A New Beginning

A new beginning....a continuation of our story....a new adventure....whatever you want to call it! But the Hahn Family definitely has made some changes this year.

First, since this started as a running blog, let's get caught up on how running is going for me since my foot surgery.

In a word, SLOWLY. But I'm okay with that right now. It's been a tough couple of years, first with rotator cuff repair in late 2020, then a tough training cycle trying to get back into shape, then running a marathon with the first symptoms of Covid late 2021, then needing foot surgery spring 2022. I couldn't run for nearly 3 months, and was definitely out of shape when I did start back on June 14. 

I gave myself a lot of grace. I had been feeling a ton of stress and had some physical issues unrelated to surgery that caused fatigue and weakness leading up to my return to running. I only run about 3 days per week, 3-4 miles at a time. By the time I began it was already deep into Texas mid-year heat and it was brutal, and because I am running so little, I've never acclimated to it. It's not a big deal...I am not planning on running another marathon anytime soon and I think my body is perfectly fine with taking it very easy this year. It's a complete departure from 2019-2020 when I ran over 2000 miles in a 12-month period. But we all have different seasons, and right now my season consists of very little running. 

I go to the gym a few times a week and am working on strengthening. My repaired shoulder seems to have its pre-accident strength back and that thrills me. For so many months it seemed like a pipe dream that I could ever be that strong again. But with some consistency it's coming back to me. 

After I got Covid, I decided to defer my January race in Baton Rouge to 2023, but have since decided I'm not going to run it after all. I do have a new race picked out...but my reasons for choosing it have a lot to do with another change our family has made.

Back in May, Greg was recruited by Amazon Web Services to interview for a position as Head of Supply Chain and Procurement for AWS Networking (yes, it's a mouthful and that's not even the full title). Over the course of several weeks, he interviewed and received an incredible offer to come work for them. While he enjoyed his time with Calix, we both felt, after many discussions and going back and forth, that it was time to move on and think long term with retirement. There was a catch, however. He would be required to live in either of the other two Amazon hubs, San Jose or Seattle. Neither was ideal, and we did not intend on permanently moving. Our daughter is in her last year of high school and relocating would be too difficult. Besides, we love our home. 

This was a hard decision to make. Spend more time apart, maintain two homes, fly back and forth all the damn time? San Jose was quickly ruled out because neither of us have any intention on moving back to California. The income taxes alone piss me off to no end. So Seattle became the choice, and it was a huge leap of faith to say yes to the job. But we said yes and a new adventure was born.

Once he accepted the offer, things moved fast. He had to wind down his job at Calix, he was able to cancel an overseas trip and instead come with me at the last minute to my 30th high school reunion, and we had to find a place to live. Greg spent the first two weeks in August in Seattle, and our daughter and I flew out for a few days to find an apartment. We chose the Denny Triangle/Belltown area to stay as close to Amazon HQ as possible so Greg wouldn't need a car. The walkability score in this area is 100, so a car is pretty much pointless. Public transportation and Uber would be more than enough to get him around in addition to walking. 

A special moment at my reunion

Apartment hunting

I've never done high rise living before, and it was a bit of a shock to be a part of this kind of scene. We found a fantastic place with the most incredible view of Puget Sound, somewhere we knew Greg could call home, I could come visit as often as possible, and he would integrate himself into the Amazon/Seattle life as seamlessly as possible. The more comfortable he was, the easier the travel would be. Nobody wants to live out of a suitcase in random hotels all the time. 

Did I mention the view? 

We moved into the apartment in early September and slowly things are taking shape. Most furniture has been bought and delivered and Greg makes it more and more like a real home everytime he's there. I'll be there again in just a few days and I'm so looking forward to it. 

From our rooftop

Toasting to our new place

New places to run (with better summer weather)

Good morning, Seattle

An incredibly cool part of being in Seattle is that I get to visit my sister's grave. I was able to visit when we apartment hunted and when we came back this past month, right around her birthday. It's so special to me to be closer to her again.

Daniella's first time at the gravesite

Thankfully Greg is still home here in Round Rock more than he's in Seattle, and this won't be a permanent move. It's vitally important for him to spend as much time with the team at the headquarters as possible, learning the Amazon culture and getting up to speed so he can be as effective of a leader as possible. 

Besides, having a little weekend getaway when I need it? That seems like a really fun new adventure after 23 years of marriage, and being on the cusp of the empty-nest phase or our life. It may have felt like the craziest choice at first, and I had a ton of anxiety about it, but the more settled he becomes in Seattle, the more my anxiety (and his) lessens. He likes this job, although it's obviously intense and busy. We are getting used to the constant trips to the airport, and our daughter is acclimating to a little more responsibility at home helping me out, and thankfully we've got friends (and our adult son!) that are on call to be sure our house is never empty and our dogs are taken care of. (Thank you Heather!!)

