make the mind run the body

"Now if you are going to win any battle, you have to do one thing.  You have to make the mind run the body.  Never let the body tell the mind what to do.  The body will always get tired.  It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night.  But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired." Gen. George S. Patton

I love this quote.  It is on my half-marathon training schedule and is so true.  My mind is strong and that makes my body strong.

I have been struggling with confidence.  Brock had to work out of town all last week, so I just couldn't maintain my workout schedule.  I was overexerting myself and feeling run down.  I truly could not pull these ambitious goals off if he wasn't here with me.  He is such a relief on my schedule and with the kids.... my support and rock.

With only 4 workouts last week, including a 6 mile run besides the 10 mile long one, I entered my long run today.  It was a brand new area of town and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was just SO HARD.  I felt like the hills were HUGE and forever.  I was running against the wind for the first half.. and it was HOT today, so I don't think I was adequately hydrated.  That being said, I ran 10.75 of my intended 11 miles.  I had to stop due to my seeing stars.

The last 2 miles were horrible and I stopped several times.. which I NEVER do.  I turned off my music and said three phrases over and over.


I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength
The joy of the Lord is my strength.
Pain is weakness leaving the body!!

It got me a little further, just not the last quarter mile!!  I feel like I have been in a funk for over a week now, tired and discouraged.  I promise to be out of this soon.  How exhausting and whiny I must sound!!

I am giving it 1 1/2 weeks till my 12 mile run.  I will be bringing water and I will be eating more beforehand.  My body does not tell me I can't run 12 miles in in the future... my mind says I can!

Technology amazes me! Here is data from my run.. Despite my exhaustion, I still maintained a 10 minute mile average.. Yay, me!!

RUN 2/27/2012

training and healing

I ran 10 miles today.  I am a running machine!!  Actually, I feel like I'm 82 years old.  I'm walking funny.. enough so that Izzy asked me why.  The kids got a HUGE kick out of my ice bath.  I read about soaking my legs in ice water after a run the other day.  This speeds up the healing process and reduces any swelling my exertion may have caused.

I decide to try it.  It was so very cold, but after the first minute, I couldn't feel anything as my legs were numb.. as long as I didn't move.  Cole had the timer set on 10 minutes and he took the job seriously.  I feel like the ice bath did help... or maybe it was the ibuprofen and mixed drink??  I'm not sure.  Either way,  I'm going to have to jump in an ice bath for the Tough Mudder, so I might as well use this  as a two-for-one training and healing opportunity.  Good times.

We will see how I feel tomorrow, but I'm proud of myself tonight.  For the rest of the week:  strength training and some lower mileage runs.  I'm saying it over and over in my head:  Pain is weakness leaving the body.

walking funny

 I'm wondering if I'm ever going to stop being sore.  Do you reach a place in strength training that you stop hurting so much?  Maybe this is how if feels erecting muscles out of nothing.  I feel like I've been sore for 6 weeks straight.  Some days I can barely notice it, while others have me walking funny all day.  Today, it's my shoulders and obliques. Yesterday was my legs.

I know why I'm sore today.  It was the wonderful yoga class I took yesterday.  I decided to try a strength and balance focused yoga class and boy was it hard.  Some of my classmates make standing on your head look effortless and natural.  I was not the picture of a graceful gazelle.  I will return though.  I think the challenge is great.

After yoga, I did a zumba class...I know, I'm obsessed.  I love to dance, even if I'm not quite as coordinated as I think I am!  All this training and I'm finally starting so see some results.  My legs are definitely rock solid and I'm starting to see tiny muscles pop up.  Yay!!

I should be running 10 miles today, but I'm resting my legs.  They are tired and I'm starting to get a dull pain under my left knee cap.  I've had runner's knee before, so I guess I should expect it again.  Besides, the weather today is awfully dreary and rainy.  I'll probably run tomorrow or Monday.

So, no deep thoughts today.. just ramblings.  Every week puts me closer to my deadline.  6 weeks to Tough Mudder.  Two months to the Bid D Half Marathon.  Yikers.

the One who makes me who I am

Okay, I realized I did a lot of whining and questioning myself earlier this week.  I'm over it.  This is hard.  This is time-consuming.  But I'm not weak.  I'm not a quitter.  I can do this.  Since my 8 mile run Saturday, I did a 5 mile pace run on Monday, a circuit training class yesterday, and the kill-me-now power hour class as well as 30 minutes on the elliptical today.  I can do this.

