say anything!

I mentioned this previously, but in case you missed it, we experienced a pregnancy loss in February. It was far more devastating than I could’ve imagined. When we found out we were pregnant again, we were obviously super excited, but at the same time, we were a bit guarded. Right off the bat, things were looking a lot better. At 4 weeks and 2 days, my hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin (i.e., the pregnancy hormone)) was 3,589! As a reference, last time at 4 weeks and 2 days, my hCG was only 49. The high hCG level this time around was a REALLY good sign!

I got the hCG numbers back on a Tuesday. I had to do a double take when I opened the email with the results because it was so much higher than I expected. We were able to let our guard down ever so slightly when we got those results. As soon as we did that, on Friday of the same week, we had another scare. As a warning, some of these details might be TMI, so if you don’t care to read about baby stuff, feel free to skip this one! At 5:30 p.m. or so (of course these things don’t ever happen during regular business hours), I started bleeding. This time was different from last time, as it was a gush of blood with no pain, instead of light spotting with cramping. We went back and forth about what to do and ultimately decided to go to the hospital.

At the hospital they did bloodwork and an ultrasound. My hCG level was 11,273! What?! I was blown away. I thought for sure that it would be lower. The levels are supposed to double approximately every two days, which meant that I was still right on track. The ultrasound tech was able to find the baby and a very faint heartbeat. It was very, very faint (not measurable) and only visible if I held my breath, but that made sense given that I wasn’t even 6 weeks along yet. There wasn’t a good explanation for the blood, but otherwise everything seemed to be okay. Phew! They told me to take it really easy for a few days and to follow up with my OB first thing on Monday.

After a couple of days of nothing but rest, I was going stir crazy! Why does the idea of rest seem so appealing until you are forced to do it?! Thankfully, on Monday my doctor gave me the A-Okay to go about my business and carry on as usual. My hCG level at that point was 36,067. Another great sign!

At 8 weeks, we got to hear the baby’s heartbeat for the first time. It was STRONG, clocking in at 170 bpm!

At 10 weeks, we did bloodwork to find out the gender! Richard’s sister and her kids were in town and we wouldn’t see them again until Thanksgiving, so we wanted to surprise them with the gender while they were here. As it turns out, we surprised not only them, but also our parents. They knew we weren’t supposed to find out for a few more weeks and at first everyone was super confused that we were trying to tell them that we already knew we were having a BOY!

At 12 weeks, we did more bloodwork. This time the test was to analyze the genetic information that was in my bloodstream from the placenta. It screens for certain chromosomal abnormalities that could affect the baby’s health and development, such as trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) and sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCAs, abnormal numbers of X or Y chromosomes). I’m super thankful to report that all of the results were within the normal, expected ranges. Praise the Lord! We’ve got a ways to go, but so far it seems like Baby Allen is very healthy and we couldn’t ask for anything more.

Baby and I have run 592 miles together so far! We’ve also walked 39 miles, done 10 hours and 15 minutes on the elliptical, done a decent amount of strength work and been to 5 Pilates classes. While I’m trying to stay as active as possible while I can, I am also trying to take it easy and not push myself too much. Pre-pregnancy I was running 60+ miles per week, so this is actually a decent cutback!

For those that are interested, here are the weekly deets:

Week 01: 51.5 miles
Week 02: 55.6 miles (coincides w/ Training Log – 06/06/21)
Week 03: 61.9 miles (coincides w/ Training Log – 06/13/21)
Week 04: 44.1 miles (coincides w/ Training Log – 06/20/21)
Week 05: 21.0 miles + 35 minutes elliptical + 45 minutes strength
Week 06: 38.2 miles
Week 07: 43.5 miles + 20 minutes elliptical + 30 minutes strength
Week 08: 32.8 miles + 140 minutes elliptical + 30 minutes strength + 75 minutes Pilates
Week 09: 40.5 miles + 125 minutes elliptical + 30 minutes strength + 75 minutes Pilates
Week 10: 53.8 miles + 30 minutes strength
Week 11: 45.8 miles + 30 minutes strength + 45 minutes Pilates
Week 12: 53.0 miles + 45 minutes Pilates
Week 13: 47.8 miles + 30 minutes elliptical + 45 minutes Pilates

Since I didn’t know I was pregnant until 4 weeks, the first few weeks were business as usual as far as regular training goes. I started adding more cross training in during the next few weeks. At one point, my plan was to alternate running w/ the elliptical during the work week. For example, I’d run on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and on the weekend days and I’d do the elliptical on Tuesday and Thursday. That plan worked well for several weeks, but unfortunately the COVID numbers in our area started really ramping back up and I felt like the best decision was to avoid crowded indoor spaces. We found a pretty nice elliptical on Marketplace last week, so I actually have that as an option at home now as well. I haven’t used it much yet, but I am glad to have it.

So far, running is going pretty well! My average “pregnancy pace” is around 8:50. I did run one sub-7 minute mile during week 12 (a 6:58!). I felt really good one morning and I surprised myself by running a sub-8 minute mile without consciously increasing my effort at all, which of course got me thinking and wondering if I could easily dip under 7 without too much effort. I was able to do it, but I was definitely working a bit. I don’t think I’ll make a habit of that by any means, but it was fun! I’ve been doing a “long run” of 10 miles pretty much every week. Last week I increased that a little bit to 12 miles. I’m tossing around the idea of doing 14 this weekend. It would be 14 miles for 14 weeks pregnant. You know I love a good play on numbers!

That’s it for now. Thanks for following along! There’s going to be quite a lot of changes over here in the months and years to come. I have a feeling this is going to be the biggest, best adventure of them all!

Hey friends!

Here is what training looked like the week of 06.14.21 – 06.20.21:

Monday – Easy: 7 miles (8:25 pace) 

I ran after work Monday and it was quite the struggle! It was hot, yes, but I think the main problem was that I was still not recovered from Saturday’s quality session. I managed to get 7 miles in, but it wasn’t super pleasant.

