Michigan Runner Girl

Upcoming virtual races and challenges, in-person events planned for this summer and fall, and special savings -- this short and sweet episode packs a punch!

Tune in to hear updates from Heather, including what you can expect on upcoming episodes of the podcast (all the details for this summer and fall Ragnar Michigan relays coming soon!). Also shared on this episode: show topics you may have missed, and discount codes — for both races and also a piece of clothing Heather is absolutely loving right now (hint: it's keeping her warm during these FRIGID February days). And, there's something very special for all you book lovers out there.

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Drop Heather a note at [email protected]

If you enjoy what you're hearing on the Michigan Runner Girl show, we'd be so, so grateful if you'd take a few moments to write a review on iTunes. This will help more runners and Michigan lovers like yourself find the podcasts. Thank you!! Also, the quickest way to get the podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes or via Stitcher or your favorite podcast app. A special thanks to the talented Jonny Tornga for producing the show.

Maia Turek considers herself a positive person (those who know her undoubtedly would agree), but she recently realized something else about herself, thanks to working closely with a health coach: she has had a habit of talking negatively -- in a self-deprecating way -- to herself and to others, when it comes to how she views her relationship with food.

It was an eye-opening discovery, she says, and one that has led to a complete mind shift for the 42-year-old runner, cyclist, and mom of one. "Do you know how much mental energy we put into focusing on being the shape we think we're supposed to be, or the size we think we're supposed to be?"

Maia, a regular MRG podcast guest, shares her experience working with Leah Doriot, a health coach, runner, and past MRG podcast guest (check out episode #108 with Kathrine Switzer). The timing felt right for Maia to work with someone who could help her understand the "why" behind some of her food and behavior decisions.

One takeaway: "I'm not going on a diet. I am upgrading what I put in my body."

"I was very frustrated. I have very bad habits. I know what I need to do to lose weight, I know what I am supposed to do, how I am supposed to do it … but I just don't do it. I needed the tools -- what are the tools I need in my toolkit to be better at having either the willpower or to be a better advocate for myself? I went from this is going to be a three-month process, to this is going to take a couple of years. But I think I have to. I have made these habits over 42 years, so undoing them or reframing them is going to take a while."

Maia, who is a resource development specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Parks and Recreation division, also shares the latest Michigan Department of Natural Resources updates, including activities to enjoy at state parks this winter and how trail usage remains at record levels.

We also have a fun conversation about her newfound love of road biking, Michigan's thousands of lakes, and just how long it would take to bike around all of them. (Maia figured it out!)

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100 things to do this winter at Michigan state parks

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If you enjoy what you're hearing on the Michigan Runner Girl show, we'd be so, so grateful if you'd take a few moments to write a review on iTunes. This will help more runners and Michigan lovers like yourself find the podcasts. Thank you!! Also, the quickest way to get the podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes or via Stitcher or your favorite podcast app. A special thanks to the talented Jonny Tornga for producing the show.

Life during a pandemic can lead us down paths we may not have gone down otherwise — some not so good, of course, but also some that ultimately change our lives in positive ways.

For Janice Davidson, these past several months have been a time of big life changes, one of which was leaving her job at a northern Michigan ski resort after 20 years. Janice, who oversaw recreation programming at Crystal Mountain Resort in Thompsonville, Mich. and helped start its North Mitten Half Marathon, 10K & 5K, determined the time was right to start a new chapter of her life. "I wanted to refocus my passion and give back and spend more time at home with my children," says Janice, 45, and mom to a 14-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son.

Janice is a runner, mother, passionate environmentalist, and new small business owner — she's behind the company North Mitten, which is focused on "people and planet health." Leaving Crystal was bittersweet — she loved her time there and the people with whom she worked — but she'll stay connected with the popular up north destination. She bought the rights to the North Mitten races and plans to continue the Memorial Day weekend race tradition, at Crystal Mountain, with her own personal touches on the event.

Janice talks about plans for a hopefully in-person spring race, as well as ideas and dreams for other events and adventures as part of her new business. She also shares a race discount code for listeners — be sure to sign up if you're looking for a great spring race in northern Michigan!

FIND NORTH MITTEN:

Check out the North Mitten Facebook page here.

Learn more about Crystal Mountain and register for the race here.

