for my dad

I've thought about and re-written several starts to a blog today. In the end, what I needed was to post this video. My mind has been all over the place and I needed to feel inspired.

I can't watch this video without crying, for so many reasons. I hope you all enjoy the video. Be inspired....

Dad, thank you for always picking me up. I love you.

3 weeks!

Oh boy oh boy oh boy....

Three weeks from now I will be through the finish line at Boston. Amazing!

This weekend was a big one a week of ups and downs. The long run loomed before me and after some serious conversations with myself, I was ready to tackle the long run.

I had the pleasure of running with a new running buddy and the miles flew by and suddenly there were 10 miles completed. We parted ways at that point for the start of the Holy half, which I wasn't running.

Instead of freaking out or feeling lonely (so to speak) I really enjoyed my alone time. I just ran. It felt great. I fell into a rhythm and just hung out.

Next thing I knew I was through 20 and a few miles from the car. The mind never failed me but the legs started to beg and bargain with me as I rounded the corner near the car and ticked off mile 23. I had really wanted to do the full 24.

Instead I stopped just beyond 23. But-- I went home and put a mile in with Cole! I'm pretty sure that move saved me from being ridiculously sore. The legs hurt when I got out of the sitting position and felt much better afterwards.

Victory!! Such a mental achievement. I really needed a solid long run and made it happen. Longest training run ever.

Nothing but smiles :)

P.S. Boston packet came in the mail today!! Stoked!

Oh what a... WEEK

Let's be honest, this was a rough week.

Monday: started the week with my head on straight and excited for a big week. Had a 6 miler.

Tuesday: another day of incredible heat in South Bend. 10 miler. Drenched in sweat. Legs aching.

Wednesday: ROUGH recovery run. Pain in nearly every step. No rhythm. Tried to just make it through.

Thursday: epic FAIL. Wheezing on the warm-up. Not a good sign. 2 miles into a tempo run, collapsed on the sidewalk and cried. Literally. Sat there and sulked. Beat myself up. Got angry and ran home. Was stubborn and tried the workout again on the treadmill. FAIL. Cried. Felt broken. Felt like everything was going wrong and I had no way of stopping it from happening. Rode my bike home (don't ride a bike up Cleveland) and came home to see that one of my athlete's had donated to my cause. Cried. Happy tears.

Friday: determined to not end the week in my current condition. Ran early. Sweated out the 5.5. Nervous for tomorrow's run. Legs hurt still. Not sure why. Still running with a sock in my shoe to cushion my tendon. Anxious for tomorrow's run. Found a package on my front step. Made my week :)
Received a care package from two previous members of team crazy--some of my alumnae. Cried.


Care package from Cait and Al :)



Ladies, you'll never know how much your letters touched my heart.

I am so thankful to have you in my life.



My pre-Boston care package was filled with goodies, and booties (socks, shown here) that will be used en route to and during the race. And what I'm pulling most from all of it, is the words that have been repeatedly shared among us: I CAN, I WILL. Despite this week's setbacks, I have a renewed spirit as I head into tomorrow's run. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Tomorrow:  The big run. 20-24 miles. We'll see how this guy goes. No pressure... just really want it to go well and give the confidence booster that I need.

Thank you to everyone for listening, supporting and consoling me throughout this week especially. I know I'm emotionally drained which is not helping---and although I don't always say it, I really appreciate all you have done for me.

For myself I'll close with this....

"God wisely designed the human body so that we can neither

pat our own backs nor kick ourselves too easily."

 -Unknown

Early mornings are returning....

We had to take the car in which meant that I needed a lift to work this morning. Early. Well, not so early... but early enough when you're used to going to bed around 1:00 or so... I'm such a night owl.

I'm excited to be up and out early today though because it is supposed to be record high heat again and I don't think that will mix well with my tempo run planned for the day. So, here's to hoping that the legs will get out of their funk soon and I can enjoy the coolness of the morning!

Somehow I signed up for a 7:00 long run on Saturday too. Then the team AM practices start Monday... better inject myself with another shot of crazy, it's going to be a rough looking few days. But so worth it!

Important Digits

It's official.

I'm bib #7150.

Starting in Wave 1 and Corral 8.

10:00 start time.

Want to get updates during the marathon of my whereabouts? Click Here for Directions

Mid week 'medium' long run

10 miles.

82 degrees.

60 oz water.

