Happy AMRiversary! Run Like a Mother
Today, we are seven.
Well, maybe not today exactly but in March 2010, our big yellow book baby was launched into the world. Seven years ago this month, Run Like a Mother was born! While there was a lot of sweat and a few tears, we’ve never been happier about the journey this book launched. Just like with our human babies but with slightly less pushing.
We’ll be celebrating all week with contests on social media (you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, yes?) and a trip (or two or three) down memory lane. If you’re looking to pick up a signed! copy (or two or three) of our books, you can get a great deal on ’em here. Each book is a mere $10. You can pick up all three for $25. Now’s the time to fill out your collection — or make sure all your BRFs are part of the Tribe.
Today, a piece from Run Like a Mother from Dimity, inspired by the 423 times she’d read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
If You Give a Mom a Pair of Running Shoes and 40 Kid-free Minutes
If you give a mom a pair of running shoes and 40 kid-free minutes, she’s going to want to go for a run.
If she wants to go for a run, she’ll need to put on a bra — a sports bra, preferably.
When she digs for her bra in a massive pile of dirty laundry, she’ll spot her daughter’s favorite, must-wear-four-times-a-week starry shirt covered in glitter glue. She’ll head to the laundry room to drench the stains in Shout.
Dimity and Sarah reading at Book People in Austin, Texas, in 2010.
As she descends two flights to the basement laundry room, the phone will ring.
When the phone rings, she will check caller ID. She recognizes the number of an annoying mom of a whiny kid who can’t seem to grasp the “play” part of “playdate.” She lets it go to voicemail.
When she replaces the phone in the jack, she’ll remember she didn’t charge her iPod. Oh well.
Continuing on to the laundry room, she will decide she should pee before she runs. On the toilet, she will spy another sports bra, hanging on the bathroom doorknob.
When she sees the sports bra, she’ll bring it to her nose to see if it’s clean or crusty from last week’s run. Lucky day: it’s clean.
When she heads back up two flights to her room to get dressed, she’ll spot a guaranteed no-leak sippy cup, filled with tepid chocolate milk, spouting like a whale on the brand new rug she splurged on at Pottery Barn.
When she sees the brown blob, she’ll drop the f-bomb. And then she’ll be glad only the dog was around to hear.
Our first booth! (By Phoebe, age 8.)
After she flies back downstairs to get the carpet equivalent of Shout, she will douse the rug in chemicals not fit for inhalation by dogs or kids. She cracks a window and hopes the smell will be gone by the time she finishes her run.
When she finally gets to her room to get dressed, she’ll realize she doesn’t remember where she put the bra.
As she runs back down the stairs, her left hamstring will twinge. So she throws her leg up on the kitchen counter and flops toward her toes in a half-hearted attempt at flexibility.
When she stretches her hand around her foot, she will see that her watch reads 2:20, which leaves her exactly 20 minutes for her 40-minute run.
She will swear again, then dart from room to room in search of the bra, get dressed, lace up her shoes, and sprint out the door.
And when she hits the road, she’ll wonder why she’s out of breath before she even started.
Hanging out with the superstars, like one does. (Dimity, Deena Kastor, Sarah)
If you want a visual trip down memory lane, here’s one of our first videos. Do you run like a mother?
Come with us on our trip, too! How and when did you find us?
#252: How to Get Your Kid(s) Involved in Running
How to get your kids involved in running: Sarah and co-host Amanda Loudin (calling from her own mom’s house!) have a sit-down with Vicki Lang, a mother of two collegiate runners and a long-time youth cross-country and track coach. Vicki highlights the importance of making running fun for kids to keep them engaged and enthusiastic. The gals talk about the crucial middle school years, a turning point in enthusiasm for sports for many children. Coach Vicki puts forth an intriguing mileage guideline (which takes math-challenged Sarah a few beats to catch!), as well as the beauty of a “progression plan.” The conversation covers the “reverberating” effects of running for kids. Coach Vicki also talks about the importance of proper hydration and quality shoes for young athletes. Voice memos from a bevy of mother runners bring to life the variety of delights (and challenges!) involved with kids and running.
Sarah kicks the show off with a conversation with 18-year-old Lucy Williams (middle daughter of her BRF, Molly) to hear what kickstarted her running routine—and where it’s lead this high school senior.
Stay tuned to the end of the show: Sarah is joined by special-to-her youth runner—her 11-year-old son, John. Laughter abounds, sprinkled with a few dollops of insight.
*Green Chef is a USDA-certified organic meal kit delivery service that brings delicious dinners right to your doorstep. To get meals delivered and show your support for Another Mother Runner, go togreenchef.com/amr to get $50 off today.
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*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!
Dry Martini: Is It Spring Yet?