I can do all things.... through Christ.  He is my energy.  He encourages me and gives me strength.  My friends showed me this wonderful bracelet she ordered.  She wears it when she exercises as it gives important information if she were hurt or injured.  But it also serves as a constant reminder and encouragement to her because she has Philippians 4:13 on it.

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.


What an amazing reminder when I start to doubt myself.  I was in the process of ordering a bracelet for myself yesterday, trying to decide what I should put on my bracelet as a reminder.  What is my motivator??  Nothing fits quite like this verse. So, it is going on my bracelet as well.  Along with "weakness is pain leaving the body".  Ha!!  I do not like being viewed as weak in any way.. so this has always motivated me.



Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. (MSG)



That is the same verse in a different translation.  I LOVE this translation.  He knows me better than I know myself because he MADE me.  He knows what will teach me, help me, motivate me, and encourage me.  He is my rock and He gives strength to my weary butt.


I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me. (GNT)


Christ gives me the strength to face anything.  (CEV)

43 miles

Yay, me!!  Today I ran 8 miles.  I've never run that far at once before.  The most I've ever run was 7 miles.. but it was on accident.. and there were no hills..  :)  I'm in a little pain now.. My legs are crampy and my hip is a little sore.  BUT, I'm proud of myself.  What a great start to February!!

I totaled up my January mileage... 43 miles!  However, I'm starting to get nervous about the Tough Mudder.  I feel like I'm training more for the half marathon.  I'm doing a couple strength training classes and stuff on my own,  but I'm not sure it's enough.  There are about 10 people on my team (and I don't really know any of them!) and they seem to be taking this WAY serious.  What if I can't keep up?  What if they get frustrated with me?  What if I'm the weakest??  I'm thinking I may need to do more strength training.  I just don't feel like my arms and chest are much stronger.  How am I going to pull myself across bars and over walls?

Okay, enough of my nervous anxiety.  I know I can do this.  I am exercising more than I EVER have in my WHOLE life.

Dear Lord, I know you have called us to be disciplined and hard working.  I can do these things through You because You give me strength.  Please give me Your strength and endurance when I run out.  Please protect my body from injury and help me glorify you in all my accomplishments.  In Your name, Amen.

What is your passion?

Goliath

Today I conquered my Goliath hill again.  With a cold.  While it was 38 degrees.  With a sore gluteus maximus from a previous work out.  And at the end of a 6 mile run.  Am I bragging yet??  I feel such a sense of accomplishment after I complete a work out.  This proud of myself-I can do anything feeling is wonderful.  I'm not saying I didn't have battles before the workout.  Who wants to run when its 38 degrees?  With a cold?

Before each hard workout or race, I always get nerves that make my stomach upset.  I don't know why, it's very silly.  But, I make myself do it and I'm always glad I did.  During my run this morning, I encountered 2 very angry looking dogs, 4 beautiful deer, and one mischievous coyote.  The coyote looked like he was wanting some calf steak for breakfast, so I scared him off.. because I want to be a cow's hero.  Ha!

Anyways, all of God's creatures coming across me this morning reminded me of how small my world is.  I get so consumed with the drama and everyday tasks that I forget that this is a HUGE world that God created.  There is life all around me that I am completely unaware of.  In fact, I probably miss a lot of nature if my music is too loud or my focus is too concentrated.  I become so obsessed with whatever task I am involved in at the moment or goal I am trying to meet, that I forget to slow down and see what is happening around me.

God is speaking to me a lot these days.  I hear him frequently in the morning, when I run, and through my children.  I have made it a priority to spend 15 minutes with Him each morning before anyone wakes up in my house.  It is quiet and peaceful and I love it.

This week, I heard Him during Wednesday night church.  Our associate pastor was speaking on how passions engulf us so much so that it is evident to those around us.  My passions, in this moment, are running and training, cooking, writing, hearing God speaking to me, and working on being a better mother and wife.  I would be offended if my children went to another adult with questions on how to cook something.  I would also be offended if they asked to go run with someone else instead of me.  But they don't.  They know to come to me with those topics just like their Papa has answers to all their hunting and fishing questions.

