Running updates

10/21/25:

I was very happy that Gavin, all on his own, went on an outdoor run 🏃🏻‍♂️, for funsies 🤩 recently.

With no training, at 15 years old, he could comfortably do 4.16 miles at an 8 min 41 second pace per mile.

This shows me that his athleticism, speed, and endurance baseline is high.

Keep it up son. Work hard, recover well, always listen to your body 💯😘👏👍

Update: Milo is recovering naturally and can run a bit again 🏃🏻‍♀️🐶🐾❤️‍🩹

10/7/25:

Milo has hip dysplasia, a common genetic 🧬 condition of his breed, in addition to having high social anxiety challenges my capacity for patience to grow so that I can meet his needs and care for him in a manner that promotes good health.

Both his physical and behavioral challenges are real, but met with love 💗, and the right kind of support, these challenges are surmountable.

No running 🏃🏻‍♀️ for us these days until he’s back to normal. He still loves his 4x a day walks and enjoys being outdoors even if every single moving person or bicycle triggers his anxiety 😥. Working with his vet + researching natural 🌱 supplements and food options have been fueling me recently. Also, he doesn’t complain about his big eared little brother but whines when he doesn’t know what to do with him. This dog is my heart 💗 and I love him like I do my own human children.

9/15/25:

Today we are not running 🏃🏻‍♀️ because I am sore a/f from gym workouts, running non stop multiple times w/ him, and keeping up with this fitness challenge I decided to tack on mid-month 🙄 D2m is not healthy so pumping 👊 my own brakes 🏎️ today ❣️

He doesn’t care and just chills ✌️and loves 🥰 being with me (and no one else, sorry kids lol 😂.)

Sprints 🏃🏻‍♀️ are life giving 💘

I’ve been sprinting multiple times a day, since last month, out of necessity, with my high energy puppy 🐶. Got measured at the gym today and weight, body fat, and all measurements 📐 are down

📉📉📉

😇😇😇

Thank you 🙏🏽 Milo❣️Mama loves uuuuu 💋💋💋💋💋

Sprint baselining myself today and pushed to sub-6 minute sprints until I couldn’t sustain them then shifted down to sub-7 minute sprints. Felt amazing 🤩 I love 💗 running 🏃🏻‍♀️ so much 💓 It’s the simplest of activities but the most effective in showing you how much power can live within you. ***roar*** 🦁😘🤓

Spring workouts, progress, and goals

I recently discovered a new addition to my workouts which is demanding in that it is both high intensity and for a long duration.

Quickly learning boxing combinations and applying them on people in a safe and controlled manner is called "sparring" which to me, translates to "play fighting." 🥊🥊🥊 Under the supervision and training of a former professional boxer and fitness professional, Coach Gilbert, expects his trainees to put in the work. And everyone did! Myself included 🙌

It was a loaded session and definitely not for beginners!

With that said, I'm going to start logging in my training details here, tracking my progress, and articulating my goals.

Millie's Spring Training Schedule 

Thursday: boxing training day 1: (sparred, mitt work, bag work, combo work, dynamic movements, core work.) Coach's feedback is that I am a lot stronger than I look and that I did very well. Feed back from my peers was they were surprised it was only my first day ✅4/3 (BOXING)

Friday: rest, recover, and hydrate ✅4/4 (REST)

Saturday: Coach told us to put in miles over the weekend until Monday's training. I'm shooting for an easy 5k (3.1 miles), walking, loosening up the joints, and getting mind/body coherence. I ended up doing a little more at (4.17) miles and felt good✅4/5 (ACTIVE RECOVERY)

Sunday: More easy miles (3-4 miles), active recovery mode, and prepping for Monday's hard training.(ACTIVE RECOVERY)I woke up spritely and my body felt good and super nimble again. Kept things easy and stuck to the plan because it makes sense👩🏻‍🔬🙌2.84 miles to the grocery store, carrying light groceries for an easy nature/errand walk which brings total mileage this weekend to 7 miles on foot 👍👣 ✅4/6

Monday: boxing training day 2: (No lifting) (BOXING) Good session and bigger group today. I look like I showered in my own sweat, so I weighed myself, and lost two pounds from last week. Holy cow🐮Can’t wait to tell my trainer tomorrow✅4/7

Tuesday: lift weights (heavy-lower body), deep stretching/mobility work (HEAVY LIFTING). Felt good to follow the plan to do a heavy lower body workout today with my trainer. I hit mostly compound movements and felt strong ✅4/8

Wednesday: lift weights (heavy-upper body), deep stretching/mobility work (HEAVY LIFTING). Sore from yesterday but had a good upper body training today. Put it an active recovery nature walk for 2 miles because it was too pretty of a day not to 😊✅4/9

4/10 Had to revise my schedule because heavy lifting takes priority. When I skip this I lose strength and I don’t like that.

Thursday: (No lifting)- Sore all over and need to take a recovery day earlier than expected. Will have to revise the week based on how my body is doing ✅4/10

Week 1 Assessment: Good and consistent performance this week. Strength Trainer feedback is upper body strength is increasing based on the increased loads I’ve been tacking on. Also enjoyed the boxing training and 1x week works for my fitness goals. My overall goal is to have a balanced workout regimen.

