Joanne Smith felt overwhelmed by marathon training expectations while raising young kids, until she built a flexible routine using simple tools like a spiky lumbar device and standing exercises. She stopped comparing herself to other runners and found relief in doing what actually fit her life.
it's overwhelming, exhausting, the amount of miles and the expectations you might put upon yourself, for me, was not necessary, it wasn't necessary to still be able to achieve what I wanted to get out there and do, and that was such a great feeling when I could do that without that huge commitment, what I'd seen other people committing, and this is what put me off For years and years and years. I'm just going to get my little— I have a little spiky lumbar. I love this. I stand on this as well sometimes to help with my feet. But I used to be put off doing any kind of half marathons or marathons because I used to, when I first started running, I'd kind of like see what other people were doing and I'd be like, wow, you have to do that. That's the training that you've got to do. And that put me right off because I had little kids at the time and I was like, I genuinely am not able to go and do that kind of thing, so I found my own way of
