Damage Control
My friends and I joked, when this all started (this = COVID/Schools closing, etc.) that each morning we feel like the captain of a ship, waking with bloodshot eyes, sitting at the helm of the command bridge (for some reason my vessel is a spaceship, aka Captain Kirk) and taking a long, slow drag from a coffee cup before letting out a sigh, and asking deliberately and without emotion “damage control.”#425: Life + Running during the Pandemic
Sarah and Dimity, the dynamic duo who founded AMR, share details of their life during these challenging times. The wide-ranging conversation covers:
- coping strategies, including what structure and routine do for Dimity;
- their workouts—plus what motivates them to get moving;
- habits that are keeping them content and productive; and,
- mealtime strategies for making dinner (so.many.meals!).
Click here to sign up for Love the Run You’re With virtual running events series.
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#424: Running Games to Get You Going
Sarah welcomes therapist Kate Kneifel, MSW, LCSW, who shares running games that can change your outlook and approach to running—and life. This one-on-one conversation (co-host Katie scoots after the intro chitchat) zigs and zags in delightful directions, including:
- detailing running games you’ve never considered;
- how creativity and playfulness can invigorate your relationship with running;
- the value of giving your brain “something to chew on”;
- the joy of small things; and,
- how to get “unstuck.”
Before Katie ducks out of the episode, the hosting duo laughs over an unexpected TMI topic. Kate the therapist enters the scene at 19:14.
When you shop our sponsors, you help AMR.
We appreciate your—and their—support!
Look good, run GOODR: Visit goodr.com/amr to check out Sarah’s favorite goodrs—
and get some of your own!
The final step to better running: Visit currex.us and use code AMR15 for 15% off insoles.
Self-care shave essentials from Flamingo for just $16 with free shipping at shopflamingo.com/amr
Making Dinner During the Pandemic: A Mother Runner’s Perspective
By Kate Walton, who recently wrote about her Yeti Challenge
I love to cook. I have not one, but two book shelves in my kitchen that are overflowing with cookbooks. Food sites are part of my daily internet browsing. When things in my life are in balance the process of planning for, shopping for and preparing dinner is one of the favorite things I do in day. Our family and friend celebrations nearly always revolve around the large table in our kitchen.
Kate’s daughter Ava Jane making spanakopita.
I like learning about how food fuels me and my very active family, I take pride in knowing my families favorites and not-so favorites. Feeding my people is an act of love passed on to me from my Grandma Jane, who was a wonderful cook. In the kitchen I feel close to her memory.
My friends will tell you I regularly push recipes on them when I find something that is:
Easy: Sheet Pan Fried Rice
Hearty: InstantPot Zuppa Tuscano
Adaptable: Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps
Makes Great Leftovers: Tomato and Sausage Risotto
Please Make this Potato Salad: Mom’s Classic Potato Salad
When you need comforted: BBQ Comfort Meatballs
Meatless Monday: Sheet Pan Gnocchi
Use Up Your Leftovers: Frittata Formula
Dessert for company or a Tuesday: Magnolia Lemon Pie
I could go on….
But here’s the thing. It is a very fine line between a hobby I love and a chore I resent and that line can get blurry quickly. In recent times grocery shopping has been fraught, some staple ingredients were scarce and juggling three daughters and one husband’s tastes and hankerings for all the meals and all the snacks all the days in a row started to feel more like a burden than a way to care for my family.
Meghan’s Instagram post.
Why oh why doesn’t my husband love Melissa Clark’s Red Curry with Tofu, Green Beans and Cherry Tomatoes as much as the rest of us? Why will my daughter only eat vegetables if they are cooked?
Then like most things, when you keep showing up there’s these great moments that make the mundane seem worthwhile. Meghan posting daily photos of our dinners on her Instagram story to make her friends jealous. Various combinations of my kids tucking into the kitchen when I’m cooking dinner to talk or help with prep.
Ava Jane helping out one night and saying off handedly “I know I am going to really miss this when I go to college next year” and I have to turn my head and swallow the lump in my throat.
I get near daily texts from someone in the family asking “What’s for dinner?” and I’m back to loving it again.
Running Fartleks on the Golf Course
By Rachel Pieh Jones, author of Stronger than Death: How Annalena Tonelli Defied Terror and Tuberculosis in the Horn of Africa
I’ve been running on the golf course during the coronavirus pandemic. Djibouti, a small country in the Horn of Africa, has been on lockdown, like the rest of the planet, but we can still exercise and the golf course is as socially distant as you can get. Not many people brave the 120-degree heat and the dust stinging our eyes. Douda is a desert golf course, all sand trap. The “river” is a dirt squiggle dirt marked off by yellow sticks. My husband and daughter golf and they carry little patches of green turf with their clubs.
I run. I loop around them and zigzag across the desert. I dodge packs of wild dogs, bleached bones and the occasional rotting animal carcass, goats and their nomadic shepherds, who stare at me, the strange foreigner. I make a wide circle around the ancient burial site in the middle of hole 7. Earlier this spring, camels gave birth and now baby camels bellow for their mothers and wander the course on spindly legs.
Running here means a change of scenery from the roads in the city, a soft surface, and time with my family. Then I discovered a surprise benefit of running on the golf course. Fartleks.