Tuesday – Easy: 6.3 miles (9:18 pace) + PM – Strength (30 minutes)

I was supposed to do a workout Tuesday morning, but given how bad my legs felt on Monday afternoon, I thought better of it. Until I get used to having quality miles sprinkled back into my weekly routine, I’m going to need more time in between the workout days. Typically 2-3 days would be fine, but for now it will probably be more like 3-4 or 4-5 days in between. I struggled again Tuesday just to run easy miles and several walk breaks were needed. Argh.

It has been a few weeks since I have done legs at the gym and I had a sneaking suspicion that Gabbi would have that in store for me this week … and I was right! How wonderful. Legs are already trashed? Seems like as good a time as any to make sure they truly felt like garbage. Ha! We did kettle bell squats, walking lunges with weights, a single leg kneeling to standing exercise (also with weights!), the hip abductor and adductor machine, the leg press machine and a couple other things that escape me at the moment. It was a good workout and oddly enough, I don’t think my legs were any worse for the wear afterwards.

Wednesday – Easy: 7 miles (9:04 pace)

I met friends again Wednesday morning for some nice recovery miles. I think (at least I hope) this might a consistent staple in the weekly routine for the time being. Yay!

Thursday AM – Quality: 9 miles (7:14 pace) + PM – Strength (45 minutes)

I finally got my workout in Thursday morning! As an added bonus, it was COOL when I walked outside. Of course, cool is relative. It was 68° w/ a dew point of 62° and compared to what we’ve been dealing with, let me tell you that this was a real TREAT. My workout was a two mile warm up, 6 X 1k at threshold with 2 minute recoveries and a two mile cool down.

With the workout distance in kilometers, this one would’ve been well suited for the track, but I decided to program the distance into my watch and run on the road instead. For whatever reason, I have a really hard time getting out the door earlier than usual to drive to the track. I used to live within running distance of the track, which apparently spoiled me. Now that I don’t live within running distance of the track, it seems that I simply can’t be bothered to make it happen. Ha. Thankfully, there is a nice, flat stretch of road that has minimal traffic that is currently within running distance. That spot has definitely become my go-to spot for workouts. The plan was to aim for around 6:15 on these and either stay consistent or progressively get a tad faster. My splits were 6:23, 6:06, 6:07, 6:11, 6:02 and 5:55 pace. I’d say that the goal was accomplished!

After work I went to the gym for a 45 minute group strength training class. I got there a little bit early and did a few minutes on the elliptical to kill the time. For the class we did three sets of seven different exercises for one minute (pushups, planks, battle ropes, step ups, wall ball, wall sit and spin bike). It was a good workout and the time really flew by!

Friday – Easy: 4 miles (9:20 pace)

After a big day on Thursday, I wanted to make sure to take it really easy on Friday. I did a couple miles on the driveway before work and that was it. Overall, I was feeling pretty tired and run down, but I guess that is to be expected.

Saturday – Easy: Elliptical (40 minutes) + Strength (15 minutes)

Saturday was a total washout thanks to Tropical Storm Claudette. Not gonna lie, it was really nice to have a legit excuse to stay in pajamas for the majority of the day and alternate between reading and napping. I read an entire book and think I took three mini-naps! By late afternoon, however, I was a bit stir crazy and so I decided to go over to the gym for a few minutes for some light cross training. I didn’t really want to do too much, but I did want to do at least something … so that’s pretty much exactly what I did!

Sunday – Easy: 7.7 miles (8:25 pace)

I was supposed to do a quality session Sunday, but decided against it. My legs were finally feeling back to normal, which was nice, but I still didn’t want to really push it. I settled for a “sailboat loop” from home before going to church with my dad. I got in a short walk with my mom after church as well, so all in all, it was a solid day of family activities!

Totals – 
41 miles running
3 miles walking
70 minutes elliptical
90 minutes strength

Thanks for reading along! Talk to you guys soon.

Hey friends!

Here is what training looked like the week of 06.07.21 – 06.13.21:

Monday AM – Easy: 3.75 miles (9:04 pace) + PM – Easy: 5.35 miles (7:47 pace)

Monday started off with a somewhat literal bang! My tire blew out as I was on my way to meet friends to run. I was less than a mile away from where I was meeting them, which was both good and bad. Good that I was close, but bad because I just kept driving and destroyed the tire. Long story short, the run got cut a bit short because I was trying to figure out what to do with my life.

I did, however, manage to get in a few miles after work to make up for what I missed. Not that it would’ve been a big deal to miss out on those miles, but I felt good and wanted to get it in, so that’s what I did. I did a few twenty second strides after the evening portion of the run to prime my legs for a workout Tuesday morning.

Tuesday AM – Quality: 9 miles (7:26) + PM – Strength

Tuesday’s workout was a 2 mile warm up, 2 X 10 minute @ threshold w/ 3 minute recovery, 4 X 1 minute @ interval with 1 minute recovery and a 2 mile cool down. I certainly seemed to pick a heckuva week to add back some official quality miles to my schedule. Tuesday morning at 5 a.m. it was 75° w/ a dew point of 74° (rough for sure!). The two ten minute blocks were supposed to be at threshold pace (approximately 6:15) and the four one minute blocks were supposed to be at interval pace (approximately 5:45). With that being said, the goal wasn’t so much to nail a specific pace as it was supposed to be to run the appropriate effort. Theoretically that should always be the goal, but I think it’s even more important when coming back from an extended period of down time. I have been maintaining a really solid base level of running fitness, but I haven’t been doing any quality sessions, so I’m not as speedy as I once was and also my internal speedometer is a bit rusty.

I tried my best not to look at the paces at all during the workout. I glanced down a couple times on the threshold miles mainly to make sure I wasn’t taking it out too hot. I averaged 6:13 for the first set and 6:09 for the second set. I averaged 5:32 for the minutes on, which was definitely a bit too spicy, but the paces felt doable at the time. I will say that afterwards, I was cooked. My stomach also decided to revolt immediately after the workout, which is also likely a sign that I over-ran it a bit. Thankfully there was a bathroom really close by! Otherwise, that wouldn’t have ended well. It had been quite a while since I have pushed myself that hard. I had almost completely forgotten what those post-workout endorphins felt like! Ahh-mazing!

