Working that Winter Fitness in the Frigid North

I have been a bad blogger over the past six months. Life continues to get busier - and eventually something's gotta give.

Because the glorification of busy is my #1 pet peeve, I decided to drop some things from life in order to achieve a better (perception of) balance. (Rather than whine and make excuses for being too busy, why not just do something about it?)

One of the dropped "things" was stepping back from running reviews for BibRave, which ended up being a great decision, and then, aside from homeschool curriculum and race reviews, my blog writing pretty much came to a screeching halt! That wasn't on purpose necessarily; though maybe a writing break has helped to rejuvenate my love for writing.

As a mom of three little boys - currently ages 2, 4, 6 - I haven't written near as much as when I started this blog. Somehow the joys and the challenges of parenting these sweet, chaotic energizer bunnies has left me speechless. I realize how little I know in this life. And it's hard to put that into words! Simply put, our firstborn made me believe I was a pretty good parent; then our secondborn taught me not to judge another parent.

Thirdborn... I'm not sure what he's teaching me yet. He's the life of the party and very good at quietly sneaking into trouble. I love the uniqueness of each one of them.

.................

Alas! That's a brief explanation of life lately. I'm going to do my best to write once a week with the lovely Friday Five gals. They give me that extra running and training motivation when my brain is mostly full of 1st grade math, appointments, phonics and diaper changes.

This week we are talking about Winter Fitness. It's so stinking cold and icy lately here that much of my "winter fitness" looks like this:


Runners up in these northern parts pride themselves on running outside all winter long; though I have definitely not been one of them lately. I do love to get out for my easy-paced efforts or long run but, as far as running fast, it's not safe on glare ice. Heidi from G Training assigned some stride workouts and tempo work for me which helps to break up the monotony!

Speedwork on the treadmill is better than no speedwork at all. Our running track is currently buried under loads and loads of snow :) Along with speedwork, I have been working on my hip/core and overall strength as well. I remember that one time being injured in 2018 and unable to run well for 4 months. My plan is to not do that again!

I haven't gotten around to writing a recap of 2019 yet or even what my goals are for the new year. In a nutshell, my winter fitness goal is: speed. I ended on a great note with a marathon PR of 3:11:26 in September but my shorter distances need work - which will in turn hopefully cut down that marathon time too.

Per my Garmin data, I ran a 10k of 42:12 during a tempo run and ran a 1:33:02 half marathon during my marathon PR - both of which are faster than my actual race PRs. Sooo that's my sign that I need to put a little more effort into my short distance races! The full marathon has been my first running love and, though I have ran quite a few marathons over the past 10 years, I feel like I have trained quite sloppy.

Garmin PRs (unofficial, most were during workouts)

And after an entire training season of running by our local track (yet never actually running ON it), I had the guts to run a mile time trial on an evening in October. I thought that the fastest mile I would ever run would be a 6:48 back from my college tennis days but I blew that time out of the water... somewhat on a whim. 5:59 at age 32 while recovering from my back-to-back marathon efforts. I felt VERY happy to beat my little college self! (Especially considering I had uninterrupted sleep and actual allotted gym time back then)

As much as short distance speedwork really isn't my favorite, I plan to keep grinding away at that and possibly I will learn to love it.

I look forward to the day that our track melts off again! I'll check on it at the end of April.


Let's Connect!

Comments

  1. I agree that complaining about being busy does not change anything. Actually switching up things does! Would love to have you join our Sunday weekly run down linkup

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  2. I"m so happy to catch up with you again! It just seems like yesterday that you had your baby and now he's 2? Boys are fun but you nailed it when you called them energizers, lol! Glad to hear that running continues to go well for you. I keep thinking about giving up blogging, because it is a time suck, but here I am...

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    Replies
    1. It's a time suck but WOW did I feel like something was missing when I didn't do it! You all are my run-talk outlet :) Otherwise I rarely talk running in my regular life!

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  3. Good luck with the speed work on the treadmill. It can be really helpful! Stay warm

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  4. Hi Amy, So nice to have you link up with us again! Feel free to grab our new blog button, as things have changed a bit for the Friday link up.
    I get it, blogging takes a LOT of time! Not only the writing portion, but uploading picture, and then commenting on other blogs in the link up, and then responding to our own comments. It's a lot of work and I have no idea how mommas do it in addition to everything else they have going on!
    I'm glad running is going well for you. I have taking a better liking to my treadmill and I've been using it more and more even when the weather isn't bad. It's just so convenient!

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    1. I just grabbed the new button! I didn't realize it had been updated :) This link-up looks like a great group - I had missed group like this after the Weekly Wrap closed!

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  5. How cool to beat your college mile! That had to be a pleasant surprise. I well remember those chaotic but sweet, little-kid days. I started my blog when my youngest was 3. She'll graduate 8th grade this year. Where'd the time go?

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    1. WOW you have been blogging for quite a while! It's awesome that blogs stick around like this - I was wondering if blogs will still be a "thing" 10 years from now... who knows what they will come up with next. But will they delete things or just stay afloat in the world wide web? hmmmm...

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