Best Mother Runner Moments of 2016: Hitting 1,000 (!) Miles
Last week, we highlighted our favorite moments of 2016, and we invited you to share your own. We’ll be posting them over the next two weeks so you can see how far you and your fellow runners have come: putting in the miles, shaving off minutes (seconds, too!), attacking those races like nobody’s business, or even just getting out on the road on a consistent basis.
First up, Jana Resch, who shared the following very impressive mileage and very emotional turning point on Facebook:
“Can I share something awesome? This has been a not so secret goal of mine for years. I have come super close before but always fell short due to illness or injury. In January of this year, after moving cross-country and leaving behind a huge running community, I sat on the floor of my bathroom and cried because I thought I’d lost everything about running I loved. I thought I was throwing in the towel. Instead, thanks to TLAM and HRT, I learned to love new things about my running and I finally met this longtime goal with 28 freaking days to spare. These miles are momentous not only because of their number, but because they are mine, alone. This is not only the most miles I’ve ever run in a year, this is the most miles I’ve ever run as a solo runner. Thanks for helping me learn to love running again, to find the peace that can come with solitude, and for the amazing virtual community that is TLAM.” —Mother Runner Jana
What mileage did you run this year? Share below in the comments section and check back tomorrow for more best Mother Runner moments of 2016.
#240: Meet the Train Like a Mother Club Coaches
Sarah and co-host Dimity welcome a bevy of savvy, sassy guests: the coaches of the Train Like a Mother Club. The gals give a preview of the plans in 2017 (including an exciting triathlon announcement!) as well as some insight into their coaching perspectives. First up is Coach MK Fleming of the hugely popular heart rate training programs, who talks about the importance of believing in “the power of ‘yet’” for “future badassery!” Next on is Amanda Loudin, coach of the traditional programs (and occasional co-host of this podcast), who reveals how she stopped a string of injuries that plagued her for the better part of a decade. An intriguing conversation about track workouts (no, not an oxymoron!) evolves when Amanda talks about what her TLAM Club plans entail. Finally, Jenny Harrison, one of the two new triathlon coaches, empathizes about coming back after a pregnancy (in her case, a twin pregnancy that involved eight weeks of bed rest!). Jenny explains why she loves to coach beginners, whom she encourages to discover “the beauty of triathlon.”
Before all this: It wouldn’t be a holiday-time AMR podcast without chitchat about cookie parties. Get your fill!
*Intrigued by talk of Saucony Stride Lab app? Here’s iTunes link to app, or search for it wherever you get apps on your mobile phone.
*If you’re digging our podcasts, we’d be super-grateful if you’d take a minute (because we *know* you have so many to spare!) to write a review on iTunes. Many thanks.
**Also, the quickest way to get our podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes. Clicking this link will automatically download the shows to your iTunes account. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. We’ve also joined the Acast podcast network, download their app to hear our podcast and many others like it!
Mother Runners: The Ultimate Planners
We runners begin planning for “next season” a little earlier than most, I’d say. We’ve got to be brave – banking on the extent of our training prowess long in advance of any actual foot-to-pavement action. And we’ve got to act quickly because races fill up fast these days and if we don’t “ink” those race days on the family calendar long before everyone else’s schedules overlap, we might just succumb to erasing our names off those coveted little white squares. In short: we start with our Finish Lines and then work our way backward – choosing our training plans and then plotting our daily miles.
As runners, we will all likely experience the blood, sweat, and tears of testing our own limits – we’ll show up at the track with a list of sprints that makes us want to vomit before we even step a foot out of the car; we’ll kick up the pace in the middle of a luxurious run because it’s tempo day and “feeling the burn” in our lungs today will teach us just how far we can push ourselves on race day; we’ll even begin to measure our progress by just how many hill repeats we can get through before we have to bend over, gasping for air, or our legs wobble too much to even walk home. We are Mother Runners, we choose to do hard things – for fun!
We show up at start lines and run to finish lines we can’t see, not knowing whether we’ll have a fast day or a slow day, not knowing for certain whether we’ll run in the rain and want that jacket or if we’ll be able to bear the cold, unencumbered. But we show up anyway, because we are runners. Because we are women – badass mother runners.
One thing is for certain: if you don’t show up, you won’t cross the finish. My hope for you as you run on and into a New Year, is that you’ll come to know your strength and trust yourself along the way – that you’ll do the work, run the races, and let your legs prove it to you: you are enough. Now, go! I’ll see ya out there!
