Ahhhhh yes, the age old question that every significant other dreads, “does this make me look fat?”

Honest Communication

While a little white lie may temporarily spare some emotions, omitting the truth may lead to different reactions and emotions down the line.  Now I am not just talking about this complex question I presented above.

The gem and I have an understanding that if there is a snot hanging out of the others nose or something really doesn’t flatter us or do us justice we are going to be honest about it.  Personally I know I get defensive very quickly, but it is something I am working on.  So, sure in the moment I may have 5 seconds of embarrassment anger, but it will fade and I feel better about myself and have confidence knowing he always has by back.

I truly feel that this has also straightened our relationship and has helped us to build a solid foundation of trust, security, and honesty.

“The way we hear what others say is more often a reflection of us than the other person”

Now, his isn’t saying that we are ‘brutally honest’ – I mean that we have honest and genuine communication. Two years of our realtionship was long distance .. communication was something we needed to work on in order to stay close.  No matter how hard things got we weren’t going to give up on each other and everything I read tole me that honesty and communication were the key.

Everyone is different and you and your significant other or friend are the ones who know each other best and know the level one another can handle. I am not trying to lecture you here, but communication is a two way street that also requires listening .. not hearing, listening is just as important.

Alright so, what does this have to do with your marathon training J!?

Monday: Rest Day

Tuesday: 0 Miles – This is where the mini-rant comes in to play.

I should have run 4 miles, but I didn’t. When Chris called me after he got out of work to ask me how my run went. I told him “it was raining too hard, I didn’t go”.

He knows how important this marathon is to me and how badly I want to stay committed to my goals so he said “Jillian you could have gone to the gym and run on a treadmill there”

Boom, that is it, right there.. honesty thats what I need from him, that is what I want from him – he was right – I don’t want him to sit there on the other end and tell me its okay, that I only missed out on one small 3 mile run.

As corny as you may think I am being, that right there is the glue to the foundation of our perfectly imperfect relationship. This simple, small, honest statement strengthens my trust in him.

Wednesday: 5 miles

Today I was motivated and pumped up to run – I was in a very positive mindset and the 5 miles seriously flew by.  I actually went too far out and it ended up being a 6 mile loop, but I walked the last mile which felt great for my legs.

Thursday: 3 Miles

Today I felt trapped, I have no idea why or what brought that on, but the feeling was overwhelming.  I just felt like I needed an escape, running was able to provide that for me. I decided to run down every side street with a huge hill, rather than avoiding the hills, I made it a point to run them hard. And to brighten my day a little more I came home to Chocolate Peanut Butter Meal Replacement Shakes on my porch – YESSS!

Friday: Non-Run Day

Some serious stretching and relaxation 🙂

Saturday: Rest Day

My Saturday job involves LOTS of walking .. so I would say semi-active rest day.

Sunday: 11 Miles

I got off to a much later start than I would have liked to and that hit me real hard when I walked out the door to the sticky and humid air. Before I left I was hesitant to leave as I felt like I didn’t have enough water in my small hand-held pouch/bottle, but I left anyway.. big mistake, your hydration is nothing to fool around with.

My fist six miles were solid I hadn’t listened to music the whole way and me and my thoughts were in a great place wandering in and out of trains of thought.  All of a sudden I snap into reality and realize I have no idea where I am, nothing looked familiar and the street names didn’t ring a bell.  So what did I do?

I just kept running this is where the comfort of having my phone with me saves me a lot of anxiety and struggle.  I just told myself I would run the 12 miles and call for someone to pick me up when I reached that point.

Less than five minuets later I passed one of my brother’s high school friends out for a bike ride, instantly comforting me that I wasn’t completely lost – shortly after I passed the ‘town line’ sign and started to recognize my surroundings.  As I turn the corner back towards home the biggest hill in town lay before me. I took a rehydrate gel and pushed on. The sun brutally beating down in my face.

Needless to say I walked a bit half way up the hill and took some serious sips of water.  continuing on I realized my water bottle only had a few sips left.  With 5 hot miles to go I was worried.

My shirt, hat, shorts, body was DRENCHED in sweat as I got closer to home.  With two miles to go I was in the epicenter of struggle city.  I looked up and saw Liz running towards me (SO RANDOM) we had the mutual understanding that these runs were not going our way and encouraged each other as we passed.

Then I was faced with a decision to run the next two miles or turn left and finish with one last mile… I finished with that one mile and am glad I did because I barely made it home where my precious momma was waiting on the porch for me with the most delicious tasting water..

One would think after the Shipyard Old Port Half that I would have learned my hydration lesson, but clearly I need to figure out a better method .. ugh .. do I really have to try the running fanny pack again!?

Thank goodness for Rehydrate!!

I am not sure why I dropped the ball on posting week 3.. If you are flowing my marathon training I apologize about that.

Live Happy & Run Hydrated,

J