Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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marathon monday: time travel

Hello and happy Monday! Happy brand new everything. I admit to totally loving the beginning of the week. The fresh slate, the abundance of pent up energy from a weekend of cuddling and eating spaghetti. The running schedule which is so far unaltered. : )

Everything feels fresh and possible on Monday.

sun returns c

This week for Marathon Monday I’m indulging in an idea sparked by a Twitter conversation with Joe Jacobi. Joe is a new running acquaintance I’ve made thanks to the OKC Memorial Marathon connection. I’d been asking friends to time travel a bit, to think back to what recipes rocked their young adult worlds in terms of convenience, cost effectiveness, etc. What we wish we’d known then kinda stuff. (I’m working on a fun kitchen surprise for our oldest girl who is cooking for herself now.)

Well, Joe suggested that the same question is a totally valid line of thought for sports, too. What do we wish we’d known in our twenties?

Friends, before we start, can we just pause for a moment
to appreciate and wonder at the fact
that I am discussing sports metaphors and philosophies
with an Olympic gold medalist and professional motivational speaker?
Because, miracles are real and life is full of wonderful surprises!
Amen. 

This is such a great idea. Hindsight may seem to be of little value for the present moment, until we consider that what we notice when we look back crystallizes for us our values. We can see clearly what we would change if we could, what we are still celebrating so many years later, and what is worth either repeating or forgetting entirely. Also, who knows? Offering what wisdom we discover in hindsight could help someone else.

Since I didn’t start running until my late thirties, I probably missed my prime. More than likely I am already well past my quickest, leanest years. I’ll probably never win a race, but I don’t care because I still plan to finish gobs and gobs of them. Running has changed my mindset and my overall well being in so many ways, I really wish time travel could be real long enough to go have coffee with myself twenty years ago. I’d say these things:

Me (definitely a non runner here) with my little brother Phil and my firstborn beauty, who is now almost the age I was then. Let's have coffee and talk, Young Me! You're doing everything wrong. xoxo
Me (definitely a non runner here) with my little brother Phil and my firstborn beauty, who is now almost the age I was then. Let’s have coffee and talk, Young Me! You’re doing everything wrong. xoxo

 

Just run. Yes, it takes a little time, but you’ll just spend that time doing stupid stuff anyway, like watching Real World or listening to the Cranberries on loop. Plus, and pay close attention here, you need time alone more than you realize. It will do wonders for you emotionally and socially.

Please cancel that dumb Mademoiselle “gym” membership and buy some running shoes. Don’t worry about how you think you look in sweat pants. You’re about to look pretty great.

Your writing will improve, too. Run that tangled mess of words into a streamlined sentence. Keep doing it.

Run! If you want to lose that little bit of weight after carrying two beautiful babies, running and eating better is the answer. Don’t you dare get a prescription for Fen-Phen. Just don’t, even if your doctor says it’s awesome.

Yes, seriously, I know that the new Pearl Jam album is really great. Agreed! But how about you go listen to it while running instead of just laying there with your ancient Walkman getting a sunburn?

You’re going to lose your Grandma not long after your first baby is born. Please start running now so she can see you finish your first marathon. She could be your biggest fan and you know it. She is worried about the path you’re on.

Run with your little sister. She needs it too. You need to be friends right now, before it’s too late. Trust me.

with angela

 

I bet, and I really mean this, that if you take up running and yoga and just slightly better eating, you won’t feel such a need to spend a gazillion dollars at the tanning beds. And by the way? That’s about to be really out of style anyway. Stop now, okay? Be the first to say enough.

If you start running you will feel better about yourself almost immediately. And I know you don’t want to talk about this with anyone who loves you, so listen to me: You need to get out of that toxic relationship earlier, in an adult way, with less destruction to everyone. Running will help. You will walk away peacefully and everyone will be happy for many extra years.

Run out all that stress instead of spinning your wheels in depression. Run so you can get quiet and listen to that voice inside your 20 year old heart saying this is not right, I’m not happy. Get outside and run instead of over thinking everything and talking and talking and talking about it every day. Talking is overrated. Running is a goldmine of mental health that you need to unearth now.

