Category Archives: Running

My Marathon Olympic Team Picks

It’s finally here! The Marathon Olympic Trials are tomorrow, so it’s time to finally make my picks. Want to enter your picks? Join my prediction contest here.

Women

First place: Jordan Hasay

If Jordan is healthy, I don’t see how she doesn’t win. She has the fastest PR, had the fastest marathon debut, and has experience in major marathons. Plus, she’ll be in the shoes.

All of her social media posts have been positive regarding her training, and she’s certainly putting it out there that her hamstring is fully recovered after pulling out of Chicago back in October. I think she distanced herself well from all of the Salazar drama in the fall, and she didn’t attend the pre-race press conference yesterday, so there was no opportunity for anyone to ask her about it again to try to rile her up.

Second place: Sara Hall

Sara Hall’s 2:22 breakthrough in Berlin was a long time coming. She’s a consistent high-performer, and I think now is her time.

Third place: Des Linden

Des is the only returning marathon Olympian, and she’s an absolute beast. I cried when she won Boston in 2018. With the challenging course and stacked field, I see Des being able to weather any storm the course or conditions throw at her as well as cover any moves made by the competition.

Des will be celebrating with whiskey on Saturday night after making her 3rd Olympic team.

Other Contenders

In no particular order because this field is just too deep.

The NAZ Elite Trio

If there was an award for the coolest contender, Kellyn Taylor would win hands down. In addition to being a runner and a mom, Taylor is a firefighter and foster parent. I also recently learned on a podcast interview that her husband was deployed when she gave birth to her daughter, which further adds to her being a total badass.

Stephanie Bruce and Aliphine Tuliamuk round out the NAZ Elite training group. They all ran smoking fast half marathons in January to tune up for the trial, and I imagine they’ll be working together during the race.

The New Balance and Saucony Training Partners

Molly Huddle and Emily Sisson are two serious contenders with many considering Sisson the favorite for the race. I just don’t know enough about Sisson to put her in my top 3. Her 2:23:08 debut was the fastest by an American woman on a record-eligible course, but the Trials will be her second marathon on a vastly different course.

Huddle is a more experienced marathoner, excellent road racer, and led the American charge on the track at the 2016 Olympics. Her PR isn’t as fast as Sisson’s or others in the field, but her experience performing well in a high-stakes event makes her seriously dangerous.

And a couple more…

Sally Kipyego is another front-runner that I don’t know too much about, but 2:25 puts her in serious contention. Finally, Emma Bates came roaring into the marathon scene when she won CIM in 2018 and then lowered her PR to 2:25 at Chicago in the fall. I learned in my research that she lives off the grid, so she certainly has some grit!

Men

Disclaimer: I know a lot less about the men’s field.

First place: Galen Rupp

After Rupp’s 61 tune up half marathon, he seems a lock for the team.

Second place: Jared Ward

Ward literally wrote his dissertation on marathon pacing. He and his mustache will be representing the US again this year in the marathon.

Third place: Leonard Korir

Korir had the fastest debut of an American marathoner. He’s a bit of a wild card since it will only be his second marathon, but a sub-2:08 is hard to discount.

Fourth place: Scott Fauble

I really want Scott Fauble to make the team. The top 4 are so tight, but I’m not sure he’s in the top 3 of those 4.

Fifth place: Bernard Lagat

Lagat is not ranked in the top 10, but he has #oldmanstrength. Plus he just finished up a training stint in Kenya where he ran with Kipchoge. I’m not counting him out.

Olympic Trials Tracker

The Olympic Trials is coming to Atlanta next week! I’ve been excited to watch this race for over a year, and I can’t believe it’s almost here. Atlanta Track Club has done a fantastic job putting together the race and communicating spectator information, and tonight I started working on spectating plan, so I made a tracker!

Since the course has an 8-mile loop the runners will complete 3 times, I wanted to see roughly where the leaders would be at what time. I made a simple Sheet where you can update the expected finish time (and the start time if the races don’t start as scheduled) to see where your runner will be at what mile mark.

It’s not perfect since it assumes even splits, but if you’re planning to MARTA around to different spots on the course, it should be close enough that you don’t miss your runner if you give yourself some cushion time!

If you want to use it for yourself, you can access it here. Remember to make a copy for your own Google Drive first! Since this is a public link, multiple people could change the sheet at the same time, which could create some confusion on race day. 😉

34 Weeks

Baby Size

Caleb is the size of a spaghetti squash at about 17.75 inches long and 4.75 pounds.

