When racing comes back, will you ready to be a yes? Take these few simple but meaningful daily actions to stay ready to scale up & race when it’s safe.
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Can we be hopeful for racing right now?
Well, it’s another Monday in the summer of 2020 as this episode is being released, so that means another week of race cancellations have come our way.
Maybe you have officially started training for Disney’s Wine and Dine Half Marathon weekend with much anticipation and hope for a race. I am hoping right along with you.
As you might know Walt Disney World Resort in Florida actually welcomed guests Home just in the last few days and the images coming from the property are making me feel pretty hopeful for the future of runDisney Races. Reports are showing that they are nailing the social distancing thing down there and people in the parks are generally reporting feeling pretty safe.
Check out: Save BIG with Military Discounts on Disney Vacations
I am not scheduled to race Wine and Dine because I am planning to be in Panama City Beach, Florida that weekend for Ironman Florida, and I have to say that things are decidedly not looking as positive for that race.
We don’t need to get too in the weeds with the disgusting lack of leadership in the state resulting in a pretty terrifying outlook for the state, but I have been doing some real soul searching lately about the level of risk my family is willing to accept to attend this race that has been on my heart for years.
It’s not that much. I know that.
And for our family in Florida, I am praying for you guys.
She could be a yes to racing
I was sitting with all of this when I received an email from a friend of the show, Pirete Poldasar. If you have been listening for a while, you might know her from Episode 10, when she joined us to share about Tower Running.
She is the reigning female champion tower runner for Estonia! If you have never heard of the sport, as I hadn’t before she told me about it, that means that she races straight up the stairs of sky scrapers. It’s just as hard as it sounds.
As she told us when she joined us on the show, she wasn’t an athletic child. She didn’t didn’t actually love moving her body until a group of friends introduced her to cross country skiing. Then the fire was lit.
Well, she was a super quick learner and, as it turns out, naturally talented. She just didn’t know it!
You should have a listen if you are in a season when you feel like you could never call yourself an athlete. I’ve been there!
So she wrote to me to share some great news of racing happening in her country.
I felt like, since so many of us are feeling a little lost, maybe a little sad, probably a bit overwhelmed as our race plans change or cancel and we try to keep our motivation to move up while balancing the weight of the world, I felt like we might enjoy some good racing news from a friend.
So I am going to just read you what she wrote me!
“Have been quite slow with my trainings as no real competitions have been around. SO, when my friend mentioned that she is enrolling at a trail marathon yesterdya (Sunday, 12/7), I was rather intrigued to look into the guidelines of that race. Well-well-well, VERY demanding track and looked more like an obstacle race ☺ and for 42.2km. BUT, of course I wanted to be there! Even to go through the challenge as a hike, so I did register on Tuesday.
Two days before, Facebook showed that there is another short trailrun in the area a day before – 9,1km. Sounded like a gooood idea to take part in that also! As am in the area and that distance is definitely runnable. So, here I went, nice small quick & local race with 300 participants. Had a flying feeling and managed to keep the tempo around 5m/km and became a 2nd in age group. Great weather, nice people and sure a very good motivation for the Sunday race.
So, nice & quick recovery with sauna and socializing with my sportsfriend and we went to the Trail marathon on Sunday morning. It took place in a nature park with LOTS of climbing… Total of 633m over the racetrack which is rather demanging. The trail ran from A to B, so the organizers took us to the start with buses and we ran to B along the beautiful summer nature. Weather was perfect, feeling great and with the start I kicked off wit the friend at much faster pace that I had ever thought to start with…. Originally we thought that we are taking it very easy and were looking into spending 5hrs on the track. It was clear for me in 10k that I was in such a good mood, that I’ll keep up a good pace until I feel good, and then adjust to slower, if needed. Well…. I surprised myself totally. I managed the whole damaging trail marathon in 4h 13mins and was 3rd of women.
I have not run marathon for 2.5 years. I haven’t trained or even run for longer than 2hrs for about 2 year.
But its all about the feeling, its all about the inner YOU! Its all about the society, bonding, and active friend all around the world who walk of and just hit the track. Anywhere, anytime, any distance. I did it because you You! Just in my body and mind. So, all of you – just run, just walk, and do it with a SMILE. You already won!
I will keep you informed how it went!
There are a few things here that I want to call to your attention.
First, that yes, detrained she ran a 9k followed by a marathon and did exceedingly well in both.
While that isn’t my normal recommendation for preparing for races, I think there is something to be said for going out there and knowing to be a yes to racing.
She is a nationally ranked athlete, so her go-from-nothing abilities are going to be different from yours or mine.
But what I am excited for here is that an opportunity came up to race, and she jumped! No fear. She just said, “Hey, that sounds fun” and went for it.
Are we living like that? Right now as things feel so beyond our control, are we being women who are preparing ourselves to be able to be a yes when the chance comes to safely get back to what we want to do?
Sometimes I worry that we are going to forget how to say yes to fun after so long saying no. So let’s play with this.
What would it take for you to be ready to be a yes with a few days notice?