Thankfully, Tuesday’s strength session was chest and triceps. I don’t think I could’ve handled any sort of legs that day.

Wednesday – Easy: 7 miles (8:56 pace)

I met friends again Wednesday morning for some nice recovery miles. I can’t believe that I went months without really running with anyone to speak of. I’ve missed this!

Thursday – Easy: 6 miles (8:44 pace) + Strength

I planned to get out before work Thursday morning, but right as I was about to run we had a little pop up shower. In hindsight, I totally should’ve gone ahead and run anyway, but in the moment, I decided to knock some chores out and enjoy extra coffee time at home with Richard before work. It was 87° with a feels like temp of 98° when I ran later that afternoon. Holy hotness! To say that run was a struggle would be a bit of an understatement.

After my run, I went to the gym for a 45 minute group strength training class. We typically do the class inside, but this week we were actually outside. It was actually shady with a nice breeze and felt so much cooler than it did when I was running. Thank goodness! I don’t know if I would’ve survived otherwise. This week’s class was a bit more cardio than strength focused (I think technically all the classes are high-intensity interval training (HIIT) style). We did 5 X 30 seconds of jumping jacks, push ups, high knees, mountain climbers, jump rope, sled pulls, kettlebell swings and battle ropes. The time flew by!

Friday – Easy: 8 miles (9:07 pace) 

I struggled again on my easy run Friday morning. I think it’s going to take me a little bit of time to get used to incorporating quality runs and strength training into my regular routine. I’ve done Pilates in conjunction with heavy training volume in the past, but never anything with weights.

Saturday – Quality: 13 miles (7:45 pace)

Saturday’s workout was a 2 mile warm up, 3 X 2 miles at threshold pace with a half mile recovery and a 2 mile cool down. The plan was to drop the pace a bit on each set (goal paces were 6:30, 6:20 and 6:10). Thankfully Rebecca and Kara convinced me to start at 5 a.m., because if I had gone any later, it would’ve been ugly. It was 79° w/ a dew point of 72° when we started. I just thought Tuesday was rough. Nope! Saturday was brutal. I think it’s more of an insult because May was so nice. We typically ease into the intense heat gradually, but this year it’s like a bit ole slap in the face.

I honestly didn’t have high expectations for this run, especially after struggling through my easy runs on both Thursday and Friday. I also know that I probably should’ve adjusted the goal paces a bit beforehand, but I just told myself to get into it and see how I felt. I surprised myself on the first two sets, averaging 6:32 and 6:21. Even though those were doable, I was also getting really hot. I paused my watch for a minute or two after the second set, got some water and let the cold water fountain water run all over my face. It was glorious! I think that gave me just enough of the pick-me-up I needed to go forth and conquer the last set. I guess I got a bit overly zealous and I ran the first mile of the last set in 6:07. Granted, this was close to what I was supposed to do, but it also turned out to be a bit much. I made it halfway through the last mile of the workout (so close!) and stopped to walk. I walked a tenth of a mile before convincing myself that I could indeed finish this thing. I finished it up with a really solid half mile (but forgot to lap my watch at the end of it (fail!)).

All in all, I am definitely considering this one major victory. This was a BIG workout in BIG heat and I did the dang thing. That was also my longest run all year. WOW! Welcome back, eh?!

Sunday – Easy: 6.5 miles (8:31 pace)

I finished up the week with some easy miles. I also did 30 minutes of Pilates at home in the afternoon, which seems like a nice, relaxing way to wrap up the week!

Total – 58.6 miles of running + 1.75 hours of strength

Hey friends!

Here is what training looked like the week of 06.01.21 – 06.06.21:

Monday – Easy: 8.0 miles (8:13 pace)

We woke up to wonderful temps in the low-sixties on Memorial Day! It felt so good out. It was also so nice not to have to rush out of the door super early like I do on a regular work day. After lounging a bit and leisurely drinking my morning coffee, I did an easy 8 mile run from the house. We had plans to go out on the boat with my mom and dad mid-morning. I ended up water skiing 3 miles while we were out on the bay. Hopefully this will be the first of many ski sessions of the season!

I wasn’t oddly energized when we got back home mid-afternoon and I even ended up doing about 30-45 minutes of Pilates + random strength/stretching type stuff. Not gonna lie, I surprised myself by skipping a nap and getting that in!

Tuesday – Quality: 2 mi. WU, 4 mi. tempo (6:14 pace), 2 mi. CD

After over a month of zero quality sessions, I decided to dust myself off and give it a go on Tuesday morning. This was a bit of a spontaneous decision for sure! I went back and forth between doing a 5k time trial and doing a 4 mile tempo. The goal of both would be to get in a solid effort and give myself a better gauge of my current fitness level. The thought of a time trial was NOT appealing (special shout out to Spring of 2020 for that!), so I ultimately settled on the tempo effort. I made it a progressive tempo and was able to do 6:33, 6:16, 6:13 and 5:58. After an entire month of no “fast” running, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I’ve gotten some solid base building in during the last month or so and it seems like my fitness level stayed a bit higher than I expected.

Wednesday AM – Easy: 7.65 miles (8:46 pace) + PM – Strength

Wednesday was Global Running Day! I celebrated by running some miles with one of my very best running buddies, Rebecca. We haven’t gotten a chance to run together in quite some time (life is hard sometimes), so this was a treat. We’ve run thousands upon thousands of miles together over the last decade!

Wednesday evening I went to the gym and did some strength work. I started with a 300 meter row, did 30 minutes of strength work with Gabbi and ended it with 15 minutes on the elliptical.