Legs are going to hurt tomorrow. Butt/ham are still sore from the hills in Kansas. 'Recovery' run tomorrow will be a genuine recovery.

emotions

Today, I'm....

a Sport Psychologist's dream... or nightmare.

I'm experiencing the whole gauntlet of negative emotions. I've been tracking my training against last year's training, which most people would say is a good thing---it's how you learn, how you evolve, get better, etc..

Instead though, what I've found is that my training is inadequate. I'm slower. I'm not hitting big runs.

As a result, today is a day filled with....
Anger...saddness...frustration... and fear.. of being an epic failure in 27 days. The 3:08 hangs above my desk, taunting me. Seeming so utterly out of reach that it is just a tease. Why, should a mediocre runner, with a desire for balance in life (and therefore not making running my be all), even dare to dream these dreams?

The trouble is when you want something so much and it no longer feels possible.... it HURTS.  It hurts BAD.

Kansas!

Made it back from Kansas last night.

Awesome.

Had a great three night stay with Fritz & Jessie and I loved the area. So much to do. We ate at a great BBQ place called BB's with live blues music (1/4 chicken, yum!). Saw the art museum and it's mummy. Picnicked at the Shawnee Mission park (and ran up a massive hill the day before a long run).
Enjoyed a band at Power & Light on St. Patty's Day and just had a stellar time!

Oh, and I finally had a chance to meet the kitties; Lucy and Benny. Hilarious.

It really was vacation week. Before leaving for Kansas I felt really out of it--disconnected. The simplest things were really taxing. Running was not rhythmic and my schedule was way out of whack. Just a whole lot of not good.

With my pathetic injuries In tow I headed to Kansas to escape the disconnect and be ok with the unease.

Being in a new place can do a world of good for me. Just those few days if new scenery and someone to run with really helped me get out of the funk.

Now, I did run for two hours on Saturday with a sock folded over and shoved into my shoe (gently tied) to keep from irritating an already sore and swollen tendon (that's my guess). Thankfully though Fritz helped me through the first seven, making it much more enjoyable.

Today--day one back in the Bend. It was almost 80 and I saw about half of my team--so spirits are high--for now!

This week is big for training. Last big push before the start of the taper. Yikes!

Freakin' out... and road bumps

It's spring break and nearly 70 degrees in South Bend, what could go wrong? Right?

Everything!!! Ok, well not really... little dramatic, but it seems like when it rains it pours around here.

About a week ago I started to have this annoying pain on the top of my left foot, right where the laces tie. Damn. Pretty sure I strained it and of course it only hurts when I run. Joy!

A few days later the inevitable. These things happen when you are so intelligent and gifted like myself. My second toe is pretty long (they say this is a sign of intelligence, I'll take it!) and has a tendency to get beat up. It started throbbing a little bit say last Thursday. Well, sure enough, after my 20 miler Saturday, there it was--big old blood blister under the nail! This is the only toe (right foot) that gets them. It's special. So of course I had to perform a small surgery on my toe; cutting the nail down to nothing to be able to access the blister....

Oh, you don't want to know the gory details? Ok. Well, the only bad thing about draining blood blisters from under nails, that I am aware of, is that they hurt more afterwards! The toe becomes uber sensitive, to the point that putting a sock on is uncomfortable. Great. I'm still working through this one (not painful just annoying) as my nail was bubbling out some sort of fluid the other night. Sweet. Just in time for flip flop weather!

Then the hamstring started up. Now, mess with a toe. Mess with a little over strained tendon. I don't mess with the big guys. You start working through major muscle issues and someone gets hurt--me! So I had to adjust my schedule. Instead of a workout yesterday, I did a slow recovery run. Probably a little necessary from last week anyway. It's feeling better and I'm attempting to do Thursday's workout today--so a little rearranging all around.

Having a different work schedule this week is really throwing me off too. I took yesterday off--yay! but it also makes for a weird running schedule and just kind of makes me feel disconnected from my training. Sound weird? That's ok, I'm weird. Anyway, now I'm going into another Yasso 800 workout with these little aches and pains and no company! I'm freakin' out! They're so fast. How am I going to do it? What if I can't do it? What if I completely flop!? This week has been such a running let down--and it's not at an ok time at all. I'm 33 days away from the marathon and all I want to do is hide and hope someone else can do the workout for me---it would be magic.