I know it hurts your lungs a little at first, and you wheeze and feel huge and clumsy and weird. But that’s normal! Do it in little increments. Make a plan. Get some encouragement. Have fun! Do not judge the whole experience by this first awkward beginning. Please give yourself a chance, okay?

Life is about to be so great. It’s about to be so amazing, you’ll soon look around and not hardly believe your eyes. Running will only amplify it all.

 

Okay, friends. Coffee with my younger self was nice, although she actually ordered a Dr. Pepper and chili cheese french fries and didn’t think twice about it, which was weird for me. I hope she heeds some of this hindsight advice. Now tell me what you would tell your younger self about health and wellness. I’d really truly love to hear it. And if you are a twenty-something reader today? Take this advice from someone who would love to have made this happy discovery at your age: RUN.

XOXOXOXO

marathon monday: shifting gears

Happy New Year, and happy running! Is any new fitness program on your agenda this month, this year? If so, I hope it’s part of a gentle, realistic, healthful mindset for you, something that serves you well in many ways, not something that lords over you and makes you miserable.

Because you’re awesome and don’t need a big ugly guilt trip. xoxo

At the start of this recent holiday season I mentioned that marathon training was starting again and that I’d chosen the Hal Higdon Intermediate 1 program to get me ready for April. Week one was really good, and I felt great and was strongly motivated. Mileage was right on the mark.

Theeeennn… It was Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, and time for family and cuddling and watching movies. I had much better things to enjoy than running alone. Then I tried to get back on track (err, trail) and the weather turned nasty. Quite nasty most days. I can make excuses as well as anybody, but these bumps in the schedule were true obstacles. Family and safety first. Thank goodness this is happening early in the 18 weeks, when I have lots of time to make up for it.

So… Taking the same loving advice I would give you, I’m neither giving up nor accepting the guilt trip. 

I just looked again at the schedule to see how badly I’d slipped behind. As it turns out, things could be much worse. No towels have been thrown in! But still… Looking at the next few weeks of weather I don’t see things improving much; so I’ve simply regrouped and shifted from Intermediate 1 to Novice 2, which is a program with the same number of weeks but slightly lower mileage. There’s a real mental benefit to not feeling quite so far behind. If over the next month or so I feel stronger and life opens up a bit, I may step it up. We’ll see.

Current Plan:

For now? I’m doing short runs plus strength on Mondays and Wednesdays. Longish runs (they are still pretty short this early in the program) on Tuesdays and Fridays. Cross training on Thursdays. Taking the weekends off so Handsome isn’t too lonely. That will likely change over time, too, or from week to week depending on our social calendar.

Our Talking Tree, filled with sleepy guineas, on a day so cold the air around us stayed bluish gray.
Our Talking Tree, filled with sleepy guineas, on a day so cold the air around us stayed bluish gray.

A question for you:

Speaking of all this cold weather, and by cold in Oklahoma I mean temperatures between 15 and 38 degrees, how cold is too cold for you to run outside? My friend Norma asked me this on Facebook recently and it got me thinking. Apparently the world boasts some pretty hard-core runners who will lace up for miles in sub-zero temps. I MEAN REALLY. haha

I don’t mind bundling up quite a bit, and rain itself doesn’t bother me, but if it’s both cold and wet I rethink it. Or if the winds are blowing down our pine trees, making it too hard to climb hills, I tend to give it about half an hour then reevaluate. What about you? I am so curious.

Thanks for stopping in, friends! I wish you all the best this week, whatever your goals are. I wish you just the right measure of challenge mixed with a deep personal motivation to overcome it. Happy first full week of this new year!!

If you want to live, you must walk.
If you want to live long, you must run.
~Jinabhai Navik
XOXOXO

marathon monday: 2015 training starts fresh

I’m a little surprised. I’d been assuming that training for the 2015 Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon would start early January, just after the holiday revelry subsides, but no. I’m following the Hal Higdon “Intermediate I” program, which is 18 weeks long. Counting backwards from April 26th of next year, I will actually run my first training mile today. And I’m really excited about it! For the last few months, running has taken a back seat to a pretty hectic and unpredictable daily life, which is fine. Fitness is supposed to be a tool for a happy, balanced life, after all, not my main goal. But returning to some structure and gradually increasing challenges will be wonderful. Refreshing both mentally and physically.

