Catch Up

A lot has happened since I last posted. On Presidents day C and I took our kids cross country skiing, this is the first time for Brooklyn and Gavin has only gone one other time 2 years ago. Gavin had no problem and zoomed ahead of us, fortunately C's kids have gone before so they stayed together. Brooklyn was scared at first but she did great. In her typical fashion she went at her own pace, she was not worried about catching up to the other kids, she just took her time. She is the same when riding her bike, kids can pass her and she will just happily pedal along at her own pace. I hope she stays like that, happy where she's at, not worrying about what everyone else is doing. After skiing we went sledding. We found a nice trail people were using to walk up and sled down there. There were just enough turns to make it feel like a water slide and the kids had a great time.

My sister also had her second baby last week. He had a few problems with his lungs so my BNL Mike and the baby flew to Denver. My sis had a C-section and was not released from the hospital yet. It was very scary but there were a lot of people praying for him and God took care of him. The x-rays in Denver showed that his lungs were fine, he had to stay down there for a couple days but was able to come home on Sunday. Unfortunately we also had to come home Sunday so we were not able to see him. I can't wait until I can hold him!

Now today I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth pulled. Now I am just resting and catching up on all my shows I have on dvr that I usually don't have time to watch. I have ran every day this week and am hoping I will be able to run on Sunday. I ran on 10 miles on Monday, the most I have ran since last spring. It was great and I was amazed out how good I felt. I don't usually run the next day but I knew I wouldn't be able to run on Friday or Saturday so I ran 3 the next day, 5 yesterday and 3 this morning. My quads are a little sore but otherwise I feel great. My fitness has really improved and I am loving running again. I also did core work a couple times this week and some strength training for the first time since my arm surgery.

Now I am off to watch more tv and have some ice cream...one good thing about having my wisdom teeth pulled, I don't have to feel guilty for eating ice cream!

Confidence

I have been working on upping my mileage, and after months of 10-15 miles a week on average I have finally been hitting 20-25 the last month. Last weeks long run was 7 miles. I was running with my friend C, it was early afternoon and not too cold, so it should have been great. However, it was hard! I struggled the whole time, especially when talking.

This week my mileage has increased and I have been feeling good. Today C and I were planned on running 8 and I have been worried all week that I would hold her back. We met up and it was around 12 degrees outside the sun was shining and no wind, so we were good to go. I love cooler temps so this was perfect for me. We started out and I was feeling good, we hit 3 miles and things were going great. Then came the big hill, we cruised up it(we thought we would have to walk!) and then came the fun part of running back down. We finished off our miles with both of us feeling like we could run more. I really enjoyed this run and it was just what I needed to build up my confidence. Now I am ready to tackle a training program.

Early Morning Running

I have a love/hate relationship with the treadmill. I love it when it's freezing outside or when my kids are home and I need to run. In the past I would run mid morning or at night, whenever I could fit it in. Now that I am working full time, and my job requires me to be outside, I am having a difficult time fitting it in. So I have finally accepted the fact that I am going to have to become an early morning runner. This has never been my favorite time to run and I hate the treadmill in the morning. If I am strength training or working out to a video I don't have a problem getting it done early, it's only treadmill running that I psych myself out. However I have signed up for a half marathon in June and I would like to train harder then last year. I did drag myself out of bed at 5 on Thursday and ran an easy 3 miles. I didn't love the run but the rest of the day I felt great. Now I just need to continue until I learn to love it!

Appreciation

This week has been full of ups and downs. Monday I received a call from the dermatologist. The biopsy report came in on the mole they removed from my arm, melanoma. I was in shock and made the appointment for surgery on Wednesday. I checked out google and waited for JR to come home so I could tell him. He of course handled it well, although he was scared he didn't let me know, too much anyway.

Wednesday my daughter had an appointment early so I was able to talk to the doctor and was told that there is a 96% cure rate. He would cut it out and that would be it, except for frequent checkups for the next 5 years. I am incredibly lucky. This was a huge wake up for me and the 2 days between the initial call and when I met with my doctor made me think a lot about my life and how I want to spend the time and energy God has given me.

Looking at changes I want to make in my life, I opened Amanda's post at runtothefinish.com. She has a 30 day Appreciation challenge for the month of February. Everyday I will tell someone what I appreciate about them. This will be great for me because I am guilty of not telling people what I appreciate about them. I am excited to see what this challenge brings!

OK so it has been a VERY long time since I posted. I finished my first marathon! YAY! Then I started working full time and had a hard time with running. I did run a half marathon last spring and a 10k this fall but have been struggling with consistency. I signed up for the HBBC this year to help me get back into training again. I am currently running 9-15 miles a week and would like to run around 25 miles/week.

Hopefully the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge will help me get back on track. Thanks Amanda at RunToTheFinish.com for the challenge!

How many 20 milers?

I didn't run this weekend so I had to make up my tempo run on Monday. My plan called for 2 miles at goal pace, 2 miles tempo, and 3 miles goal pace. I ran at the indoor track and was able to stay under 9 minute miles for goal pace and 8:00 and 8:05 for tempo. Yesterday I had a 80 minute run with hills. I ran on the treadmill and realized that I did not want to run that long so I split the workout up. I did the first 40 easy and did another 40 minutes last night. I did a Nike hill workout and my legs felt it, I was very tired and sore afterwards. Today was an easy 3 then I lifted. I was tired when I started but am feeling better now.

My training plan has me running only one 20 miler so I have been thinking about fitting in another. If I do I will have to run 18 this week and 20 next week, otherwise my plan calls for 16 miles this week and next. Does anybody know if I need two 20 milers or is one enough? Thank you for any information you can give me!

Long Run

Training has been going well, I had my first 15 miler yesterday. It was my first long run in a long time that I had to do alone so I was nervous. Running with someone really helps the miles fly by. I woke up to a blizzard, with a couple inches of new snow. I was not looking forward to running outside but I did not want to run 15 on the treadmill so I bundled up and took off. The first 2 miles were horrible, my achilles were so tight and the road was uneven with the snow. I ran around my house and was ok when I was running with the wind but 5 miles in I had to run against the wind and my cheeks were freezing so I decided to finish on the treadmill. I came in at 6 miles and my cheeks were white, I changed into some dry clothes and jumped on the treadmill. I managed 9 more miles, very boring on a treadmill! Afterwards I took an ice bath and felt good the rest of the day. Today I ran 5 easy miles and my legs are tired, thankfully tomorrow is a rest day.