Well, for most of us, it’s going to mean showing up for ourselves pretty consistently. Even just a short run a few days per week will at least keep us fresh and ready to scale up when we need to.
Get moving
Maybe leash up the dog and go for a run/walk interval while your kiddos ride a bike or a scooter, if you are in that phase of your life.
Do you have a dusty treadmill? While it’s hot, Girl, take the clothes off of it that are normally dangling from the console and take a walk while you watch your favorite binge-able shows right now.
By the way, what is your favorite binge show? At the moment, I am so into Peaky Blinders on Netflix! I was SLEEPING on this one, you guys! How come you haven’t told me about it?
Since I am flying through series right now with my time on the bike trainer and treadmill when I couldn’t squeeze in an outdoor workout with the kids, I’d love recommendations! Come share your very binge-able shows in the comments of this show or over in the Closed Facebook Group We Are Finding Finish Lines.
Thanks for your recommendations!
Have you discovered a new thing that you enjoy in the last few months? I know so many of us have been looking for ways to get out of the house while staying responsibly socially distanced so I’ve seen new hikers, surfers, paddleboarder, roller bladers, and more.
Well don’t lose those things now that it feels like we have settled in! If those activities are lighting you up more than running right now, then do those! Just keep moving.
Get Hydrated
When we aren’t facing a major race challenge, it’s easier and normal to get a little loose with our nutrition. So I’m definitely not saying that we need to go on full dietary lockdown in hopes that a race might come up, but there are some easy things that we can do that can make the transition to race prep a whole lot easier:
-keep hydrated. Have you ever heard the old hydration advice that you take your weight in pounds, divide it in half, and that’s the number of ounces of water that you need to drink in a day? I’d say that is a starting point. After working with a nutritionist for a while, years ago I got on the gallon of water per day plan and I love the way that it makes me feel. SO that is my daily goal. It’s very hard to get there at first. Just know that. It’s going to involve a ton of trips to the bathroom for the first week or two and I know that TP is a precious commodity. But it’s worth it and your body adjusts!
There are a few fun ways to get the family on the hydration plan:
First, make it fun to drink!
I’m a reformed single serve water bottle gal from way back. Did you know that most bottled water is actually just tap water from some municipality, packed all up in plastic and shipped around the world? Gross.
If you are a netflix documentary kind of gal, check out: Bottled Life on Netflix as just one of many.
Someone told me three years ago that clean water was going to become the most valuable resource on the planet and I thought he was a bit kooky. More and more, I see where he was coming from.
So since I’ve opted out of the bottled water game about a decade ago, I’ve become a bit of a nut about finding the right water bottle. If you are like me, I feel like I can see you nodding your head right now! It has to have the right size opening for air to get in there and keep the flow rate just right. It has to have a flexible loop lid to comfortably carry it around everywhere. It has to be big enough that I don’t have to constantly fill it all the time, but not too big to carry.
What are your water bottle requirements?
After trying everything under the sun over the years, I’ve settled on the 32 ounce Hydro Flask. I’d like it to be clear that I loved this bottle before it was cool to love this bottle. Mine happens to have Pete 2020 and podcasting stickers on it in a hidden Mickey formation, and it makes me happy just to look at it.
You can pretty much always find my Hydro Flask right next to me!
I digress, but you water lovers know the real love for the trusty water bottle.
Involve the family. Equip everyone with a bottle that makes them happy and send them off to be hydrated.
Part of being fun to drink is that it tastes good!
Does your tap water taste a little funky? Around here in Northern Virginia, our acceptable levels of all the things are a little high for my preference so we decided to filter our tap water. First, we were using the filters through fridge, and that worked well, But, we had to replace them really often. Are you finding that to be the case. They aren’t inexpensive. Plus, they are shipped from who-knows-where and tested? Maybe not.
So we actually bought a Berkey water filter. If you start checking out the Berkey system, you are going to find a slew of raving fans. Mostly moms making youtube videos, but I want to warn you that you are also going to find some doomsday preppers talking about how great the Berkey is. It’s strange bedfellows on this one.
The scoop is that it is basically two stainless steel buckets, for lack of a better word, one on top of the other and a couple of big filters in between the two. You pour your tap water in the top and it gravity feeds through the filters and into the lower chamber. You poor from a spigot on the front of the lower container.
It’s a very simple system that does a very serious job. It filters out 99% of harmful stuff from radioactive materials (yeah, did you know that federal standards allow that in your water?) to heavy metals, bacteria and even viruses. In an emergency, you could put any non-salt water through this thing and have safe drinking water.
The best part is that the filters only need to be changed about every 3,000 gallons. So with a two filter setup, which is how they come standard, you only need to change them every 6,000 gallons. For our family of big drinkers, that will still be several years.
So not only is it clean, but it doesn’t strip the water of minerals like some filters do. So to me it comes out tasting like Evian or Volvic water from my old bottled water days. I can’t recommend it enough.