Ugh. Why?! On this beautiful day do I feel so deflated? Someone please come shake me. Until then, I will press onward and hope that my mental state does a 180 before I hit the track. I'm sure there will be a lot of pleading and praying on the way there that it goes well. For my sanity.

Oh Sundays...

What a difference the weather makes, huh? Maybe I should re-consider where I live.... my mood is 100% better when the weather is nice. Yesterday, was such a great Sunday. Despite Day Light Savings, I managed to get some solid sleep and wake up on my own time---amazing! Then to my surprise it was blue skies and beautiful.

We took Cole to St. Patrick's park for a nice hour plus of walking, smelling and drinking up the river. Why don't I go there more often? This is a really good question. I love being outside. There was hardly anyone at the park when we got there, which made it that much more relaxing and enjoyable. The legs felt surprisingly good and refreshed from the walk. Mostly though, it was a day for the Munchkin (Cole) to get out and play.

Here's my baby!

And after days like Sunday at the park... this is what he looks like....

He's got it tough....



Long & Steady

So today's run was 18-22 miles. Pace: long and steady.

I'm going to be honest, I haven't been running these long runs nearly as slow as I should have been doing them. So today I tried real hard to keep the pace slow... But I love going fast!!

Running slow can be a real challenge for me but today's run rocked. Dare I say...it was easy! Targeted doing 20 and nailed it. The weather was beautiful. I mapped out a quality course beforehand that included some good variation of terrain and scenery which kept me occupied for the nearly three hour run.

Not a whole lot happened between the ears during the run. I'm not exactly sure what I thought about--I think there was a lot of not thinking going on--just a lot of free your mind, Jackie time.

Man, what a rush! Also, I sported this sweet new sweaty band that my mom
surprised me with this weekend. I've never been successful with headbands. The Goody ones always slip off my little head, despite the grip, and I love Goody products otherwise!

This thing was sweet!! It stayed in place. Didn't give me a headache or irritate me. Basically didn't know it was there until the wind picked up and hair wasn't flying in my eyes. Recommend!

Well--had my delicious steak (sorry veggie friends) and am looking forward to relaxing. I love that a good run makes for a great day!

Rules of the Road

Ok, this blog is long overdue. As a fairly seasoned runner, I feel like I need to share impart these important rules of running with everyone.

During the past months of training and throughout the last few years as I've branched out to different training locations, I've noticed some interesting facts about my fellow pedestrians. Namely, they don't know what they're doing out there! and it drives me crazy!

Sorry, there might be a little venting in this blog. As a coach, I try to not only train but also teach my athletes things about the sport of running. Some of these nuggets of knowledge are absorbed immediately and put into practice, others take time.

Being on a pedestrian friendly campus (campuses) is great and a nice place to run. There are paved sidewalks that are cleared in the winter. There are crosswalks. There are roads restricted to cars. Just lovely if you can't get out to a park or on nature trails.

However, these paths are not always fun to navigate. Here are some of the basic rules that I would like to share. If you didn't know them, that's ok! Now you do. Pass them along. Make our running community even better than it already is--I'm sure it's possible.

1. When you run on a road, run AGAINST traffic. Why, you might ask? This is so that YOU can see the car and the car can see YOU. This is especially important if you train with music. You can't hear that car behind you. What if there is a little dead squirrel on the side of the road (sorry but I come across a lot of them) and you run wide to go around it? You don't look behind you, you just move! Boom--hit by a car. Let's avoid being hit by cars.

This is probably one of my biggest pet peeves because I run on the correct side of the street and people run on the incorrect side--making me run into people and traffic. Just dumb. Not safe.

2. If you ride a bike on the road, ride WITH traffic. In essence you are another vehicle. You should also follow the lights, signs and laws of the road. Just like cars. I can't tell you how much I freaked out the other day. We were driving around Clark Street in Chicago and one side of traffic had a left green arrow. A biker came blazing through the intersection from the other side to continue going straight. I almost saw this guy get blown off his bike. Scared the be geezers out of me. Again, let's avoid being hit by cars. Play by the rules.

3. If you walk, skip or do any other bipedal form of transport, you also move AGAINST traffic on the road.

4. All these rules (basically) go out the window when you move onto a trail, sidewalk or path that otherwise does not allow motorized vehicles. How? You operate like a street. So everyone--bikes, runners, walkers, rollerbladers, etc.. will all do what they do on the RIGHT side of the path. This enables people to pass on the left. Hence the common but seldomly used phrase, "on your left." When people run on the incorrect side it creates confusion, frustration (me because I end up moving in the game of chicken because the other person looks clueless), and possible injury. Again, let's avoid getting hurt.