Thursday – Moderate: 4.1 miles (7:04 pace) + Strength

I woke up to rain Thursday morning and decided to take advantage of a nice opportunity to sleep in a bit. I had a short window of time after work to run before going to the gym for a 45 minute group strength training class. I made the most of the 30 minutes that I did have and ran a bit quicker than normal. The group class was a lot of fun! We did 3 rounds of 8 different exercises with shrinking duration and shrinking rest. For example, the first time through we did each exercise for one minute w/ 30 seconds in between, the second time through we did each exercise for 40 seconds w/ 20 seconds in between and the last time around we did each exercise for 20 seconds w/ 10 seconds in between. It was a great workout! It’s nice to have some dedicated strength training time in my regular training mix.

Friday – Easy: 7.9 miles (8:18 pace) 

I ran from home before work Friday morning and kept it super easy because I was definitely feeling the strength work from the previous two days!

Saturday – Easy: 6.0 miles (8:19 pace)

We went to see Richard’s family for the weekend. After being up later than usual on Friday night, I slept in and got a later start Saturday morning. I think we might officially be to the point where this is no longer acceptable from a weather perspective. The heat and humidity zapped me and I struggled to get an easy six miles in.

Sunday – Easy: 10.5 miles (8:23 pace)

I wised up on Sunday and got out the door a bit earlier. It was actually raining for the majority of the run (just a light drizzle) and that felt really nice. I got in my “long run” for the week on a nice out and back stretch of country road (half paved and half dirt).

Total – 52.6 miles of running + 2.0 hours of strength

Hello friends! Long time no see. I have some really good news to share with you today … tax season is OFFICIALLY OVER! Thank. Good. Ness. Of all the seasons I’ve done thus far in my career (this was lucky #13 (which explains A LOT)), this one was was quite challenging for a lot of reasons, both professionally and personally. I know from past experience that there is always light after darkness. It’s time to bring on the light!

I’ll try to keep the work stuff brief, because I know you didn’t come to a running blog to read about tax law, nor do you likely find it interesting in the slightest. The main gist is that we had six MAJOR pieces of legislation with major tax implications passed within about a one-year time span. For those of you that care, it was the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act on 03-06-20, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) on 03-18-20, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) on 03-27-20, the Consolidated Appropriations Act on 12-27-20, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) on 03-11-21 and most recently the American Families Plan on 04-28-21.

In a typical year, we might have one, maybe two pieces of legislation, but six is unheard of. It was very challenging to stay on top of the all of the changes. Things would be presented one way and then reversed in a later act or better yet, made effective retroactively. “Retroactive” is not a word that any CPA wants to hear as it applies to tax law. Oh! There was also the dreaded deadline change. I am totally fine with committing to a crazy work schedule for 3.5 months, but I have zero desire to commit to it for 7.5 months (last year) or even 4.5 months (this year). My firm basically took the position that the deadline was still April 15^th like normal and we got as many returns as possible wrapped up by that date. We still finalized several returns between April 15^th and the May 17^th deadline, but the last month wasn’t too bad.  

Anywho, that’s enough of that. Let’s chat about running, shall we?

My training has really lacked any semblance of structure so far this year and it’s been nice to just get out there and do whatever I feel like doing on the day. So many things in my life are VERY structured and running has always been one of the many structured things. It’s fun to run for pure enjoyment and love of the sport and not because I am hard-core chasing some sort of crazy goal.

I will admit that it does feel a little bit strange to not feel like I am trying to be the best runner I can be, but at the same time, it also just feels right. I have no doubt that running made me a better person over the years. The process of setting, working towards and meeting big goals on the roads has given me the confidence to set, work towards and meet big goals off the roads as well. There was a time when working towards those goals on the roads was paramount to my growth as a person outside of running, but now I don’t feel like I need the running piece of it in order to be my “best self.” Does that make sense? Just go with it.

Oddly enough, I ran 1,040 miles during the first 20 weeks of this year. Form 1040 is the standard individual tax return form number, so it’s cool (in a super nerdy way) that my year-to-date mileage throughout this tax season was exactly that! Without any major goals or races coming up, I decided that a fun challenge for tax season would be to run more miles per week than the number of hours that I worked each week with a caveat of “as long as nothing crazy happens.” In my mind, I wanted this to be a weekly goal and not a cumulative goal (so the hours weren’t supposed to carry over from week to week), but I made an executive decision mid-season tweak to the rules. I won’t bore you with the weekly mileage and weekly hours worked (not until the very end of the post anyway :)), but the key takeaways are that 1) something crazy did happen and 2) I ran more miles during the season than total hours worked.

Most of the miles that I have run in 2021 to date have been purely easy miles, but there have been a few workouts sprinkled in as well (those details are also at the very end of this post for those of you who are interested in the specifics). My easy pace has dropped a little bit, which was unexpected, but makes sense given the lack of quality work. Less quality sessions = less recovery needed. My easy pace has typically been somewhere around 8:15-8:45, but I’d say that currently my easy pace is somewhere around 7:45-8:15.

I tentatively set my sights on a 5k at the end of February. I was only even halfway considering this because my husband’s volunteer fire department was working traffic control at the race. Our hobbies very rarely overlap, so this was an interesting opportunity. Right around the middle of February those “big life changes” that I referred to earlier popped up when we found out that we were pregnant! Cue all the feels! It shouldn’t have been a big surprise and yet, I was shocked. In the back of my mind, I figured that we’d have to do some sort of fertility treatments to get there. I even went and got a COVID test because I wasn’t feeling well. As it turned out, I tested positive, but not for COVID! Ha.  

As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I immediately shut down any sort of hard running and I only did short, easy miles. From the limited research that I did (i.e., asking Google), it seems that the heart rate guidelines have changed a bit and that it might be okay to push it a little bit more than what was once was thought to be “acceptable” during pregnancy. Regardless, I knew that for me, the best decision was to cool the jets a bit and to take it easy. My mom had two miscarriages (and yes, this is where the story is headed) and in the back of my mind, I’ve always known that was going to be a potential issue for me as well.

