She Runs By Faith

On Saturday morning, I woke up, got the kids dressed and threw on my running clothes. Ate cereal with the toddler. Pumped a bottle for the baby and then headed out to run 20 miles. There may be a few more enjoyable activities for a Saturday morning... like sleeping or drinking coffee... but marathon training is the life for me. Yo ho, yo ho. {insert 'A Pirate's Life for Me' song} This was my first 20-mile training run since 2013 and I was a little anxious to jump into the long, long distance again. Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed it! There HAS to be something wrong with me. Here are a few strategies that made Saturday's long run a great experience: 7 Strategies for a Successful 20-Miler 1. Secure Your Hair. It's amazing what nearly 3 hours of bouncing up and down can do to your hair (at least for the long-haired runners out there). My usual pony tail turns into a snarled mess when I run that long on a windy day and just any old hairstyle will e...

Marathon training — just like any other discipline in life — requires intentional time management. I often feel like a "closet runner" (you know, kinda like a "closet smoker" but with running?) because most of my weekly running is done in the dark hours of the early morning while the kids are still sleeping. While running will always be prioritized below my calling as a wife and mom, I do believe it's important to make time for exercise and some quiet miles on my own. That's why I do my best to train before the kiddos are awake. I just can't get enough of these guys! We all have the same 24 hours in the day and we have to spend those hours wisely. Time is so easy to spend but we can't ever get it back! As God's Word tells us, we need to be wise with how we live and make the most of every opportunity. Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. EPHES...

Having listened to many of Pastor Steven Furtick's sermon podcasts from Elevation Church in the past, I was excited to read his new book that was released this month — (Un)Qualified . Throughout the book, Furtick makes solid biblical points about who we are, how we see ourselves and how God sees us. In a culture full of self — self-help, self-discovery, self-improvement, self-promotion — many fall into the trap of trying to "find themselves" outside of God. Yet knowing ourselves outside of God, our Creator, is an impossibility! "But apart from God, it's impossible to get a clear picture of who we are, because our identity is so intimately and intricately and inseparably bound to his." Steven Furtick, (Un)Qualified What initially drew me to this book was his statement that "God loves unqualified people." As a quite unqualified person myself, I find such hope in knowing that God has used unqualified people in the past — such as Jacob, Peter,...

Our Five Minute Friday  Word:  "Surprise" . What's a "free write"? No editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write! 00:00 START the timer! ______________________ I had been warned. Before we had our first baby, "Oh, my labors were terrible and lasted xxx hours, honey. Get the epidural right away! ...Good luck." Before our second was born, "It's a hard adjustment. Having "just" one was so easy!" And then warnings for the future, "Whew, just wait 'til you have three! Three is definitely the hardest." Just wait 'til the toddler's potty training regresses, 'til they constantly fight over toys, 'til neither of them nap anymore, 'til they are teenagers. But I wasn't warned about the... The joy of watching our toddler meet his baby brother for the first time. The precious yet slightly awkward moments of trying to hold both to...

You can guess your way through a multiple-choice quiz, run a 5k on a whim, or "look" like a runner in a fancy new outfit, but you can't lie to the marathon. Without the proper training, the marathon has the potential to chew up and spit a person out. (Sure, people run marathons from time to time without training, but it sure isn't good for the body!) Saturday's fast finish long run was one of those "honest" workouts: 7 miles at my endurance pace followed by 7 miles at a hard effort; pushing me to run a negative split . Greg McMillan describes the FFLR like so: "These are called fast finish long runs and they really help fix the fade that can occur in the marathon. In the fast finish long run, you run the first half of the run at your normal long run pace but then over the second half of the run, you begin to pick up the pace so that the last 30 minutes to one hour is at a hard effort." Greg McMillan in You (Only Faster) The fast finish ...

Our Five-Minute Friday  Word:  "Share" . What's a "free write"? No editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write! 00:00 START the timer! ______________________ Sharing doesn't come natural to me. I often feel I'm not experienced enough to share as a mom, wife, writer, runner, designer... even as a follower of the Lord. This blog was a huge step of faith for me, to share my experiences in the hopes of encouraging others that will be in similar shoes later. It was a step to open up, when I prefer to keep the "real me" door shut. Taking the bold step to share the "real you" — the joys, hurts, weaknesses, quirks and all — requires courage.  I feel tempted to stay comfortable by keeping my struggles to myself. Sharing who I really am opens up the door for criticism, reveals my weaknesses, and makes me vulnerable. When I first shared my testimony and dedicated my life to Chr...

We have been back home for a week now and I'm finally caught up enough to share a little of our Colorado adventures! Being the flat-lander that I am, the mountains are absolutely amazing. Everything on this earth is God's creation — yes, even the pancake-flat places — and exploring a new place gives me a whole new sense of awe. These verses sum it up perfectly: When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is mankind that You are mindful of them, human beings that You care for them? Psalm 8:3-4 Here are a few of my favorite shots summarized in one sentence. (If I don't aim to keep it brief, I will end up writing an entire novel.) The weather was perfect and we enjoyed a lot of outdoor cousin play-time! We had breath-taking view of Longs Peak from our cabin covered in a fresh layer of snow. The hubs and I enjoyed these super huge and delicious nachos at "The Wapiti" on our d...

Want to make someone's day? Send them a big ole' container of fresh-baked cookies! When the box of Gimmee Jimmy's Cookies arrived to our house, my day was made. It's the simple things in life, right? Gimmee Jimmy's Cookies was founded in 1983 by Jimmy Libman — a dedicated businessman, deaf from birth, but never handicapped by the physical obstacles he faced. He has now passed the responsibility of producing Gimmee Jimmy's spectacular home baked cookies to a small team of successors. They use fresh natural and kosher certified ingredients in their baked goods and their products are shipped fresh daily across America in beautiful cookie tins! Our cookies arrived in a plastic bag inside the tin to preserve freshness and with minimal crumbling from the shipping process. After a careful analysis and sampling of each type of cookie, we came upon one conclusion: Gimmee Jimmy's Cookies makes something for everyone!  While you can't beat cookies ...