Changes in the wind...

I wanted to talk about what it's like to train for a marathon since my last post my motivation left. Don't worry last week my long run was almost 8 miles. It's hot and muggy in Texas it is hard to get motivated to run. Don't worry I still have 22 weeks before the marathon in Tulsa.

I had to cancel my plans to run the Disney marathon because my husband got orders. I'm not quite ready to blog about our next adventure but believe me when I say it's going to be epic. We have to finish the work on our house, which is scheduled for August and when that is finished we are putting our house on the market. It is time for us to pack up and move onward.

We have a lot to do before we move like get passports, sell the house, pack our life up, and make plans to visit family because it is going to be a long time before we can return home again, oh yeah lets not forget train for and run a marathon, and learn a new language! I also need to finish up some random projects I have waiting for me.

Wish me luck!

I hope your day is filled with love, laughter, and inspiration. Be well friends.

Bad runs

Yesterday when I went out for my evening run my calf cramped up just under the first mile. I stopped at one mile and stretched. My leg hurt. I don't believe in running through pain. I walked and ran when I thought I could. I have two boys and in order to run with my husband we have them ride their bikes ahead of us. My youngest son fell off of his bike causing us to stop to make sure he was okay. When he asked if we could head home we agreed.

Today I am going to share my splits that my Tom Tom watch recorded for me.

Distance 4.19 miles

Duration 1:03:57

 

Mile 1: 11:47

Mile 2: 16:14

Mile 3: 19:01

Mile 4: 12:36

Mile 5: 4:18 this is just the .19 distance over four miles.

 

I didn't pause my watch when I stopped to stretch and you can get an idea of where my son crashed. It was hard to push past the first mile but I am glad I did. I feel like I'm training. I my goal is to finish the marathon in less than 5 hours. In order to do that I need to do at least 11:26 minutes per mile that pace would put me at finishing at 4 hours 59 minutes to finish in 4 hours and 30 minutes I need to do at least 10:18 minutes per hour. I feel like these are reasonable first marathon goals. My husband has a stretch goal of finishing in four hours! That is 9:07 minutes a mile!

 

To be honest the idea of running 26.2 miles in 4 hours or less and over 5 hours makes my stomach turn! Good thing I still have 26 1/2 weeks to train! I am still extremely nervous and feel unprepared. Am I crazy? I don't know, maybe. Lucky for me today is a rest day.

 

I hope your day is filled with inspiration, love, and laughter. Be well friends.

27 Weeks until Route 66 Marathon

There are 27 weeks until the Route 66 Marathon and I am nervous, like really, really nervous. I have been reading blogs about people who have finished their first half or full marathon and it is inspiring but I want to know how they got there. Yes they said they were nervous but they are writing in retrospect. I've also been reading seasoned marathon runners and more often then not their posts are sponsored by some product they are trying out. What I am looking for is the training period. Does anyone else get panic sweats thinking about the total miles and or time it takes to run a Marathon?

I'm starting week 4 of my training. Hold your applause please let me show you what that looks like on paper.

	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
Week 1	Rest	3 mi EZ	CT	3 mi	Rest	3 mi	5 mi
Week 2	Rest	3 mi EZ	Rest	3 mi	CT or Rest	15 mi	5 mi
Week 3	Rest	6 mi EZ	CT	4 mi	7mi	3 mi	6 mi
Week 4	Rest	3 mi EZ	Rest	4 mi	CT or Rest	3 mi	4 mi

The red means I did not do those miles. The Sunday before my first week I ran/walked a half marathon in 2 hours and 38 minutes but at the end of it I felt empty which has only served to fuel my fear.

Week 1 was mostly a rest week. I started highlighting the days with blue for finished miles, or red for not finishing the miles. As you can see the red is kind of scary like I am failing more than I am succeeding. I walked 3.2 miles on that Thursday and counted it as a fail because it wasn't running. I might be a tiny bit to hard on myself but then I think about 26.5 miles and my stomach turns.

Week 2: Was a little bit better but I still discredited some of the work because it wasn't running. Tuesday I walked 1.16 miles around a mall while waiting for my son's glasses to be ready to pick up. Saturday our family did a 5k fun run and then walked 10 miles for relay for life. We rested on Sunday.