In that same sense, do my children know I am passionate about Christ?  Not talking and teaching about Him constantly is communicating that to them.  I NEVER want them to think they have to ask their Sunday school teacher the deeper spiritual questions.  My passion for Christ needs to be evident in how I act, what I say, and how I spend my time.  I ONLY have 18 years to mold them.  And for Cole, that just means 8 more years...

Nothing could make me happier than getting reports that my children continue diligently in the way of Truth.  3 John 1:4

I know it's hard to see, but there's a large deer staring me down as I stop to pull out my camera!

And now he is hiding with his 3 friends in the woods looking at me running by :)

I stole this off the web... the class that made my hiney ache so!  LOL

cheerfully, prayerfully, thankfully..

Whew am I sore.  Three weeks into running and two weeks into training and my body is objecting to my new exertion.  BUT, I know that it will adjust and I am already starting to see my energy increase.  So far, on this 18th day of 2012, I have run 23 miles.  But that's not the hard part... strength training is kicking my butt.  I have NO upper body strength, and the Tough Mudder will expect me to.  I have been attending two boot camp/yoga classes a week, with training at home as well.  Today was a hard class.  We will see how tomorrow feels.  :)

This verse spoke to me this morning: 
Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live. (1 Thess 5:16-18 MSG)

I feel God has been teaching me, molding me into the woman He wants me to be.  It started with my role as Brock's wife.  I have learned so much over the past three months just by studying His words and praying over Brock every day.  Now, he is molding me into a better mother.  My patience with my children has been my Goliath in recent weeks.


My children are my gift from God.  I truly believe that.  Becoming pregnant with my now almost 10 year old saved my life.  He is God's greatest blessing to me and I love him so much.  He is creative, funny, and compassionate.  My middle darling has a genuine teaching and nurturing spirit.  My surprise third is a spunky and intense, but extremely loving girl.


As they grow older, my days seems shorter.  And now that I am taking time away from my family to train physically, I desperately rely on my hubby to pick up where I leave off.  I hit the ground running before 6 every day with fixing breakfast, packing lunches, fixing hair, ect..  It continues with checking homework, karate, dance classes, church, play dates... Shall I go on?  I know every other mother relates with the increasingly decrease of time in each day.  It's hard to maintain control in my voice when I'm picking up the dirty socks off the floor for the fourth time in one day or cleaning up the toothpaste from all over the sink once again.  It's hard to adjust when my plan to go running doesn't work out because someone has suddenly developed a rising fever.


But I hear God telling me over and over.  "This is what I want you do right now with your life.  I want you to sacrifice yourself to raise your children.  I want you to wake before they do and prepare their day and their good attitudes.  I want you to cook healthy meals for them.  I want you to listen to them.  I want you to pray with them.  I want you to adjust your schedule and your time if they need you to.  And I want you to do all this with a cheerful heart, praying and thanking Me that this is your life."


This is what I am hearing.  And this is what I am trying to do.  I am raising three future adults.  They will all be future employees, bosses, spouses, parents, and friends.  I am not only teaching them how to do live and succeed, but character and discipline.  I am teaching them about the Lord and how to talk to Him and listen for Him and what He wants for their lives.  All this takes time and the continual sacrifice of myself for their benefit.


I came across this quote last week and it has echoed in my head as God's message to me: 
“[Motherhood as a mission field] is giving up yourself. Lay yourself down. Sacrifice yourself here, now. Cheerfully wipe the nose for the fiftieth time today. Make dinner again for the people who don’t like the green beans. Laugh when your plans are thwarted by a vomiting child. Lay yourself down for the people here with you, the people who annoy you, the people who get in your way, the people who take up so much of your time that you can’t read anymore. Rejoice in them. Sacrifice for them. Gain that which you cannot lose in them.“ Rachel Jankovic

I am right where God wants me to be and I will cherish my role.  And this evening, if I lose my patience when I hear another complaint about dinner, I will ask forgiveness and try again.  Because after all, God is still growing me as well.