Fitness Protection Roundup, 9/22/19:

Runner, Interrupted is nearly ready to launch! Please click here to join the beta, and forward this link to anyone you know who could use some support through a period of not-running.

This week was all about Brittany Runs a Marathon being problematic AF. In this week's newsletter, I broke down fatphobia and sizeism while Coach Sarah discussed disappointment and how she explains it to her daughter.

I have no advice for her. For 3 years I took Office Hours calls and was consistently shocked that the news I delivered my runners was hurtful instead of exciting. How do you tell someone that they aren't talking about the running, question if the source of their anger was truly something I said, question if their expectations had been reasonable all along? I felt like a failure most of the time. How did these people not see all of the work they had been doing? How could I make them in a way that didn't feel like a consolation prize?

The years I spent asking myself where these conversations had gone wrong led to the creation of Fitness Protection: a year-round running plan where the marathon plans are free..and short. Emphasis would be on staying the course throughout the year without a clock ticking over your head. Could a purchasing decision really solve the problem? Could it end all this angst?

We've been open for 5 months now, and I'm not entirely sure. Some days I feel GREAT about what we are doing. I will receive a positive testimonial and be like, "WE ARE NAILING IT KEEP GOING!". Other days, I'm scared I am letting down Ros by asking her mother to leave a good job.

This article I sourced for my Nuzzel last week put a lot of things in place for me:

"...nagging at my gut were the recurring negative sentiments I attached to myself; “the you are not’s.” If I struggled on a training run or if there was even the slightest discord at home, it was an additional weight I felt was my responsibility to carry, to show I could be all the things I desperately wanted to be.

We're never really talking about the running, and when I'm scared or anxious, I'm probably not talking about the company, either. I'm proud of the work we are doing here. The proof is in the pudding- our resident people-pleasing perfectionist overachiever forgot she was in a taper. She's about to YOLO a marathon. She's the fittest she's ever been, and by FAR the least stressed. That means something. We did that.

Maybe I'm not failing Ros at all. Maybe I'm Magic.

Whatever you are feeling this week, we hope it's something good, despite the heavier themes of our podcasts. In those moments when you aren't, hear me singing "If You're Happy and you Know It Clap Your Hands" like I do in this week's podcast, and know that we are going to be okay, because we are in this, together, practicing our Disappointed Faces as well as our Rapinoe poses.

#CoachedAndLoved

Our smiles BEFORE recording the third podcast in our series, to be released next week. This is when I started singing to Sarah again!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR ROS!!!!!