What moves you forward..............

What do you do with a week that makes you feel like you are in quicksand? Do you let the quicksand swallow you whole or do you fight your way out?

Do you allow two workouts that go badly to get you off course? Cause it would be very easy to cry about it and wallow in it. My mind is fighting a huge battle for control of which way I will go - either cry, kick and scream or take a deep breathe, pray, have faith and move on knowing that far, far better days are ahead, keep on enduring and believing that my day will come even with the struggles that I am facing.

So having to gather my witts after a very dishearten workout this AM. Yes a few tears did roll but I did a much better job of not letting the negative chatter in the run. Yes, I was sad that things did not go well but I tried to shake it off. I had to stretch and get my butt to my chiro to take a look at my medial shin that has been a bit achy on & off the last week. While there, he asked me how my running was going and I responsed just trying to keep the chin up :-) He could tell I was not my usual self and did his best to encourage me and remind me that it is all going to work out.

Than an interesting thing occured after I left his office in route to get a quick bite to eat. I ran into a local & very respected coach, he himself at in his late 30s maybe 40 is outkicking may of the younger runners here locally. Anyway I recognized him right away while we were standing in line at Qdoba, he was very nice and smile at me and I told him I recognized him and we exchanged names - both of us being Jamie's. :-) Funny, we immeidately started a really great conversation which led him to me what I was training for. Ah - Detroit next week and he asked how the training has been going. I let him in on my whole training cycle and than said how I have been struggling since I came back from my down week. He actually gave me such good advice and insight that eased my heart a bit - he said -"you know the body is a funny thing, it does not always response the way we think it should, it can be up and very down right before you make that break through and the break throughs can sometimes happen right after feeling so junky and when you least expect it". WOW I needed to hear that :-) Sometimes when you pray for peace and guidance from above, you have to know he hears you and sometimes the counsel he sends to ease your heart is by sending an angel into your path.

I will not let the yuckiness of this week keep me from having faith and I will keep moving forward body and mind.

Much love to all you out there struggling to move forward.

Just an Ordinary Girl

Yeah that's me..Just an ordinary girl!

I am suspectible to the doubt that can creep its way into your head & heart before you even know it is there waiting to attack. Sometimes I get scared and let me dreams scare me. Sometimes I let little things hurt me more than they should like a workout gone south :-), untrue gossip or judgement from others. Sometimes I let all these things in and not realize they are there until there have hurt my heart and I left gathering the pieces up.

I think of this Miley Cyrus Song that my daughter listen's to - Ordinary Girl

Don't get me wrong,
I love who I am I don't want to be ungrateful,
it probably sounds strange

The things that seem so simple
Are suddenly so far out of reach
Wish that they could see that underneath
I'm just an ordinary girl

Sometimes I'm lazy,
I get bored
I get scared,
I feel ignored
I feel happy,
I get silly
I choke on my own words
I make wishes,
I have dreams
And I still want to believe Anything could happen in this world
For an ordinary girl

So give it everything Or nothing at all
Get back on your feet When you stumble and fall
A little luck can go a long way
So don't you worry 'bout what people say Who knows where the wind may blow
For an ordinary girl
I'm just an ordinary girl

Week in Review & Detroit on the horizon

Ah Nice Down week to rejuvenate the legs and mind. I am itching to start putting some work this week. Big News - We have Fall weather!!!! It is a week into October and finally some decent running weather. Today was so nice 58 degrees and cloudy. It renewed my spirit to know that this week has temps like that for fingercrossed for the next 10 weeks of my training to Jacksonville.

What is closer on the horizon is Detroit Half Marathon. I am starting to get my head on straight for Detroit. My coach and I recently exchanged emails about my fitness going into Detroit. We are both hoping for 1:33-1:35 range but he is waiting to set a goal unto after this week as I have 2 big workouts this week that will gauge where I am at after the down week.

I sneaked a peak at the 14 day weather forecast today and temps look good - 40s for AM. Alas, anything can change in 14 days but I am hoping to run in the 40s with low humidity. I wonder what will feel like?? Even todays 58 degrees had a good 80% humidity so I am so giddy inside to breathe in low humidity.

Monday 6 easy + Strides
Tuesday OFF
Wednesday 2 W/U, 6X800 @ 6:10-6:22,1 C/D
Thursday 6 easy
Friday 8 easy + Strides
Saturday 12 easy
Sunday 8 easy + Strides

Total Miles - 46

A must

Okay after watching Chicago Marathon this AM, I put this on my list that I want to do in the next year or two. So exciting, so flat and so awesome!!!

Two years ago I attempted to train for Chicago only to realize by August that I was struggling to get in mileage and quality work in the heat and than a month of sickness completely derailed my training which left me with a DNS for Chicago 2010 which wasn't such a deal cause race day temps that year were very high.