I guess you could say that I was cautiously optimistic, while also trying to be realistic about the fact that 1 in 5 pregnancies result in a loss. Even so, I was not prepared for the immense grief and sadness that I experienced in the weeks immediately after the miscarriage. I was only 6 weeks pregnant when we lost the baby. I can only imagine how much more intense those feelings would be if you were further along. I feel fairly certain that this is the most emotional I have ever been in my entire life. My grandmother also passed away a couple weeks later as well, which only fueled the emotional fire. It seems as if all I did for weeks was cry. I’m not looking for sympathy at all, but rather I hope to normalize talking about grief and loss. I also hope that my someone may be able to learn from my experience or know that they are not alone if they feel this way.

I took 3 days off from any sort of activity at all in the days immediately after. My first few runs back felt great! Like really, really amazing, especially compared to how I had felt the few weeks before (heavy and bloated). After a week or so of consistent, good runs, I all of a sudden started to feel horrible. There were several days where I had to take 5-6 walk breaks in a 5-6 mile run. It basically happened at least every other day, if not every day for about two weeks. To put it in perspective, when I got pregnant, I was consistently running 55-60 miles per week with a 10-12 mile long run as no big deal. Stopping to walk during a run is not something that I have ever had to do before, except for maybe in a really dire circumstance (i.e., a bathroom emergency!).

I really don’t know if anyone else has experienced anything like this or not, but it was so confusing to me. I was like, I’m not pregnant anymore, shouldn’t I feel perfectly fine? Apparently, it takes a little while for those hormones to level back out (for me it took a little bit over 6 weeks). I’m sure the excessive crying didn’t help at all either. I was probably at a very dehydrated state the majority of the time during those weeks. Throw the most stressful tax season of my career into that mix and I was a hot, hot mess. 

I felt angry that running wasn’t there for me when I needed it and I felt angry that my body wasn’t a suitable home for a baby.

But of course, as things always do, the hardest times passed and things have gotten much better. In fact, I still remember the exact day that I started to feel “like myself” again. It was Saturday, April 17! I was planning to do 7 or 8 miles, but once I got going I actually felt good for the first time in about 7 weeks. Praise. The. Lord! In hindsight, I guess this really isn’t all that long, but in the middle of it, it felt like ages. I honestly didn’t know if I would ever be able to run like I “used to.” I’m sure that sounds really silly, but it was very real in the moment.

I have no idea what is next (no one really ever does), but I know that I am cautiously optimistic that it’ll be something really good! Thanks for reading. Talk to you guys again soon!

For those of you who are interested in the actual miles and hours breakdown, here you go:

Week 01 (01/04/21 to 01/10/21): 56.3 miles + 51.5 hours
Week 02 (01/11/21 to 01/17/21): 58.0 miles + 53.2 hours
Week 03 (01/18/21 to 01/24/21): 59.0 miles + 47.1 hours
Week 04 (01/25/21 to 01/31/21): 52.0 miles + 50.2 hours
Week 05 (02/01/21 to 02/07/21): 56.6 miles + 51.8 hours
Week 06 (02/08/21 to 02/14/21): 50.1 miles + 40.0 hours
Week 07 (02/15/21 to 02/21/21): 56.1 miles + 54.0 hours
Week 08 (02/22/21 to 02/28/21): 53.3 miles + 52.5 hours
Week 09 (03/01/21 to 03/07/21): 39.5 miles + 40.5 hours
Week 10 (03/08/21 to 03/14/21): 53.7 miles + 53.1 hours
Week 11 (03/15/21 to 03/21/21): 44.0 miles + 50.3 hours
Week 12 (03/22/21 to 03/28/21): 42.2 miles + 55.0 hours
Week 13 (03/29/21 to 04/04/21): 45.5 miles + 49.8 hours
Week 14 (04/05/21 to 04/11/21): 49.4 miles + 47.0 hours
Week 15 (04/12/21 to 04/18/21): 41.8 miles + 44.5 hours
Week 16 (04/19/21 to 04/25/21): 54.1 miles + 40.0 hours
Week 17 (04/26/21 to 05/02/21): 59.3 miles + 40.0 hours
Week 18 (05/03/21 to 05/09/21): 52.6 miles + 40.0 hours
Week 19 (05/10/21 to 05/16/21): 50.3 miles + 40.0 hours
Week 20 (05/17/21 to 05/23/21): 61.0 miles + 40.0 hours

Also for those that may be interested in an quality sessions (i.e., workouts), here you go:

Week 01 –
2 mi. WU, 2 mi. tempo (5:50, 5:15) + 3 X 2 min. (5:39, 5:28. 5:25), 2 mi. CD

Week 02 –
2 mi. WU, 3 X [3, 2, 1 min.), 2 mi. CD
2 mi. WU, 2 X 200 (38, 38), 4 X 400 (77, 77, 76, 77), 2 X 200 (38, 37), 5 mi. CD

Week 03 –
2 mi. WU, 3 mi. progressive tempo (6:06, 5:58, 5:50), 3 mi. CD

Week 04 –
3 mi. WU, 1.5 mi. tempo (5:49 pace), 3.5 mi. easy, 4 X 200 (38, 38, 37, 38), 3 mi. CD

Week 05 –
2 mi. WU, 6 mi. @ marathon-ish effort (6:40 avg.), 2 mi. CD
2 mi. WU, 2 X 800 (2:45, 2:42), 4 X 400 (78, 78, 79, 78), 8 X 200 (36, 37, 38, 37, 38, 37, 38, 37), 2 mi. CD

Week 06 –
3.5 mi. WU, 4 X 1 mile @ threshold (6:16, 6:00, 5:56, 6:09), 3.5 mi. CD

Week 07 – 08: ZERO workouts

Week 09 –
1.5 mi. WU, 2 X 1 mile (5:53, 5:52), 1.5 mi. CD

Week 10 –
2 mi. WU, 6 X 1:00 on/off, 6 X 0:30 on/off, 3 mi. CD

Week 11 – 16: ZERO workouts

Week 17 –
2 mi. WU, 4 mi. @ marathon-ish effort (6:58 avg.), 2 mi. CD
5 mi. WU, 6 X 400 (85, 85, 83, 84, 83, 82), 2 mi. CD

Week 18 – 20: ZERO workouts

Hello friends! Buckle up. I have a feeling this post is going to be a bit of a brain dump. I’ve got a lot of things swirling around clogging up space in my head and it’s time to get some of them out. Let’s start with a December training update, then we’ll take a look back at some year-in-review items and we’ll wrap up by looking ahead at some year-in-preview items.