5. When you pass someone--let them know! Again, this is where "on your left" comes into play. So let people know you're coming so they can move. If you're the person being notified--move--to the RIGHT! There have been so many times that I've given people the heads up that I'm coming (and especially walkers for some reason) and people move to the left or stand in the middle of the path (because they must want to be run into).

6. Give a wave, a nod, or a little smile to fellow runners. When I'm out there I try to give a smile or wave to other runners, only to see a confused look or no one looking back at me. Why is that people are so unfriendly out there? Runners are some of the nicest, happiest people I know--but when I'm out around campus I feel like I must be doing something wrong because of the looks I get sometimes. I've heard that I look 'intimidating' which my only response is---I'm working hard out there! Maybe that's just the way my face looks! Geez...

7. Headphones. Yes, just about everyone is plugged in these days.... and a LOT of the time. At this time I'll just focus on listening to ipods etc.. while running. It's not right or wrong. There are some purists out there that never like to listen to music and some people who can't run without music. To each his own. However, if you are going to be tuned in to music it means you are largely tuned out to everything else. Be conscious of this when moving about. For example---look behind you before crossing a street or drastically changing your running path--a bike or another runner might be coming up behind you and you just cut them off!

Here is a start. There are so many other nuggets of wisdom that have come to mind but will have to wait!
Now that you are armed with the rules--use them and pass them on!

Role models

It doesn't matter if you like football. It doesn't matter if you like the Colts. One thing I think everyone should agree on is we need more of this for young people to look up to.

Take a look it's definitely worth a read.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/7660415/thanks-memories-peyton-manning

5 weeks + 5 days

Until race day.

And $500 to reach my goal. If you've been enjoying the blog and would like to give, please check out:

http://www.active.com/donate/michianasolemates/jbauters

If you want more info on Girls on the Run and what I'm doing--email me! Jfbauters@gmail.com

SUPA SUPA GIRL POWA

or in English... Super Super Girl Power!

Oh ya, it was one of those kind of days. How else do you describe 65 and sunny in South Bend... in March! I'll take it, thank you very much! It's been a while since my last post. Not because I don't have things to say, but because someone has yet to create my thought recorder/transcriber. Hello! All the good ideas come on the run... and they fade to the background once the pounding stops.

Maybe I should do my work from a treadmill?

Back to the amazing day. So, I'm definitely still sore from Sunday's Body Pump class. Yes, that sore. I might have actually strained my bicep. Sounds pathetic, I know. My girl, Kelly, has been swearing by this class forever and I finally had the chance to get to one.

Note to self: Going to your first Body Pump class the day after a long run may not be the best idea.

Today was a medium long run, with the last 10 minutes at a quicker pace (optional). Despite the soreness, I was really looking forward to the run---soaking up the sunshine, stealing some great miles, working out the kinks. Even the wind (and I mean wind) could not be a spoiler today, but I was suspicious of the unsettling feelings at 2.5 miles. I suppose your body will get finicky with such drastic weather changes though.

After the little blip early on, the run was smooth sailing. More than once I felt like I was just hoovering, only barely skimming the top of the pavement. It was so liberating! My pasty white skin saw the sun and was freed from the layers they'd been enveloped in for months. I digress...

I ran down Darden and past Christ the King, one of our Girls on the Run sites this spring, secretly hoping that I would see little heads bobbing around the back of the school. No such luck, but this week is the first week for all of our Girls on the Run sites in Michiana--very exciting! Last I knew there were 66 girls enrolled in the program in five different sites. It has come so far in such a short time. Just last spring I helped coach our first season with 13 girls---and look how we've multiplied!

With our growth comes many new faces. I was fortunate enough to meet our new assistant coaches last week during their training session. Meeting these young women who will bring joy to the program was refreshing. They were enthusiastic, passionate and just fun. After working with the organization for nearly three years (holy crap) it was reassuring to know that the mission will be carried out by individuals who committed to GOTR. During our meeting we got fired up and practiced the energy awards (hint: super super girl power is one of them) and these girls lit it up.

These thoughts and emotions came over me as I passed the grade school--making my run that much better.