I enjoy fartleks, that burst of speed followed by a breather. The unplanned, create-as-you-go run. But, confession, sometimes I get spacy. I forget to pick up the pace or forget to slow down until I’ve pushed too long, too hard, and exhausted myself too early. Other times, I plan to slow down at that jasmine plant or when I reach that mosque, and then stubbornly run past it until the purpose of fartlek training is ruined.
But the golf course is perfect for fartleks. Run to the ball. Jog to the t-box. Run to the golf bag and grab a drink of water (it is 115-degrees, ladies, lots of runs to the golf bag for water). Sprint around the “green” (here the green is black dirt), then walk or jog to the next hole. Hustle to the baby camel but slow down before scaring it. Take a break to hunt for the ball my daughter hit into the thorn bushes.
Before we do our golf-run at the end of another day in lockdown, my emotions have often deteriorated to, “we’re never getting through this pandemic.” But. The sun sets as we finish the last hole. My husband and daughter pack up the clubs. I wipe dust-turned-to-sweaty-mud from my ankles. We pull on our masks and drive home past several roadblocks. I think, “maybe we’ll get through this.”
If we push a little, rest a little, push a little, rest a little, we’ll make it.
Mother Runners of the Month: April Hopkins + Ginny Ebben
Each month, we celebrate two athletes monthly in our #motherrunnner community.
[because sports awards aren’t just for youth soccer]
One athlete participates in our Many Happy Miles program and the other one is in a Train Like a Mother Club program: nothing like vicariously living through workout specifics, training cycles, and upcoming (virtual) races, right?
More importantly, they both epitomize the traits that keep us all moving forward: perspective, diligence, badassery, flexibility, and grit.
APRIL HOPKINS
Location: Bakersfield, California
Kids: Two kids – 1 girl (9) and 1 boy (5)
What’s your running story?
I started running in my early twenties after being totally sedentary my entire life. I immediately loved it. I ran a lot of 5ks for a few years. I ran my first half marathon in 2007 and took a break from long races until 2016. Like so many other mothers, I realized I needed an outlet after having my kids! Since then I’ve done 3-4 half marathons a year.
Why did you join Many Happy Miles?
I’ve been a faithful follower of Another Mother Runner since 2014. I’ve used the plans from the Train Like a Mother book for every race! Last March I needed something to keep me busy in between races so I joined. Best decision ever!
It’s so nice to have a schedule to follow. Dimity really makes the best workout plans! And the community is so supportive.
Best workout in Many Happy Miles so far:
I LOVE interval runs! I especially love shorter intervals like 2:1 because they make the workout fly by.
Hardest workout in Many Happy Miles so far:
Any hill workout is challenging for me. I live in a flat area so I have to use the treadmill for hills and it’s not my favorite.
Upcoming races?
I would be training for 2 fall half marathons right now, but everything is cancelled. I’m very excited to see what the new AMR race series is going to be, because I’m definitely signing up!
When I run, I feel: strong AF!
GINNY ERICKSON EBBEN
Program: Love the Run You’re With Race Series
Location: Katy, TX (western suburb of Houston), originally from New Jersey, then Boulder, CO, then Indiana, then Washington, D.C., then London, U.K., then Houston, then Calgary, Alberta Canada, then Katy, TX. So… :-)
Kids: Three great kids – ages: Isabel (16), Henry (14), Lucy (12), one great dog, Simba (6)
What’s your running story?
From the ages of 10 – 21, I ran to stay in shape for sports. During the ages of 21-35, I ran to be fit and remain an athlete. From 36-52, I run to keep my sanity, to keep feeling joy, to feel the reward of overcoming a physical challenge, to feel like an athlete, and to keep my health. Finally, I am training to be in the Olympics when I’m in my 90s and have outlived and outrun all others.
Why did you join the Love the Run You’re With virtual race series?
I’d trained with a coach for the January Aramco Half Marathon in Houston and loved the individual attention, having someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to help push me out of my comfort zone, and someone telling me, “YOU CAN DO IT,” because she had helped me aim for reachable (challenging) time goals.
Up until that point I’d trained with an awesome running group, Gotta Run Katy, and loved the community aspect but wanted workouts tailored to my goals.
Love the Run gave me a great combo of both of those without the person-to person contact during this Covid-19-ridden time and without the price of a personal coach.
This program is a steal for four months of coaching, swag, community, yoga, strength, love, and joy.
Best workout in Love the Run You’re With so far:
I vacillate between the Tuesday intervals and Thursday hills. I love me that track workout because I feel like a badass getting on the track and pushing it and reaching for short goals and then that feeling of “AHHHH” in the recovery.
The book “Endure” by Alex Hutchinson really helped me overcome a fear of the hard track workout.
The Thursday hills are fun because I run a mile and a half to a parking garage (there are four to choose from so it’s a la carte hills) and then just run up and down until twenty minutes are up. Then I run home. I like how the run is broken up so each segment feels brief yet I feel accomplished.
Most challenging workout in Love the Run You’re With so far:
The twelve mile long run was the most challenging for me. Long runs are always head games. Large chunks of time at the same pace.
Now I’m focused on zone 2 for the first two miles then zone 3 for the bulk of the long run and then I finish in zone 4 – picking it up for the last two miles or so. At least that’s the goal. ;-)
What goals have you set for the races in this series?
Each race I’ve set the goal to finish strong, feeling good about my effort. My fitness had flagged since January so coming to terms with being slower and feeling creaky took some time.
When I run, I feel: EMPOWERED.