@thisismymarathonlife

2 Comments June 25, 2019 drworobec

As most of you know, I’m running in the New York City marathon on November 3rd.

It took me a few tries to qualify for this prestigious event (Then the Wheels Came Off), but I managed to meet the time standard last Spring at the Mississauga half marathon (Race Report and Reflection). This has allowed me to bypass the general lottery system that New York implements to meet the huge demand for their race, and I’m grateful for an automatic entry.

But I haven’t run a full marathon in 12 years.

Two kids, a husband, a business, and a very busy life, are going to make this training plan feel very different than it did for 27-year-old me. I turn 40 this year, and what better way to celebrate than to challenge my limits again and run in one of the biggest races in the world. I have several friends and training partners running in this race too, and I can’t wait to be side by side with my dear friend Michaela, who will be running in her first marathon (21.1kms of Friendship).

Are you interested in seeing what’s involved in marathon training?
Have you ever wondered how someone can run 42.2km?
Would you like to see how I balance it all?

Many of you have asked me questions like this over the years, so I started a shiny new Instagram account to show you exactly how I’m going about this. You’ll see my workouts, my paces, what I eat, when I go to bed, and how I recover. I’ll show you the good and the bad, the ups and the downs, and the highs and lows of the next 19 weeks.

It’s 131 days until I toe the line on Staten Island and cross that finish line in Central Park.

Come along for the ride: follow me @thisismymarathonlife.

Planting Time Seeds

Leave a comment April 2, 2019 drworobec

I thought I’d write a poem this time
Cuz my ideas have been low.
I like to bounce my words around
And speak aloud and slow.

I find it gets my brain stirred up
And makes me laugh in my head.
I feel just like my fourth-grader
As I review the prose ahead.

But the reality is, it’s been a long time
That I’ve been writing this blog,
This post is number two nighty-six
And some weeks it’s a bit of a slog.

I love to write and the feedback is great
Per month I’ve got thousands of reads.
But when push comes to shove, the real story is
I need hours to be grown from seeds.

Between hockey and skiing,
Now is lacrosse and baseball,
School pickups and dropoffs
It’s become quite the haul.

Time is tricky to find
In the balance as a mum,
I wish those time seeds
Could be planted with my thumb.

I’d grow some for RockTape
And the Burlington Runners Club,
My writing commitments
Could be grown like a shrub.

I’d plant some more seeds
For my New York training fears.
There’s that 42.2 looming
My first marathon in twelve years.

Let’s not forget date nights
Which are nearly non-existent.
And our evenings on the couch
Have been less than consistent.

There’s parent council meetings at school
And kids coaching to do,
We also have a puppy,
She’s sweet and her name’s Blue.

There you have it my friends
What I’m trying to say,
Is let’s see what happens
At least I posted today.

I’m at my kitchen table,
I booked an hour off the hook
To wrap my brain around ideas
And maybe finally start my book.

But all that I’ve accomplished
Is this three-hundred word poem.
Yet I’ve also built this life;
My family, house, and home.

So even though it’s busy,
Full of rush and multi-tasking
It’s what I’ve chosen, what I’m proud of,
And in that I will stay basking.

I saw this post on Instagram,
It’s the background on my phone.
I’m thankful for every piece of my life
But perhaps I need a clone.

I have Thursday guilt.

2 Comments October 30, 2018 drworobec

I have Thursday guilt.

You see, I don’t “work” on Thursdays, at least not officially, not at the clinic. In fact, I haven’t worked on Thursdays for many, many years. And at the clinic, we’ve built our practitioner schedule around that; on that day, my treatment rooms are free for the taking by other staff. Over the years, the clinic has grown into such a busy place that we’re bursting at the seams, and the reality is that we’re now at a point where I wouldn’t be able to work on Thursdays even if I wanted to, because my rooms are full with other practitioner’s patients.

When my daughter began full-time Kindergarten in 2016, joining her older brother in the all-day-school world, I envisioned lazy Thursdays of long runs and naps, hot coffee and newspapers. Fast forward more than two years and I think I’ve taken a nap once. Once in about 112 Thursdays. Because the reality is, Thursdays are usually my busiest day of the week. They’re the days that I get groceries, tidy the house, squeeze in appointments for myself, run errands, arrange coffee dates, and do all the things that my other days do not allow; they’re the days that I do life.

But inevitably, when a patient asks to book in on a Thursday, and I reply that “I don’t work Thursdays,” guilt nags at me. I’m a people-pleaser, by nature or nurture, and it niggles at my brain when I can’t be all things to all people. A character fault for sure, and one that I’m working on, but part of me wonders what they think when they hear that my work-week doesn’t include a traditional Thursday. Now, logic will tell you (and me) that I work more evenings than the traditional work-week and more Saturdays than the traditional work-week, but logic doesn’t always win. Logic will also point out that I have very carefully constructed my practice life to align with my values, and Thursdays off have given me the space to find balance for both myself and my family. But again, logic can be easily strong-armed by guilt.

Is guilt a mom thing? A female thing? Or just a me thing? Perhaps it’s a bit of all three, rolled up and exponentially powerful, a wasted emotion that has no positive value.

Do I work Thursdays?

I sure do.

(And even if I didn’t, that would be okay too.)