Week three down and cruising into four . . . Jessica

So, I've been kind of procrastinating about writing up my thoughts for this week, and here we are on Monday already ready to start week four tomorrow. First, let's just pause for a moment and savor that . . . week FOUR, oh my word, we've been doing this now for almost a month! That is amazing!

Week three was a bit hard for a few reasons. As you can see by Liz's post she suddenly got much busier with the advent of the new school year and several other factors. This means that our walking needs to be done at a certain time every day . . . I have a much less busy schedule than she does (don't get me wrong, I am busy running around after two little people, but I don't have as many commitments to be certain places at certain times), so it makes more sense to work around her schedule. The time of day that we walk is honestly kind of a hard time for me. It's right around the time that I need to be getting dinner ready, and I come home in time to give my daughter a bath and get her ready for bed. As we start walking longer distances my husband and kids may have to start having dinner without me so my daughter can still keep the same bedtime. This makes me a little sad, but I know that what I am doing will help me be a much healthier and energetic mom for my kids. Another difficulty this week was just learning how to schedule, or not schedule my time throughout the day so I can be ready to go walking at the appointed time. Can I just say, for the record, how long it takes to get two kids ready to go, out the door, into the car, and into a stroller? It's amazing! I have come to the conclusion that on days we walk, I just can't really go anywhere (at least anywhere I plan to be at more than about 20 minutes) with the kids after 1:30 p.m. One would think that there is plenty of time between 1:30 and 4:30 to get things done - but there really isn't!

In spite of some difficulties this week, we did have some great walks, including a four mile on the strand at Long Beach. We've decided this will be the location of our Saturday long walks, and as they get longer, we will just head south down the coast. It's kind of cool because we are already seeing some of the same runners training from week to week.

As a last little note for the week - I am trying to do something each week that contributes to my overall health and this week it was remembering to take my prenatal vitamin every day. I am a nursing mom so this is something I am supposed to be doing, but I am horrible about remembering. I am glad to report that I only forgot once this past week, and have already taken it the first two days of this week.

I am really looking forward to this week. Because we had some extra weeks we repeated the first week of training three times. This week we move onto week two, which basically is the same during the week, 3, 2, 3, but on Saturday we bump up to 5 miles. Progress! Yes!!

Week 3...Liz

Whew...week 3 has come to a close and I for one, couldn't be happier! As predicted last week, this week was fraught with challenges...and then some. Now let's see, where did I leave off...Oh yes! School started and Danny and I have returned to our school routine and all that comes with it. This was complicated some with the fact that I had training most of the week for work off site and my usual 5 minute commute home turned into almost half an hour. This of course was unforeseen (I was not familiar with the traffic patterns of that area) and as a result, I did not plan accordingly and I was late for every single commitment that I had this week. Now, I won’t bore you with the details, suffice to say I was rushed, stressed out and completely exhausted!


Now I wish I could say that my tardiness was the only problem this week, but after much thought, I realized that the main problem right now is me. I do too much, or try to anyway!  The best example I can give you to illustrate this is that I'm on a first name basis with my Blackberry. I'm not kidding! I've named it Bob because he's my friend and constant companion and without him, my life would fall apart. He keeps my overscheduled life in order and tells me when and where I need to be. Without him, I feel like something is missing and it creates a sense of panic. Yes, I realize this may not be healthy...


Anyway, with my realization I had to dig deep and figure out why I do this and with it came enlightenment and it surprised me because I thought I'd let it go a long time ago. My truth is that I still have guilt issues over the fact that I am a single parent. I don’t want Danny to pay for the choices I've made in my life that led to this. I don't want Danny to miss out on something because I'm too busy doing the single parent thing. So I schedule everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen. There I said it... who knew this adventure would turn into therapy! :)  Seriously though, I'm not used to being so open about stuff like this... but that was part of the committment to this blog and this adventure!  To tell it like it is... so here it is.


So at this point you might be wondering what this has to do with training for the marathon. Well, if I'm going to do this I can't with things as they are...training is taking a really big bite out of the week. I have to find a better balance and really focus on what's important. So I went back to Bob and looked at my schedule and really thought about what matters most and with that I made some choices. I've cut out a few things during the week that will free up a bit of time and not deny Danny any opportunities while allowing me to fit in training in a little bit better and give me a little bit of a cushion to better fit those unexpected things.  We can pick up on those activities next spring after the marathon and we still have the weekends...because let's face it, I just can't stay in and sit still.  I can still pack in tons of fun an activities, just maybe not so many during the week.  :)  In addition, I am working on shifting my perspective on the whole single parenting thing...however, this is a new revelation so I need to ponder that a bit and put my thoughts in order regarding that. 


With all of this, I still finished the week on a positive note. I can't do anything about what was but I can certainly do something about what will be. I also need to focus on the biggest accomplishment of the week: That with everything that happened I still got out there and finished the training commitments for the week. So yay for me!