February into March is the roughest time for Northeastern U.S. runners. This year is no exception. When it hasn’t been bitterly cold, we’ve had gale force winds. Or, just to keep us on our toes, we’ll have two days in the 50s, which feel like summer, then a week of snow. And, of course, yesterday, Stella came to town. Nearly three feet of the white stuff really puts a damper on one’s running plans. Not only was an outdoor run out of the question, our county closed all roads to non-essential traffic, which meant that I couldn’t get to a place with a treadmill. Not that the gym would have been open anyway.
So I got a great, if unintended, rest day, which was full of thinking that I should use the time to catch up on stuff around the house but, instead, spent catching up on Big Little Lies and The Great Pottery Throw Down. Today — I’m writing on Wednesday — is another snow day. The actual snow has mostly stopped but the region is using the time to figure out where we’ll put all of the snow we’re shoveling off of the roads. It’s a bigger problem than you might think.
I plan to cross-train by digging out my car and making a quick trip to the post office. Unless I can convince one of the children to do said shoveling out…
Shortly before a sub-freezing long run, I discovered that my teenaged daughter took every last mitten and glove with her on a school trip to Quebec. After a few minutes of swearing, I remembered that I own SmartWool socks.
Training for my April 10K, a distance I hope to run faster than I ever have, continues on. Coach has me running 400s and 800s at race pace at least once per week. For me, race pace is 10:30, which is hard but not unsustainable for six miles. I say that not knowing if I can actually run that — but it feels about right. So I’m going with it.
Fortunately, the high school track is 3/4 of a mile from my house so it is super-easy to do a one mile warm-up, do my 400s or 800s, then get a one mile cool down on the way back home. What’s not super easy is predicting if the track will be covered in snow, ice, or a fun combination of both. I have managed at least two runs up there, though, and know how to convert 400 meters into miles for when I have to take it on the road.
(It’s a quarter mile, btw. I only had to look that up twice.)
Because I’m an over-achiever, I’m technically also training for the Pittsburgh Half in May. Why technically? I have zero intention of racing it because a) I’ll be working the expo and b) I just don’t wanna. Mostly, I want to finish without feeling like death on two legs before, during, or after. #achievablegoals
My dog is over it.
But even with that, Coach has me taking some long weekend long runs. A few weeks ago, I did 12 into a wind that always seemed to be blowing into my face. Before that, I did ten in 12 degrees, which I refused to start until the number of degrees outside exceeded the number of miles on the plan. I’m now convinced that the space age foam in all brands of running shoes freezes solid at about 14 degrees. It’s like running with bricks strapped to the bottoms of your feet. And yet, since it wasn’t icy, I soldiered on.
Last Sunday, fortunately, was a light week, with only six miles on the plan. It was also hovering in negative temps so I hit the indoor track. The best that can be said about that run is that it was profoundly dull.
This was my reward for getting through six miles on the indoor track. It was right by the door to the parking lot.
I tell you this not to show off — although sometimes the knowledge of how bad one’s ass must be to run in this awfulness gets me through the worst of it — but to assure you that every single mother runner you know gets what it is like to push through and get it done. It’s not all rainbows and unicorns out there all of the time. There are months when it is grindingly bleh to be a BAMR. Still, we keep going.
The temperatures for this Saturday’s 13 are predicted to be above freezing, which will be a nice change of pace. I’m not sure exactly where I’ll be able to run yet because there is just so much freaking snow that most of it will remain all over the place for weeks to come. I’ll figure it out, though. It’s what we do.
So what’s made you feel extra BAMR-y these last few weeks? And is it spring yet where you are?
Stelllllll-aaaaaa!
The word of the day is “bombogenisis.” It’s what happens when Nor’easters stop being polite and start getting real.
I — Adrienne — had four miles on my plan today. I did exactly none of them. Why?
This is what my car looked like at 1 p.m. It’s all the way up to my BAMR sticker!
Not only was I not inclined to run in a blizzard, I couldn’t get out to a place where there was a treadmill. And, incidentally, all of our roads are closed to non-essential travel. So, um. No run for me.
Some other BAMRs did better than I, however.
Like Heidi W.
“Didn’t go far because I couldn’t always run on the plowed roads, and the snow is about a foot deep and is similar to trying to run in that deep, dry sand at the beach. But I did it. 🌨🏃🏻♀️❄️❄️❄️”
And Judi M., who was sensible:
“9 treadmill miles…. plows still haven’t come through and it’s still snowing… 16-18 inches here!”
And Heather D (and her canine companion):
BAMRs got it done over on Instagram, too.
How did you get it done during Winter Storm Stella? Or, for most of you, Tuesday?
