• train like a mother book review & giveaway for mother’s day!

Happy Train Like a Mother’s Day! (Both books are awesome)

In my mind, there’s no better time for a giveaway than Mother’s Day, cuz this is the hardest job evah. Am I right? Seriously, I would rather nix Christmas gifts and be showered with presents on the day that says, “Heck yeah, I’m the mom and I work my a&& off keeping my kids happy, healthy, safe and mostly snot-face-free!” Skip the Santa and pass the hammock.

I’ve been saving my extra copy of Train Like a Mother: How to Get Across Any Finish Line–and Not Lose Your Family, Job or Sanity by Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea since Sarah spoke and read at our fun-delicious Spring Winery Run & Brunch in March. Of course, I’ve also been reading my copy and loving it.

They are right when they say it really belongs on your nightstand.  Mine will stay there a long time because it’s like having a running buddy just sorta hanging out in case you need her at any hour. (Kinda like real running buddies) You can pick it up and read stuff like Sarah’s plans for peeing her pants (yes a PLAN) during the Portland Marathon so she wouldn’t miss her time goal. She says her REI capris absorbed most of the pee and it was, after all, pouring rain, so “the torrent of raindrops served as a natural flush.” This cracks me up….and fills me with respect in an odd way. She rocked her time goal! (Side note: She and her friend, Sheila, came to my hotel room after this race to freshen up before heading out to find their families. Of course, I didn’t know at the time that she sat down at my computer to check her official race time in her pee pee pants. Now I’m really cracking up!)

I’m pretty sure Sarah didn’t pee her pants at our winery run.

It’s just real life stuff. The stuff you talk about on your runs with friends. This is one reason I love the book.

The other reason is the training plans and race info. I’m not a stranger to racing and marathons, but I’m always checking out plans and hunting for “the thing” that will make my next race better. But let’s back up… I LOVE Dimity’s quiz that asks you if you should race in the first place. How clever is that? I have a few newbie runner friends and this would be great for them to work through. Though a bit tongue-in-cheek, really, the questions get to the heart of your personality type. Question 10 is my favorite…

10. The last goal you set for yourself was:

A. Are you talking professional, financial, personal, family or emotional?

B. To read at least one book and to try four new recipes every month. So far I have a 3-month streak going.

C. To get my linen closet organized before the end of the month.

D. To make it to 5 p.m. before I crack open a beer. And I really don’t like the taste of beer.

The names of the marathon training plans make perfect sense. Either you pick the “finish it” or the “own it” plan, depending on your fitness, goals and life craziness. Having used the only-1-20-miler plans in the past, I agree with Sarah about the need to do a few, especially if you have a time goal. See the “own it” plan for that idea.

Like a good chick flick, this is a good chick read. For example, in the recovery section, the “Menu Of Services” for recouping after a race or hard training effort includes all the runnery stuff like ice bath, compression, heat, Aleve, etc, but also includes pedicure. Yep, us gals got special needs. Sweet!

I won’t tell you how to read this book because there is good reason to go from point A to point B, but I’m having fun jumping around. Reading all the inset/gray page sections with real life stories of other runner mothers, quotes, tips, dos and don’ts is a perfect night cap. I grab it, toss back a few, and feel all  jazzed and runnerly for my early morning road or trail pounding plan the next day.

Sarah and Dimity are wonderful women, runners and mommas as well as clever, smart and downright funny writers. Let’s wish them or one of your favorite moms a Happy Train Like a Mother’s Day here or on our Facebook page for a chance to win their latest book! We’ll pick a random name from here or Facebook on Mother’s Day by 8:00pm PST.

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• Mile Markers: chapters 10 – 20

This is the first Read Momma Read online book club selection. You can get it here on Amazon. If you’re just joining us, you might want to read the intro page to our club. We’d love for you to join us anytime. If you’re local to Eugene/Springfield area, we’ll meet up and chat about the book. Stay tuned on FB for that info.

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Hi again readers! We’re still picking our way through Mile Markers. Don’t know about you, but I still love it. As I mentioned in my last post about it, I don’t plow through, but savor, relish and take my time. I am almost done, but wanted to talk about the next set of chapters… 10 – 20. There’s a lot here we could chat about and I welcome any comments about any of these chapters or topics. Here’s a few of my favorite areas and some questions to ponder.

