Thoughts While Running #013

random thoughts.

Welcome to a collection of thoughts I’ve had while running this week, as we wrap up the year that was January and enter into February, which happens to be my favorite month as it’s also my birthday. I’ve always been a fan of birth weeks and because February is a short one and I think I’ve earned it, this year I’ll be celebrating a birth month. So far 2024 has been a good one for us (knock on wood) and here’s hoping we reached our quota of daycare viruses for the year in Q4 of LY.

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Hell yeah moms.

The 2024 Olympic Marathon trials are this weekend and of the 155 women racing, nearly 2 dozen are mothers. The running world has been notoriously terrible for female runners who’ve taken breaks from their career to have children. Well-known runners such as Allyson Felix and Kara Goucher began speaking out against their sponsor (Nike) who wouldn’t honor a maternity leave, and other sponsors (including finally Nike) are now providing leaves for pregnant and postpartum athletes. We have so far to go as a country in supporting women through all stages of the pregnancy + postpartum journey but at least this is a start.

Personally, as a mother and a runner, this hits home for me. The fact that these women are all fast as fuck and also that they’re identified as mothers secondarily to their careers as athletes, meaning their identities aren’t being defined by motherhood. The language is more ‘these female athletes are also mothers’ vs. ‘oh how cute, it’s a bunch of moms who run fast,’ a shift I appreciate as a mother with significant ambitions and interests outside of motherhood. Worth noting also is the number of runners over the age of 40, which I’m here for as well. Women don’t go into hiding after we turn 40 just like we don’t suddenly become one dimensional after giving birth. I’ll be cheering on each and every one of these women.

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obviously not me and i’d need far more than a blanket for this but how relaxed does she look?

The benefits of Yin Yoga

As those of you who read my previous post know, last week I got my period and it broke my brain. It also broke my body, leaving me completely exhausted. On Saturday, my body was asking for a stretch and a nap and so I did my first yin class in at least 3 years. Yin is a type of yoga in which poses are held longer than normal - anywhere from 3 to 5 breaths per pose is standard. Emphasis is put on supporting the body so tension in the form of tightness can be released and a lot of props are used to create a very relaxing, restorative environment. It’s sort of like getting a massage but instead of a massage no one touches you and you’re propped up on a bolster, a blanket and some blocks while you open up your hips. So what I’m actually saying is it’s nothing like a massage other than it can be incredibly relaxing. It was everything my body needed in the moment and also enough movement for my brain to be satiated and a good reminder choosing slow over fast can be a good thing and something I probably need to do more often.

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not my home set up but one can wish!

I hate strength training.

When I’m not running, I’m a soft sports girl. I don’t love the idea of ‘soft’ vs. ‘hard’ sports and perhaps ‘soft’ just implies low sweat or low impact but I’d like to think there can be a softness to running as well. Hard but soft, the strength training workout I prefer to supplement my running with is pilates. Light weights along with an emphasis on core stability has really helped me post partum and enabled me to return to running feeling stronger than when I stopped. I love that it taps into all the smaller supporting muscles and 3 lb weights get really fucking heavy when used repetitively with no break.

That said, there’s a lot of evidence that lifting heavier weights can be great for running and also great for women as they get older because it helps with bone density which helps fight things like osteoporosis and injury. Since I’m no spring chicken I feel like I should probably start to think about things like bone density and also felt like I could use a bit of a disruption in my normal pilates routine as it was feeling a bit eh…repetitive. I’m on week 3 of doing one heavy lifting class a week and I can comfortably say I hate it. Feel free to change my mind but I just don’t love the way it feels for my body. I’m more sore and more stiff and it reminds me why I quit doing heavy weight workouts in the first place. I used to go to a kettlebell studio near our old apartment religiously until I literally woke up one day and never went back because I was just so tired of having sore hamstrings. It sucked going for runs where my legs were already burned out and no amount of foam rolling or yoga would help.

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Running Memoirs…

…and all the books I’ve been reading instead of them.

I want to carry books as part of the Running Wylder assortment, specifically run focused memoirs as my store will be less about ‘how to train for a marathon’ and more about ‘how running can support you throughout your life’ (although if you were to come in looking for advice on how to train for your first or fifteenth marathon I would also 100% support you in that goal). Some day when Running Wylder is here, I’ll start a book club where we read through all these memoirs together because what I’ve discovered is I’m terrible at reading other people’s stories unless it’s an article in like, the Cut or NYMag and I can read it in bed at 5:30am on a Tuesday.

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Finally, we put in an LOI on a IRL storefront wednesday. For those of you who’ve never needed to rent a commercial retail space, ‘LOI’ stands for ‘letter of intent’, which is basically a document our broker sent over to the landlord’s broker that says ‘hey, we’d like to rent this space’ with all the terms and conditions we’d like as part of our lease. So sort of like a pre-lease but we’re the only ones who’ve agreed to anything.

Exciting stuff but also not trying to get my hopes up as we don’t even know yet if the landlord is willing to entertain our offer. However, if he is and this lease goes through I’m thinking of chronicling the developments here as we go…could that be interesting to read about? See the space being built out in real time? Maybe weigh in on some merch choices? Let’s all collectively cross our fingers and our toes and hope the retired attorney landlord has a daughter or likes to run or has some other adjunct interest that softens his heart and agrees to lower the monthly rent by 40% so we can afford it. And if he does, mark your calendars you’ll all be invited to the opening party.

So goodbye January, hello February and happy birthday to me. Maybe my Stuff I Like list this month will be a curated list of things to get runners for their birthdays. Sort of like my Christmas list but instead of a new fleece it’ll be a trip to Hawaii. Because I’m a fan of birthday experiences over birthday things but also will never say no to a new pair of shoes.

*k