So then once you start with clean fresh water, the world is your oyster! Freeze some cubes with a little lemon or lime juice. Dump a little packet of Scratch in there for flavor and electrolytes without the sugar or chemicals of some other flavoring powder.
Maybe you have a soda stream and you can add carbonation.
Brew some herbal tea and then ice it down.
Just play!
The goal is to stay hydrated without it feeling like a chore. Maybe you can even make it as satisfying as your morning coffee.
Where does your water come from?
Finally, and maybe I am the only person on the planet from whom this was like a total paradigm shift, but find out where your drinking water comes from and then go there to see it!
I found this idea in How To Do Nothing: Resisting The Attention Economy. If you haven’t read this book yet, I highly encourage you to pick it up. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I finished months ago.
In the book, the author Jenny Odell realizes that even though she lived in the same town all her life, she had no idea where her drinking water came from. So she researched it, grabbed out a map, and went to go see it.
When I was reading the story, I was struck. I’ve moved all around the world in my life, and I have never once known where the water that flows from my tap has come from. Never.
So I came back to Virginia and went on a mission.
Guys, it’s fun to make that connection with your environment! The girls were fascinated by it. I was fascinated!
In this season where things are so thrown off axis, it’s the perfect time to reconnect with what sustains us. It’s the reason so many friends have found gardening in the last few months. We are so separated from the basics of our human existence in the rat race of our old normal, that finding out where our water comes from and deciding to honor it feels like a radical move.
And in my opinion, makes it even more fun to drink it.
So keep moving, stay hydrated, you know what is coming next!
Aim for 5 servings of fruits and vegetables/day.
Fruit is God’s candy. I know there are diets galore out there that vilify the poor fruit for it’s sugar content, but can we be honest with each other? If you are day drinking the wine and eating whatever sounds great at the moment, fruit sugar really isn’t the problem that fad diets want you to believe that they are.
Fruit also comes packed with fiber, vitamins, and in many cases, antioxidants. Plus, it’s just wonderful to eat, especially in the summer! A bowl of red, ripe, juicy strawberries on the porch feels like a decadent treat on hot afternoons,
But yes, I’m also talking about vegetables.
Summer is such a fun time to experiment with different ways to prepare your veggies so the whole family will eat them.
Can I just tell you that roasting any vegetable makes it taste better? Literally anything.
The grill? Even better! Just wrap those suckers up in some tin foil, toss them on the grill, and you have something even the kids will eat.
So yea, drinking water and eating fruits and veggies doesn’t sound like as much fun as drinking wine and eating a bagels, and I’m not hating on either, but it will help you stay on the verge of being able to scale up when opportunities to play come up!
And, I hesitate to even go there, but water and nutritious foods are not a bad way to naturally build up your immune system.
None of this has to be hard! I’m saying throw whatever veggies are in your fridge onto a couple of sheet pans and roast for a bit. Then just sliiiiiide those suckers into some tupperware and slam them into your fridge. Boom. You can add it to salads or rice bowls or eat them as a side for your sandwich. You can even toss some bonus veggies into your scrambled eggs in the morning.
Plop some hummus on those puppies and you have a pretty complete meal.
I’m alll about the ease.
That’s it. It doesn’t have to be harder than this to keep yourself somewhat ready to scale up with the good news comes that we are ready to get back to racing.
Can you even imagine when we can be a yes to race day?
I’ve spent probably way too much dreaming about standing in a corral with thousands of people, just as the sun is coming up, with nerves spun up like a top.
Everyone just moving forward with those tiny little shuffle steps or the super exaggerated walking that goes from like riiiiiight foot to leeeeeeft food that you do when you are moving so slowly. Then you plug your nose and jump in the water, the chill of it alerting you that the race is on. Or the fireworks bursting in the sky over the big starting arch signaling that it’s time to press that button on the side of your Garmin because your feet are about to cross the starting line.
I love training alone but I live to race together.
As Pirete said in her letter, “But its all about the feeling, its all about the inner YOU! Its all about the society, bonding, and active friend all around the world who walk of and just hit the track. Anywhere, anytime, any distance. I did it”
Dear Athletes, we are going to get back to races one day.
If you want to be ready to scale up, download a plan, hire a coach, and get ready, then just love yourself enough to devote just a little time each day to these basic needs for movement, hydration, and nutrition now.
You are so worth it.
If you want to train together at a distance, let’s hang out in the closed facebook group We Are Finding Finish Lines or you can follow me on Instagram or Facebook at Finding Finish Lines.
If you haven’t yet, make sure to hit the subscribe button in your favorite podcast app so you will be alerted whenever new episodes are out. Generally, they are published on Mondays and Fridays but we are all living in 2020 together, Sometimes it’s more like Tuesday and Saturday. I love and appreciate you and your grace.
Finally, as always, if you know an incredible woman who could use a boost to imagine race day coming back and what it might take to get there, be sure to share this episode with her!
I thank you so much for spending your time with me today. I’m always here if you want to chat anything endurance racing or the life we are living as race-less endurance athletes.
Until next time, carry on Woman of valor.
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