Fun Photo Friday

There's a reason we tell the boys to clear their dishes from the table.  Chester taking in a drink!

Little Miami 10k race recap

I hate waking up early...esp. on my last day of vacation but I had a 10k race on the training schedule and this one fit the bill.

It was a start time of 7:30 in Morrow,OH which is about an hour drive on country roads to get to...so I have to leave the house at what time?  Plus packet pickup, potty and warmup.  Ok- No later than 6am.  Now add, 2 boys and dh.  I'm sure they were really happy to get up early this am- but 1.)  I like to have my family/support group there 2.)  This means early bedtime for the kiddos since they start school tomorrow.  My dh was taking the kids to Columbus after the race so we caravan-ed  (plus I was bit worried about getting lost on my own- yes I have a GPS- but still!).

Left the house at 6:15 (now I'm thinking- am I going to make in time?)  Drive took less time than google told me it would-despite the slow driver that I tailgated couldn't pass on 48 since he'd speed up everytime it was a passing zone- seriously dude? Don't you know I have a race to run in less than an hour?


Got there and the first thing I notice 3 portapotties and line about 200 m long of runners.  Oh, Joy!  Ummm, it's 7:10 and race time is 20 mins away!  Thank goodness the race director noted this and delayed the race for 10 mins and told us we'd go on chip time for results in case any speedy runners were at the end of the line!  After the loooong wait (7:39am) I run past dh and kiddos, grab my water bottle- running to the start line - I get there at the count down of 3-2- (turn on music)-1 and we're off! 

First mile always is way too fast, I just hate getting stuck behind slower runners and after about 400m we were on a rails-to-trails bike path.  So I do get stuck for a bit, trying to find my pace and pass people and finally break free.  Ok- wow!  It's kind humid back here in the woods (I guess that's what I get for picking a race next to a river in Ohio in August!)  First mile 7:25 (ok not bad- I was planning 7:30 but wow this humidity is awful).

Mile 2  7:45 (hmm, water stop should be close- I had my own but needed something to focus on- nothing but flat trail and trees), a woman comes up behind me and is looking strong- Ok- must stay with her, she's looking calm and collected.

Mile 3 7:36 stay with this girl but I wonder, I bet she's doing the 1/2 not the 10k- as I'm watching the men doing the 10k coming back after the turn around- must be near- well, crap that chick's in front me and she just turned around so she is doing the 10k, but hey that means I'm in 2nd place.  Cool.  Must keep her in sight, maybe I'll get a surge of strength...maybe? It's so humid...Getting cheers, good jobs from the other runners still going out (pretty cool!)

Mile 4 7:51 ok, she's just took off, crap, keep her in sight.  Where is the next mile marker, must be close right? Nothing, trees, hot pink shirt now 50 m in front of me...

Mile 5 8:31 would it look bad if I walked, I'm so tired, it's so humid, no one is around me no one to look at  going the opposite way...turn around- ok a guy and it might be a woman behind him can't tell, must keep running...

Mile 6 8:15 I can see the break in the path, nearing the end Thank God, guy passes me- better check, where's that woman?  Still back about 100m- should be able to do this, crap, I'm in 2nd place still!  Hot pink chick not even in sight anymore maybe she passed out must have surged ahead

.2 miles- is that Cub?  Here comes Cub running in the grass next to the path- I see the glow of the clock at the finish line!  I tell Cub to run with me, which he does- I have to tell him to slow down, here comes Buster running ahead of me!  and then I'm done!  Wow!  I just got 2nd place for women!  Awesome!!!!!!  Nothing like having my kiddos there to run it in with me!    Someone at the finish line took a picture- I hope I see it sometime.

Hat head!  just after I finished!

Stumble around for awhile, take off my hat, and realize I'd forgotten that my sunglasses were perched on the rim the entire run!  Hah!  too funny- too cloudy to need them anyways.

Buster being his goof ball self!

1st place in my Age Group!

SO Offical results:  9 overall, 2nd place woman, and 1st in the 30-39 agegroup.  That was the best, since their awards were Pint Glasses -perfect for my frosty beverage of choice! :-)

Goodbye Babydom!

Then...

So, here I am waiting for my boys to head off to a birthday party so that I can sneak out the old "baby" toys out of the basement and take them to a "Diapers and duds" sale at my rec center.   We did this last year and got rid of so much stuff plus made enough $$ we didn't go to the ATM in the fall!

I'm finding it easier this year, maybe since the clothes and toys (the stuff that didn't sell last year) have been sitting in tubs waiting for this years sale. Or maybe since my hubby and I have decided that we're done!  The boys are not babies any more and the farther away "babyhood" gets...it's easier to put it behind me.  I've never been a "baby" person.  I love my own, but I'm not one to get all in someones face to hold a baby or make the googoo sounds.  They're cute but I'm happy to be done. (The diapers, nursing, spit ups, lack of communication skills uggh.) 

