An Open Letter to Mother Runners Who Are Better at This than Me

Dear Mother Runners who Work...

Dear Bad A** Mother Runners who work,

How do you do this and train?  Specifically, how do you get up, wrangle your posse, go to work, and train for a race?

I’m no novice here.  I’ve trained at crazy hours to get my running in while I’m in nursing school.  It’s just that now I’m working in the hospital in an immersion program and it’s completely flattening my mojo.

Motivation = 0

If it was 0.2 I could multiply it by SOMETHING and get motivated.

But it’s not.  It’s 0.

The issue is that I can’t run in the morning because it’s too early.  I mean, realistically I can’t get up at 345 a.m. every single day and run an hour, be done, get the kids lunches packed into their backpacks, get ready for work, greet the babysitter, commute to the hospital, work a (12 or 8) hour shift on my feet for (11.5 or 8) hours, and function...

it's the functioning part that has me crippled here. I mean, if that wasn't a requirement of my relationship with my kids, The Good Dr, professors, etc, then I could so totally do this...

And if you remove the run, have me sleep in till 5:15, so that I could work out in the evening.... well, I’m usually so freakishly tired at the end of the day that I’m barely functioning enough to collect my kids from the sitter, get them home, feed them, get their homework done, get my homework done, and get the (Laundry, Dishes, House picked Up) that training isn't on the menu by that point. 

Today I came home from a 10 hour on my feet work day and got on the trainer for exactly 20 minutes.  I told myself that 20 minutes was better than nothing, but I gotta be honest, not sure where that 20 minutes is going to get me when I'm on a 3 hour bike ride in June, or a 13.1 mile run in mid-March...

So, I need to know:

How do you do it?  

What is the trick that I’m missing?  What lie have I told myself about training that is preventing me from seeing the answer?  What do YOU know that I haven’t figured out yet?

I don’t want to be a slug.  I’m registered for two pretty solid races in 2014.  One in March and one in June.  Both are important to me, albeit, the June race is more important than the March race so if a sacrifice was going to happen it’s there... still... I don’t want to sacrifice, I just want a solution to get me moving in the right direction.

Anyone?

Bueller?

Regards,

GBA gf

One Bite at a Time

For Christmas I got a Galactically BADA** gift from The Good Dr.  Like, level 10. On a 10 point scale.

I received an entry into Ironman 70.3 Raleigh.  It’s in June.

Also on my spring schedule, (also a “Happy End of Finals” gift), is an entry into a Half Marathon in March.

His idea is that we would train for the races together, and that it would give us an opportunity to spend time together on the same path before he goes down the 140.6 path and I go down the 26.2 path.  My wife, TMB~ Racing with Babes ~ and I are definitely making a LOT of Fall Marathon noise at the moment.

So, last week was T-9 weeks till Half Marathon and I didn’t exactly do much to prepare for a Half Marathon.

In fact, my new training plan is off to a ridiculously SLOW start.  Like... kinda not started...  (Whomp Whomp)

Part of it is that it’s so overwhelming.

13.1 – 70.3 – 26.2 and all the training in between is a HUGE amount of cardiovascular exertion.

More exertion than last year, that’s for darned sure.

That’s not to say I sat around doing nothing last year.  I did ride my bike a WHOLE wicked lot.  About 1650ish miles.  Still, riding a bike is a different kind of hard than running.  (swimming is still easy, even when it’s hard).

So tonight as I stepped out of the shower and prepared for bed, I reflected back on a very light week of fitness.  And I remembered what 3L said about her first marathon.

“I’m going to eat this elephant one bite at a time”.

It’s exactly the advice I used to get through Nursing School.  And it’s exactly what I needed to remember.

I don’t need to be able to run 13.1 miles tomorrow.  I only need to be able to run 6 miles or so.  It’s 8 weeks away, and all I need to do is get through this week.

Tri-Wife & Tantrum

My TRI-wife, DeNiece and I started out running "together" a few years ago.  We couldn't really be running wives though.  She was *married* to Ocean, and I was *married* to TMB of Racing with Babes.

But now and again, when our wives were busy, or training for other things, DeNiece and I would run together.  

And now and again, on those runs, DeNiece would talk about the two of us one day doing a Half Iron Distance Triathlon together.

I scoffed.

I'm never going to do that with you... You have lost your fecking mind. 

Not sure what went down after that, but there is great debate as to HOW we went from scoffing and joking about it to planning our September '12 TRIAdventure.

And what was fun about this is, without a tremendous amount of formal training, we ventured out and taught ourselves to be TRIATHLETES. 

Or maybe we were TriLAUGHelites.

Because who needs an ab workout when you spend your summer laughing at yourselves?

And laughing at your wife. (said with love DeNiece, said with love)

So I didn't realize until recently that we were not the only ones laughing at us - er, with us. I was having a conversation the other day with The Good Dr and he joked about my predictable mid-ride temper tantrum.

What! You knew about that?
Um. Yeah. You know, I think everyone knew about that.

on any given ride, ever, I always had a TEMPER TANTRUM that went something like this...  

me  "How far have we ridden? I forgot to start my watch."

DeNeice:  "28" "36" "52"

"28??? (36!)(52!)  Seriously???  That's it???  Gah!  I fecking HATE this.  I HATE THIS SPORT.  WHY AM I DOING A SPORT THAT I FECKING HATE?!"

"Gba gf... Did you eat anything in the last hour?"

mumblessomethingaboutno

"Here, eat this."

(elevator muzak for 7-10 minutes)

"This is a really pretty ride. I think I could get used to cycling."

You know what I think is really extraordinary? It's not that we're considering another 70+ mile adventure. Or looking ahead at training over the hot summer months.

It's that even knowing that there are likely 20 weeks of Temper Tantrums between Now and Race Day... she still is willing to do this with me again.