Mom on the Run--Woman of Steele

This is so hard to write. It’s not a blog I ever thought I would be writing. And it’s taken me about a month to come to grips with it enough to be able to put it into words.   It’s not fitness related, but family related. Some of you know what’s happened if you follow me on social media. On January 12 we had to put our oldest dog, Bosco down. He had just turned 12 years old on January 7. My husband was home for the day and had taken my truck to get the oil changed when he came back to see Bosco having a seizure in his crate.  I can only imagine how horrific that must have been.  He tried to snap him out of it by taking him out of his crate, holding him, putting him out in the cold, but nothing worked.  He called me frantically while I was at work.  Luckily, I was on my lunch break.  I didn’t know what to do.  He had tried to call our vet but they were at lunch as well.  I couldn’t find the emergency vet phone number so I freaked and ju...

Since reading The Magnolia Story and my experience with my wedding rings, I have changed my mindset about so many things.  One in particular being my obsession with running and working out.  I know that my running and working out is time-consuming and a lot of our free time revolves around my running schedule because I have set these lofty goals to run races and a certain number of miles in a year.  This has also caused me to be ridiculously burned out from running.  I have lost my love of it a little bit.  So to gain that back, the first thing I am doing is to NOT set a mileage goal for next year.  I still want to train and race, but I am going to follow my plans more and not overdo it as much just to chase a number.  I am going to run more for feel and for the freedom it gives me.  I am going to run with friends more.  I am going to make running fun and enjoyable again.  I’m going to concentrate on getting stronger with more stre...

It’s been awhile since I’ve sat down to write.  I’ve been non-stop busy with Christmas prep, family, and a busy work schedule.  Therefore, blogging unfortunately has taken a back seat.   I am finally sitting down to write about my last 2 races and what I’m doing during the off-season. After finishing the Madison Marathon in November, I took 5 days off afterwards to just walk.  I didn’t do anything else.  It was really nice and a nice break mentally and physically.  I started running short distances after that.  The farthest I’ve run since the marathon is 8 miles.  That seems like such a low number after training for 26!   Anyway,  I ran in my little town of Milton’s Turkey Trot for the first time this year.  It’s only taken me living in Milton for 9 years to run this race.  It’s an unofficial race and it’s free.  You just have to bring in a non-perishable food item for the food pantry.   So I woke up ...

You guys!!!  I ran my second full marathon!!!  And I beat my time by 7 minutes!!!  I am still in shock several weeks later that I actually did it!  (And that it’s taken me this long to write about it!)  I didn’t quite make my ultimate goal of under 5 hours, but I was super close with a time of 5:04:03!!!  Can you believe it??? Here’s how it all went down: The family and I drove up to Madison on Friday night to get my packet at the Expo.  We hung around the Expo looking at the different booths, hanging out with fellow runners, and making signs. My kids made the greatest signs for me for race day! Such a pretty sight! There signs are so cute!  I love how supportive they are! We went to Pizza Ranch for dinner afterwards which is always a nice carb-loading trip.  I tell ya their pizza and chicken are the best.  We recently went to Mac’s Pizza Shack which is a local restaurant and their pizza is good but just not qui...

As most of you know I love to read.  There is not a point in time where I am not currently reading multiple books whether for pleasure or for school.  I guess it’s a good thing I teach reading for a living!   My mom recently gave me her book to read, The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines from Fixer Upper .  I absolutely love Chip and Jo!  I am obsessed with watching their show as well, and reading their book only makes me love them more as a couple.  They really remind me a lot of my husband and I.  Chip is goofy silly and always tries to make Joanna laugh.  Jay does the same thing with me.  Chip has a million projects going on a one time and so does Jay. I’m very conservative and reserved most of the time like Jo.  I’m a penny pincher and planner like Jo.  Chip and Jo compliment each other like Jay and I compliment each other. October 18, 2016 HarperCollins Christian Publishing Well, I’ve been really enjoyi...

As part of my training plan this go-around, I decided to run a half marathon two weeks before my full!  What was I thinking?  I guess I was thinking that my training plan called for 12 miles so why not run 13.1 for fun with a bunch of other people and get a cool t-shirt and medal in return! So I did it! I ran a half marathon on Sunday October 30 with my fastest time of the year!  Not a PR but the fastest half this year with a time of 2:22:07!  Not too shabby considering I was starting to taper! This was the first time I had run this race and I really enjoyed the course.  It was pretty flat with one giant hill at mile 8.  They had the option to run a full marathon and you loop with this course, so you would have to run up that hill twice.  I might actually consider running the full course next year!  I must be crazy saying this a week before I run my second full marathon.   Anyway, packet pick up was the day before the race a...