Highs

I put some shelves up above the changing table and despite the struggle to get them on the wall. Did you know that increased clumsiness is also part of the third trimester? Fun times.

We spent the weekend in Greenville with Josh’s family and had a lovely baby shower! Grandma Morrison could have a side hustle as a party planner, and the decorations were just so cute!

It was great to spend time with family and get some advice as well. We also did a Mad Libs fairy tale game that was hilarious. They will be fun to read to Caleb as he grows up!

We had a few days of “false fall” that felt nice to not be a constant pool of sweat! And my back has been behaving nicely to the point that I’ve done a few 3-mile run/walks which is the most I’ve done since Peachtree. It’s just funny how things can change on a week by week basis! I’m trying to enjoy the times when I can get out there and don’t feel like I’m limp/waddling.

I have a growth ultrasound at the end of the week, and I’m so excited to see him again! I imagine he will look a lot like a baby this time which will be fun. 🙂

Lows

The special thing about 34 weeks is that the timeframe of his arrival feels ridiculous. I’m 6 weeks away from my due date, but babies typically come between 38-42 weeks, meaning he could come in the next 4 to 8 weeks. 8 weeks is literally twice as long as 4 weeks, hence the feeling of ridiculousness.

I’m getting more uncomfortable, some days worse than others. I’m very thankful that I work from home since I can sit or stand or lay on the couch or my personal favorite of putting my laptop on the couch and hunching over it from kneeling on the floor. Just doing what I can!

27 Weeks

Baby Size

Baby Mo aka Caleb is the size of a cabbage at 14.5 inches long and weighs 2 pounds. My own little cabbage patch baby!

Highs

Hellooooo third trimester! I am excited to be in the home stretch even if the third trimester is the equivalent of the last 10k of a marathon.

I got to do Peachtree! My friend Jenn ran-walked with me, and it went by much faster than expected. I thought it was going to be hard to walk so much of the race because it would stand out, but there are so many people, that it didn’t matter! We did a pattern of 5 minutes walking, 2 minutes running for the first half and then 5 minutes walking, 3 minutes running for the second half, and then ran the full last half mile or so. It’s probably the first time I’ve never negative split at Peachtree!

Since there’s walking to the start and walking to the car after the finish, it was quite the day on my body! I took a lot of rest days after the race and have been able to run-walk longer segments since then – sometimes even with no pain! It certainly isn’t easy with my ever-growing belly, but at least my back doesn’t feel like it’s breaking.

We made some great progress on the nursery as well! My parents spent Saturday with us, and we moved my desk upstairs. I feel like I have to do a double-take every time I pass the nursery now because it’s so empty! That will certainly change as the giant pile of boxes in our entryway are full of nursery items.

Moving out my desk really helped with my visual planning as well. With the back wall cleared out, I measured the whole room and windows and doorways and closets and drew out the floor plan to scale. Then I drew the planned furniture pieces to the same scale, colored them and cut them out, so I could move them around the floor plan. I’m getting excited! And I got a lot of enjoyment out of all the planning this weekend.

Last nursery update, isn’t this the cutest clock you’ve ever seen?! It was only $8.50 at Bed, Bath & Beyond!

We went on our first 2 daycare tours at the end of last week and have some additional tours planned this week. Josh has been spearheading the daycare search, and it’s been great to just show up when I’m supposed to and not have to do the research.

We also registered for our childbirth class. I’ve been reading a lot about them, and since I’ve never had a child before and would prefer to not have an epidural, I’d like to prepare myself. I saw one quote from a woman where she said it’s not enough to just want to make it through without drugs. It was like she read my mind! I just assumed since I’m an athlete and am decently mentally strong and understand dealing with pain, that would be enough. Probably better to be prepared, though! Interested to see what we learn there in August.

Lows

Mainly just the general aches and pains of growing. I’m hot a lot, my back hurts a lot, and I find myself out of breath very easily. I had a rough Monday in my new office space since it is so much warmer, but it’s improved with a small fan and with using natural light from the window instead of having the overhead lights (aka generators) on.

20 Weeks

Baby Size

Baby Mo is the size of a banana – about 6.5 inches long and 10-11 ounces (although they told me he was 11 ounces at my scan last week!).

Highs

Halfway there! Cue the music.