Gotta make sure he feels the love before I leave for Texas

Little pieces of home

Quote from Greg: We are doing this TOGETHER

I've got to throw in a little shout out about our son, who just began his third year in college as a Computer Science student. He's already a senior and will be graduating next spring with his Bachelor's degree. We are INSANELY proud of him and all his hard work these last couple years. 

So back to running. 

In 2018, in his quest to qualify for Boston so he could run it with me in 2019, Greg ran the Jack and Jill's Downhill Marathon just east of Seattle. Since I plan to spend as much time in Seattle next summer as possible, I'm going to sign up for this race, but ONLY the half marathon. I'm continuing to give myself a lot of grace to ease back into running long distances after a tumultuous year. I think it will be great to run where Greg had his epic first marathon, and the logistics will be so easy since we have a place there. Greg, however, has no desire for me to also sign him up!

It's not the 2022 I envisioned but to say I'm excited about what the future holds is an understatement. And I give it all up to God. I put my trust in him when I needed to, more than I ever have in my life, and he has provided in abundance. I'm closer to God than I've ever been, my faith is stronger than I thought possible, and it makes the future look beautiful. Even with the struggles, the worst of them, God is in control. Life may not look like you thought it would, but you can do anything if you follow close behind God.

A reminder I added in July

Priorities

Back in early 2012 I had an itch to do and be something different. I had spent nearly 11 years as a stay at home mom, and while I wouldn't change that for the world, I felt it was time for a change. So I became a personal trainer, group exercise instructor, and certified running coach over the next year.

While all of this has been very fulfilling and sometimes a lot of fun, I was feeling discontentment again this year. My son had a rough first year in middle school (he was diagnosed with ADHD) and my daughter has been, for lack of better words, an emotional wreck occasionally. I was gone every morning for work, and while this wasn't a huge deal during the school year, once summer arrived and my kids were home everyday with my work-at-home husband, things began to crack. It became very stressful for me to be gone every morning, and when I did get back home I was tired from teaching and training and having to be so personable for hours at a time. Finding the energy and desire to train for my own fitness goals was getting harder and harder to do when I spent so much time in a gym already. It wasn't how I envisioned my second career at all.

On July 6 I decided that it just wasn't worth it. I quit my job. Talk about a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders. My kids needed me to be home with them, to eat breakfast with them, to take them to the park, to guide them with chores, to make sure they were getting what they needed emotionally on a daily basis. My husband is an incredible father, but he also has a demanding job that requires hours at a time to be spent on conference calls. Kids at home plus working husband was getting to be very stressful for everyone.

Part of the reason that I decided to pursue a second career was that I felt I wasn't contributing enough to our household. I wanted to be able to say I was a financial help in addition to my mother and wife duties, and for awhile I enjoyed providing that for the first time in over a decade. We took a few vacations and I used my income to pay for all of my fitness hobbies. It felt good to "earn" something and give back to the family.

But at the end of the day, the best thing I could do for the family was just to be here everyday, to make sure the house is running smoothly, to be a support for my children and help them in their struggles, to just play with them more. I'm only on Day 2 of my "stay-at-home mom" role, but I can already feel more contentment in the house, more peace.

I've also decided that after many years of shunning the kitchen, I'm going to spend more time in it, learning to cook healthy dishes for the family, learning to make my own endurance training fuel so my marathon and triathlon seasons are the best they can be. I'm excited about this venture and I'm enjoying my time spent in the kitchen so far. I never thought I'd be one to get excited about buying a food processor!

So what does this mean for "Coach Steph"? She's still alive and well and isn't going anywhere. I have a private training, coaching, and weight loss consultation business that will remain in effect. I love coaching runners, and I'm happy to train people out of my home or theirs as time permits, plus I will still be volunteer coaching for Round Rock Fit. But my priority has shifted back to being with my family, and this makes me the happiest.

I'm hoping to blog more (that has definitely slipped in the last year), I need to research more about ADHD for my son, I'm going to learn as much as I can about healthy endurance fueling, I'm going to kick the crap out of this upcoming marathon training season, and I'm about to finally officially become a triathlete. My family is going on a vacation before the school year starts up again, and my husband is going to see his wife in the kitchen a lot more than he's used to....I think it all sounds pretty darn great.

What we put in is what we get out

The title seems like a very reasonable idea, doesn't it?

The work we put into something is reflective of what we're going to get out of it. If we study hard, we'll likely do well on a test. If we train consistently, we can conquer a race. If we listen to our doctor's advice on recovery from surgery, we can come back stronger than before.

Then why do so many people believe there's a "magic" solution? Why do we try to take shortcuts for quicker gratification? Why do we lament when it seems another person is thinner or more physically gifted than us rather than realizing that maybe they work hard to look or perform the way that they do? And that maybe, just maybe, if we put our all into it, we can achieve something similar?