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If you enjoy what you're hearing on the Michigan Runner Girl show, we'd be so, so grateful if you'd take a few moments to write a review on iTunes. This will help more runners and Michigan lovers like yourself find the podcasts. Thank you!! Also, the quickest way to get the podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes or via Stitcher or your favorite podcast app. A special thanks to the talented Jonny Tornga for producing the show.

"My mind was just not in it for some reason, and I go through that a lot — my brain just doesn't want to do it, even though my legs, and physically, I feel completely fine. Sometimes in your head, you don't want to get out there for some reason. But I love what Des Linden always says. She says, keep showing up. And you know she's also said before, the hardest part of a run is putting on your shoes and getting out the door. So I think about that a lot of times. I just force myself to get out there.

"In those times, it's especially crucial to get out there and get the run in. Because the sport is so mental and I think we forget to exercise our brain and our minds ... we can get so stuck in the physical side of it and strengthening those muscles. But the brain is a muscle, too."

In this final episode of 2020, former collegiate runner, marathoner, and blogger Jackie Reneaud shares how her relationship with running has changed over the years, during her time running for Northwood University and also as an adult navigating a full-time job and moving back home during the pandemic. Jackie, 24, is from Goodrich, Mich. and grew up in a running family. (Her first race? The Crim Diaper Dash.) You may know Jackie from Instagram, where she is JackieRunsALatte.

FIND JACKIE:

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Jackie Runs

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If you enjoy what you're hearing on the Michigan Runner Girl show, we'd be so, so grateful if you'd take a few moments to write a review on iTunes. This will help more runners and Michigan lovers like yourself find the podcasts. Thank you!! Also, the quickest way to get the podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes or via Stitcher or your favorite podcast app. A special thanks to the talented Jonny Tornga for producing the show.

As local businesses in Michigan and across the U.S. continue to adjust and adapt to pandemic-related closures and pauses, and resulting in-store capacity restrictions, the holiday season marches on. Things just look decidedly different this year, to say the least, for shop owners and their customers. The great news: stores are getting very creative in how they're connecting with their customers, and we shoppers are thankful for these efforts. (Still need a few gifts for the runners and active lifestyle friends and family in your life? We've got you covered with this episode.)

This special holiday episode is a live recording — with all safety precautions in place, of course, from social distancing to mask-wearing — at Running Fit in downtown Traverse City. Heather sat down with Running Fit managers Jennifer Teeples and Alison Goss Shaw and Jonny Tornga, assistant manager of downtown's Lululemon pop-up shop, to talk about what it's been like to operate a small business during COVID — including how stores have collaborated and helped one another out more than ever to get through these tough times.

"Pretty much anybody who is in the athletic industry down here is in touch with each other," Alison says. "That's always been the case for downtown, here in Traverse City, but it's even more so now," adds Jonny. "The lines of communication are really open … All of the stores are coming together and trying to come up with unique solutions to the challenges we're all facing."

Jonny, Jen, and Alison also let us know about the latest and greatest athletic clothing and gear options, especially for winter running and other outdoor exploring. You'll definitely get some great ideas for those last-minute gifts on your list — for your best running friend, or for you. We also talk about ways we're all staying motivated to keep moving forward, during the pandemic and no matter the weather. A common theme: having friends to help you along your journey.

FIND RUNNING FIT - TRAVERSE CITY

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FIND LULULEMON - TRAVERSE CITY

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If you enjoy what you're hearing on the Michigan Runner Girl show, we'd be so, so grateful if you'd take a few moments to write a review on iTunes. This will help more runners and Michigan lovers like yourself find the podcasts. Thank you!! Also, the quickest way to get the podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes or via Stitcher or your favorite podcast app. A special thanks to the talented Jonny Tornga for producing the show.

As of today, Dec. 8, 2020, the U.S. has a rate of close to 200,000 confirmed new infections of coronavirus per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control data center, which is updating daily. Cases in the last seven days alone top one million, and all told, more than 280,000 lives have been lost to COVID-19 in this country.

We're all experiencing the pandemic in our own individual ways, and in more recent time, as cases surge across the U.S., and Michigan this week enacted a 12-day extension of the statewide Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) epidemic order, the virus and its myriad impacts continue to find new and challenging ways — and in some cases, personal and devastating ways — of affecting us, as individuals, families, and communities.

Here at MRG, we wanted to share heartfelt and honest stories of what it's been like for two northern Michigan runners who recently received a COVID diagnosis. In this episode, we talk not only about what it was like to have COVID, but also what recovery looks like and how it can change our views of running, staying active, and staying connected (while being safe) with our family and friends.

