First santa visit

His christmas sweater we found at the thrift store.  I LOVE a good bargain!

I feel like andrew deserves a post so here it is.  We had our first visit to santa this year.  Last year, he was only 6 months old and the flu was going around like wildfire.  We choose to forgo santa pictures and maybe spare all of us illness.  This year we had picked the santa that comes to the union hall to be our goal santa.  He was very nice, super friendly and there were no high pressure lines.  The kids got cookies and a toy and got to play around santa as long as they wanted to.  We felt like it was a win win situation.  We could gradually introduce our son to the jolly old man with little to no pressure.

This probably should have been our first clue that this wasn't going to work.  When we walked in, my social child turned into a hiding shy child immediately.  What the heck, we socialized him like crazy when he was a puppy, er I mean baby.  

He eventually did warm up and did watch another little girl sit on santa's lap.  We thought maybe he was ready to go up and meet St. Nick.  

St.  Nick had a super cool pocket watch.  At first this interested andrew and we thought, wow, this is going to work!

He seemed surprised as daddy let go and put him in Santa's lap.  That quickly changed......

To full on crying and screaming.  Well, in his defense, I never did socialize him with santas so maybe the fault is mine.  

Afterwards we played the "look at that" game.  Yes, I played a game usually for dogs with my toddler.  I was hoping to minimize the damage I had done on my child by putting him on a stranger's lap and walking away.  He got to play for quite a while on the dance floor with other kids in front of santa but he never got the courage up to revisit him.  Santa was super nice and gave andrew a couple of board books.  Andrew had a couple of the cookies that they had and some juice.  He also got to chase/dance with several of the cutest little girls ever.  We will have a ladies man on our hands in the very near future I do believe.  

After santa we had lunch at our most favorite place ever in Topeka, Juli's coffee shop.  Andrew was more about the cheetos than the grilled cheese but at least he ate some thing.  We both had bowls of chili, mine the white and tony the red bean.  They were both amazingly good as always.  We headed out to join the craziness that is the christmas shopping crowd.  I am proud to say in one trip, we got all of the presents from us to andrew and all of the stocking stuffers and we donated a foot ball to the toys for tot's program.  I am sure this will be the very last year we will actually have fun shopping for christmas.  I am sure next year he will have things he wants and then we will be stuck with all of the other crazed parents looking for those things.  This year we just got to choose what we thought he might want.  He is getting a train set, a race track for cars that  you shake and then go, and several fun things in his stocking like a little water bottle with his name on it.  No candy in the stocking this year but I am sure grammy will be sending candy for our stockings that we will share.  

Before the night ended, I got the bright idea to try and set up a christmas card setting so we could get some cute pics.  The dogs were very cooperative, the toddler not so much so.  Need to work on his shaping skills and his stay:)  

Merry Christmas To All!  Hope if you had a santa experience this year that it was low on the trauma scale for you and yours.  

My year in running blog

A common thread that has been going on with running bloggers is your year in running.  I could also do a year in agility.  Maybe I will in the next post.  This one is going to be all running:)  There are questions I have to answer so here they are!

Best Race Experience: Most of the races I did this year were fairly small.  Mostly 5 Ks or 10 Ks and a trail run and a half.  I would have to say my best experience was my first half, the Rock and Roll St. Louis run.  It was big, but it was well organized, the expo was fun, and the race itself had nice scenery and some nice hills that were forgiving.

Best Run: Okay so i would have to say it is a tie between the best tempo run ever this last training cycle and my first 12 mile run right before my half.  That 12 mile run gave me the confidence that i could do a half and that I could do it way faster than I had previously thought. I did help that it was sleeting the last 7 or so miles, which helped me run a ton faster:)  The tempo run was the first time a tempo run felt effortless.  I smiled for days after both.


Best new piece of gear:  Oh boy, all of my gear is new because I have never run in the winter so it is a tie between several pieces.  My brooks headband is amazing for keeping my ears warm and it is so light weight and cute.  I also love my mizuno breath thermal tights and shirts.  I have run in feels like-14 degree weather with wind gusts around 30 mph and been completely toasty.  My last fav is my jacket that i got at the expo.  It is the perfect top layer.  Very light so doesn't add too much but breaks the wind very nicely.  I also LOVE my running leash.  It fits around my waist and it helps me maintain form and I can yolk the dogs together and run with both of them.  Stella can move side to side and I don't have to do anything or un tangle anything and I don't get any of the bruising I use to get when I tied the leash around my waist.

Modeling all four, headband, tights, leash and jacket.  Best part is that it is all matchy matchy and no, i didn't plan that:)

Best Running Advice:  Got so much good advice this year.  Hard to pick just one piece.  I think the best was from one of my friends who is an ultra runner.  He said that yes, have a good training plan but if you can't run all runs that week, don't sweat it.  Just have fun and it will come.  He also told me to take care of my body and get lots of massage work done.  To treat my body like I am an athlete because even though, I can't run a 5 minute mile, i am still out there running and pushing my body.  The third best advice was to get a running partner.  I have tried to train in the past and while i did have some small successes, I have been 100 x more successful this time and I give a ton of credit to my BRF for pushing me and helping me achieve my goals, while she slaid some pretty monster goals too.  