Week 3: I increased my miles but I only got in two training days. Sunday which is our long run day it stormed all morning, when we run, I had plans for the afternoon and by the time I got home at 6 my husband felt it was too late to start a run and we needed dog food. So I went to the store for dog food and a couple of things for dinner.

Week 4 starts today. Today is a rest day and I'm killing it! I had a fruit, and spinach smoothie for breakfast and for lunch a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I made the jelly. I have no idea what we are going to eat for dinner... Pasta with peas.

I know that is random compared to what we have been talking about but it is also the kind of thing I want to know. I don't know what I am doing, and have a vague idea of what a healthy diet looks like. I believe in a whole food diet and an 80/20 rule. I don't want to beat myself up over what I eat so I allow for some bad food. I'm going to share my journey all the way up to the finish line this year. I hope you will follow along and be my cheerleaders.

I am scared of the training and the miles ahead of me and I hope that in some way you might be inspired to conquer your own fears, or set goals that feel impossible. I know if I can do this so can you. If you have any questions about what I am eating, my goals, times, shoes, clothes ask. There is no off limit questions. I promise to be honest about my training. If you have advice please share it with me. I can use all the help I can get.


 I hope your day is filled with inspiration, love, and laughter. Be well Friends

Running update

I have a confession I haven't really started my training yet. I'm having trouble getting motivated. I think that is because I haven't fully committed to a race yet. I have decided that I want to do William's Route 66 marathon. I can't stop thinking about it. I still want to do Disney but that is a harder sell do to the over all cost. That is the race and a week at the park we have kids how could we go all that way to Disney and not spend the week there?

In other news I signed up a 1000 mile challenge. The goal is to do 1000 miles between spring and winter. I have a team of three wonderful people working towards the same goal. I am so proud of their efforts and progress. So far I have done 55 miles. I need to pick up my running miles.

I hope your day is filled with inspiration, love, and laughter. Be well Friends

I'm Back

I have missed you so much. I have been busy writing, teaching, living, and running. I am going to run a marathon 26.2 miles. My training starts this week. Eek!

I ran the Mission Marathon half last week and finished with a time of 2 hours and 38 minutes and 44 seconds. Which was 9 minutes faster than my first half marathon in Dec. In two months I got faster. At the finish line of the Missions half marathon I looked like this:

 

Notice that I look tired and a little bit desperate. Why run a full marathon you ask. That man next to me is my husband and he was giddy and happy at the finish line. After we received our finisher metals he said, "We can be runners. We should do a marathon!" In my weakened state, and because his happiness was contagious I said, "Okay." So here we are at the beginning of my training.  So far I have picked a training plan that is 20 weeks long but I am terrified, live in Texas, hate running in the summer months, so I am going to modify the plan a little so I have 30+ weeks to train. Here is the plan I chose in case you're curious: http://www.joggingforbeginners.org/easy-guide-for-marathon

My plan right now is to repeat weeks until I can run the whole distance until I can run ten miles without stopping. This plan has me running a full 20 miles by week 17. That seems way too soon! I'm just going to take my time and do my best and get there when I get there presumably three weeks before my first marathon.

For me the most important part of running is signing up for a race. Otherwise I don't have motivation to get off my duff and run because the weather, or life happens. I haven't signed up for one yet but I do have a short list:

The Frankenthon Marathon in Austin Oct. 24. 33 weeks away.
http://www.frankenthon.com/



Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa Nov. 22. 37 weeks away.
http://route66marathon.com/

Walt Disney World Marathon. Orlando Florida Jan. 10. 44 weeks away
http://www.rundisney.com/disneyworld-marathon/

Walt Disney World® Marathon Weekend

 I really want to do this one but I have to convince my husband that a trip to Disney world would be totally worth the expense. Besides the kids would have so much fun. It's not for me it's for them. It's a hard sell.

Niagara Falls International Marathon starts in Buffalo Oct. 25. 33 weeks away.
http://niagarafallsmarathon.com/
Niagara Falls International Marathon
Really how cool would it be to run from Buffalo NY into Canada? Awesome right?

That is my short list for now. I will update the blog once I sign up for one or two or all of them. I do tend to get excited and jump all in. Okay, I have a confession to make I may have agreed to run two marathons by the end of the year. One with my husband and one with a very sweet friend. Now my brain is wired to agree to everything!