The anatomy scan went well! All of his organs got a thumbs up which was a huge relief since the anatomy scan is one of the last times you can find out something is wrong developmentally. Baby Mo wasn’t super cooperative at the scan, but I did get to see him suck his thumbs and fingers when he wasn’t completely hiding his face with his feet and hands. So cute!

He continues to be a wiggler as well. I think I don’t feel all of the subtle movements because almost every time I feel him, it’s significant. Josh was even able to feel him last night! I don’t feel him every day yet, though.

We got some fun baby items from garage sales/Facebook Marketplace last week as well! Josh has a coworker who scoped out some yard sales for us and got us a bouncer and a jump station for $10 each.

My biggest win was getting a BOB Revolution Pro stroller from Facebook Marketplace after weeks of searching and messaging various sellers. I don’t get why so many sellers don’t respond to messages, but I was pumped to find a lightly used one within 30 minutes and for a bargain. Having a stroller meant for serious running is important to me, but I really struggled with the $450-500 price tag. Luckily there are plenty of used ones out there, and I even found new ones for as low as $375 on sites like Zulily if you’re opposed to buying used.

Lows

The most important part of the anatomy scan was that he is healthy, but other than that, it was an incredibly frustrating experience.

I get my ultrasounds at a different office than my OB, and last time they saw me almost right at my appointment time. I assumed that would be the case again, so Josh came, hoping to get to see the ultrasound, and ultimately had to leave and go back to work after sitting with me in the waiting room for 45 minutes.

Once I actually went back, the ultrasound took about 40 minutes. It was very fun to see him for that long, but I didn’t realize the cost of that would be how sore I felt the rest of the day and afterward. I felt like I got punched in the lower stomach for a good 2 days.

And the ending was anticlimactic because the printer connected to my ultrasound broke, so I only got one photo (of his feet) to take home and show Josh. They had multiple techs come in to try to fix it, and everyone just kept saying “I’ve never seen this before,” and they said they couldn’t email me any of the photos either. I have a regular OB appointment again next week in the same building, so I am either going to call or stop by ahead of time to see if they can have some printed for me to pick up. It was definitely a bummer to not have anything to bring home to Josh!

Other than that I officially gave up on trying to run 6 days per week as I really tried to force that last week and was miserable by the end of it. And very tired! I need an extra day to have a later alarm as that makes it easier to get up on the other days (especially as it get hot and earlier wakeups become necessary).

Thanks for reading! As a reminder, I’m participating in a 10-week fundraising effort for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and there are only 2 weeks left! Every donation, even just $5, works toward a cure. Donate HERE.

17 Weeks

Baby size

Baby Mo is the size of a pear and is still 5 to 5.5 inches long but weighs a little more – around 5 ounces.

Highs

I got that 10-mile run in! It was questionably smart to do 10 miles the first time I wore my new support belt, but I felt like time was running out to get this distance in, so I just went for it. It was great! I was quite tired for the rest of the day, but I didn’t flare up my SI joint pain or make anything feel worse, so it was worth it.

Speaking of the SI joint, it has been behaving itself much better lately, so I haven’t been hurting like I was the week before.

I also bought my first maternity clothes! My jeans still fit right now but are getting a bit more uncomfortable, so I wanted to make sure I had something other than sweatpants to wear when the day comes that I can’t button my jeans. Since we are very close to shorts weather for the rest of the pregnancy, I only got one pair of jeans along with some shorts and a couple of shirts. I’m a huge fan of the shorts! Maternity shorts are super comfortable.

I ended week 16 with a doctor’s appointment where I got to hear the strong heartbeat (146) which is always nice. 🙂

Lows

I had a bad “pregnancy brain” day last week. I was making a birthday cake for a friend, so I needed to run to the store to grab a few things. In general I prefer Kroger to Publix and had planned on going there. I got in my car and…ended up at Publix. I didn’t even realize I had gone to the wrong store until I parked. It seemed like too much trouble to go over to Kroger when Publix has everything I needed (just in a worse store layout IMO), so I spent twice as long in the store trying to find everything. I also had the fun task of figuring out what the word “softer” meant that I had put on the list (it was powdered sugar, of course).

The only other low of the week is that I found out only 1 pair of my non-athletic shorts fit now. It’s starting to warm up, so I changed into shorts one afternoon only to find that I had extremely limited options. I guess I’ll be wearing those maternity shorts earlier than expected!

