Summer Days

After a few months of 5k training, I’m ready for a change. During these hot, humid days, I’ve stayed consistent with my early morning workout routine. I’m currently not training for a race but working toward building fitness by increasing mileage and doing some speed work. I’ve hit a running plateau and need to try something different. I’m in the sixth week of a training plan and focusing on staying patient as I’m learning that progress takes time. 

These days, I feel like I’m RUNNING to keep up with life at home. Summer vacation is going by fast and we only have a few more weeks until school begins. I’ve spent most of my summer break with my four kids, doing house chores, working on my yard and driving kids around to do farm work. Every day is an adventure at home and on the farm. I’m trying to slow down as my summer is coming to an end. Soon, I’ll be missing these summer days. 

The 5k

When people ask what are you training for? I almost feel embarrassed to say it’s 3.1 miles. 

A few years ago, I told Seamus that someday I’d like to run a “very fast” 5k. However, I haven’t fully committed myself to reaching this goal. Most times, I run a 5k as a practice run for another race or I start training for one and find myself giving up and signing up for a longer race. 

I fear training for and running a 5k. The first hard speed workouts at a sprint usually scare me away. As a long distance runner, the feeling of burning lungs and fatigued legs is tough for me to experience at such a short distance. Over the years, I’ve became rather comfortable with running a certain distance at a tolerable pace and struggle with sprinting. Seamus says to run as fast as you can until you can’t run any more, but I find it hard to do this.

In less than four weeks, I’ll be running a 5k race. Staying committed to my training schedule has been a great challenge. Every day I’m forced to push myself at a different level. I’m doing exercises that I don’t necessarily enjoy doing and running at paces that are extremely uncomfortable. In between all the hard workouts, I’ve also dedicated myself to improving my mindset, such as changing old habits (longer runs to shorter, speedy, runs). I started new ones and am working to stop the self-conscious negativity. Instead, I am focusing on positive self talk (I am strong, I am unstoppable, I am feeling great)! 

I’m not only growing as a runner but also as a mom. Now, I find myself more often using positive self talk through difficult situations when dealing with a kid at home. I’ve also learned that my daily running habits have reflected on my children’s behavior to stay active. I’ve been unintentionally training them as they continue to ask questions about how they can improve their running skills. It has encouraged them to enjoy running as well. My oldest son, Kieren, has dedicated himself to running a few times a week in the early mornings and is competing in a 5k in four weeks. My two middle children are constantly sprinting laps around the house and cheering for one another to “keep going.” 

Through mindset training, I’ve learned to love and appreciate the journey of reaching a GOAL and to continue to work toward being my BEST. For that reason, my goal for this race is to run as fast as I can until I can’t run any more. Regardless if I meet my 5k goal, I’ve got to stay positive knowing that my kids are watching what I do. They need to learn how to be patient and resilient when facing challenges, too. 

2021

It’s a New Year and there’s so much to look forward to. I’m taking it one day at a time. I feel like our school days just fly by. My two older kids continue to attend school, in person and online. Seamus and myself are teaching at school, in person, four days a week and one day, online. It’s a busy schedule that we finally have adjusted to. Until next year, we continue this schedule and hope for attending school full time, in person, in the fall. 

My two younger kids are getting so big and I continue to remind myself that these growing moments just can’t be forgotten. My son, Teague, is a determined, big, three year old who enjoys learning about everything and my youngest, Torin, is just crazy! I guess... he takes after his mom. He’s one that loves to get into everything and struggles being told, “No.” Even though, he’s tough to handle at times, he’s still the cuddly little guy that knows how to get our attention. 

These days, I’ve spent my early mornings running inside. I don’t enjoy running in the dark and I hate cold weather. Unlike most people, I enjoy running on a treadmill. In between having four kids, I learned to love it. It’s just convenient and what works with my “family time” schedule. I’m currently running on my fourth treadmill and have spent many miles training on one. I can’t forget running twenty miles on my second treadmill during my Boston Marathon days. It was a great mental challenge as I faced a brick wall. 

However, I’m ready for a change. As the weather gets warmer, I’m getting anxious to start running outdoors and working on my yard. Seamus and kids are ready for some good weather, too. Soon, farm work will start and that’s always something to look forward to. 

The Starting Line

“Yes, I am still running.” I can’t imagine giving up my most favorite sport. Now, that my youngest son, Torin, is a big ONE year old, I feel physically and mentally ready to train for a race. However, the races nearby have gone Virtual and I have no desire to run one. I’m really looking forward to that day, when I get to walk to the START line, again. I really miss those hard training days. Running for pleasure and training for a race are just not the same. Signing up for a race gives you the motivation to set some goals and stick to a training plan. The END result is always a learning experience and self rewarding, no matter how you race that day. The feeling of a racing heart keeps you going and the self talk as you reach the finish line is a mental challenge. 

I’m hoping life can get back to somewhat normal and racing in person can be an option, soon. My son, Kieren and myself are STILL waiting for it and I’m sure many others are, too. If you haven’t walked, jogged or ran a race, I highly recommend that you set a goal to do so, soon. It would be a great way to challenge yourself, set some goals and a START to a new beginning.

Home Sweet Home

It feels so great to be in our new home! Selling and buying a home is definitely not my favorite thing to do. Thank goodness we are in our home to stay. During the past months, we’ve spent most of our days, changing water in the morning and house projects in the afternoon. Kids have been working hard at pulling weeds and helping Seamus with farm chores. I feel like our summer just flew by! Kids are growing so fast, too. My littlest man is now a big one year old and my oldest is eight years old.