Big Fit Girl, A Running Story
Louise Green describes herself as a trainer, author, athlete, and crusader. She is the author of Big Fit Girl—an inspiring account of how plus-size women can become fit and healthy. We think she’s also a badass and has a message that many readers need to hear, especially those of us who will never feel like we are “real runners.”
About 15 years ago, on a rainy night, I stood on the corner outside my local running club. I leaned against the cold concrete wall, watching the “real runners” mill about, discussing their latest runs, laughing and high fiving one another. My inner voice started to chime in with unsolicited banter: What were you thinking? They are totally out of your league. The commentary almost deafening, I stood to the side, silently watching. I wanted to leave, but I was too paralyzed with fear to turn around and go home. I had dreamed of being a runner all my life, and I knew I couldn’t blow this chance.
Photo of Louise by Vairdy Photography.
I wanted to change my lifestyle after hitting an unhealthy rock bottom. For many years, I had tried to achieve better health through fad diets, but could never adhere for any length of time. I was constantly hungry, and always ended up breaking my diet. Seeing the crowd of laughing, lean runners that night only fuelled my fear of not belonging and my desire to be thinner.
My fear of participating was real. It stemmed from my lack of confidence that I could actually make it as a runner in my plus-size body. I’d never seen anyone with a body like mine successfully running (or participating in any sport, for that matter) in any fitness media, and I never saw plus-size people out running in my highly active city. This truly was uncharted territory, and my fight-or-flight instinct was kicking into high gear.
After years of flipping through fitness magazines, books, and DVDs, unsuccessfully trying to force my body to fit into fitness culture, I was about to finally find out what I had been missing all along.
We were called into the running club and ushered to the back of the room, where a chalkboard and benches had been set up for the Tuesday Night Learn to Run 5K Clinic. A woman decked out in running gear stood up and introduced herself as our running leader. This was the defying moment that transformed my life. As I shifted my gaze towards her, I was shocked to find that she was a plus-size athlete.
This moment changed everything for me; her very existence filled me with a new sense of possibility. Finally seeing an athletic body that looked like my own had the power to change my mindset for good.
Louise running her 4th half marathon.
Since that day I’ve gone on to run many 5K runs, as well as 10Ks, half marathons and triathlons. At these races I see great diversity of size, age and ethnicity in the women who compete. In fact, 67% of North American women are over a size 14, many of them athletes. Despite this, fit women of size remain an invisible majority; this diversity is not represented in fitness media and advertising.
After my profound experience with my first run leader, I realized the power of representation and how it affects our ability to participate in fitness and sport. Seeing one athletic woman who looked like me was powerful enough to usher me into a new lifestyle. I became so captivated by this new way of living that I left my successful career to pay it forward to other women. I opened up a plus-size fitness, and have since helped over a thousand women realize their athletic potential. I’ve experienced the power of representation and it’s compelled me to fight for more.
I believe in the adage we cannot be what we cannot see. When we can’t see ourselves, especially when we’re first contemplating engaging in fitness, it adds an element of the unknown to the fray; our fear and intimidation grow deeper. Seeing athletic larger bodies represented in the media would remove that “abnormal” element and make fitness more accessible for plus-size people.
I want the power of sweat, endorphins and victory to be accessible to every “body.” To achieve that, we must see more so we can all be more. Together, if we push for change, we have the power to move millions of women off the sidelines and into the game of fitness and sport.
Photo of Louise by Vairdy Photography.
Louise described her moment of being able to see herself as an athlete because she saw a trainer who looked like her. How many of you have had similar epiphanies?
#251: How to Build Speed and Run Faster
Sarah and co-host Amanda Loudin talk about how to run faster and hone speed, recognizing from the outset that speed is relative. Coach Amanda suggests approaching speed seasonally over the course of a year, then breaks down all the different “tools” for doing so, starting with hill repeats. The mother runners discuss the slippery beast of a tempo run, which Amanda describes as “comfortably hard.” (An oxymoron?!) Amanda introduces a new-to-Sarah concept of “10 years of improvement,” then they dissect how that’s both good news—and bad. Amanda sings the praises of strides and strength training. She also defines the elements that make up speed. The gals wrap the show with talk of race-day execution. All along the way, Amanda offers up pearls of speed-building wisdom, such as, “getting comfortable with the uncomfortable” and “buy into what you can do, and let it be a shot in your arm.” An invaluable episode for folks looking to set a PR.
*Green Chef is a USDA-certified organic meal kit delivery service that brings delicious dinners right to your doorstep. To get meals delivered and show your support for Another Mother Runner, go togreenchef.com/amr to get $50 off today.
*Remember to turn on some folks to podcasts: how to find them and listen to them, and offer some show recommendations. Then tweet to @SBSontheRun + @TheMotherRunner using hashtag #trypod to let SBS know you’re on the #trypod train! Thanks!!
*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!