Jonny Tornga, an ultrarunner and trail enthusiast, shares his experience of getting COVID in early November. Jonny, 33, who had been training for a 30ish-mile trail run at the time of his diagnosis, had many of the typical symptoms, including loss of taste and smell.

"It knocked me out pretty good. The road to recovery has been a long one. It's not easy. I feel like I was in pretty good shape before getting it. I was feeling good. [After the diagnosis] it was amazing the lack of energy I didn't have — and still don't have. I feel like I'm lacking in that extra push. The mind is there, but the body doesn't really want to follow just yet. It's been a struggle, being that I am an active person. It's frustrating for sure, to say the least."

Kristen Verrett, an avid runner and racer, also received a COVID diagnosis earlier this fall. The 46-year-old remembers going out for some morning miles the day she became sick.

"I got up and had a really good run. I was feeling good. Later that evening, it hit me. I was tired, I had a fever. I was just exhausted."

Kristen didn't lose her sense of taste or smell, but she did feel nauseous for about a week in addition to feeling run-down and extremely fatigued. At the same time, her husband Kyle got sick and received a COVID diagnosis. Thankfully, their two children — Kylanna, 13, and Keegan, 11 — were OK and did not feel ill.

Getting back to a running routine has been tough, for both Kristen and Jonny.

"Just like having any injury, you have to listen to your body. One of my first runs after having COVID, my legs were feeling great, they were ready to move, but my body wasn't. I ended up pulling a muscle in my back. I wasn't listening to my body, I wish I would have."

MRG is grateful to Jonny and Kristen for being willing to share their stories.

Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, when face coverings became scarce, Janelle Haselhuhn decided to put her impressive sewing skills to work. The southwest Michigan mom of two young kids, ages 5 and 3, made some 700 masks in just a few short weeks with the help of a small group of volunteers.

Janelle, who shares her sewing creations — including memory quilts and t-shirt blankets, some of which feature race t-shirts, and — on her Facebook business page MI Sew Haven, joins Heather on the podcast to talk about life as a long-time athlete, runner, seamstress (she makes her own running attire), and now-homeschooling mom. One way she's making the most of these interesting times? Dressing up every day — she wore a super-cute leopard print jumpsuit, which she made of course, when this episode was recorded — and doing fun things like blasting great music and hosting fancy, dress-up dinner evenings for her family. "I'm a firm believer in what you wear directly affects how you feel. It just makes me feel good to dress up … We do little themes here and there."

Janelle, who lives with her husband and their son and daughter in Paw Paw, Mich., credits attending the MRG Winter Weekend Getaway at the start of 2020 — right before life turned upside down for all of us — with helping her believe she could be a year-round outdoor runner. She shares how this winter she is planning to run outside all season long for the first time. She also talks about what the pandemic has taught her, how she's stayed sane and found a few new hobbies, and how she became a runner following high school and college experiences rowing on a crew team on the Detroit River and trying out the sport of fencing.

"This has been a really good learning experience, and I hope other people are realizing this, too, that this can be a good time of our lives."

FIND JANELLE:

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If you enjoy what you're hearing on the Michigan Runner Girl show, we'd be so, so grateful if you'd take a few moments to write a review on iTunes. This will help more runners and Michigan lovers like yourself find the podcasts. Thank you!! Also, the quickest way to get the podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes or via Stitcher or your favorite podcast app. A special thanks to the talented Jonny Tornga for producing the show.

Life just keeps getting more and more interesting, doesn't it? Between the surge in COVID cases, ongoing uncertainty with how things will unfold, a turbulent and divisive political climate, and our efforts to just keep moving forward with our lives, life can feel quite overwhelming. Oh, and the holidays — a very different holiday season — is nearly upon us.

How are you feeling — really feeling — these days? In this latest episode of the MRG Podcast, Heather shares some honest thoughts on how things are going for her. Most importantly, she talks about the things that are helping her get through and move forward. It's not easy, but we can do this. We can keep trying.

From pushing herself to "don't think, just go" on her early-morning runs and sinking into a really good book, to finding some escape in a funny podcast or keep-you-guessing television show, this update show dishes out some fun, interesting, and thought-provoking motivation and inspiration.

