She Runs By Faith

This week we're sharing our progress for Motivation Monday and I also want to share the progress God is making in my heart. ... God is always answering prayers and half the time I'm not even aware of it! My prayer recently has been that God would search me and point out anything in me that offends Him (from Psalm 139:23-24). This weekend, He pointed out that pride is a struggle for me. Pride is a vicious cycle. It's everywhere and the cycle needs to stop here and now. I've noticed that I am most tempted to feel prideful when I'm feeling hurt or defensive. How true is that? When I feel secure in who I am in Christ and when I see myself the way God sees me, I want to encourage other people and lift them up. When I feel beaten down and am wallowing in self-pity, my sinful nature wants to make others feel bad with me. Bleh, it just feels bad to even write that. My old habit was to store up all of the negative comments about how easy it is to have only one ch...

It's amazing how much joy the sunshine can bring. We were blessed with three 35°F days in a row! E has been enjoying his first snowy adventures. He wants Leo and I to walk him everywhere and, if we keep this up too much longer, we're going to be permanently hunchbacked! We even snuck out for a 5-mile jogging stroller run yesterday in the snow. That run definitely counted for strength training and cardio... my arms were jello afterwards! The BOB Ironman stroller is such a beast in the messy snow; it's probably the best invention for running moms EVER. When we reached the 5-mile mark, I was a sweaty mess and E was sound asleep. I forgot how to dress when it's 35°F above zero! My body just isn't used to this heat :) I hope it sticks around for a while... 500 Burpees Down Along with playing outside, we've been burpee-ing a lot. Well, more so I've been burpee-ing. Leo is doing some now and then and E is usually attacking me while I...

This weekend I completed my first 20-mile training run and I'm feeling a bit more confident about the marathon in October. Long runs are supposed to be mentally and physically challenging, but right now my body is fighting me more than usual! Burn Out Between the lack of sleep, breastfeeding, and not handling running in heat and humidity very well, I'm just losing my zeal for marathon training. I'm burnt out, but that's completely okay. To battle this burn out, I'm reminding myself of why I run (for fun and to enjoy the outdoors!), letting go of any training and race day expectations, and using the long weekend runs as "mommy brain reboot" time. I don't need to set any PR's; I just keep telling myself "relentless forward motion". Long runs are not supposed to be for speed, but mainly to put a few hours on your legs to prep for race day. Heck, I could even do the Cupid Shuffle or run backwards for 20 miles! Just do what you've ...

Camelbaks are a trail's best friend. Summer has finally arrived. I know this because I got my first official sunburn of 2013! The trail running bug has got me now and I'm hoping to hit to the trails sometime soon. We live in town currently, so my runs are on asphalt unless I hit the country gravel roads or some short trails in town. Running is running, so I can't complain either way, but there's something extra awesome about trail running. I loved to run around in our horse and cow pastures as a kid and that really hasn't changed too much, now I just call it trail running! Why is trail running full of awesome-ness? 1. It's hard! The first marathon I ever ran was a trail marathon (back in 2010) and I had NO clue what I was getting in to. Training for 26.2 miles is enough of a feat and I didn't exactly train properly to run trails for that distance. Fortunately I survived, though the hills and varying terrain definitely took its toll on my by the time...