My very good friend & book club buddy Steph snapped this photo of me around mile 22 of last year's OKCM Marathon. I will never forget this feeling! xoxo
My very good friend & book club buddy Steph snapped this photo of me around mile 22 of last year’s OKC Marathon. I will never forget this feeling! xoxo Click on the photo for that article!

Are you interested in running any of the events in OKC? Click right here for pricing and details. Take note that if you register by New Year’s Eve you enjoy the best price break. I feel extra lucky because as a thank you for participating in the marathon committee’s focus group, I get to register for half price of that. Nice! More money to drop in my new-shoes fund. My Brooks situation is getting kind of desperate.

So, Hal Higdon. This is the same training program that got me to my first half marathon in 2013 and then my first full last April. It’s simple, effective, and slightly famous. I felt more than ready by the end of each 18-week stretch, and it also allowed me some flexibility on weird weeks. Happy, balanced life first, right? Well, happy, balanced life first with a heavy focus on marathon readiness. The two are simpatico. Totally. The more I run, the better life is.

Is this true for you? That the more you run, the better life is? It’s a wonderful addiction.

stopping is hard

With only a few days before Christmas weekend, I am really glad to have my shopping (mostly) done. I’m glad to have time to spend on the trails this week, burning off some tension and tapping into whatever stamina I have left from such a paltry autumn of low mileage. Reevaluate my fitness and sweet talk a few more dozen miles out of my cute, filthy, moth-eaten little Brooks. The shoes that used to be turquoise and white but now are spray-painted black.

With the onset of training season, my Marathon Monday posts will be more consistent, too. Are you training for anything, or are you on the fence about starting? Is there anything you’re interested in reading about? I have some fun, different ideas for this section of my blog for the coming months, so please stay tuned. Diet, shoes and clothes, music, weight loss, literature, and (of course) the philosophy of running. There’s so much to talk about!

For week one, here is my easy peasy running schedule, slightly modified to accommodate the holiday:
Monday: 3 miles
Tuesday: 7 miles
Wednesday:3 miles
Thursday: Merry Christmas! Rest Day. Family time. xoxo
Friday: 8 miles
Saturday: 3 miles
Sunday: cross train (yoga, elliptical, or strength)

Thanks as always for visiting me here! If you’re working on a running goal I’d love love love to hear all about it. And please enjoy the next few days of Christmas prep. Let it be joyful, ok?

Run for Your Life
XOXOXOXO

 

 

 

post-feast fitness reset

Okay. It’s the Monday after Thanksgiving, the dawn on a new day after nearly a week of relaxed standards. The first full day after several days and nights of eating pretty much anything I wanted, napping a lot, and not running or doing strength exercises at all.

This is not the way my fitness role models suggested we do it exactly, but it happened. And the thing is, I loved every minute. Sometime during the really fun process of planning our big family feast, I made the conscious decision to not only allow myself some indulgences; I would deeply and thoroughly enjoy it. I affirmed in my own heart the intrinsic value of traditional foods, soul-nurturing traditions, and shared meals. Extended cuddling sessions. Empty agendas. What good is “cheating” on yourself? You’re much better off accepting that you’re trading one pleasure (fitness) for another (conviviality*). We can take either pursuit to dangerous extremes, after all.

(*These are just my opinions. My emotional philosophies.)

So I’m not writing this today with any apologies for falling off my miles plan or my calorie restriction ideal. Not at all. Until late Saturday afternoon I had been feeling pretty amazing physically, and that brief sluggishness was easily corrected with a gallon of water, a couple of plain salads with a little meat on them, and some grateful, sweaty time on the elliptical.