Now all I have to figure out is what to eat during training, and what to listen to on those long runs. Right now on my playlist is It by Stephen King I have 30 hours left of that book before I move on to the next one. We have an audible subscription so I have a few waiting for me to listen to them like Roots, Life of Pi, Moby Dick, Einstein's Cosmos, Food a Love Story, Careless People, The Count of Monte Cristo, and so on and so forth.

Do you have any running advice? Let me know in the comments.

I hope your day is filled with inspiration, love, and laughter. Be well my friends.

Poetry

Hello Friends, Today I came across two poems on the same topic directed to a poet a thousand years in the future. These two poets are reaching into the unknown and asking what the future holds. What damage we have done and if poetry is still loved. For a moment it feels as if both of these poets are talking to us, and there hidden in their words we time travel. I am going to post the youtube video for you and the written poems below. The video is only 2:58 and includes both poems.

To a Poet a Thousand Years Hence
by James Elroy Flecker

I who am dead a thousand years,
And wrote this sweet archaic song,
Send you my words for messengers
The way I shall not pass along.

I care not if you bridge the seas,
Or ride secure the cruel sky,
Or build consummate palaces
Of metal or of masonry.

But have you wine and music still,
And statues and a bright-eyed love,
And foolish thoughts of good and ill,
And prayers to them who sit above?

How shall we conquer? Like a wind
That falls at eve our fancies blow,
And old Maeonides the blind
Said it three thousand years ago.

O friend unseen, unborn, unknown,
Student of our sweet English tongue,
Read out my words at night, alone:
I was a poet, I was young.

Since I can never see your face,
And never shake you by the hand,
I send my soul through time and space
To greet you. You will understand.

John Heath Stubbs

I who am dead a thousand years
And wrote this crabbed post-classic screed
Transmit it to you—though with doubts
That you possess the skill to read,

Who, with your pink mutated eyes,
Crouched in the radioactive swamp,
Beneath a leaking shelter, scan
These lines beside a flickering lamp;

Or in some plastic paradise
Of pointless gadgets, if you dwell,
And finding all your wants supplied
Do not suspect it may be Hell.

But does our art of words survive—
Do bards within that swamp rehearse
Tales of the twentieth century,
Nostalgic, in rude epic verse?

Or do computers churn it out—
In lieu of songs of War and Love,
Neat slogans by the State endorsed
And prayers to them, who sit above?

How shall we conquer—all our pride
Fades like a summer sunset's glow:
Who will read me when I am gone—
For who reads Elroy Flecker now?

Unless, dear poet, you were born,
Like me, a deal behind your time,
There is no reason you should read,
And much less understand, this rhyme.

I hope your day is filled with love, laughter, and inspiration. Be well my friends.

Bad Poetry!

I love bad poetry especially when it is mine! Yay! I think it is funny to call it bad poetry even though secretly I really like but we all have different tastes. It is allowed to not like something, and to love something that may or may not be bad. Recently I learned that Emily Dickinson only published a dozen poems in her lifetime, it was only after her death that it was discovered that she wrote over 1800. Amazing. Also as an inspiring poet, fiction writer it is encouraging. I have written lots of poetry some of it bad, and some of it good. Poetry is something I write when I need to work through my emotions. This is the only thing that I write that might be considered non fiction (except you school paper. By the way I have 18.5 weeks left). I struggle with how much I belong in my writing and it is really my least favorite kind of writing because it is hard. In the past I did not value my work as much as I should have (crazy self esteem issues left over from my childhood) so I have lost an insane amount of work over the years due to being careless. I vow to stop being careless and more importantly value the talent God gave me. I hope you like my poem today. Hopefully I will bring you more work in the future. Also when I am finished with school I will be more active. I have a ton of projects in limbo which I decided to let sit until I am less distracted with what I am going to write for school.

I am
By Trisha Bartlett
Suffocating creativity
under the disguise
of teaching and learning.

Inspiration lost
in expectation.
My voice
transforming
unrecognizable
flat and boring.

This is me
on the page.
I cannot
will not
change
to simply please you.

I am
I can
I will

P.S. here is an Emily Dickinson poem

Fame is a bee.
By Emily Dickinson 
     

Fame is a bee.

It has a song—

It has a sting—

Ah, too, it has a wing.

 

 

I hope you have a wonderful day filled with love, inspiration, and laughter. Be well friends.