Also, I have put way too much work into getting back into shape after babies... :-)  Speaking of...


This week I ran a tempo run of 45 mins at 7:30 pace for 20 and 7:41 pace for 25.  It was probably too fast, since it's basically my race pace for the Flying Pig 10k this last April, but I've been feeling so strong, I think I definitely could do faster.  I do feel like I kind of cheat on those since I use the treadmill for tempo runs.  I've read that tempo runs should be done on TM since you can control the pace and elevation but can I hold that pace outside on my own? But I really like it since I can kind of veg out and and just run and watch a bit of TV.  The whole TV thing is a new concept for me (I've only done it 3 times), it kills the time but I feel my form is a bit off since I'm looking down at the screen.  So, I did this hard workout last night, woke up feeling like a truck had hit me  great, ready for my race this Sunday. 

 I'm running the Little Miami 10k down in Morrow, OH.  http://ohiorunning.com/LittleMiamiHalf/?page_id=14 I'm looking forward to it.  I haven't raced a 10k since the Pig and this is supposed to be a "training" run not really a hard race.  We'll see how that goes.  I'm not good at holding back or pacing at races.  I'm dragging the fam with me since it will be the day before school starts and this is a great way to get them up way early so that they go to bed way early.  This will also work for me since my big girl job is starting up again on Monday as well.

and now. My boys this 4th of July- no longer babies!

Staycation

So I haven't blogged in a few days, been busy getting the house/kids/life back to normal after having guests for a week.  We had a blast with my mother and my nephew.

Cub and my nephew ready for wacky Wednesday at soccer camp.

  I'd signed the boys up for soccer camp together with Skyhawks sports camps.  They were amazing.  The counselors were so enthusiastic that you couldn't help but love being there.  They made every kid feel great and happy to be there.  I seriously want to know how they do it!  It was a great first experience for my nephew who hasn't had any sports experience.  They did all sorts of fun stuff including wacky Wednesday.  Nothing like watching kids play soccer in halloween costumes!  I'm so glad that my nephew had a great time.  He wanted camp to last all day.  I'm hoping he'll do soccer this fall.

On Thursday, we went to a Cincinnati Reds game.  We had great weather (thank God!) and the high was only 78 degrees.  Last year we went and foolishly bought tickets in advance for a noon game in July.  Bad Idea.  It was 105 degrees and humid.  It was awful...since then the boys associate baseball games with heat.  But not for us last Thursday!  It was great!!! My mom wasn't looking forward to it and she ended up being the one who loved it the most!  We had great tix (thanks stubhub!) on the first base line, so we could actually see Joey Votto!  I was a bit freaked out about foul balls and we didn't have any until the  8th inning and one came down 2 rows behind us and nailed this guy in the temple (apparently didn't see it coming- my total nightmare).  There was blood everywhere- thank goodness a Dr was walking up the steps and saw it and came to the rescue.  Yuck.  DH kept the boys occupied so they would watch since there was so much blood.    Poor guy, I hope he's ok.

As for running:  I got my tempo run in on Friday.  Had to do it between soccer camp and the pool playdate so it was in the middle of the day, so hello treadmill!  5 miles in 38 minutes.  I'm pretty happy about it since I felt amazingly strong during the whole run.

Before my 10 miler- trust me you don't want to see after!

Sunday I got up and ran 10.5 miles.  I had to run in on my own since my training partner has a pulled hamstring.    It was a great run, the weather was fabulous so I didn't even think about the temperature.  I can't wait til fall for great running weather.  I wore my new Air Force marathon training shirt (love the looks of it, can't get the horrible burnt technical fabric smell out of it- they must of messed up when printing them) and my geektastic compression socks (which felt amazing!). I managed to keep moving all day yesterday so I wasn't too sore today but I can not wait for zumba tonight so that I can shake out my legs a bit. 

So, I know some of you are reading this...so post a comment!  What did you do this summer vacation? Anyone do a Staycation like us? 

500 miles

So back on Jan 1, I decided that my new years resolution would be to run 1000 miles in 2011.  I just my 500th mile today and I know that I'm not going to reach my goal unless I train for a marathon in December.   I'm not one to freak out about not reaching goals, I honestly wasn't sure I'd make it, but I'd give it my best shot.  I'm just going to take one day at a time and see where I end up at the end of the year. 

