Coach Jen B

Hello Sunday!  Sunday and I have a weird relationship.  I like Sunday because it is one of the lovely weekend days....but I always have this overwhelming feeling that I have to get things done - clean the house, meal prep, prep for school, get the kids ready for the week.  You know the drill.   One of the things I do LOVE about Sunday is running long.  Sometimes I get crazy and run long on Saturday... I know.  I live a super crazy life.  Anyway, I digress.  Back to the long run.   Carrie and I had arranged that we could meet up for a long run today and I was super excited!   Twins!!!!  Spandits thermal #FOWL PLAY tights!   We met up at Granite City Running , our newest local running store, and ran for an hour before heading back to the store to meet up with the Sunday running group.  We were super excited to join the group and were excited we were the first women to join the group.   Normally we s...

As my dreams of completing my 4th full marathon came to an end with that nagging gluteal injury, I decided to scale back and do the MDI Relay with the girls!  Next Sunday we will be heading up to MDI with two relay teams.   As I recovered from my injury, I didn't say goodbye to my long runs.  I still kept up my longer runs - getting back to 10 miles, then 12, 13.5, then 14.  And I plan on keeping long runs in my training plans.   Especially since I'm eyeing up a spring marathon.   As I continue to train with long runs, I continue to use my favorite running accessories to get me through these long runs.   Camelbak Marathoner  My love for Camelbak has been been increased.  You see, I had trained for my first 3 marathons and few half marathons with my Camelbak original.  Heck, I've even raced with it.   I love the hands-free design of Camelbak - a place to store your fuel/cell phone/toilet paper/gum and a water ca...

Hello everyone and Happy Friday!   On tap for today is a 16 mile progressive run.  I'll be going out later on today, waiting for cooler weather and for Ward to get home from work!!!  I have a crazy busy weekend which is why I'm pushing the 16 miler up to today.  Wish me luck!  I don't really do well with long mileage later on in the day.   To get me ready for tonight, I'll be using some of my favorites.   Spandits.   That's a no brainer!  No chaffage.  Bright, fun patterns.  Lightweight and smooth material so when I'm dripping wet from the crazy humidity, my shorts won't be dripping wet as well.   Socks.   Stable 26 has become a staple in my running sock collection.  I've had very good luck wearing them and plan on wearing them for quite some time.   They are thin enough so my feet do not overheat, stretchy so my toes do not feel cramped, and have the padding on the heels so my shoes do ...

Yesterday, the girls and I headed out for our long run from my house.  Weather.com was calling for snow/rain showers and near freezing temps, so I was a bit surprised when it was sunny and warm enough to run without gloves on as we stepped outside. We have the Cape Elizabeth Midwinter Classic 10 miler coming up in a couple of weeks and that course is a bit hilly, so we thought our run today should be hillier than we've been doing.  So, hills by my house it was.  Sadly, Carrie couldn't make it, but our friend Karen came up to join us. Then about 4.5 miles into our run, I happened to look behind us and saw two familiar people running up behind us.  I think they thought they were going to sneak up on us, but they did not. Our girls run party was crashed by the husbands - mine and Jill's. really - we are happy here.... the sun was in Jill's eyes and I tried taking this picture a few times A beautiful day. + Running with my girls.   + Running...

This past Sunday, Jill, Stacy and I met up for a chilly run.  The thermometer read 9F just as I was heading out the door.  It's getting colder! We met up on our beloved rail trail.  I'm not sure how much longer we'll be able to run on it because as the snow starts to pile up, the rail trail just gets far too icy to deal with.  Ice and running do not mix. While we were very happy to run together (while we were missing Carrie who is swamped in renovating her new house - hurry up, Carrie!), the mood was on the sad side.  We spoke about the Sandy Hook events and how it affected us and our fears.  All three of us are teachers and have young children.  Our hearts go out to the families. I ran 11 miles will Jill and Stacy and then went back out for 2 more miles to total 13 for the day.  On the way back from the last 2 miles I kept hearing the cracking of the ice from the river.  I think that sound made me feel even colder.  Soon the...

The temps are dropping like crazy and we're getting all sorts of lovely Maine winter weather. In only two days, our weather changed from frigid and windy to snowy then to freezing rain.  Lovely. Yesterday morning, I went out for a run with the husband and brother-in-law.  I also need to mention that it was 16F.  Brrr. We ran 5 miles and it was a lot of fun.  Finally I'm able to at least keep up with those fast and speedy BQers for their slow pace with a comfortable middle pace for me.  They were both definitely hoping for me to be slower because they kept telling me to slow down. Then last night, I thought I'd look ahead to this morning's weather. Ugh.  We already had a light snowy coat outside...then add freezing rain on top of it = ice rink.  Not fun.  I quickly started tweeting Maine Mom on the Run about the weather.  I finally convinced her to be a wimp with me and run at the gym on the treadmills with me.  Then I...