I know I did *some* decent training in December, but I honestly can’t think of a single workout that I did off the top of my head. Let me consult Mr. Strava. Ahh yes … I did some hill repeats (15 X 0:30), a couple workouts at the track and a couple workouts that were likely better suited for the track, but I opted to do them on the road instead. It’s SO DARK out, not only in the mornings, but also in the evenings. It’s really putting a cramp in my style. I have zero motivation to get up any earlier than I already have to drive to the track for a workout.

The first track workout I did was a 2 mile warm up, 2 X 1k, 8 X 400, 2 X 1k, 4 X 200 and a 2 mile cool down. The workout went really well! I hit the first 2 X 1k in 3:37, 3:35, went 79, 80, 80, 79, 78, 80, 79, 79 for the 400s, hit the second 2 X 1k in 3:30, 3:32 and finished up with 36, 36, 35, 36 for the 200s. At this point, it feels like this workout was years ago. Heck, it actually WAS last year. Ha! I can’t even remember what my mindset was at the time that I did this workout, but I think I there was a 5k time trial in the works. Spoiler alert: that didn’t happen.

The second track workout that I did was a 4 mile warm up, 12 X 200 and a 4 mile cool down. I don’t think this was the workout that was scheduled for me, but it’s what I felt like doing, so I did it. I hit the 200s in 37, 36, 36, 36, 35, 35, 35, 35, 35, 35, 35, 36, so I was at least super consistent. I don’t know what it is about 200s, but I really just plain LOVE them! This was a solid day at the oval office for sure, with a longer warm up and cool down for a bit of an added challenge.

The first workout that likely would’ve been better suited for the track was a 2 mile warm up, 2 X 2k, 4 X 400 and a 2 mile cool down. This was also not the workout that was scheduled for me on the day, but again, it’s what I felt like doing, so I did it. At just over a mile of effort, the 2ks were totally fine on the road. I did 5:58 pace for the first one and 5:46 pace for the second one. The 400s were 79, 79, 77, 79. The workout was supposed to be quite a bit longer, but I am not willing to do what it takes to run a ton of miles before work at the moment.

Over the course of the last month or two, I had some very honest conversations with my coach about where I was at mentally and my lack of motivation. We both decided that it makes sense for me to do my own thing for a while. I really enjoyed working with John and I hope to work with him again in the future when I am ready to get back into it. He helped me get to a level of running that I could not have really even imagined. He believed in me (still does) and supported me every step of the way. He even helped me to get a legit “elite” entry into a couple of races. I can assure you that I never dreamed of being in that position. I am truly grateful for his guidance and have nothing but fond memories of the [literal] times that I had.

I know enough about running to “coach myself” if I want to and that’s the approach I am taking at the moment. I don’t have any goals in mind, but I do still enjoy pushing myself. I will probably continue to do a few workouts here and there if I feel like it, but if I don’t, I won’t. It’s so simple. I don’t know why it seemed so complicated in the past.

I’ve done mostly easy running since embarking on my self-coaching adventure, but there have been a few workouts sprinkled in as well. One workout that was really fun was a short ladder workout of 100, 200, 300, 400, 400, 300, 200, 100 with jogging recoveries equal to the interval distance. I also did a progressive tempo (5:58, 5:48, 5:37) one day and a tempo + some timed intervals on the treadmill one morning when it was raining outside.

I’m really happy with doing my own thing and right now I don’t even plan the workouts out ahead of time. I typically know which two days I am more likely to get a quality session in, but otherwise, I make it up on the fly. Obviously if I had a specific goal I was training towards, I would schedule things out differently, but this is working for me currently. I’ve been chasing PRs for over a decade and I’m mentally and physically just kind of over it. My heart isn’t in it like it used to be. It’s weird to even say this, but I have zero interest in being a better runner at the moment. I’m perfectly content with where I am and sure, I’d like to maintain some sort of basic level of fitness, but I want to focus on running for the pure enjoyment of it.

Speaking of the last decade of running, several months ago (with Richard’s help), I made a chart of my 5k times over the years. I thought it was super interesting to see all the ups and downs within each year and even between years, but the trend really does still stand out as continual improvement. Looking back at this now makes me want to go back in and do more with this data. It’s so cool to have 67 5k times over the course of 13 years to analyze.

I’ve also decided to take a break from my Pilates class at the moment as well. Again, the plan is to “coach myself” and still continue to do some of the exercises on my own. I’m saving A LOT of money by doing it this way. Saving money is actually one of the goals that I am most excited about right now. We’ve got plans to add on to our house and to pay for it upfront.

I’d say we are officially caught up on the training front. Before we talk about a few of my other random “goals” for the new year, let’s take a brief look back at 2020. If hindsight is 20/20, then 2020 was the year of “hindsight” and it only seems appropriate to take a few minutes to reflect back on the year. One of my favorite sentiments is that life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our stories won’t have titles (or even make sense) until much later. Basically, we have to trust the timing of our lives and know that in times of uncertainty and struggle, clarity and peace is just around the corner. And that, my friends, is really good news!

Richard and I got engaged on 02/02/2020 (a palindrome date!) and got married a few months later (in the midst of the pandemic) on 05/10/2020 (5 + 5 = 10 and 10 + 10 = 20!). Yes. I’m a numbers nerd. We kept it really simple with just our parents and Brooks in attendance. It was really so “us” and I can’t imagine having it any other way. We are enjoying married life on the farm with all of our animals.

