Train Like a Mother Survey: Part 2

Here's the second posting of the second part of my "Train Like a Mother" survey. What?? If you're confused, read the post before this and you'll understand.

GEAR

How do you describe your clothing style/what you wear when you run? Cheap/free! Though I do love to feel cute so running skirts have found their way into my repertoire.

Do you go commando? I'm unaffiliated... Sometimes I dos and sometimes I don'ts.(Honestly, it depends on what sort of, ahem, evening I had the night before. Blusssshiiinnnnggg!)

Where/how do you display your medals? I have a bed sheet (hastily) nailed to the wall in my bedroom. I have them there along with my bibs, on which I write my time/pace/place, etc. It's not fancy but it does serve to inspire.

What is must-have piece of gear for training? Some kind of watch with a stop watch component. I trained for my first marathon without a Garmin-type and it worked fine, since I knew where all my mile markers were. It was also a good mental workout b/c I had to calculate my estimated pace in my head. But... I do love being able to glance at my wrist now and know how close I am to my goal pace.

Do you have a specific race outfit you try to wear? Why is it special? Not so much. I was pretty pleased with my very pink get up at my last 1/2 though: Pink knee compression socks, pink skirt, pink "badass mother runner" hat, pink "fight like a girl" tags on my shirt. Honestly, I don't even love pink. It just worked for me!

Do you have an aging piece of gear/clothing that you should throw away, but can’t bring yourself to because it has sentimental value? Not really.Wait. I'm still wearing sports bras I got in college. So, yeah, I guess I do have that stuff. I just don't worry about it!

Have you run barefoot or in Vibram Five Fingers? What was your impression? Did you keep it up? Nope. Intrigued, though. Funny how ALL this stuff is coming out literally this week about whether or not it makes a difference for injury rates.

Do you buy new shoes for race day? Nope. Well, not on purpose. Sometimes my shoes are so beat I have to buy new shoes fairly close to a race, though I know it's not ideal.

Have you ever bought something at a race expo and worn it on race day? If so, did you regret wearing it, or was it o.k.? Never tried that.

Do you use recovery gear: compression socks or tights, a foam roller, a massage therapist? Compression socks (which I also wear on my long runs) and a foam roller recently came into my life. I really love them both. If I could get a massage therapist on the cheap I would do that too! I was going to a chiropractor earlier in the year but I had to reschedule so many times that I've fallen out of the schedule/habit. Oh, well....

TRAINING

What’s your favorite workout (length of run, speed you run, type of terrain)? Tough question. I have recently become pretty enamored of track workouts... but probably only because I only started doing the in the last couple of months. And although I don't do it very often, nothing beats a long, slow social run with friends.

Do you run/train solo, with a running partner, with a group, or a mixture? Solo. Always. It's a curse. Or a blessing. I can never decide!

Are you a serial trainer/racer—are you consistently on a training plan or heading to a race— are you a do-your-own-thing or do you go back and forth? I'm better off if I have a race on the horizon. If I'm just running to run I slack off and become a complete horror to everyone in my life. After a marathon or something I'll give myself a month or so to chill but I definitely need a “next” on the calendar.

What do you carry on training runs? Depends on the weather and where I'm going. On long runs more than 8 miles or so) I generally wear a Road ID bracelet and a fuel belt with one small bottle of water, one small bottle of Gatorade (or similar), a gel or chew, cell phone... Man, that sounds like a lot!

Do you have a mantra? Where did it come from? When do you use it? Nothing official, but I do get some phrases in my head on lots of runs. During a marathon after mile 20 I sometimes think “tri-umph; tri-umph; tri-umph” with my footfalls. Cuz hell, any step you take after 20 is DEFINITELY a triumph!

Train Like a Mother Survey: Part 1

(I posted this a couple of days ago. Blogger seems to have gone on the fritz so I'm posting it again. Don't get excited. It's exactly the same!)

But, if you missed it the first time and your a mother who runs, please check out Another Mother Runner and give my pals Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell Davis a hand with their next big project. They are collecting answers to survey questions for their new book, Train Like A Mother, due out next March. Cool? Cool.....

And here begins the old post:

BACKGROUND INFO

The amazing ladies behind "Run Like A Mother" are getting set to write a new book, ("Train Like a Mother") and they have sought out their fans to get some info from "real" moms about how we manage to train for races. These are some SERIOUS essay-type questions and I realized... man, these are a bunch of good blogs right here. So, here's the first stack of questions and how I answered them. If you want to respond to their survey, click on their link and you can do so. Super fun, right??

How long have you been a runner? Began in 7^th grade (track) and ran through high school. Off and on after that (one ill-conceived attempt at Cross Country in college... so much beer! So little time!) fairly casually until I attempted to run the LA marathon in 2000 (injury/surgery prevented that). Then... determined to run a marathon before I had a baby and determined to have a baby when I was 30... I ran my first marathon in 2003 – when I happened to be a teeeeny bit pregnant but didn't know it yet. Ran casually after that, had another baby in 2006. Back to marathon training in 2009 when I found out my former sister-in-law was training for one. Seemed like the right time to get moving again.

Why did you start running? In school...because my “perfect” older sister didn't run and it was something at which I might be better than her. (Joke was on me – the next year she took up track and, naturally, broke all kinds of records and was champion of all things! I really love her, but COME ON!) Then it was left over inspiration from my senior year's track coach who became a dear friend. She was a runner and OLD (ahem... 32!) and always said how important it was to her. Before her I never knew any adults who ran, like, at ALL!

On average, how much/how far do you run per week? I run 4 or 5 days a week. Depending on what I'm training for, I ran as few as 20 or as many as 45 miles a week.

Road, trail, treadmill, or some combo? What do you like about each? Dislike about each? Road pros: convenient, free, hills & flats automatically included, varied terrain (in the sticks, I mean)

Road cons: 'round here, some dangerous curves and NO sidewalks and poor shoulders in a lot of places.

Trail pros: My road runs are pretty “trail-like” so I don't do any of these officially.

Treadmill: I've run on a treadmill about 8 times in the last 3 years... when I stay at a hotel with one and I can't get out.

What time of day do you usually run? Why? “Scary o'clock” 5 or 5:30AM- otherwise I just won't get out there and/or I'll be blowing off my family. Now that I'm used to morning runs, anything after about 9AM and I feel completely off.

When did you feel like you were a “real” runner? Since I started as a 12 year old, I never struggled to feel “real” in my running. But I totally get why it takes some people awhile to get there.