Thanks for reading! As a reminder, I’m participating in a 10-week fundraising effort for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and you can help! Every donation, even just $5, works toward a cure. Donate HERE.

16 Weeks

Now that I got my initial post out, I’m more motivated to keep up with ongoings! Also, I found another woman’s blog over the weekend and reading her weekly updates was really helpful to me. Maybe this will help someone else in the future?

Baby size

Baby Mo is the size of an avocado! 5 to 5.5 inches long and about 2.5 oz in weight.

Highs

I got to visit my coworkers in Charleston last week! We ate giant pizza which was my favorite food-related moment of the trip.

I had a great run at the end of last week as well. Friday was plagued with storms, so I kept an eye on the radar and was finally able to get out the door in the late afternoon. I wanted to run my 8-mile route but was open to seeing how I felt. Lately the first mile of most every run has been uncomfortable, and I feel like I have to pee even if I went right before stepping outside. The first couple miles of this run followed this pattern, but then once I started feeling better, I felt so strong for the rest of the run! It was a great end to the week/start to the weekend to finish up feeling like I thrived during a longer run rather than just survived. I have a goal to do a 10-mile run before I get too big, and having a solid run like this made me more confident in my ability to do that.

Then on Saturday I met up with my friend James for a run, and it was so fun to have his company! I found that a lot of the discomforts I have while running alone aren’t there when I have someone there to distract me.

Also on Saturday we got to have lunch with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law! We haven’t seen them since Christmas, so it was nice to get the chance to catch up on life and share more about their nephew-to-be.

Lows

I’m having a LOT of SI pain on my right side. I had some about 6 weeks ago but managed to keep it under control with a few exercises, but this weekend it really flared up. I K-taped my back at the beginning of the week and opted for a pool run yesterday and a short run today, and both of those have helped. I have a pregnancy support belt set to be delivered today as well! I didn’t think I needed a pregnancy support belt this early, but my friend Jenn said she started running in hers at 16 weeks, so I will, too!

If you’d like to know what SI pain feels like, imagine having a stabbing/is-my-back-broken level pain when you randomly make certain movements, but you’re not sure enough which movements bother it to avoid them. Fun times.

The only new symptom to develop is my gag reflex is extremely sensitive, and I’m gagging when I brush my teeth now. :/

My main low is that I just don’t like how I look right now. All of my weight and expansion is right in my stomach, but I always imagined the expansion being a little…firmer. My expanded stomach is soft and flabby, so I’m in that awkward stage of, “Did you eat a big meal, or are you pregnant?”

Something that helped reading the blog I found this weekend is hearing someone else struggle with that and acknowledging that you can feel both unhappy about how your body looks because of the baby AND super excited about the baby growing there. They aren’t mutually exclusive.

Thanks for reading! As a reminder, I’m participating in a 10-week fundraising effort for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and you can help! Every donation, even just $5, works toward a cure. Donate HERE.

Team ALL in for Hattie

I have an exciting announcement! My friend and college teammate Thomas Clarke was nominated as a candidate for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) 2019 Man & Woman of the Year campaign, and I am a part of his team.

Thomas and I were both drawn to this cause because of our friend Lauren Harrison whose daughter was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) last summer. Lauren is an excellent writer, and you can read the full story on Hattie here.

There are a lot of ways for you to be involved and the easiest is to donate. You can even join our team if you’d like! These funds go directly to LLS in support of its mission to find a cure to blood cancer and improve the quality of life for patients & their families.

Please join me in helping fund the research to find a cure for blood cancers!

 

 

Dance with who You Came With

Yesterday I did 800s at a pace slower than I used to run mile repeats. They were sufficiently hard with a nice dose of weird.

The comparison game makes getting in shape difficult. Thanks to my diligent logging, I can look up the splits of past workouts and see the difference with just a few clicks.

In the middle of my workout yesterday, I tried a new mantra.

You’ve gotta be good with where you are and what you have.

It reminded me of the saying, “You’ve gotta dance with who you came with.” I have to run intervals with the body and fitness that I have right now, not what I had in 2017 because apparently just wanting to be faster doesn’t make you run faster.

Once you accept where you are, you’re better able to see the benefits of your effort. Each workout builds a little more fitness and gets you closer to the times you want to run. There are no shortcuts to get there, and the process will be a lot more enjoyable if you’re at peace with where you are and what you have.