She Runs By Faith

E's baby muffin stash is near gone, so we made "Baby Banana Bread Biscuits" this morning. These biscuits are so good that I need to keep myself from eating them! I had been buying E the Gerber Graduates® Lil' Biscuits and he really liked them. Then I thought why not make homemade biscuits that are less preservative-filled and don't cost $2.00 for 18 biscuits? Now, really, does baking count as cross-training?... I'm kidding, a little ;) E has been a stubborn boy today and refused to go down for his morning nap. Working out with E awake is possible, but usually a bit messy. He is a trouble magnet! I'm going to do a 4-mile hill run and a strength circuit this afternoon. Today it is 2°F - ABOVE ZERO!!! - and sunny. Maybe I will wait until Leo is home and run outside. I can't help but dream of running outside with E in the jogging stroller again. I really miss that! And sun... fresh air... and stuff. If you exercise, when do you fit it into your da...

After last week's speed interval workout, I'm being honest with myself and sometimes the truth just hurts. My confession? My speed workouts have been not so good (or near nonexistent). Speed work never really returned to my exercise routine after being pregnant. Cutting intensity while preggo running was very important for me, but now I have no excuse! Speed work and I have a love/hate relationship. I played tennis in college and sprinting was my absolute favorite (and I thought you had to be crazy to run a 5k). Then, after I discovered the amazing world of long distance running, speed work turned from a love to more of a nemesis. There are many very fast marathoners, but I feel like speed work has taken a back seat for me personally. Here are a few ways I'm trying to speed up my pace: How To Speed Up Up Your Cadence The "ideal cadence" is said to be 90 steps per minute. While doing an easy run on the treadmill today, I was counting my steps to make sure...

The day the adventures began! E is going to be a year old soon and I can't believe how fast the time flies and how drastically our family has changed since March 2013. Honestly, I don't even feel like the same person. That Gretchen Rubin quote really is true “The days are long, but the years are short”. Looking back to those first few weeks after E's birth, I've thought of some things I wish I would have known. If I were able to go back in time, these are a few tips I would have shared with myself as a brand new first-time mom... Listen to Your Body This applies before you're pregnant, while you're pregnant, and after baby is born. You know your body best! At 33.5 weeks pregnant, I was feeling more cramping and back pain than usual while at work. The feeling was more of discomfort; definitely not excruciating pain. A coworker told me I probably just had Braxton Hicks contractions and would be fine. I listened to my body instead and stopped in to La...

Every stride is taken in faith Every step compelled by Your grace We're taking up our cross No matter what the cost We give it all to go Your way We're never gonna stop "Running" by Hillsong United --- I love this song! This morning I went for a run without feeling nauseous or faint! Awesome, huh? The Choco-Chip muffins must have cured me. Having a treadmill at home has been very handy because I can fit a workout in during E's morning nap. Running outside is rarely dull because the scenery changes and fresh air feels awesome (when it's not freezing your face off). Now treadmills, on the other hand, have a reputation of being a bit boring and monotonous after so many miles. To avoid getting bored on the treadmill, I do a variety of speed and hill interval workouts. Here is the 30-minute workout I did this morning to ease back into things - incline percent grades aren't included, but I will take not of them in the future. McMillan Running ha...

Ah, how I love winter. As I looked out the window yesterday, there was a whole lot of white stuff flying around in the 35 mph winds. On the bright side, it was +5°F ! The wind makes it less enjoyable, but at least it isn't -34°F anymore. Aside from blizzards, another requirement of the winter season is getting sick two or three times, and yesterday just happened to be my day! I had been hit with a fever of 101°F and had that headachey, hungry-but-nothing-tastes-good, dizzy sort of feeling. Needless to say, I wasn't going to workout or power clean. I could tell something was up on my run earlier this week. My heart rate was quite a bit higher than usual. To brighten up the blizzard-y sick day, E and I baked muffins and read... a lot! Don't worry, I washed my hands a few extra times while baking since I was sick and all :) We read a few different baby books and I finished reading "Approval Addiction: Overcoming Your Need to Please Everyone" by Joyce Meyer. Ba...

Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. PROVERBS 16:24 Generally, any stories I bring back from Walmart aren't too positive or inspiring, but today was really something. Lately, I had been feeling discouraged as a stay-at-home mom and have been feeling like somehow it's "not enough" to just be a mom. Maybe I should take on more design work... look for a part-time job... try to get busier somehow. When my logic returns to me, I realized what a ridiculous lie this is from Satan! Yet, it still gets me down from time to time. Society glorifies "busy-ness", careers, money, material things, etc. Motherhood and family? Not so much. After a relatively unpleasant doctor appointment for Eli (2 shots and a difficult blood draw), we went to get groceries at Walmart. While in the checkout line, Eli was putting on a show for the elderly woman behind us and that sparked a conversation. He's such a flirt! We talked about how wo...

Here's a product review: YakTrax are AMAZING! Some of the streets I run on are glare ice right now and I experienced 0% slippage to the grippy coils in this babies. I definitely recommend them to anyone who lives in northern regions where ice is present over half of the year! While I'm at it, here's another product review. My husband is absolutely amazing and knew the perfect gift to get his wife: A TREADMILL ! He even tried to surprise me, but I do have a solid reputation of being impossible to surprise. And, one more brag on Leo, he let me keep my treadmill in the corner of his "Man Cave"! What a great guy. This morning was a balmy -34°F and I was happily running along in a tank top and shorts. I'm ridiculously excited :) When the weather is perhaps a +20°F, I will venture outside to use my YakTrax again. I'm attempting to make this corner my "home gym" - notice my yoga mat, foam roller, and 10-lb. dumbbells in the corner. It...

Okay, this is the last guest post for a little while, really! They've been on a roll lately. Here is a post I wrote at the "For Two Fitness" blog. Check out New Motherhood and How to Train for a Marathon Post-Baby ! "Exercise and the active lifestyle are just part of who I am. When my husband and I found out we were expecting our first baby, we were ecstatic and a million questions raced through my mind. Could I exercise while I was pregnant? Does motherhood mean I won’t have time to exercise? Was this baby going to change my life forever? How could I train for a marathon post-baby? In the first 5k I ever entered, a fellow woman runner yelled to me, “You won’t be running like that after you have kids!” Well, now I couldn’t agree with her more. Since my first 5k, I’m running faster and farther. If anything, being a mom makes you stronger! Having our son has drastically changed my husband’s and my life, but definitely for the better. Click here to read the e...

2013 flew by so fast, I'm enjoying reminiscing at bit at all that happened this year. This was a big year for our family and, of course, for E! Being born is a pretty big deal :) I'm excited to see what God has in store for 2014! Five Revelations from 2013 God's approval is all I need. It is impossible to please everyone and no matter what you do there will always be at least one person who disapproves! Recently, God has been showing me that I need to get over my approval-addicted nature. God wants us to live by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, not by the pressure and/or manipulation from other people. Being a mom is truly amazing. While I was pregnant, I worried that I wouldn't love my baby enough and that I just wouldn't be a good mom. That's not a concern of mine anymore! Despite my lack of baby experience before having E (I had never changed a diaper before!?), being a mom comes naturally. I'm thankful for all of the more experienced moms I...