Podcasts, shows, and books mentioned:

The Undoing on HBO

Smartless, podcast featuring Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett

Goop podcast, Nov. 10 episode featuring Gwyneth Paltrow's conversation with Abby Wambach

MRG BOOK CLUB - join us! Latest reads:

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Monogamy by Sue Miller

Troubles in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand

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Thanks to Great Lakes Treats and Catering for supporting the Michigan Runner Girl Show. Please check out this amazing northern Michigan, locally-owned business.

If you enjoy what you're hearing on the Michigan Runner Girl show, we'd be so, so grateful if you'd take a few moments to write a review on iTunes. This will help more runners and Michigan lovers like yourself find the podcasts. Thank you!! Also, the quickest way to get the podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes or via Stitcher or your favorite podcast app. A special thanks to the talented Jonny Tornga for producing the show.

"Giving myself grace throughout 2020 has helped me exponentially."

The lovely and inspiring Sasha Wolff, founder of Michigan-based Still I Run, returns to the MRG Show — she last joined Heather for an honest conversation about mental health and wellness just after starting her non-profit in late 2016 — to share how Still I Run has grown. This "community of warriors promoting the benefits of running for mental health" now has 8,000 members. These are runners not only in Michigan but aross the country.

Still I Run includes a charity running team, a "Run, Write, Fight" letter initiative, scholarship program, ambassador opportunities, and a virtual 5K on World Mental Health Day, among other activities and programs. Sasha, a mom of two and marathoner who recently ran a virtual Boston Marathon in her beloved Grand Rapids, Michigan, has even more plans for Still I Run: "I want this to be a nationwide movement."

Sasha, 35, was recently recognized as one of the recipients of the Grand Rapids Business Journal's 40 Under 40 award. This annual recognition highlights 40 individuals under the age of 40 making a difference in West Michigan. Since 2002, the Grand Rapids Business Journal has awarded over 600 dynamic young professionals who have achieved personal success and made significant civic contributions to our community.

She also was featured, alongside four other females, in Women's Running Magazine in May 2019. The article, which was titled "5 Courageous Women Who Are Running Down Mental Health Stigmas," gave Wolff the opportunity to share about her nonprofit, Still I Run-Runners for Mental Health Awareness.

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If you enjoy what you're hearing on the Michigan Runner Girl show, we'd be so, so grateful if you'd take a few moments to write a review on iTunes. This will help more runners and Michigan lovers like yourself find the podcasts. Thank you!! Also, the quickest way to get the podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes or via Stitcher or your favorite podcast app. A special thanks to the talented Jonny Tornga for producing the show.

Erin Goldman, a yoga/ meditation teacher, and Tara Rybicki, a registered dietician nutritionist, return to talk about taking care of our heart, our mind, and our body. Erin and Tara are behind northern Michigan-based Love Body, a program that focuses on the practice of self-love.

We all know the importance of treating ourselves well, but in reality, in our everyday lives -- especially now, 8+ months into a global pandemic -- what does self-love actually mean and look like?

Love Body works because we focus on your core desire. This yields real transformation, real fulfillment and lasting change, rather than a temporary shift of the numbers on your scale.

We are fully committed to supporting you in living a joyful, soulful, meaningful life as your beautiful and wild self. ​

Tara and Erin were guests on the MRG podcast earlier this year -- in late February, literally a couple of weeks before COVID-19 turned everything upside down -- and we talked about Love Body and their recent launch of this program and how they were connecting with women in particular. We talked a lot about mindfulness and this show ended up being a very popular one -- and a timely one as life stress took on an entirely new meaning in the following weeks, for all of us.

I invited Tara and Erin back on the show, to see how they've been navigating these interesting times, what they've learned -- and what we all can do to help ourselves as we move through the uncertainty. I also wanted to hear what the pandemic has meant for their business -- and they share how this time has been a time of reflection and renewal. While their mission of practicing self-love hasn't changed, they have, as a result of talking with other women, are re-focusing their business to be what they describe as a soul-centered weight loss program.

Talking with Tara and Erin, I found myself, just like last time we all spoke, feeling a bit calmer and more centered. They have that way about them.

Sign up for the free Love Body inspirational Weekly Wisdom Wednesdays email here.

FIND HEATHER:

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If you enjoy what you're hearing on the Michigan Runner Girl show, we'd be so, so grateful if you'd take a few moments to write a review on iTunes. This will help more runners and Michigan lovers like yourself find the podcasts. Thank you!! Also, the quickest way to get the podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes or via Stitcher or your favorite podcast app. A special thanks to the talented Jonny Tornga for producing the show.