My family and I visited a church today and the message rang out loud and clear. The main message was that what we put into ourselves is what we'll get out of it, whether it be faith and devotion to God, a healthy diet, exercise, proper guidance to our kids so they grow up to be productive adults, devotion to our marriage so it thrives...the list goes on and on. It's not "magic" because magic doesn't truly exist. Hard, consistent work is what produces real results.

See where I'm going with this? Of course I'm going to apply the concept to a healthy, fit lifestyle.

Do you wish you had a body like her? Do you wish you could finish a marathon like he can? Do you wish you had her strength? Do you wish you could be healthy enough to stop taking all your medications?

How do you think fit people get to where they are? Because they put a lot of hard work into their bodies.

That's the "magic." Every single day, every single week, every single month, all year long, they are working hard. The more consistent they become, the easier that hard work becomes. It becomes their norm, their lifestyle. They aren't trying to find a shortcut or an easy way to find the results. They are putting in the necessary work.

Does this automatically mean they are fanatical about the work? Not at all. You know that becoming obsessive about anything will lead to negative results, and exercise is no exception. I'm sure a lot of people probably think I run everyday, or workout in the gym everyday, for hours upon hours per week. That's not at all the case. I run/bike 3-4 times per week, strength train 2-3 times per week, teach core classes twice per week, and am really trying to get in a swim workout every week. That translates to probably 8 hours per week just depending on what my run/bike mileage is. That's roughly 4-5% of the 168 hours we have in one week.

Puts it into perspective, doesn't it? Hard work for 8 hours per week to be a healthy person. It's working, because I'm happy with my fitness level. So what I'm putting into it is giving me what I want in return. Add in healthy choices in the kitchen and the results are even better.

Whenever I discuss exercise I always have to discuss the importance of REST. What does our body give us if we completely fatigue it over and over again without proper recovery and rest time? It's going to rebel. It will give us what we've put into it, but in a negative way. So part of the hard work is allowing ourselves to rest. I build rest days into every single week. If I didn't, all my hard work would have negative return over time. I never strength or circuit train two days in a row, as my muscles need time to rebuild. I run easy, swim or rest between hard run workouts. You will never find me working out 7 days per week. I'm giving my body rest, so it's giving me strength for my next workout in return.

Hard work also means knowing that you must be consistent. I think this is probably one of the biggest things people struggle with. It's easy to take a week or two off. Or to take a break during travel or vacation. Pretty soon that week will turn into a month, and then we need to start over. I'll allow myself an "easy" week here and there if I've been training especially hard for a race, or I'm sick. But when my body is ready, I get right back into the hard work.

Just remember...even though there is no "magic" involved, that there are no shortcuts, doesn't mean it all has to be overwhelming. Schedule in a few hours per week to focus on your health, every single week, including rest. Over time it will become a habit, the hard work will become the norm, and your body will respond by giving back the fitness level you've always wanted.

So what's up with Coach Steph?

I haven't blogged much about my new job quite yet, as I've been getting acclimated to the huge life change. But now that I'm several weeks in I've got a lot to say!

Not only do I individually train people (both at the rec center and through my independent business), but I am also teaching fitness classes at the rec center. And in a nutshell, I LOVE IT.

I get nervous every time I have to call a new client (who, by the way, totally suck at calling back...boo!), and every time I am standing in front of a room full of hopeful people about to get their butts kicked, my heart races just a bit. But once I start, I feel great. Time flies by, I get excited seeing people go beyond what they think they are capable of, and I especially get excited when I see concrete results from what I'm doing with them.

I think I chose the right path.

Teaching group exercise classes is not necessarily something I thought I would enjoy as much as individually training someone, but I'm finding a lot of fulfillment there as well. I'm only teaching 3 classes per week but several people have asked about the rec center adding more of my classes. Many have pulled me aside to say they love them. I think I scared quite a few after that first core class (oops!). And I'm seeing a lot of familiar faces every day. It's really just a lot of fun to turn on the music and get them all moving and pushing themselves to be stronger.

As I continue to travel this path I am fine tuning my fitness philosophy. I think it's important for every trainer to have their own personal fitness philosophy that they can discuss with their clients. As I tweak mine more and more, I'll be sure to write a great blog post about it. I'm collecting as much knowledge as I can and finding what I am comfortable with.

Lastly, I'm continuing my education via National Academy of Sports Medicine. I signed up for a specialty certification, the Weight Loss Specialty. It incorporates nutrition, fitness, and psychology to not only help people lose weight and fat, and gain muscle, but how to maintain that weight loss. I'm so excited to crack open the book for the first time and absorb that knowledge so I can pass it on to clients!

Life is good!