New Year!! Screw You!!

Whoa, Anna! That's harsh!

I know, right?

No less than six magazines (two of which we subscribe to!) have "New year, new you" on their front covers right now. And I have to tell you.... I'm totally annoyed by this. Every year I rant about using January 1st as the start-date for wild life-changing plans. This year I'm mad that people (according to print media) all want to be new.

As I type this, I'm holding a "new" person in my left arm. Trust me. It's not easy to completely start over. So let's all agree not to do that this year. Let's not all be new. Let's just take what we've got going on right now and make small changes, working toward a reasonable goal. That sounds better than scrapping everything old and starting new.

Let's just be better. Not new.

Also, completely unrelated to running, or thoughts, or kids, or anything... we've had a lot of crazy family stuff happen in the last few weeks and our schedules and lives have been thrown around quite a bit. My mother-in-law has been staying here, which is a big change for all of us. I'm still trying to run once or twice a week, and the sleeping and eating have stayed more or less consistent. Also, if you've noticed, it's the holiday season. And that's nuts. 

But you know what about all that... all this? I'm married to an amazing guy who has kept me sane through a lot. His mom is cool, and I have the time and space in my life to just sit back occasionally and be completely happy with everything I've been blessed with. 

(Didn't think we were going to end here after the way I started this post did you!!)

1.0

Today, in honor of running my first mile-post-Adam, I'm posting a list of 5 things I have been told about running that were completely WRONG. None of the below is true. Most of them I heard and believed when I was training for my first marathon in 2011. Enjoy!

1. If you stop to walk, it doesn't count as a run.

2. A run of less than 3 miles is worthless.

3. You cannot miss more than one day of training for a race.

4. If you walk through a water station during a race, you didn't "run" it.

5. Anything less than a full marathon is a training run for a full marathon.

Don't Park That Bike!!

Week 4/5

The first two weeks back on my feet were tough. The beginning of the third one was exciting... I was pushing really hard to make it to the 21-day mark (although, when I looked up the basis behind the "21 days make a new habit" theory, I learned it's total crap). But I did not. I fell off the bike. The new baby got sick and I missed three work-out days that week, and two days in week 4.

Now that I type that I'm a little embarrassed that I almost trashed the whole program for those few days. The scheduling got crazy, we had Thanksgiving, and I was pretty sure I wasn't meant to start running again.

But I did! Stephan set up the schedule at the end of last week so I could get the runs in. And this week starts week 5, and I set myself up with a 3.5 mile run/walk very early in the morning. I'm not a morning runner, but if I'm going to get back on my feet and start racing again, I'm going to have to seriously suck it up.

Which I did, by waking up at 7am (haha!) and putting in the 3.5 miles at 12 degrees with a 10 mile/hour wind. Whew! It's 3 hours and a hot shower later and my legs STILL feel colder than the rest of my body.

Riding the bike is great. But you're going to fall. Isn't this a saying somewhere? It isn't how you ride the bike, it's how you get back on after you've fallen? Here's to regaining momentum!!!