It’s no fun being sick and it never seems like getting sick
comes at a convenient time. I’m not
surprised…when a person doesn’t eat healthy nutritious foods and get plenty of
sleep and then attempts to do more things than is humanly possible…well…sooner
or later sickness will arrive knocking at the door. Yep, I’m talking about myself. Since the start of the year I have been
telling myself I’ll start my “real” training this week which has turned into
the next week and then the next week and now I’m 2 weeks out from a marathon
and haven’t had more than 2 good weeks of training. I’m pretty sure I have consumed more sugar
and junk in the last few months than I did in the entire year training for
Kona.
To tell you the truth I’m not too upset. I have had some of the best times with the
boys and Lee over the last months since Kona.
Before I know it they will all be graduated and off doing their own
thing. Except Lee of course; he is kind
of stuck with me forever. Lee and I will only be 43 and all five of our boys
will be off at college (or at least I hope they are doing something
productive). There will be so many hours
in the day which will be open for running, bike rides, swimming, and yoga. Now many of those hours are consumed with
driving them to school and picking them up which I totally love! Those are some of my favorite times of the
day…right up there with family dinners. Also,
this going back to school is cutting into my training time. One more year and I will be done. My plan is still to find enough time to get
enough quality running in before the trials so I can run a qualifying marathon
time.
So my plan going forward…I’m running Run for the lakes
Marathon on April 26th no matter what. Am I in the shape I want to be? No, but who cares. It will be a good slap in the face to wake me
up to do the work I really need to do to reach the goals I have for
myself. It’s easy to dream big
dreams. The hard part is putting the
work in each day to really make those dreams a reality. It’s the moments when no one is watching or
no one is pushing you to run one more mile or to run a little faster that
really makes those dreams a reality.
I truly believe anything is possible. Would it be easier to reach my goal of
running in the trials if I wasn’t getting my master’s right now? Yes, but more than likely I would fill my
plate with another crazy thing. That is
just who I am. So I need to suck it up
butter cup and start eating to run a 2:39 marathon in a little over a year from
now and be more diligent with my training.
The shoe dilemma…I loved my old Nike frees until they
changed the style. I have been trying to
find the shoes that I slip them on and I have no other choice but to run. Do you know what I mean? There are some shoes that when I slip them on
I just want to head out for a run. I
have narrowed it down to a few different ones…the adidas boosts are great for
training (not the ones pictured), the Nike road racer is great for speed, and my shoes I wore at Kona
for the marathon seem like good race day shoes. |
| Riley and I in Florida |
The 13th birthday trips…gosh I love my boys. They are so kind to me. I believe they have a very good role model in
their father. For each of their 13th
birthdays we take a trip of their choice just the two of us. They can pick anywhere in the US. We
originally planned them for last year. The
triplets turned 13 in September. I was
very focused on Kona and training at this time last year so we decided to push
them back to 2014. Riley and I spent 4
days in Florida having a great time on the beach jet skiing, kayaking, and para-sailing. We spent a day at Busch
Gardens and even found time to do some shopping. Gavin and I headed to New York to watch a
Yankees game and Rangers game plus took in all the typical New York tourist
sights. Soon, Wyatt and I will be
heading off to San Diego. It’s one place
I have never been, but always wanted to visit.
I feel very fortunate to be going there with Wyatt. He is a happy go lucky kid and will find joy
in anything we do.
 |
| Gavin and I at Yankee Stadium eating sushi. He loves sushi as much as I and Yankee Stadium has great sushi! |
 |
| Mitch turkey hunting last year. |
Spring sports are in action…
Four boys are in tennis and one is in track, but two are wishing they
would have joined baseball. I love
spring and fall sports. The boys spend
most of the year focusing on hockey and this time of year gives them an
opportunity to try something different.
Turkey season starts next week and they are SO excited. They think they need to miss school or at
least go in after a morning hunt. I
think not. We do have a rule if you are
getting all A’s them you can miss school for hunting. However, we have received the official school
letter our boys have missed too many days of school. They all get good grades, but we tend to
travel a bit and they tend to miss quite a few days for hunting especially in
the fall. So, they are planning to hunt
and still make it to school by the first bell.
Training…Finding the time to get those quality sessions in…well…I
haven’t been getting in those quality sessions.
I have them wrote down on my training plan, but they haven’t been my #1 priority. This will need to change real quickly here if
I’m going to make it to the 2016 trials.
I have some work to do. Serious
work.
But for now I’m enjoying -
Slowing down…listening to the boys stories and looking at
them while they talk. These moments will
not be here forever and I don’t want to miss any. Being a mom, a wife, having a full time job,
going to school, and running down my own dreams takes balance each day. I have learned to let the small things go and
spend more time enjoying the important things.
Life is about the journey not the destination.
