Rest: As Important As Training

When I first started running five or so years ago, I got into a routine. Every weekday I would run three miles. I ended up getting ankle injuries every three months or so that would put me out of running for a couple weeks at a time. I consulted my sorority sister (who also happens to be a physical therapist), Becca Boone, and she suggested cutting down my running to three days a week. When I did that, the injuries stopped. In fact, I haven't had a real injury since, even though I have increased my running back up to five days a week.

There are two keys to staying injury free: building up slowly and resting. Sometimes resting is just as important as the actual training. That is today's TIP OF THE WEEK.

When you run, your body (and particularly your foot and ankle) is absorbing two and a half times what you actually weigh with each step. This causes stress on your joints. [Look for more information about proper running shoes that may assist in better absorbing this force in a future blog.]

In addition to the joint stress, exercise causes small tears in your muscles. This allows the body to build and condition those muscles and improve your performance and endurance in the future. But you need to allow yourself time for those muscle tears to be repaired.

The training plan has three workouts each week. I suggest you include a day of rest in between each of the workouts. Perhaps you run Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and rest the other days. I like to do my longer runs on weekends when I have more time, so using this plan I would run Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Alan's First Easter

Easter is possibly the most important day of the year for a Christian. It is the day that represents everything we believe in. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, there would be no point in believing in Him. But His life didn't end on the cross. Instead, He gave Himself as the atoning sacrifice for our sin, conquered death and hell, and rose again to bring us life eternal. Because of His willing sacrifice, we can have a one-on-one relationship with the Creator of the universe! Because He rose from the dead, we too can spend eternity in heaven with Him and with God after we leave this earth.


So how do Easter bunnies and Easter eggs fit in?

Apparently, the Easter bunny and egg hunts started as a symbol of the spring season. Both bunnies and eggs stand for reproduction. Spring is the season for new life. While these things are much more secular than the true meaning of Easter, we can relate them to the true meaning in that we received new life through Jesus' death and resurrection.

And egg hunts and chocolate Easter candy are just fun.

This year was Alan's first Easter. He probably didn't notice anything different, since we go to church every week, and he was in the nursery just like he always is. But he did have a surprise visit from the Easter bunny last weekend during our neighborhood Easter Party.

Week One

This is the first week of the Couch to Marathon training plan. This week we are starting slowly. If you've never run before, running can be intimidating. We will begin with a run/walk program that is based on time rather than mileage. This will allow you to go at your own pace and introduce yourself to the idea of running.

For the first week, you will run/jog for a minute, then walk for a minute and a half. Alternate jogging and walking until you get to 20 minutes. Depending on your pace, by the end of the workout, you will have run one mile (and probably walked a quarter of a mile).

Click below to see this week's plan. Add rest days in between your workout days.

For the duration of the Couch to Marathon program, I will try to post three times each week. On Mondays, I will post the training plan for the week and any tips relating directly to the training plan. On Wednesdays, I will post the Tip of the Week with some insight on things that I have learned during my running journey. On Fridays, I will post some resources you can use (hopefully relating to the tip of the week) as well as an exercise of the week.

Good Luck! Happy Running!

Couch to Marathon in Six Months

Getting back into running after having a baby is not easy. I applaud Paula Radcliffe for winning the New York City marathon just nine short months after having her baby. That seems impossible! I can barely find time to fit in a workout around work and feedings and baths and bedtime. But Monday, April 25th starts my Couch to Marathon training guide, as I work toward the Outer Banks Marathon on November 13th.

I am not a professional (i.e. I don't get paid to do this), and I don't know if I would even call myself an expert, but I have run five marathons so far. I ran 12 miles when I was 8 months pregnant and even ran three miles the day before giving birth. I've also helped others reach their marathon and half marathon goals. I ran with my friend, Sweta, and helped her run her first marathon eight months after giving birth to her first child. I ran and encouraged my sister Stephanie through her first half marathon, and she's done at least two more since then. I ran with a stranger that I met at the starting line of the Richmond marathon, encouraging and helping him reach his goal of running his first marathon in under four hours. So, while I may not be an expert, I suppose I do know a few things that I can pass along to a beginning runner.

