Half Marathon

Road to Bayshore

2020 is going to be a big year for in our house for a few reasons:

1. Our oldest will be 18 and graduating high school

2. 10 years since the worst year EVER of my life and I feel like I have finally healed.

3. I’ll be turning 40.

I remember being in high school and we were all talking about turning 40 in the year 2020 and back in 1998, that seemed a bajillion years away. And yet…here we are! It’s insane how much has changed and in some ways, how many things have stayed the same.

I recently came across a couple of bags and one album from the super early years with my 2 oldest kiddos. I look at those pictures and it instantly takes me back to that time, and in all honesty, doesn’t seem like it was as long ago as it was.

My Dad passed away suddenly and tragically in 2010. At the time, I never thought life would be good again. How could it. That year continued to go down the crapper and we ended up losing friends and more loved ones before the year was over. Looking back over the last 10 years, most of it is a blur of grief and misery, but the last couple of years were when things started to look up again and I am equal parts excited and slightly terrified about what this next decade will bring.

Growing up my nickname has and continues to be Bird. There is a backstory, but it’s a name that has stuck around and in honor of my birthday this year, my sister came up with the hashtag #birdturns40. One thing I have always wanted to do is run a half marathon. I have decided that the 2020 Bayshore is the one I’m doing. Bayshore_map.jpg

Registration opens this Sunday and the race is at the end of May- giving me 25 weeks of training time. I can not run for very far and not fast, so I’m starting the training now. My only goal is to finish.  Thankfully my sister is flying in from CA for this race and I am SO excited to be running this with her! She is my biggest supporter, motivator and always there when I need to vent and don’t need the situation “fixed.”

Today was my first training run with a training run of 1.5 miles. I did more walking than running and it took me just under 28 minutes to finish. It’s going to be a long road! But, here we go…I’m excited and nervous about what the next 25 weeks will hold!!

Learning to Love the Stepper

Back in 2008, I was a new stay at home mom and not only did I go from working full time to staying home full time, but I also went from 1-3 kids as well and they were 5,3 and newborn at the time. Going to a gym no longer fit in our budget, but I knew that I still needed to workout. I was up one night with the baby and caught an infomercial for Turbo Jam and I was sold. From that day, I was a straight Beachbody workout kind of girl. But then my sister in law turned me on to Cathe Friedrich workouts and it was love at first sight. After a few months, I knew these were the types of workouts I was craving and needing, so I purchased the monthly On Demand plan and like I have mentioned before it is the best $20 I spend on myself every month. This also comes with the added bonus that with Cathe workouts, coaches don’t exist, their own line of supplements don’t exist, and there is nothing anyone is trying to sell me all day every day for using her workouts.

After a few of the videos, it became clear to me that using the stepper was going to be included in almost every single workout and I would need to purchase one.

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Two months ago, I HATED that thing. My legs burned, I couldn’t get the moves down and I was ready to throw it through the window, but with pretty much everything in life, there is a learning curve and I stuck with it. And now – it’s growing on me!! I still get fumbled up on the moves sometimes, and when she does jumps and pivots and turns, I laugh at myself, but dang it…it’s making these workouts a million times more effective!!

Moving on – finding time to blog. Just like I need my workouts to be at a consistent time every day, so does my posting times. I need the routine and schedule and I have been trying to figure out when I want to post. I think (and this may change again) that I’ll do a post in the morning post-kid drop offs at school while Emma is occupied doing something else, that’s typically her coloring and craft time and that keeps her occupied the longest!

Before I hit publish, I am seriously considering running this Half Marathon in June! My husband and I have been talking about taking our kids for some weekend get aways this Summer and this is somewhere that none of us has ever been!!

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