All you have to do is ask

I've been quiet lately, and while I'm not totally off the exercise wagon, I haven't been crushing attempting thinking about at all any new goals either. I'm running, going to the gym a bit, and sticking with a fairly predictable and not terribly demanding routine. Part of that is just the time it takes me to get used to a new school year - for myself and for the kids, and in the spirit of full disclosure, part of it is because I've been eating more, drinking more wine, and staying up too late.

And then today my friend Josh told me that he registered for the Rock 'n Roll Half in DC. And apparently that is all it takes for me to go from zero plans to hitting "process registration".

Thanks Josh - you're the best.

Blog? What blog???

Ohhhh... MYYYY blog... right, write, I have a blog.... For the first time I'm proud to say that my silence isn't because I've been a total slacker. An unanticipated outcome of keeping a separate FB page for my blog is that I have found so many other great blogs and pages that keep me motivated. By the time I've caught up on this one and that one, I've been staring at the screen for so long that I really need to unplug.

As many of you know, my main reasons for starting down this tech trail were to write about my intention to become a healthier person, generate some accountability, find other like minded people hoping to do the same and hopefully even get to the point of being able to share some personal goals and accomplishments. A few months after I started writing, I created the Facebook page for two main reasons. I was starting to worry that I was annoying my personal FB world with my new adventures and could give any of them an option to "Like" and thus follow along or to stick with more periodic updates, family photos - you know, the regular stuff. It was an added bonus that I could keep other pages that I follow in a separate feed.

I never expected to find SO MANY other people out there looking for and doing the exact same thing. Every day I come across another page or stumble upon another blog that speaks to me. I wish there was time to keep up with all of them. There are several though that I do follow closely. When I read about their goals and the ups and downs along the way - personal victories, medals earned, injuries, personal relationships, family emergencies, tough training regimens and new forrays into exercise, I find myself cheering, sending encouragement, nodding in understanding, and wanting good things for each of them.

So while I haven't written much lately, I have been reading a ton. When I haven't been reading, or cooking (crazy food issues), or chasing around my 2 yr old, or picking up after said 2 yr old, or hanging with my 10 yr old, or trying to spend time with my husband, in the past month I've been going to the gym and running as much as possible. I've done my first International Duathlon (does that even exist? It was supposed to be a Triathlon but the storms washed away the swim course so we ran instead of swam the first mile) and ran my fastest 5k.

For everyone who has reached out to me in some way - by reading these posts, following my page, giving me encouragement, inviting me for a race, sharing advice, and letting me get to know you - I want to say thanks again. I never imagined that writing, sharing, etc. would have as positive of an impact on me as it has, and it is all because of YOU.

And for accountability purposes, my husband and I made it out for a 4+ mile run this morning with the jogging stroller. Just in case you were wondering.

Point and Purpose

This Sunday Justin and I will be participating in the Jamestowne International Triathlon - 1.5K swim, 40K bike, and 10K run. It will be our first event of that distance, our first event together, and our first night away from our kids in two and a half years since our son was born.

A few months ago when we registered, I naively thought that I'd get myself into some sort of training regimen. I didn't learn my lesson from the half marathon and really thought that excitement and good intentions would make it happen.

The plain truth is that it. did. not.

Do I have excuses? Oh sure! I have lots of them. Here are just a few:

1. I tore my hamstring my freshman year of college. I deserved it really - I was making fun of a group of spritely little cheerleaders, jumped into my split, laughed with my friends as I hoped no one noticed me hobbling back to my dorm. I then spent the next three days in my loft because I couldn't move. Nearly 20 years later, I still have a lot of scar tissue that occasionally wreaks havoc on my hamstring (right), my left hip, my left knee, my right foot, etc. For the past couple of months I've been participating in an after school fit club with some co-workers, and several of the exercises have exacerbated my hamstring. I've iced and stretched and woken up in the night and done it all over again, but it's definitely been a nuisance. I cut down how often I was going to fit club, and I started modifying a lot of the exercises, but the girl leading it is a great girl, and I wanted to support her, so I kept going when I could. The result has been an overall decline in regular exercise since so much of the time I was hurting.

2. I've been working on the diet changes and have given myself too much credit and leeway to do nothing because I've suffered horribly from chocolate omission.

3. Some days have been rainy.

4. Or they've been too hot.

5. I haven't wanted to go by myself.

6. Cleaning and organizing random areas of my house suddenly becomes very important right before I am able to leave for the gym.

Recently I've been able to add two more:

7. My son spiked a 104 fever on Friday and has been attached to me every day until today. I realize that this wouldn't have been my time to train, but it's definitely bumped me from "tapering" to "slothing around". Until last night, I had come to accept that this would be Justin's race and that I would either take the boy with me to watch or we would stay home and wait to hear about it. Now he seems fine, so we're back to our original plan.

8. I woke up Monday morning with a crick in my neck and have been moving like a robot since - particularly driving the car. I can't even imagine bilateral breathing right now...

Are there more? Probably. Yes. Certainly.

Does it matter? I'm not sure.

I loved the half marathon most because I gave myself permission for whatever happened to happen. Everybody knows that I'm not in this to win it, and when I start thinking about competing I turn into my freaked out stress case state. Instead of getting ready for this race, I'm choosing to just look at Sunday as a fun day of exercise and will make me healthier and stronger than I am right now. Can I swim a mile? Yes. Can I bike for 25? Yup. Can I run for six? Um... after the prior two? I can probably shuffle and schlep my body the distance. Do I see myself on a podium? No. Does that matter? NOT IN THE LEAST.