Week 2: (Tentative)

Friday: dance/deep stretching/mobility work✅4/11

Saturday: lift weights (heavy-full body),stretching/mobility work. Got in this long session of heavy lifting full body this evening. I was patient with myself and did not speed up the process. Full body lifting sessions feel like forever but I stuck to the plan and felt great. I worked today and had an even harder workout which means I killed it. Very satisfied with what I got done ✅4/12

Sunday: active recovery day/deep stretching/mobility work, easy 2 mile nature walk. ✅4/13

The Athletic Mindset

-what is an athlete?

-historically not athletic

-started calling myself an athlete, really believing it, and then slowly becoming one

-changing your physiology, language, and emotion at the most intense level

Full Definition of ATHLETE

:  a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina

http://www.mindsetonline.com/howmindsetaffects/sports/

Character, Heart, Will, and the Mind of a Champion

It goes by different names, but it’s the same thing. It’s what makes you practice, and it’s what allows you to dig down and pull it out when you most need it. Remember how McEnroe told us all the things that went wrong to make him lose each match he lost—there was the time it was cold and the time it was hot, the time he was jealous and the times he was upset, and the many, many times he was distracted. But, as Billie Jean King tells us, the mark of a champion is the ability to win when things are not quite right—when you’re not playing well and your emotions are not the right ones. Here’s how she learned what being a champion meant.

King was in the finals at Forest Hills playing against Margaret Smith, who was at the peak of her greatness. King had played her more than a dozen times and had beaten her only once. In the first set, King played fabulously. She didn’t miss a volley and built a nice lead. Suddenly, the set was over. Smith had won it.

In the second set, King again built a commanding lead and was serving to win the set. Before she knew it, Smith had won the set and the match. At first, King was perplexed. She had never built such a commanding lead in such an important match. But then she had a Eureka! moment. All at once, she understood what a champion was. Someone who could raise their level of play when they needed to. When the match is on the line, they suddenly “get around three times tougher.”

Jackie Joyner-Kersee had her “Eureka” moment too. She was 15 years old and competing in the heptathlon at the AAU Junior Olympics. Everything now depended the last event, the 800-meter race, an event she dreaded. She was exhausted and she was competing against an expert distance runner whose times she had never matched. She did this time. “I felt a kind of high. I’d proven that I could win if I wanted it badly enough. ..That win showed me that I could not only compete with the best athletes in the country, I could will myself to win.”

Often called the best woman soccer player in the world, Mia Hamm says she’s often asked “Mia, what is the most important thing for a soccer player to have?” With no hesitation, she answers, “Mental toughness.” And she doesn’t mean some innate trait. When eleven players want to knock you down, when you’re tired or injured, when the referees are against you, you can’t let any of it affect your focus. How do you do that? You have to learn how. “It is,” says Hamm, “one of the most difficult aspects of soccer and the one I struggle with every game and every practice.”

By the way, did Hamm think she was the greatest player in the world? No. “And because of that,” she said, “someday I just might be.”

Run like a kid

Running is such a natural activity that it doesn't take much to organize a good, old fashioned, foot race with the neighborhood kids.

I learned all of the kids names and proper pronunciations so that I could high-five and cheer for them at the finish line. The usual top three are 1st- Shashank- last boy on the right with a blue and white striped shirt, 2nd place Vincent- first boy on the left side with a navy blue shirt & sportswarch, 3rd place Gigi, the only girl in pink (that's my girl!). I set out a snack table with water and snacks, just like a real race :-)

While on vacation the family across the way had their son running up and down the hall. He looked utterly bored and was half-a$$ing his run. I asked the boy if he wanted to race. His face lit up like Christmas! I took off my heels, set aside my glass of wine, and waited for "Ready, set, go!" We raced up and down the hall and I didn't let him start winning until I knew he was pushing himself and having fun. He was so proud, his family cheering him on and gave him a "pretend medal."

Big open spaces or steep terrain seem to call out to kids: "Run! And be freeeeeeeee!" My friend Karina and I got in on the fun and raced with our little ones. We were giggling girls at the end of that. How fun!

If you have access to a munchkin, play tag with them, tell them you're "IT", and see if you can channel your inner child.

Happy running, friends!

Barefoot running

I decided to give barefoot running a go today at Karl Nordvik's new cushy field.

 

I felt like an animal and it was a tongue-wagging with a stupid-grin kind of fun. I was transported to the pure innocence and play of the sport and I find myself in love with running once again :-)

I've also made it to the second week of my Ketogenic nutritional plan. My strength has returned and I am ready to hit the ground running.

Today I did a half mile warm up at 9 min/mile and did another half mile worth of 100 yard sprints at 5:30-6/min/mile with 100 yard walk breaks in between. Total time working out from warm up/sprints/breaks/cool down was about 30 minutes.

I don't think I will ever run with shoes again. Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Get Unstuck

I found this great video about "getting unstuck" that you can apply with your training (or any area of your life for that matter.)

It is basically about getting comfortable with uncertainty, realizing what your patterns are, and moving forward.

Happy Friday Friends!

http://thedailylove.com/why-youre-stuck-and-how-to-get-free/