Was looking forward to my three mile run today. Was super easy I always want to keep going but I'm going to follow my training plan. So I don't over do it. I'm making healthy banana and milk and peanut butter blend. Yummy!!  Can't wait until Saturday six miles on the track and not tredmill.current weight 117.

Thought about picking certain people that I dedicate my miles too. I've seen others do this and it looks fun and motivating. Here's my list:
1.steve
2.dad
3.mom
4.athena
5.haley
6.corbin
7.logan
8.grandpa melzer
9.Erin
10. Matt
11. Steve's dad
12.steves mom
13.nephews
Tonight's miles are 3. To start the list each mile will be run for them. I really have been thinking about trying to raise money for my first marathon. Maybe ill do a little more looking into that. Who knows.would be cool though.

Had three days off because I switched my long run this weekend back to a Friday scheduled day off due to a busy planned weekend. It was driving me crazy not running yesterday.todah I did 3 miles and had a sore hip and had to wear my old under armour shoes because my running ones were left in the car so were frozen! A tough run took it super slow...but I did it! No excuses.

I ran 6 miles at the gym on a tredmill this last weekend due to the fact my daughters 9th birthday party was held at our house on Saturday so I knew I would be super busy. I'm always super busy so I like the fact that if I have a set amount of running miles I need to hit per week I can adjust accordingly. Running my "long run" on Friday (usually run them on Saturdays) caused me then to go without running on Saturday and Sunday is a cross training day and today,Monday, is a rest day. I'm kinda going into a panic state without running lol. For cross training yesterday, we planned on going swimming with the kids. We went to manakto but the swimming pool was closed due to the fact it was a blizzard outside! We did some core training at night so I felt a little better about doing that! I bought the hal higdon marathon training app so I am very excited to start using that!!! Start "official" training February 16th.  As I said, today is rest day so I did core work during naptime and will do glutes tonight before bed.

What works for me & my "birth" story

Here I will start with my training logs,expressions/emotions, basically just an all around journal about my fitness journey. When I first started to get into running (5ks) I really didn't know anything about it and thought I could just get out there and go. Didn't know about supplementation,nutrition,tapering,cross training,etc. The big eye opener for me was the dreaded wall every runner hits. Most say it happens when your body runs out of your sugar level and you have a mental breakdown. Mine just so happened to be when training for my first half marathon. Early into the training too! When we did our 8 mile run in Mankato I knew around 6 miles I am starting to losey sense of focus. At about 7 miles I had to walk and actually stop and regain my focus and I ended up crying about nothing really! I was strong and just finished out the 8 miles. It was the hardest thing I've ever done...any mile after that was "easy" and a fee have been tough but not nearly as bad as that 8 mile was. I believe I needed to hit that and experience that to keep me going forward and to believe In myself. I don't know everything theres to know about running but I will tell you what works for me.
1. Plan your route. There is no worse feeling than thinking you will end up at your doorstep only to find our you still have a half a mile left and end up doing laps around the neighbors house!
2. Have your "entertainment" ready. In this case I'm talking about music but when I do tredmill runs I hate not having whatever I'm going to each all set up and wasting time browsing through a movie selection on my iPad. When I use my music outdoors I found that having my spotify playlist set up with a list running songs helps. Although I need to add more songs if I'm doing a marathon. I've been using true same playlist for months and end up skipping half the songs because I'm burnt out on them!
3. Mantras. I think I can I think I can. When my music starts to annoy me(trust me you will eventually just want to run for a bit without it in quiet!) I need to get inside my head and give myself the extra push. I have literally talked out loud to myself. I will say extremely funny things and thank god my husband wasn't near me while I did. I think I have said "you birthed 2 babies keep going" "why would you quit now you have come this far" I don't recall exactly what I have said but I do remember just basically yelling out loud at myself. I recall one run a car passede as I was talking to myself and they started laughing. Oh well, saw them for a second and was on my way!
4. Hydrate,Carbs,limit Alcohol. (I stay clear of alcohol all together when training).drinking plenty of water and sports drink(watch the extra sugar and calories though!). I have found drinking have my body weight for ounces of water is what works best for me.
Every runner has a "birth" story. I would like to share mine.
For years, I would go to the gym, workout but not really know what I was doing there. I more or less used it as an alone time away from the kids to get some space from all the stress. In 2009, I started to really want to use the tredmill because I didn't have time for the classes the gym would hold due to kids,work,etc. I signed up for my first 5k just for a fun run with a couple friends. No training. Just got out the and did it. The time I got (33:00) wasn't awful for no training. Although that's not what running should be about. Oh my goodness I wanted to die that day! I had no idea why I would punish my body like that! I was sore In places I never knew exsisted. Running is crazy. After about a year I decided I needed to get back I to shape after having my son. I then started using the gym for that purpose. I actually found myself enjoying the 1 mile runs I would do. I would set little goals like add a minute to your run. I did a few more 5k races with friends that year. Never anything beyond that though. After meeting my husband who also wasn't much of a runner but did a little bit, we decided we wanted to share this experience together not only for ourselves but to set an example for our kids. We trained for a 10k whih is the furthest either one of us had ever done. We were beyond proud. Fast forward a few months and we decided to test our strength and sign up for a half marathon! Not knowing the journey ahead of us, we took on that challenge. It is indescribable.the process your body and mind go through. Incredible. I love the feeling and that has what pushed me to sign up for another half. And now after doing that, we want to do our first full! I am so crazy about running now no one but runners would believe me. The sense of relief it gives me after taking a day off(and trust me I totally feel off on our scheduled days off!) I get jealous when I see others outside running. I now brush up on others advice about running,nutrition,shoes,meals,books,movies. Basically anything involved with running. I hope to continue to inspire my children as they see what mom and dad do.