This year, with public schools shutting down so sudden and having to live in quarantine, my training priorities have changed... I’m enjoying the housework and landscaping projects as I get to spend more time with my kids. I’m a scheduled person so being able to stay home makes our daily routines and procedures, easy.

My favorite race, Spokane Bloomsday, has officially gone Virtual. So, it’s been different going out for a morning run without any “set” training plan. My morning workout time is definitely something that I still look forward to everyday. Some days, I feel stronger than others but it just never gets old. Until race season opens, I continue to just “enjoy” and sometimes with good company.

Life is full of so many new adventures. These days, we are trying to adjust to the Online Teaching and School schedule. In between all the Zoom meetings and schoolwork on laptops, we find time to get up and move. Luckily, we’ve got a huge yard to run and play around. Just another reason to be so thankful for our new “Home Sweet Home.”

Staying Busy, Healthy & Positive

I am a homebody! If it wasn’t for Seamus, I’d rarely leave my home. He definitely keeps me “socially active.” So, keeping our “social distance” doesn’t help my bad habit.

Public schools in Washington state are shut down for the remaining school year, most businesses are closed and all restaurants that are open are providing drive thru service. This is a time in life, my kids will definitely never forget. They are craving for “play time” with cousins, friends and family. They don’t quite understand why they aren’t allowed to get out of the van if we go to town for groceries or need to run errands. Thankfully, we live on a farm with lots of land for kids to run and stay active.

We are so relieved to be in the final process of selling our home. We’ve finished remodeling our house, put it on the market for sale and sold it in the past month. In the next months, we will slowly start moving into the OFFICIAL McPartland Farm House. We are so excited for this BIG family move and taking it all in, one step at a time. This is quite the 2020 Summer McPartland Family Race/Event. So much to do and get done until then!

In between all the selling, buying and house packing, we are Distance Teaching, Seamus is farming and I am homeschooling a two year old, kindergartener and second grader. It’s been super busy and kinda crazy, but I’m definitely living in the moment. I’m keeping a positive mindset by appreciating that my family is staying healthy and that WE are just together. There’s so much to look forward to in the next few months as we MOVE fast and forward.

My Story

I love to RUN but there was a time I couldn’t run down the block without gasping for air. It was about fifteen years ago when Seamus challenged me to run down the block and I physically couldn’t because I was so out of shape.

“You are so STRONG, Audra.” Jodi said years ago when I first met her. This was a huge compliment coming from a PA-C who has seen and worked with so many patients. I never understood what she meant by these words until now... as I write this post and share, “My Story.”

It was in fifth grade when I weighed over 180 pounds that I made the decision to lose weight. That summer, I lost 40 pounds by allowing myself to drink as much water as I could and eating thirty crackers a day. Little did I know at the time, this was the beginning to my struggle with anorexia. After losing that much weight so quickly, I dedicated myself to losing another 20 pounds by repeating the same diet. I easily met that goal in a month. Throughout middle and high school, I was able to keep all the weight off by yo-yo dieting. After graduating from high school, I began to obsess over what the scale said and set a goal to lose as much weight as I could. I started to binge and purge up to five times a day to lose more weight. It felt like an accomplishment to see the numbers on the scale continue to drop. About six months later, I dropped out of college, couldn’t keep a steady job, was financially struggling and refused to admit that I needed help.

I finally felt satisfied being 5’3 and weighing about 85 pounds. My family and friends were starting to worry because I was at my lowest weight. My family doctor said that if I was to lose any more weight that I would need to be sent to an eating disorder treatment center for help. It was about a few weeks after this visit, when I remember sitting in my car at the McDonald’s parking lot when I finally admitted to myself that I had an eating disorder. As I cried, I realized that I was slowly killing myself. I knew that if I continued down this path that I was going to eventually die from malnutrition. I was lethargic, tired and depressed.

It took me about three months to get back to a healthy weight. I focused on making better choices by creating a healthy relationship with food, staying busy so that I had no time to relapse by going back to college, getting a job and began exercising. My goal was to work toward getting mentally and physically healthy.

In the next few years, as I continued to eat a healthy and balanced diet and exercise regularly, I graduated from a community college with my Associate's degree and transferred to Washington State University in Pullman. During my WSU college years, I found my faith through Catholicism, began studying Psychology to learn more about myself and enjoyed working at the WSU fitness center. I was slowly making progress toward bettering myself as an individual. I eventually moved back to my hometown to finish my last year of WSU online so that I could work full-time as a para-educator to help pay for school and be closer to Seamus who I had been dating for seven years. After graduating with my Bachelor's degree in Psychology I continued to work as a para and pursue my Master's degree in Teaching at a Distance Learning weekend program. In 2011, I finished my Master's degree in Teaching, completed my student teaching internship, worked as a 1st grade summer school teacher, was hired as a first grade full-time teacher, got married, bought a house and was pregnant with my first child. I felt overwhelmed but determined to KEEP GOING!

It has been ten years of working toward balancing exercise and nutrition and I feel like I am still learning more about HEALTH and FITNESS every day. My definition of HEALTH continues to change and it means more than body image and exercise. It includes so many more factors and takes dedication and hard work. Over the years, I have gained much endurance and strength from running and exercise and continue to track my nutrition. I’ve rather developed an interest for health and fitness due to all the damage that I have put my body through. I have grown to appreciate that I am physically able to run and keep up with my kids at home and students at school. Most importantly, I feel so blessed to be ME: a Wife with a supportive husband, Mom of 4 Beautiful Children, Elementary PE Teacher, Fitness Instructor and RUNNER. Overcoming bulimia years ago, was the hardest obstacle I have faced in life. Those dark days will never be forgotten because they have taught me to lead by example and encourage others to BELIEVE that THEY CAN DO THE IMPOSSIBLE.