I got to run a marathon in January (before things were shut down and races were cancelled). It’s hard to believe that the Louisiana Marathon was even in 2020, as it seems like a lifetime ago! It was a bit of a gamble, but I gave myself one more shot (10 weeks after Indy) to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials. I came away with my 2nd fastest marathon and the overall female win! I’m so glad that I gave it one last shot. In the process, I definitely built a lot of character and re-learned that running is about so much more than finish lines and finish times. This was a timely reminder seeing as how there were not many finish lines to cross for the remainder of the year.

I focused on shorter stuff the rest of the year, with the BIG goals being to break 5 minutes in the mile (I ran 5:02) and to break 17 minutes in the 5k (I ran 17:19). Even though I didn’t quite get there, I’m really proud of the work that I put in. I ran faster and got stronger than I ever have before. The process itself was more rewarding than the individual outcomes. I guess you could say that I shot for the moon and even though I didn’t quite get there, I got to see some stars along the way. So cheesy! I know.

I enjoyed participating in a number of “virtual” races over the spring and summer. I learned that I am actually way more competitive with MYSELF than I am with other runners. I was able to come away with some of my best race times in races where I was the only participant. Looking back now, I am especially thankful for these virtual races. They gave me a goal to focus on for several months when a lot of other things were very uncertain. It was great to have normalcy in the midst of chaos.

While a lot of things are still very uncertain, I don’t feel like I *need* running as the primary constant of my life right now (if that makes any sense). My family, my relationship and my career are my primary focus going into the new year. I don’t think anyone will be shocked by this, but Richard and I REALLY want to start a family. Apparently it is harder than it looks! I won’t use the word infertility as part of our story quite yet, but it’s been an emotional rollercoaster for sure. I’ve always been someone who sets a goal and then does whatever it takes to accomplish said goal. As many of you know all too well, this doesn’t really work that way. I truly believe that it will happen when it is supposed to happen and I’m trying to have patience in the meantime.

So yeah, that’s the focus right now! I have some other less serious goals slash resolutions slash intentions slash whatever you want to call them as well. I have a tendency to get caught up in black or white, all or nothing thinking and I have really tried to be cognizant of that as I set these “intentions:”

1. More personal connection and less social media! I have deleted the Instagram and Facebook apps from my phone. I am not deleting my accounts, but I don’t want to mindlessly scroll through them in what little free time I do have only to end up feeling frustrated and annoyed with people. It’s draining.
2. Eat more whole foods and less processed foods. A few years ago, I embarked on the intuitive eating “journey.” This was revolutionary for me, but as it turns out, I intuitively want a lot of sweets and other foods that are devoid of many nutrients. I think I am to the point now where I can make a bit of a conscious switch back to focusing more on nutrients as opposed to just whatever I may be “craving” at the moment. Let’s face it, there’s only so much fudge that one person can consume.
3. Drink more water and less artificially sweetened carbonated beverages.
4. Track my shoe mileage. This one is silly, but I am so bad about not tracking my mileage per shoe. I track SO MANY things in my life, but shoe mileage has never been something that I have kept up with. As a result, I end up putting WAY too many miles on my shoes. I’m not sure whether to be embarrassed or proud of this, but I have a pair of Nike Vaporflys that have to have close to 500 miles on them (insert facepalm). I’ve been using them for the majority of my workouts for over 2 years. I have newer pairs, but I “save” those for races. I started the year with 4 new pairs of shoes (yes that was a bit of an upfront investment, but all of my shoes were dead), so I know exactly how many miles are on them. Here’s to hoping I can keep it up!
5. This one is a fun one that may or may not hold up, depending on any big life changes that come my way, but I want to run more miles per week than hours that I work. It will get a little bit more challenging as tax season progresses, but I’m pretty sure that it is doable. It’ll be a fun challenge anyway!

I also jotted down several words or “themes” for the upcoming year. Oddly enough, we did something similar to this at work this week as well. I was unknowingly super prepared for that meeting. Ha! My words for the year are focus, strive, awareness, stillness, nature, nurture, peace, hope, persevere, freedom, love, confidence, humility, surrender, strength and patience. It was really cool to be able to use some of the words that I picked out more on a personal level as part of a professional discussion as well. Here is the product of our work white board brain storming session.

The last couple years of my life have seen a lot of change and a lot of ups and downs, but like running, my job has been one of the constants and I am incredibly thankful for that.

I’ll wrap this up by sharing a couple quotes that are also resonating with me as we go into the new year.

When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.
– Paulo Coelho.

Run the mile you are in.
– Ryan Hall

We can do no great things; only small things with great love.
– Mother Teresa

Whew. There you have it. If you made it this far, THANK YOU for reading! Maybe if I posted a bit more frequently, I wouldn’t have to write an entire novel every time. Maybe that’s another goal to add to the list!

Hey friends!

I am coming at you today with an unconventional training log of sorts. I want to zoom out a bit and do more of a bigger picture training log than what the weekly posts typically address. I feel like it’s easy to get lost in the weeds a bit on the weekly training logs and I really don’t think I need to tell you guys that I run every day (most days, you know what I mean). I can sum up 75% of my training by saying, “I ran “X amount” of easy peasy lemon squeezy miles on the driveway this morning and there was nothing exciting to note.” If you are here for the daily deets, please follow along on Strava! It’s all there. In painstaking detail!

With that being said, let’s look at what November has looked like from a broader perspective! Side note: this actually picks up where my last training log left off, so that worked out quite nicely if I do say so myself.

Here is the mileage by week:

Week 1: 56 miles
Week 2: 57 miles
Week 3: 62 miles

My coach and I are trying out a new thing where I have a little bit more say in what my workouts are. For instance, he will say, “Let’s do a cruise interval with a fast finish. What are you thinking?” From there, I throw out some suggestions and see what sticks. I like having a little bit more control over what I am doing and in a time when a lot of most things in life are outside of our control, this is oddly comforting. 