And, let’s hook up in person! I will update the event date/time on the FB events page. I tentatively have it set for May 24th at 7:00. Location to be announced once I get a bit of a head count.

1. I love this line from chapter 10, Freedom, page 112-113 “Shake it Off”…”Running is one thing that allows me to be everything I need to be for everyone else and not resent it.” She offers a list of reasons why running helps her ‘shake off’ tough situations or challenges in her life. I can relate to just about all of them. But, the idea that there is nothing selfish about wanting to make yourself “clean” as she says, to shake off the bad so you have good to offer the world, really resonated with me. It’s sometimes a hard concept to explain to those who think my running is a selfish pursuit. (Although, I’m happy to say I don’t have any friends who don’t understand at least in part, my love of running.) Have you come across folks who think your running is selfish?

2. Giddyup from chapter 11, Identity, is awesome! Pg 123-4. In this chapter she discovers another side to her running friend and her love of horses. Throughout the book she shares many instances why she enjoys her friendships and the qualities she appreciates in her friends, but this chapter was  so fun to read. I remember when I discovered that my running friend and exercise extraordinnaire, Dani, was a scientist and science teacher. “My maiden name was Petry, like the dish, she said. What was I gonna do?” I love hearing her stories about her middle school students and their projects.  As the miles tick by, we discover so much about each other. How have your running friends evolved into deeper friendships?

3. Chapter 13, Fear, posed some good questions. In Your Antartica, page 143-44 Kristin discusses the amazing swimmer, Lynne Cox and her book Swimming to Antarctica. Cox says about cold, open water swimming, “It’s pain. You just have to get used to it and eventually stop fighting it.” Her book club talked about what their fears were by posing the question that I’ll pose to you…What is your Antarctica?

4. Alot of chapter 18, called Hills, is about going “up and over” an emotional hill, overcoming a fear, facing a life-related, not necessarily running-related obstacle. And some of it is about really running hills. I, too, have a love/hate relationship with running hills. I can usually muster enough mental wherewithal to get up them when I am alone. Sometimes when I run with friends or in a group or  when I’m in a race situation, I have a harder time of it. It’s that mental part that doubts, that is worried I will look weak, that I will be the only one walking, that I will slow others down, that I will tire out and be too sluggish on the remainder of the run. I tell people hills scare me and they are surprised seeing as I run them often including trail races with lots of altitude. Inside though, I’m a wreck.  As Armstrong says, the middle of the hill is not the time mess with definitions or change tactics and that, like in life,  it’s the little ones that prepare you for the big ones. Do you tackle the hill running like you do getting up life’s hills?

5. The Wall! This discussion hits at chapter 20, of course, as it corresponds to the proverbial marathon wall. Similar to the hill chapter, her questions surround the issues of how to handle tough moments in life and in a race. Whether you’ve run a marathon or not, what gets you through the “wall” on a tough run.

As always, feel free to answer 1 or all of these questions, pose your own or chat about a different topic/chapter of the book. Hope to see you on May 24th at 7:00pm !! I’ll keep you posted on where.

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• book club: mile markers by kristin armstrong

If you’re an info-hoard like me, you love to read about your favorite sport, right? Right! So let’s read together. We’ll start with Mile Markers: The 26.2 Most Important Reasons Why Women Run” by Kristin Armstrong, then we’ll chat about it here – on the blog. It’s  in stock at Amazon for $9.59 if you want to join us. Since it’s not a novel, you can jump in anytime. I ordered 3 for friends and I and didn’t have to pay shipping. And here’s some info about the book from some other famous runner mothers over at Run Like a Mother blog.Those of us who live here in the Eugene area can get together in person. Email me if you’re one of those at laura@runmommarun dot com and I’ll send a couple date options for us.

Let’s start reading and I’ll put up a “my two cents”  post with some discussion questions on Monday, March 21st about the first 3 chapters. You can join in the conversation then or anytime. We’ll do a couple chapters every two weeks.

I can’t wait to dive into this one and chat about it with ya!

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