Runner, Interrupted is launching this week!
Click here
to be added to the beta!!!!!!
|
Shara is in town (currently showing Ros pictures on her phone while I edit this newsletter) and that means it's getting real. I'm even starting to believe it myself.
"Mommy,” my daughter Rosalind said in the car yesterday, “why are you resting your legs?”
This took me by surprise. She has been asking why we aren’t biking to school this week, but when I'd replied that I was resting my legs, she had not seemed too interested in learning more. I should know better than to assume she isn't listening...she is always listening.
“Because this weekend, I am running a marathon!” I answered.
"Is it a long way?"
"Yes!"
“And then are you going to come back?”
"Yes!"
No further questions.
Yes, I am going to come back. Whatever happens on Sunday, life will go on - of that I am sure.
Two years ago today, I already knew that the marathon I’d been training for all year was not going to go my way. Ros, then two years old, had literally sneezed in my face the weekend before. I’d hoped for the best, but the Thursday before race day (it was actually September 28th, the day this newsletter is going out) I woke up with throbbing sinuses and a stuffy nose. I was trying to be okay with it, to put on a happy face, but I was pretty devastated.
The upside was that 26.2 miles of running in the rain and blowing into tissue after tissue actually did wonders for clearing my sinuses. I’d woken up the day after with a very manageable level of soreness - hadn’t been able to run all that hard through all those tissues - and a nose that worked.
It was small consolation, though. I had spent the entire YEAR thinking about this marathon, and I had worked diligently to do every bit of the work and stay injury-free. And I
had
done the work, and I was probably the fittest I had ever been. I also, however, had a life that did not permit this kind of planning for perfection.
I had gone HARD, and what did I have to show for it?
My daughter was not yet old enough to know how to not sneeze in my face, and I still carried a level of stress that did not decrease by dint of hard work and perfection. I was embarrassed, in part because I felt like a fool for the expectations I had allowed myself to build up. I
should
be handling this better, I thought. As one family member said in response to my anguish, “it’s just for fun.”
|
|
This led me to make the following commitment, as evidenced by my 2018 training journal. No more chasing the perfect race. No more training cycles with a goal race at the end of them, in fact. Month-to-month training only. Race when the opportunity arises, but race ONLY when there are no expectations (
racing "for fun" is not a skill I have yet acquired
).
Also, I wrote: “DO EVERY STRENGTH CIRCUIT.”
24 months later, I think I’m ready to give it another try.
“You don’t owe anyone your race,” Coach MK texted me. “You don’t owe anyone performance. Running has to remain uniquely yours.”
By the time you read this, I honestly don't know what I will be feeling. Tired, probably. Possibly exhilarated, possibly let down. I hate not knowing. I really do; I hate waiting and I hate uncertainty and I hate that I cannot plan for every little thing. That's who I am. The one thing I can and will plan for is this: I will own it, and it will not own me. If the day doesn’t go my way, I will have the opportunity to process it and make good and self-preserving decisions. I will have far more people watching me this time and wanting to know what happens, and if it sucks out loud, I get to show them how I would want them to respond if it were them instead of me: with the true answer instead of the right answer.
With disappointment
, sure, but
not with a bullshit stick
.
And if I have a really kickass day, you will be able to see me glowing from OUTER SPACE.
PS: If you are interested in how the athletes we train in the Fitness Protection Program ramp up to marathon-ready,
visit our website to learn about our approach!
Marathon training plans are available FOR FREE to our paid subscribers, and we provide all the guidance you need to use them wisely!
PPS: If you enjoy the content I am creating over here, PLEASE forward this email to your friends and encourage them to sign up! I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your support as I start this totally new, totally unexpected, career change!
|
|
 |
Tuesday on the Morning Mantra podcast,
Coach Sarah drew on the wisdom of Calamity Jane as played by Robin Weigert in the HBO series, Deadwood. Jane is loud and profane and full of strong emotions and deep wisdom. She is far more powerful than her own worst moments, and so are you.
On Wednesday, MK
chose the cheetos and encouraged everyone else to join her if they needed a break. She followed up on Thursday with a rip-roaring Southern-accented mantra in response to basket-based micro-aggressions:
"IMMA EAT THAT UP" is one of her fiercest and most memorable episodes YET, and if you have people showing up at your doorstep trying to fix your life, it is definitely for you.
Coach Sarah's Friday mantra
"Maybe I'm Blue" was inspired by the children's book
Red: A Crayon's Story,
about a crayon who thought he was broken because he couldn't color things red. Everyone thought they could "fix" him, but it turned out he didn't need to be fixed; the problem was never him.
|
|
|
|
Do you like watching yourself eat cake and downloading things? ROS DOES!
Click
HERE for the EAT execution sheet.
Click
HERE for Coach Sarah's recipes for running success.
IF YOU ARE A RUNNER NOT CURRENTLY RUNNING for ANY reason,
please join the Runner, Interrupted Beta, which will be launching on October 1st! Stay tethered to the running community while you maintain that space in your day and that real estate on your calendar for when you come back. It sucks to be a Runner, Interrupted, but we're going to have fun ANYWAY! (Spoiler Alert, there will be MORE THINGS TO DOWNLOAD!)
If you are RETURNING to running after a long period of interruption, you might be interested in giving
our ReBuild program a try!
And don't worry, we are cooking up an exciting episode of Running Life (coming this week!) that will be ALL ABOUT
our Maintain program, featuring the voices of our amazing athletes!
BE LIKE ROS and follow Coach Sarah EVERYWHERE!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cavilyn Keown is #winningatlife!!!
Cavilyn is a mom of two and a runner and assistant coach in our ReBuild program! Cavilyn is particularly expert at doing squats live on Facebook at 4 AM while receiving mega love from her adorable doggie Morgan. Heart rate training with Coach MK got her through the final injury-plagued years of her military career and now she gets to recover at her OWN pace. We could NOT do what we do without her help and we are so grateful for her!!!!!
|
|
|
|
And
Janet Smith is #winningatlife
bigtime! We love Janet, especially since she too has been assistant-coaching in the Maintain program during Coach Sarah's taper! Janet is a mom, a grandmother, a lumberjack (occasionally!) and a strength maven, as evidenced by her mastery of the Bulgarian split squat jump. WE WANT TO BE JANET WHEN WE GROW UP because she does it ALL!!!!
To be featured here as well as our
Facebook
and
Instagram
pages, use the tags #coachedandloved or #fitnessprotectionllc when you post photos on Instagram, telling the world what Fitness Protection means to you!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