The Best Runner Mother Moments (Part 2)
Did you see the first half of our Best Mother Runner Moments yesterday? We blazed through January through June, and today we’re taking a look back at the second half of the year. Scroll down to check out our favorites and to learn how you can add your own.
July
BAMRs on the Road
We love that thoughtful husbands really get their badass wives (and gift them the right presents).
August
Simple Image, Powerful Message
We posted this on Facebook, and it was shared more than 2,000 times.
September
Can You Say “Retreat”?
BAMRs from all over U.S. and Canada convene in Spokane for 2nd annual AMR Run + Refresh Retreat. (Be part of the action in 2017!!)
October
Heart Rate Training: It Works
Dimity shaves nearly 2 minutes off her 2012 TCM 10-Miler time, thanks to heart-rate training.
November
Welcome to New York
Long-time AMR.com and TAMR contributor Adrienne Martini completes her first marathon, New York City.
December
Dimity’s Look Back Sums It All Up
I’ve had the best running year yet: Running with members of the #motherrunner tribe in Spokane, Twin Cities, and Philly. Despite the fact that I’ve been running like a mother for over six years, my opportunities to run with y’all have been limited. This year, they blossomed—and every mile was awesome. Whether I was hanging a bunch of Happy Girl #BAMRS in Spokane, leading a (too fast, by Coach MK’s standards) shake-out run in the Twin Cities, or passing the miles in Philly with a handful of different runners as we ran and cheered, I just loved soaking it all up.
Now It’s Your Turn
What was your best Mother Runner moment of 2016? Did you finally go for that race? Find a BRF? Recover from a nagging injury? Tell us by emailing your details (and photos, pretty please, if you have one) to runmother at gmail dot com. We’ll share your responses the last two weeks of December.
The Best 2016 Mother Runner Moments (Part 1)
January
Hello, TLAM 2.0
February
We Got To Know Mother Runner Olympic Hopefuls
We followed the Olympic Marathon Trials in Los Angeles in February, including three “regular moms” who had the grit, focus, and speed to run that amazing 26.2-mile race.
March
Sarah brought home the 200th episode of Another Mother Runner podcast, talking about your favorite moments from the past few years.
April
May
Moms are moms 24/7
Rae posted the above image on Facebook, saying “Got 0.6 miles and had to stop for this guy. Growth spurts are real!”
Mother Runners Are Team Members
Lora and her posse of mother runners, fresh off completing a marathon relay wearing our latest tank top. Can’t miss ’em in a crowd–a quality we love in a race top!
June
We LOVE the story behind this photo (as well as the photo itself!): AJ Benefield of Denver was hiking in the Black Hills of South Dakota when she came across another hiker wearing another mother shirt! Living proof of our store’s tagline of, “You’re not just buying a shirt; you’re buying into a community.” No matter where your feet take you!!
There’s so much more! Check back tomorrow for the remainder of the year, as well as a fun way you can add your own 2016 moments to the Tribe’s retrospective.
#237: #BAMR High-Performance Training with Dr. Justin Ross
Something different for the holiday week! In this podcast, Dr. Justin Ross, Dimity, and TLAM Club Coach MK talk with Monica Knox and Ana Hernandez, two Denver-based mother runners looking to qualify for Boston at the Philadelphia Marathon. Huddled around one mic, the quintet dive into the mental side of the ladies’ race prep and discuss how to maximize performance on marathon day. In the Train Like a Mother Club in 2017, Justin—or “JRo”—will be leading small-group webinars focused on the mental aspects of running: motivation, goal setting, mental toughness, and race execution.
Spoiler alert: We checked in with Ana and Monica during the busy Thanksgiving week to see how their races went. Monica had a tough week leading up to Philly, and struggled with the wind and other issues. She did not meet her time goal, but is confident she’ll make it to the Boston starting line. (We are too!) Meanwhile, Ana ran a determined 3:43, well under the 3:55 she needed to run to nab a Boston 2018 bib.
ALSO, keeping in the spirit of having male guests on the show, check out our episode with ultraman Dean Karnazes. It’s a great one that features Dimity returning to the co-host seat!
*Looking to try POLAR products? Save 20% (a whopping $46!) on the M400 by using code AMR at POLAR website. Enjoy free shipping, too! (Code good through 12/31/16, and only applies to M400.)