Booyah!!

Booyah: an exclamatory statement, often said when someone is extremely overjoyed.


Overjoyed to say the least; I think I finally figured out how to run with a stroller.  Thanks to my dear friend Megan and all of her awesomeness, I was able to successfully run with a jogging stroller today. Sami still helped out, but I can honestly say that it felt awesome.  

This here is Megan, she is basically a godsend; seriously, she is an amazing woman, wife, mother, friend, runner, crafter, coffee lover ..I think God put her here just to keep my sane really.


So after a few frustrating stroller runs earlier this week, Megan suggested that I let the front wheel swivel and try running off to the side of the stroller a bit.  Magic!  It worked and it felt totally natural and comfortable.  I will be forever grateful for her advice.  Today's advice from Megan was not to get discouraged about a slower pace while running with the stroller, it's actually good that on non pace run days I keep my heart rate down to recover faster.  Seriously, don't you wish you had a friend like Megan?


On another note, you won't see me post much about weight on here, but I do want to note that 10 months after having a baby I was about 5 pounds under my prepregnancy weight.  Most women would be saying "booyah!" to this, but not me.  You see, I'd rather feel incredibly fit and weight 10 pounds more than my prepregnancy weight than weigh less and not be fit.  So, in the last 2.5 weeks, I have put on about 2 pounds, even with all of this running and working out.  Am I upset? Noway! I know that those pounds are muscle and that makes me one happy girl!  For the first time in a long time, I am so incredibly aware of my body and its strength.  Now that right there is motivation for the next 11.5 weeks.

The adventures of the new stroller!!

So I finally got a better running stroller.  I was super pumped and really thought I could just bust out at least 5 miles with it ...WRONG!!

So yesterday I searched for "Techniques for running with a jogging stroller", I didn't really find too many techniques but I did find a list of things to know when running with a jogging stroller.  I can tell that just from my 3 mile run this morning (only pushing for half of it because Sami is so awesome that she pushed the other half) these things are true:

1. Most runners get awesome leg workouts but hardly have time for upper body workouts.  Not the case for a stroller pushing mama, pushing a stroller is an upper body workout for sure!
2. When first running with a jogging stroller it will feel like you've never ran in your life.  You basically have to learn to run again.  Yep, so freakin true.
3. People LOVE a baby in a jogging stroller.  Makes sense, I'd love to pass a super cute baby on my run too.  I'm waiting for the "Go Mama Go!" encouragement that comes with this.

Overall, learning to run with the jogging stroller has been a difficult process.  Every time Brian asks how my run went, I respond in a disgruntled voice, "Awful!"  It's incredibly frustrating to have to stop and try to align the stroller so that it isn't working against my run. It's even more frustrating that my pace could actually be below 9 minutes a mile for 3 miles, but with the added stroller frustrations it's still a little more than 9 minutes.

I will figure this out though.  And hearing my sweet little girl sing and hum the whole run is the best sound in the world.

Some deep stuff ....& oh yeah, I ran 4 miles!

Tough Stuff
So this has been a tough week. For the first time since we've moved back, I've felt an overwhelming challenge and conviction by the gospel. Earlier this week my husband responded to a question I had by asking, "is Christ alone sufficient?" Whoa! That's tough stuff. Sadly my comfort and strength does not come from Christ alone, it comes from worldly, material things most of the time.


I find comfort in money, fitness, being a wife and a mother, providing delicious and healthy meals to my family (this comment is based on my own taste buds, not those in my family), my sweet little girl, my husband, etc. But if all of those things were stripped away, what would I be left with? And is it fair to all of those things and people that I put my comfort in them?


Nothing! And No! Those are the answers.

"Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:25-26

God wants to be my comforter, my strength, my hope, and my romancer. Sadly it takes realizing that the world will always fail to be those things for me to realize that they can only come from following Christ. I am so thankful that God has blessed me with a husband who challenges me with the word of God every day.