So I have visitors this week, and anyone who runs will tell you that it completely messes with your training schedule.  Yesterday I had on the schedule 3 miles and weights.  I had wanted to get the 3 miles in because I was at 497 miles and well... It didn't happen.  I ran 9 on Sun, and my body was still pretty tired in the am, so I was thinking I'd do something later.  Well, I forgot that Cub's first soccer practice with the trainer was Monday night and it ran longer than I thought.*( more about that in a minute).  I got home, DH and my mom had made dinner, I poured myself a beer and looked at my watch.  I had 10 minutes until sign in at the Rec for my zumba class (if you know me....I've been faithfully doing zumba for 3 years now).  Crap!  3 bites of burger and a sip of beer before handing over parts of my dinner to the fam and running to get my stuff on. 

Got to the Rec, got my spot in the zumba class (that's another long grumply post for later), realized I forgot my iphone, all the treadmills were taken (seriously?!) so I biked for about 5 minutes watching tv on my neighbors bike (mine wasn't working) then lifted, then zumba.  Came home and ate highly nutritious dinner of....Cheez-its and string cheese.  (I wish I could strike that out)

My plan today was to get up early and do my track workout.  I had to do it otherwise there would be no time today for any running.  Got up at 6:30, eating a banana then Buster woke up in tears since the blanket fort he'd slept in had fallen down last night.  Nothing like trying to reason w/ a 4 year old who's tired.  DH got up with him and I headed out by 7. 

I love working out on the track.  Really I do.  I have such good memories of running in high school and coaching my first few years of teaching.  Anyways, 7 am on a cinder track, I did 8 x400 at a 7:00  min pace with 400 recovery jogs between.  It felt easy today, score!  About half way through another runner showed up and I actually know her!  We'd done bootcamp at the Rec 2 years ago.  Anyways, we caught up for a bit.

It was a great workout and I got home a bit to close to the time to take the boys to soccer camp * so DH took off with them (which I don't think he looked at the watch since he left with 20 mins to spare).

Got to go, my mom is out of the shower, can't really blog and visit.  Have a great day! 


 

Hills and Humidity

So I woke up today at 6:15 to thunderstorms and rain, exactly the stuff you want to hit the snooze alarm and continue to sleep to run in.  9 minutes later I figured I should check the radar to see if the long run was going to happen this am.  The storm was almost done so couldn't use that as a cop out.  Crap maybe Carrie will cancel?

I was tired.  I tossed and turned last night and woke up at 2 hungry.  Then I could hear our new neighbors out on their patio talking, which I was curious to listen to them since we've yet to meet them and I'm nosy.  Got up and scarfed down a yogurt and finally fell asleep.  Anyways, back to this am.  Rain was done, headed out the door at 7:15 to meet up with my awesome running partner Carrie.

Our plan was to run 9 miles today.  The trails we run on are only 3 miles long so 3 loops. The trail starts at the top of a hill and works its way down along a river/creekbed then climbs back up, no way to escape the hills.   We set off at a pretty decent clip, but the humidity was horrible, especially amongst the trees.  We decided to walk the hills today.  Lap one done, lap 2 we decided to go the opposite direction.  It totally seemed longer going the other way.  Both of us managed to slip on rocks and tweak our ankles, each time requiring a bit of a walkout before returning to run.  3 lap I was dying feeling pretty good considering all.  No doubt about it, if Carrie hadn't been there I would have quit for the day.  BUT I DID IT!  9 MILES!  I haven't run that long since 2001 when I trained for the Marine Corps Marathon.

It's nice to do loops since we saw the same runners/walkers again and again.  One guy, I'll call him Eric Northman (Any TrueBlood fans?), totally looked like him had passed us numerous times, and I heard him tell someone he'd done 20 miles.  I can imagine doing 20 on those trails but it's beautiful. 

Came home to an empty house, DH had taken the boys hiking and made coffee! I love my DH! 

My weekly milage: 30  First time ever I've run so much in a week!  This coming week training will be harder to do, we have visitors for the week and soccer practices in the evening.  I'm going to have to figure something out!

My first time!

Hi there!
So I decided that I should try blogging.  I'm not sure if it will be interesting to anyone but I can at least have an outlet for talking about running and being a mommy too! 

I've been a runner as an adult for about a year. I'd running XC and Track in high school and was pretty decent, never the star runner but hey...the past is the past.  I started last June running a trail run and had a blast and decided to keep going with it.  I have been training for something all year.  Last fall I ran the Air Force Marathon 5k and placed in my Age Group and was pretty darn proud of myself and decided to keep going.  I convinced a good friend of mine to start running and she surprised both of us by how good she was! Needless to say, the rest is history.


I'm currently training for the Air Force 10k in September and the Columbus 1/2 Marathon in October and *might* be doing the Indianapolis Monumental 1/2 marathon in November.  Goals are under 1:52 for the 1/2 and 45 mins for the 10k (actually anything under 47 would be fab.)

So what are you training for?