I have taken some workouts from the Couch to 5k training plan and my favorite training site - Hal Higdon's. I've modified them to enable us to get from no training to marathon in time for the Outer Banks Marathon. In three short workouts a week, you can get from couch to 10k in 17 weeks (about 4 months). Then we will add a fourth workout to get from 10k to marathon in the remaining time.

Click below to view the first four weeks of the Couch to Marathon training guide.


If you already have a running "base" (i.e. you already run some on a regular basis), let me know. I will modify the training plan for you and send you via email your own personalized plan.

I will also provide some running tips and tricks that I've discovered over the years on a weekly basis through this blog. I'll provide some links to resources that you can check out for more information.

WARNING: Running can become quite addictive.

Happy Running!

These Socks are Made for Walkin'

Alan is quickly becoming a good walker, provided he's holding on to someone's fingers.

About two weeks ago when I was working from home, I showed Alan how to walk. I stood him up and held onto his hands. Then I lifted one side of his body up and gently nudged his foot forward. I did the same with the other side. We awkwardly walked from the office to the kitchen. It was a long, slow process. He was pretty good with his left foot and would move that one without my nudging after a few steps, but his right foot would get stuck.

We didn't practice much after that. I only remember a few times. But on Saturday, April 9th, he started moving his feet on his own without me having to shift his weight from one side to another. On Sunday, April 10th, he started pulling himself up from a sitting to standing position if he was holding on to my hands.

This weekend he got much better at walking, and now he doesn't want to sit down any more. He just wants to practice his new skill. The funny thing is that he won't pull himself up when someone isn't holding his hands. So if I can get him to play on the floor, he still can't go anywhere. He has absolutely no interest in crawling, it seems.

New Perspective

When I was younger, I never wanted kids. I worked at Wal-mart for almost four years and saw plenty of misbehaved children. It reinforced the idea that I didn't want kids. That changed about five years ago, as I got a bit older and more mature.

Now that I have a child of my own, my perspective has changed a lot. I used to be slightly annoyed at screaming children in restaurants. Now I'm the one that is making sure I'm not annoying others. I see kids now and wonder how old they are and look at how cute they are.

As of this morning, my perspective has migrated into the animal kingdom. About a month ago, a Canadian goose set up nest in the pine straw next to the parking lot at work.
We have a nice pond on our company property, so it's a perfect place to raise a little gosling. The goose sat on that nest and hissed at people passing by to protect her egg(s) for nearly a month. Friday, I noticed that the nest was empty. I assumed that the egg had hatched and the goose and gosling(s) had gone on their way.

This morning I found out otherwise. Apparently the decision was made to remove the eggs from the nest. I'm not sure how they did it and what they did with the egg, but they did it. Now there are two geese walking around the campus together looking for their missing babies.

Before having a baby of my own, I would have just laughed it off. Humans mess with the circle of life all the time. I participate, as I'm a meat-eater myself. But now I can't help but to be saddened by the fact that those poor geese are yearning for their little ones and searching high and low. It breaks my heart.

Night Terror

Last night Alan went down to sleep around 8pm. He pretty much went right to sleep. He was very tired and almost fell asleep while nursing right before bed.

Around 9:30, he woke up screaming bloody murder. You would think someone was cutting his leg off or something. I tried to put the pacifier in, which usually works when he wakes up crying. But he spit it right out and cried even louder. I couldn't get him to calm down, so I picked him up to try to comfort him.

Rob came up to his room because he heard the crying on the monitor downstairs. He took him while I went downstairs to get his favorite pacifier to see if that might help. (It didn't, by the way.) When I came back up, Alan was still scream/crying. Rob was sitting with him on the floor trying to rock him and comfort him. I sat down next to Rob and we both tried to talk to him in a soothing voice. After probably twenty minutes, he finally calmed down and stopped crying uncontrollably. He sobbed quietly still for another five minutes or so while Rob rocked him and held his pacifier in his mouth. Finally Rob was able to put him back in his crib and he went back to sleep. He didn't wake back up until around 4am when I put his pacifier back in and he went right back to sleep until eating time.

What an ordeal! What can babies possibly dream about that is so bad that it scares them that much? Nothing bad has ever happened to him for him to think/dream about in his short seven month life.

Poor little guy was just pitiful, and it pained me to see him so scared. I'm just glad we hadn't gone to bed yet and that it wasn't 3am when it happened.