On Friday Justin and I went for a 50 mile bike ride, and it was great. We casually talked about our upcoming triathlon, and I told him that my "training" is all for the day that he and I take a weekend to bike the C&O Canal to a bed and breakfast. It's for our recent trip to the zoo with the kids when I didn't get tired and could walk around for the entire day without resenting him or the kids for making me move faster. It's for all of the extra steps that I take that I wasn't taking a couple of years ago.

So... 1.5; 40; 10?

It sounds like a good way to spend a Sunday to me.

Summer Lovin'

This past Wednesday marked the end of the school year as I turned in my badge and keys for the summer. Every part of my body wants to scream and do cartwheels and handsprings. Don't get me wrong - I have a great job. I'm a counselor in an elementary school, and while work is work and I don't care where you work, there will always be areas for improvement, I'm pretty darn lucky with my place of employment. Still....

I have two months to put myself and my family first.

Two months to workout as often as I'd like.

Two months to take my son to the playground or swim in the pool.

Two months to enjoy my daughter's company without having to badger her about homework.

Two months to get my sh*t together and organize suffering areas of my house. (Not that this is incredibly likely, but it is possible.)

Two months to catch up with friends and read and blog and read other blogs.

Two months to .... fill in the blank because I finally have time to do it!

Woo Hoo!!!

I ♥ SUMMER.

To kick off this sacred season, I had a lovely swim Thursday thanks to my new playlist recommendations. A few of you have asked what I finally came up with, and I'm happy to share. I started by taking several songs that were just too slow for running but that I really like and then added some of your suggestions. I actually ended up making two - each just over an hour. I listened to the first one on Thursday and am eager to use the second tomorrow.





My favorite part of the recommendations were all of the references to going "old school." I'm choosing not to focus on the "old" part of that... It was good to just sit for a while and think about songs and of old friends and memories.

On Friday Justin and I went for our first bike ride together. We parked along the W&OD trail at mile 9 (east Vienna) and rode out past Leesburg to mile 35. It was a longer ride than either of us have done before, and without knowing exactly how we'd be doing towards the end, we both agreed not to go the additional 10 miles to the end of the trail before turning back. It was a good decision. When we started out yesterday the sky was overcast, and based on the weather forecast, we assumed that we would be rained on at some point. Instead though the sun came out and for our last 20 miles, it was sunny, 96 degrees and freaking hot! The trail has several places to refill water, and we stopped twice (Ashburn on the way out and Herndon on the way back) for tea, juice, and snacks. I was so sleepy when we got back to the car that we actually needed a Chinese fire drill intervention just to get home!


So far, my summer is everything I've been hoping for.

Ladies’ Choice – Super Sprint Triathlon

Mother’s Day was a whirlwind of activity at my house, and it’s taken me a few days to recover and carve out some Holly-time to write about it.

Comparing a 5:00am wake up for a sprint triathlon to a 6:30am wake up for a 5K run is an apples to oranges exercise in futility. I’m still not sure if it is the camaraderie in the atmosphere or just all of the “stuff” that I need to remember, but I literally fly out of bed and get moving. In contrast, while I’ve ran several 5ks in the past year, I can’t think of one morning that I didn’t have pangs of regret when it was time to leave my cozy bed in my snug little house with my loved-more-than-anything family members and wish that my plan instead included another couple of hours of sleep followed by brunch in pajamas.

But Mother’s Day was a multi-sport day, which is increasingly preferable to a plain old running day, and I was out of the house by 5:30 and on my way. This was easy to do on the first two races – I simply didn’t sleep the nights before because I was too anxious. The biggest accomplishment of my entire day was realized at 5:00am when I realized that I actually slept the whole night without waking up to freak out about directions, gear, transition set up, etc. It’s funny how stressful and intimidating transitions can be at first, (or at least were for me) and then after doing a few of them realizing that all of the stuff fits into a small little bag and the formula isn’t exactly rocket science. Hopefully I will still feel this way in July.

My race itself was fine. I’m still a jumble of anemia, fatigue, etc., and I’ve been distracted from “moving” much lately by other elements in life (my family, my job, my house, etc.), so my real, honest-to-goodness goal was to have fun. My swim was alright but not stellar. I kept a nice steady pace that felt as good on the last length of the pool as it did on the first. T1 was quick and simple. My bike was surprising only in that I was more upset at being passed than I thought I would be. I took note of the women who passed me, and I know that they are all tri-regulars with several events on the near horizon, but it was still irksome. T2 was super easy and the run was short and uneventful, which is about as positive as I can make a run sound most of the time. Well, I take that back. The run included one out and back stretch, which was the friendliest span of race course I’ve ever experienced. Everyone was so cheerful. It would have been weird seeing so many smiles except I knew I was wearing one too. “Great job!” “You’re almost there!” “Good luck!” REALLY?!?! When was the last time you were in a race and the other competitors actually smiled at you and gave you friendly encouragement?

The best part of the event was that two very good friends of mine competed in their first triathlons. I hope that either (both?!) will be willing to share their experiences with everyone here. I love this picture of Rebecca. I was so happy to cheer for her and be there to celebrate her first triathlon.

She is a Mama Getting Moving for sure.

And here is a shot of the four of us – Janet, Me, Rebecca and Marcie.

My Girls on the Run team had a practice 5K on Monday afternoon in preparation for our race this weekend. Due to all of the rain that we had on Monday, I shortened the distance of each lap and increased the number of laps in order to keep them on pavement and to avoid potential injury from the muddy field. Just before practice, I decided to split the girls in half and send each half in opposite directions so that they too could look at other runners, could smile at them, and could give them encouragement. They were silly and hilarious, and it was awesome.