Some reflection on training (written on Sunday)

This morning the Team Donate Life running group met up for our Sunday run since it was finally not raining. When we arrived we realized that the River City Marathon and Half Marathon was taking place on our route.  At the end of our run Tucker and I cheered for all of the runners as they passed us until the rest of our group finished.  Watching the runners made me think of my marathon training.  I’ve trained for two marathons since I had my transplant in 2008.  Before my transplant I never tried running more than 3 miles.  In fact, I ran 3 miles the morning of my transplant.  Training for a marathon begins 4 months before the actual race day.  There are many hours spent during the week logging running miles.  Now I’m back to training but now it’s on a bike and I’m logging many, many more miles.

Today after our run I took the kids to the coffee shop and we sat there enjoying a cup of coffee while visiting with good friends.  When we got home it was time for me to get back on the bike.  I got the kids settled in and hit the trainer.  I got everything set up in my room and found some TV shows that I hadn’t watched yet.  Soon enough it was time for my little Tuckerman to take a nap.  He grabbed his Lightening McQueen sleeping bag and his favorite little monkey and I tucked him into my bed.  He fell fast asleep while I pedaled. 

 

This has become the norm at my house.  Eric and I try to get training in while the kids are asleep, Chloe’s at school, one of us is home to watch the kids or if we are lucky we can get my parents to come over and watch the kids for a few hours.  The kids have become accustomed to us always training for something.  I think by now they don’t know any difference, it’s just a part of our lives.  So with two kids, Eric working full time plus some and me working at our coffee shop, Chloe’s softball, and everything else that moms and dads do, training is difficult to fit in.  But we do it.  Our team is out there on our bikes wearing our Team Donate Life jerseys pedaling hard and fast (me, not as hard and fast as everyone else).  We want to spread the word about our cause and how important it is to us and how it could be for everyone else.  Once we’ve completed Race Across America we will begin our training for CIM again and then I’m sure after that there will be more races to train for.  But for now we will just keep pedaling as much as we can fit in to our busy schedules.