In it for the long haul

Downtown Dayton view from Mad River Trail:

Yesterday I ran. I was scheduled for a long run, 20 miles, so I knew I needed to head out early enough to beat the heat. I both look forward to and dread my long runs. On one hand, they give me "me" time-time to just focus on being healthy, thinking about everything, and without any distractions of home. On the other hand, they take up a good 3 hours of my day when I could be sleeping, or hanging out with George and the kids, or cleaning, or any number of a million things I need to to.....which is also part of the reason WHY I run. Because if I didn't, I'd find another excuse to do a million other things that NEED to get done, but aren't in any way related to self-care. And then there's that whole knowing that I'm going to be sore as shit after a long run....that's a bit of a deterrent as well, but clearly not enough of one because I keep going back.
I was always an intermittent, casual runner. In high school, I'd run because it was "cool". One of my best friends in high school, Aimee, and I used to run from my house out to the University Center and back, about a 7-8 mile out-and-back. And then 90% of the time we'd stop at McDonalds on the way back and eat....which kind of defeated the purpose of running, but you know....we were 16 and stupid and really didn't care. But throughout the last 15 years, running has been a very sporadic thing. Sometimes inbetween having kids I'd pick it back up again, but then life would get in the way and I'd be pregnant again, or the gym wouldn't be able to handle a baby who spit up 24/7, or I just lacked the motivation. And to tell you the truth, I really never enjoyed running on a treadmill. I equated it to a hampster running his wheel......going nowhere fast. And to this day, I'm not a fan of the treadmill. This makes it a bit more challenging to run living in Alaska, because we have probably cumulative 40 days of decent running weather! Seriously, it's winter for 9 months of the year, "break up" for a few weeks, (aka: spring for all of these people in the Lower 48.....a time when it's a disgusting slushy mess with dog poop soup everywhere-not the most pleasant), July and August are pretty amazing, and then it starts getting wet and windy and colder come September. So yeah.....I'm a bit of a fair weather runner and let's just say Alaska is pretty crappy for that.
Cue moving to Philly, and the LAST thing on my mind was running. It was all I could do to keep my head above academic water the first two years. There was ZERO time for running, and it honestly didn't even really cross my mind. But come part way through 4th year, after I had traveled the country for months on audition rotations, I had a bit of an epiphany. I was the heaviest I'd ever been non-pregnant....and actually, I weighed less at 9 months pregnant with Kylee than I did last December. Never in my life have I been considered overweight, and I was actually only at the upper end of "normal" BMI in December. But still-none of my clothes fit, I started to focus more on how I looked, and I wasn't liking what I was seeing. I had held onto about 10 extra pounds from having kids that I just never lost, and frankly-I wasn't too upset about that. But med school had added another 15 lbs, and I was pretty peeved at that. And knowing that residency was going to probably hit me like a ton of bricks, I decided I needed to make a change. Working out is great and all, but I knew that as life got in the way, that was probably one of the main things that would go by the wayside quickly. But the ONE big thing I could change was my eating. I didn't eat horrible, but there was a lot of sugar and sweets in there (Hello?! I AM an Oberg at heart, after all).
Initially, I cut out bread, pasta, and sweets for a week. And my beloved cherry coke. That was a bitch. Then George started noticing that I was eating differently and we discussed what I was doing. He spent a couple days reading and decided he was onboard. We went full on "keto" the beginning of January, cutting our carb intake to ~20g/day. I started walking on the treadmill at the gym regularly. Then walking turned into slower jogs, then faster, then further, and by the end of February, I transitioned to running outside. And IT. WAS. GLORIOUS. Running outside completely changed my outlook on running. I loved it. I found a great trail near our house and discovered that what I really loved was trail running. I set small goals and crushed them. Then bigger ones, and achieved them way before I thought I would have. I ran about 150 miles in May before we left Philly for Dayton, and I felt great! I wasn't running for anything but myself and my health.
And then I got here to Dayton and realized that there was a fairly large marathon held here every September, but I was unsure if I could actually run 26.2 miles. I've always had this notion in my head that I could probably train for and run a half, but never, ever a full. I have what I affectionately call "old lady knees".....running in the past has been somewhat painful and after seeing an orthopedist nearly 10 years ago who told me I had significantly less cartilage in my knees than he would expect from a 20-something year old, I've kind of made it my crutch. "Oh, I can't do that-it'll kill my knees". Well, I have to say that yes-my knees and hips ache after a long run.....but holy crap-it's a long freaking run! And it's not debilitating pain (just sore), and it goes away within 24-48 hours. And with that realization, I decided I was going to go for it and run a full. Even if I hate it, at least I set a goal and saw it through and then I'll never have to do one again. But honestly, it feels a bit addicting and empowering, and although sometimes it hurts, it feels damn good.

So, with all that being said-from January to now, I've lost 20 lbs and George has lost just over 25.

I've eased up on my carb restriction and typically am at 40-50g/day and maintaining. I haven't been able to run as much or as often as I'd like because we have 5:30am didactics and....well, I'm dedicated, but not dedicated enough to wake up at 3:30am to run. Also, I'm not a fan of being zombie-like at work, so I gladly sleep the extra hour. And by the time I get home, we have dinner together, hang out for maybe an hour, and then it's time to get the kids ready for bed (and us too!). So unless I get off an hour or two early, the mid-week runs are far and few between. But I'm trying to keep up my weekend runs and stay on track with long marathon training runs.
Yesterday's 20 miler was rough. I'm almost always good for 15, but once I hit that 17-18 mile mark, I start to really feel sluggish and my legs are heavy and achey. I've come to the realization that I may have to start incorporating carbs into my diet for long run days. I've been doing well with hydration and electrolytes, but most fuel for runs have come in the form of protein, and I think I'm just not able to get that short term fuel needed from that. It bums me out a little bit, but also will allow me oatmeal or pancakes or cereal once in a while for runs, which I'm a little excited about! I've also come to the conclusion that I've maybe been overtraining. I basically pulled a training schedule for a moderate runner off the internet and called it good. I calls for several runs over 20 miles for training, and I think it's simply too much. I can go 20, so I know I can go 26. So I'm cutting back the long runs to 14/16/18/20 miles every other weekend with 10-12 miles on the off weekends before tapering for the marathon.