I'm a mom, a wife, teacher, and I have a garden & chickens.  Sometimes I think about all the happenings in my life and I get exhausted thinking about what needs to be done. This is just a glimmer of what a day in my life looks like: courtesy of Word It Out With a day like that - energy is vital.  I try to eat healthy most of the time, but that's not always enough.  Most of the time I turn to supplements for help.  Not all of them do the job - but this one sure did.  Introducing: ENERGYbits . Have you ever heard of it?  I hadn't before I was sent a sample for a review.   Now I cannot get enough of it!  Check it out for yourself.   source The only bad part is that I needed to hide them because this guy kept taking them.  I think he needs to get his own.   I love you, Ward.   But stay away from my ENERGYbits! I have had two very successful long runs with ENERGYbits . ...

I had HIGH hopes of August being a rockstar month. I really did. But my body had some other plans in store for me. I missed a few key days in the marathon training world. A week that called for 44 miles actually earned a whopping 11 miles. Do I regret taking those days off? Absolutely not! My body was screaming at me to stop and rest and I'm proud to say I listened (this time). I eased back into the running after that recharge week and I'm happy to report that I'm feeling incredible. I've had some pretty fantastic runs this week. Monday - 6 mile progression run at 4-dark o'thirty in the morning! Tuesday - 6 mile hilly run on the "other" side of town - by my new workplace Wednesday - 3.5 mile hilly-ish run on my road!  It's been a looooonnng time since I've run this route.  It felt incredible to be back on my road again.  I was still looking for those weirdos - but I had had my phone with me and was ready to call for help asap! ...

Yesterday my pal Carrie @ Maine Mom on the Run took off for a 22 mile adventure.  As you know, you never know what you are going to get with a run.  Sometimes they are great, sometimes they just suck, and sometimes it's a mix.  Yesterday was a mix for sure. The GOOD - I got to run with Carrie! - At some point we saw Jill and got to run with her for a bit! - Ward made us scones. - I tried out my marathon skirt from Spandits !  Success! - My Mezamashii Mushas felt incredible on my feet. - I didn't have any bowel movements at all!  Huge success.  Maybe I figured out my issues?  Or maybe I was lucky today.  Who knows. The BAD - I forgot to charge my Garmin.  When I woke up and saw it laying on the counter, uncharged and with 20% battery, I knew for sure it wasn't going to get us far.  No biggie.  I knew the course so I just pulled out an old cheapo Target sports watch from the basket.  Apparently it had been ...

This morning I set out for my first solo long run in what seems like ages.  I've been quite spoiled to have an outstanding group of women to do long runs with for the past year or so.  While schedules sometimes get crazy, I've usually managed to have at least one running buddy.  Due to the LL Bean 10K taking place this Wedensday and a scheduled 15 miler long run for the weekend, I had a conflict of interest going on.  I need to stay on track with marathon training (especially since I kind of threw the plan out last week prepping for the half marathon) yet I ant to do well on Wednesday. Some people can bounce back from a long run and perform well, but not me.  Part of me wanted to keep my long run on Sunday just so I could have a running buddy or two, but a bigger part of me was positive that my body wouldn't be recovered for the 10k.  It was a very humid but cool 58F when I set out this morning.  It was absolutely perfect running weathe...

We are a little less than 2 weeks away from Race The Runways , so the girls and I set out for 10 miles this morning.   It was a bit chilly (40F) and the forecast was calling for rain.  It drizzled a bit on our run and it was just a raw, bone chilling kind of run. I came home to homemade waffles and our own Boudreau Maple Syrup.  Today is Maine Maple Sunday - so of course we had to have maple syrup.  Why not have our own? our trees - we tap 3 of our trees we actually filled this trash can with sap - but had to dump most of it out because we didn't boil the sap fast enough & it went bad in our 80 degree streak this past week our hillbilly approach to boiling the sap - yep,  we're that cool   Photo Of The Day #25 - Breakfast.   Not exactly breakfast - but it is what we topped the waffles with.   even though we had to dump out a large part of the sap, we still ended up with these three jars and two smaller ones And i...