Only thing I would have to figure out is how to train for Chicago if we live in Charlotte. The key training months for Chicago are June, July, August. Those months are the suckiest months to train here in Charlotte. Maybe a summer time relo to better training climate? Maybe a summer time stay in Seattle? Maybe up North to Michigan where parents could help watch the kids while I spent the summer months training my butt off for it.

Who knows where life will take you.....Be open to anything is my motto :-)

Ready, Set, Go

Well my down week is almost coming to a close, I am feeling very rested and relaxed. I am ready to go for this next week of hard training before my sort of taper for Detroit. If you call 60 mpw a taper than that is my taper :-)

It is amazing that by the end of the week I feel very mentally refreshed and excited to hit the hard work coming in the next 6-8 weeks. Something really changed in the last two days - low pollen levels, weather, iron intake, rest - not sure what exactly or all of it but I felt like myself today during a run - no struggling for air, no clammy or feverish feeling, or general fatigue.

I am super eager to get back up to full training speed. I look forward to seeing where my fitness in is Detroit than taking that into a 6 week marathon training block where I get to do my favorite type of work in the most wonderful running conditions. I have waited almost 7 months to get back to the running I love. Cool conditions where I get to push the envelope of what is possible. I have run through heat & humidity for most of the 7 months, I have spent more time on the treadmill in boredom, I have grinded out miles while struggling with asthma & allergies all to be in prime marathon condition where finally all those things that held me back will be no more.

Maybe all that was just to toughen me up to be able hurt more in the marathon. I think I really learned over the last 7 months to get comfortable with being uncomfortable which I think is something you have to experience more times over to be able to transfer it to race day.

Let the good times roll!

Possible Answer

So I have had some fatigue and struggling with breathing out, feeling winded a lot and off on & off throughout the summer and in the last couple of weeks. Yes, mileage would explain some of it and allergies some of it as well but after having a couple recovery days, I still have had that feeling of fatigue, trying to get air on easy runs and even slowing the pace down on easy days doesn't neccassary keep it me from struggling. I had been linking it too the asthma/allergy season but the allergen/pollen level has gone way down and I was still struggling for air. Also the energy level and fatigued feeling was becoming an issue over the past couple of weeks. I thought I hadn't been taking in enough calories and starting eating even when I was not hungry to make sure calories were coming in. BLah! I am now pretty I packed a couple pounds from that experiment but not worry as it will easily come off with the next few weeks climbing back in miles. But all roads have left me wondering "what the heck?"


After having discussion with my coach, we concluded that iron might the issue. UGH! I haven't been really thought about it. I hadn't been supplementing and I thought I was getting enough red meat in my diet but I can't say "Yup, for sure I have been good at that".

I actually have many of the symptoms of low iron and have 3 of the for risk factors
for developing low iron.

1 - Running in Hot & Humid climate
2 - High Mileage
3 - Female

So I went on a liquid iron supplement yesterday. My coach said it should kick in by next week and I should be starting to feel worlds better.

This actually explains a lot. As I remember when I came home from my cruise in May where I had steak for most dinners on the cruise, in the weeks following my cruise I was flying through workouts with relative ease and than started to get increasingly fatigued and worn as the summer weeks worn on. I thought it was running in the humidity but probably was developing aneima.

Here is to the awesome weeks of ahead with fingerscrossed - lower temps, lower allergen levels, lower humidity and HIGHER Iron/ferritin levels!!

Unscheduled Rest Day

It is my down week where my miles have dipped to allow for recovery from the last 5-7 weeks of hard training. I woke up today feeling very off. Sinus & ear pressure keeping me feeling foggy and the sudafed and coffee trick that usually helps did nothing to make me feel better. Than the 100% humidity, 70+ dew point and high temp that was looming outside just made me feel like I was fighting a lossing battle by attempting to drag my achey body through conditions that would just wear me down both phyiscally and mentally. I put in the email to my coach my late-morning about how I was feeling. It was a relief to send but also tired in with some emotions of frustration and struggling mentally to keep the chin up when the weather just won't cooperate with trying to gain some momentum.

I quickly got a reply back from Jeff giving me go ahead to rest today as it most important training objective of the week - to rest and get refreshed for the weeks ahead and whatever needs to happen this week to make me feel 100% going into next week.

I need to work through this frustration with the weather though as soon as we have a couple days of runnable weather, we are shifted quickly back to the humidity and heat for a few more days. It is a see-saw of emotions and takes my very constant inner-voice to remind myself that everything happens for a reason and far, far better days are ahead and let go of this frustration and enjoy each days gifts. Find something each day, even on the hardest to hang my hat.

I feel like this voice that says it has to come through at some point, all this hard work and sacrifice has to pay off somewhere, somehow. This voice has been saying this in my head for so, so, so long. It is the voice that has pick-up me after several less than stellar summer races, it the voice that has pick-up me after many difficult summer runs, it is the voice that got through disappointment of not shining & showing off the hard work and dedication of 60-70 mpw weeks since April.

Jamie - Keep hanging on to that voice, it is your intuition. Your day is coming - Keep working and the results will shine through when they are suppose. Trust it!