The first week, I did two workouts. The first workout was a fartlek. The workout called for a 2 mile warm up, then three sets of 3 minutes at threshold (~ 10k pace) w/ a 2 minute jog, 2 minutes at interval (~ 5k pace) w/ a 2 minute jog, 1 minute at faster than 5k pace w/ a 1 minute jog and a 2 mile cool down. I decided to do this one on the roads on a hiller than typical workout route (you know, for an added challenge) and I was really regretting that by the last set. Those hills ate my lunch! But given the terrain, my splits made sense. Paces were 5:49, 5:46, 6:14 for the 3 minute reps, 5:37, 5:43, 5:58 for the 2 minute reps and 5:24, 5:16, 5:43 for the 1 minute reps. I ended up with 9 miles on the day and the workout FLEW by!

Later that week I did a “fast and quick” track workout. The workout called for a 3 mile warm up, 12 X 300 at repetition pace (~ 1 mile race pace (i.e., all out)) with a 105 second walking recovery and a 3 mile cool down. In my mind, instead of seeing 105 seconds on the training plan, I saw 1:05, so I ended up shorting myself on the recoveries by 40 seconds! Ha. Thankfully, I felt GOOD that day and didn’t need the extra recovery to begin with. Seriously, this was one of the best workouts that I have had in quite some time. My splits for the 300s were 56, 54, 55, 54, 55, 54, 55, 54, 53, 54, 54, 54 (4:50 pace!). After this workout, John texted me and said that he thought I was definitely ready to go sub-5 in the mile. Stay tuned, because that is still one of my BIG goals!

The second week, I only ended up doing one workout. I was scheduled to do two, but I was having some serious stomach pain early that week, which caused me to scrap the first workout. We all know that stress does weird things to the body and it really puts my stomach in knots sometimes. I even went to the doctor because it was hurting so bad. In hindsight this seems a bit silly since I knew exactly what she was going to tell me, but it was nice to get some reassurance that it wasn’t anything major. It’s as easy as just eliminating stress from my life! Easy as pie. Speaking of pie, that actually might help! Right?!

I was feeling much better by the end of the week, which was a good thing because I had a doozy of a workout. I ran a short warm up, paced my friend Jessica in the McKirdy Trained Virtual 10k race, went straight into a 4 mile tempo and then did a short cool down. We had a great time with the 10k! I also paced her in the McKirdy Trained Virtual 5k a few weeks back and we were able to make some tweaks and adjustments to the pacing strategy that worked out really well. She ran a great race, averaging exactly 7:00 pace, and came away with a nice little negative split (the second 5k was slightly faster than the first 5k). My tempo miles immediately after were quite challenging! Oh. My. Goodness. I ran 6:06, 6:05, 5:59 and 5:58, but that was absolutely all I could muster. I ended up with 13.2 miles, making that my longest run since … MAY! I didn’t realize that until just now. Wowza!

The third week (last week), I did two workouts. The first workout was interval repeats. The workout called for a 3 mile warm up, 10 X 1:30 @ interval pace (goal was 5:22 pace) with a 1:30 walk recovery and a 3 mile cool down. I did this workout at the outdoor mall that was my go-to “quarantine” workout spot when the tracks were closed. The mall has actually turned out to be a nice workout option even in more normal times too! I felt okay for this one, but not stellar by any means. I averaged close to 5:35 for the intervals, which was slower that intended, but the effort was appropriate. Ultimately, that’s all that matters!

Later that week I did a threshold workout with some fast intervals to finish. I know I mentioned earlier that most of my runs are very bland, but there was some spice to this one. The workout itself was fine. It was a 3 mile warm up, 3 miles @ threshold pace (goal was 5:50 pace), followed by 8 X 40 seconds @ interval pace (goal was 5:22 pace) and a 3 mile cool down. I’ve got a good route for workouts that allows me to run from home, so that’s what I did. I debated meeting the group to run, but 1) I would’ve needed to wake up much earlier, 2) I would’ve had to drive 30 minutes each way and 3) I would’ve ended up doing the workout by myself anyway, so it just made sense 4) me to run from home. Get it? I’m a dork.

There was a high school kid missing in our area. He hadn’t made it home from school Friday and no one remembered seeing him on the bus. Admittedly, I was not as up on this news story as I likely should’ve been. Sure enough, two miles into my warm up, I passed someone walking on the side of the road in jeans and a hoodie, carrying a backpack. I thought to myself that this was very strange and I debated for a second about whether or not to call Richard to come check it out.

I decided to just keep on trucking on my route. I was about to start my workout and I knew that the person would have to really book it to catch me. Side note: the person who attacked me back in the day was wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, so I was having a slight flashback. I honestly didn’t even think that it could me the missing kid, but was more concerned that it was someone up to no good. I hate that this is where my mind immediately goes, but it is what it is. I even decided to alter my route to avoid crossing paths with this person again (a decision that I should’ve made 15 years ago that would’ve changed things).

I put all this behind me and did the workout, averaging 5:56 for the 3 mile threshold and 5:17 for the 40 second pickups. I would’ve placed money on the fact that my legs were toast after that threshold, but sure enough the turnover was still there. After I finished up my workout and started the cool down, a dog started running with me. He (or she … no idea) ran almost 2 miles with me! I don’t know who it belonged to, but it was a beautiful little Australian Shepard mix and I really wanted to take it home with me. Since we all know that we don’t need any more animals, I had to be smart and not let it follow me home.

It wasn’t until I got back to the house and finished telling Richard all about my dog encounter that he asked if I had seen the missing kid. I told him about the person that I saw (who looked much more like a man than a kid from behind). He started giving a physical description of the boy and I finished his sentence by saying that he had a blue backpack. Someone else had already identified him at that point as well and he was unharmed, so all is well there. And, good news! I saw a dog today!

It’s almost Buddy the Elf season!