Nope, no regrets. I loved feeling free to stay up late with my daughter talking about life and eating an un-rationed amount of Pink Stuff. I loved sitting and relaxing and crocheting hats with my sister- in-law while eating pecan pie with a cloud of whipped cream and perfect coffee. I ate turkey and homemade stuffing until I gobbled instead of giggled. The food was a big, wonderful part of the week for me, and so was the time with my people instead away from them. Handsome was off work for four days in a row, and choosing to not lace up and disappear for an hour or two was smart. It was good for both of us this year.

Buuuuuuuut………….

There’s always a big but, right? Especially after several days like this?

Sorry. Let’s try that again:

All that said, as emotionally refreshing as this break truly has been, I am just as ready for a thorough reset. My body craves activity, raw vegetables, and waaaaaay less sugar (all kinds of sugar). My mind craves the satisfaction of having treated myself well. And whether he will admit this or not, my husband is ready for my to siphon off some nervous energy and show up for our time together exhilarated, rested, slender feeling, and energized. All of that together. That’s what running, mild weights, and healthy eating does for me, so it also does that for us.

kale salad with pomegranate
Torn up raw kale with lemon, a drizzle of olive oil, and a whole bunch of pomegranate seeds. One of the simplest, most gorgeous salads you’ll ever scoop into your gravy-weary mouth!

 

So on this first day of December, as we move away from a magical and delicious Thanksgiving, as we tiptoe into wintertime and all of those related temptations and implications, I am making this new temporary pact with myself:

lazyw wintertime fitness plan

Simple enough, right? Just daily habits that are sustainable, flexible, and completely geared toward living fully and feeling amazing. That’s what I want. To have a full life and feel great day to day. If along this path my jeans size diminished a bit, then so be it. If not, I’m happy with that too.

How are you feeling physically, post feast? Do you deal with guilt after indulging, or are you at peace? What was you favorite amazing food this past week? How do you plan to care for yourself this winter? Tell me everything!

Take care of your body.
It’s the only place you have to live.
~Jim Rohn
XOXOXOXO

 

 

 

marathon monday: november is a new season

It pains me to admit this, but I have been making every excuse under the sun for not running regularly. I’ll squeeze in three or four miles here and there, maybe six miles once in a blue moon, and I always feel better afterward. It’s so refreshing, mentally and physically! But this early autumn has been busy around the farm and just in life, and my heart is in more important places than the running trail. The paradox, of course, is how much running actually helps every other part of life. So neglecting my miles can have a gradually negative effect on other things.

Anyway.

Back to the grind, happily.

To start this month off right, Handsome and I threw a really fun bonfire party here on Saturday night. Right before our first friends were set to arrive I flung myself out to the back field for one single, solitary 8-minute mile. It was short and sudden, just long enough to shake up my energy for some fun. I’m not proud of one mile, but at least I didn’t let the first day of November slip by with a goose egg.

running, pile on the miles, lazy w, marathon training, run eat repeat

 

Today was much better. I lifted a few baby weights then got outside in the blustery Oklahoma weather for six miles. I am feeling way more motivated, very happy to reconnect with how spending energy creates more energy. Happy to enjoy the cool temperatures. Happy to make the sweaty most out of shorter daylight hours. AND thrilled to participate in a fun new running challenge!

The Monican over at RUN EAT REPEAT (my most favorite running blog ever) is hosting a thing called “Pile on the Miles” for all of November. She’s encouraging people to pile on the miles before piling on the calories at Thanksgiving, and she’s giving away tons of prizes along the way.

And I groove it. I love well contained, focused, manageable projects like this, and gearing up my cardio before winter sets in? It’s just plain smart.

Run Eat Repeat, running, Pile on the Miles
The Monican! She is totally bringing braids back.

My goal for November is 8o miles. So, 73 to go. Finally a realistic short term goal!

Care to join us? Click over to The Monican’s site and you’ll be able to enter to win all kinds of runner-focused prizes all month long.

rp_xo-running.jpg

 

Are you grabbing any miles lately? Will you join the pile on fun?

“Running is nothing more than a series of arguments
between the part of your brain that wants to stop
and the part that wants to keep going.”

~unknown
XOXOXO