Most inspiration runner:  For me, my running partner.  She is 50, she is fabulous and she pushes me to be faster and better.  I so hope I can be that fit when I am her age.  She also did one of the most punishing races this year, conquer the Konza.  It was 15 miles of hills, rocks, streams and more hills.  Enough said.    I also LOVE NYC marathon mom.  I follow her blog religiously, celebrate her triumphs and cry with her when she has failure.  It was so exciting to follow her through her ironman training and her ironman.   Really makes me want to do an Ironman some day or at least try tris and do several LOL!

If you could sum up your year in a few words, what would they be?  Learning curve mastered!  Plans are key and so are good running coaches and running partners.  Okay that isn't a few but that is the least I can muster:)

I would like to add a section on goals because I am SO about goal setting.  I have done this my whole life and continue to use it in all sports I participate in, including agility, even if my goal is no goals LOL.  My goals this spring/summer of 2014 or the next 6 months at least are to run as many halfs as I can.  I have four planned.  I am still zeroing in on a goal for this fall.  I do want to do every race I did last year to see where I am at training wise.  I have already repeated one of the races I did last year and cut 7 or so minutes off of my time.  To be fair, I had not trained much and had just had andrew when I did this race the first time, BUT i even won 2nd place in my age division.  I would like to get involved in the local tri club to see if I can work on my swimming and bike riding.  I really enjoyed biking when I was injured so I would like to also improve my biking.  I have a fear of going fast, weird I know, but I have this issue with wiping out while going fast so going to have to work on that mentally and physically.  I also am trying to wrap my mind around a possible fall marathon.  I never thought I would say that but I am saying that, putting it out there so it is written.  So many people I know are running marathons this spring and they are inspiring me to run one.  The training will be not much tougher than what I do now but it will have to be a mental issue, trying to get over the thought of running for 4 or more hours.  I never thought I would run for 2 or more hours so it can be done.  Wish me luck!  Here is to a great running new year and no injuries!!!!!

Snow run

Had my first snow run.  I have to say, i rather enjoyed it.  It was much warmer and no wind.  There was probably half an inch on the ground and ice underneath that.  The only problem I incurred was the fact that they had bladed the road and it was down to the layer of ice beneath.  Anytime I hit this, I slipped, so needless to say, my pace was super slow.  As long as I could stay in the plowed snow banks (which weren't very deep), I could keep my footing and keep a decent pace.  I only had four on the books and it worked out well.  Stella was fine till about mile 3.5 and at that time, she started getting ice balls on the bottom of her feet.   Guess I am going to have to dig out Harley's boots that we bought for him when we lived in colorado.  I am looking forward to more snow runs.  I need to invest in some yaktrax or screws for my shoes.  My only concern is that i run mainly on pavement and gravel so not sure how those would do on slicker surfaces.  I can see where they would be beneficial on runs on trails where they can dig in.  I actually skyped my mom while I was running so she could see the snow LOL.  Got to love technology!  Then after hanging up with her, my phone shut completely down.  It had plenty of battery but I guess it got too cold?  I was having a good time listening to rocking holidays pandora:(  Didn't get as many snowy pictures as I had wanted to either.  Boo.  This is just a taste of things to come.  We are suppose to get more snow this week!  I will take the snow over stupid ice.  You just can't do anything with ice.

I also did a pace run this week on campus.  Won't do that again.  Too many stoplights, cars and slow people blocking the sidewalk.  Plus I forget how hilly our campus is.  Yeesh.  Even though the pace set was slow compared to what I normally run, I was really blowing hard at the end.  I did eat a very high fat, greasy lunch so that probably didn't help at all.  My job is stressing me out yet again but that is another post.  It is a good stress, a we have tons of clients wanting stuff done, so there is a line out the door problem.  The good news is, this week, we have been doing more instrument running and less time intensive sample prep which is allowing me to do things like run on campus and blog and such.   Nice to have a little downtime.  But we are having lots of software/computer issues which is out of my territory of knowledge.  Oh well, being busy is a good curse and I will take it!

long run freezing my butt off weather style

I thought my last long run was a cold one but wow, was I wrong.  8 miles in feels like -14.  I feel like my gear is top notch, but my brain is still having issues with going out for runs in the cold.  During the day it isn't so bad but at night, my mind just won't let me.  Two nights this week I needed to run when I got off.  I had to work late and when I finally made it home, I just couldn't convince myself that I needed to go.  One night I just ran on the treadmill.  It was 30 minutes at a 10:15 pace with a 5-10 minute warm up and cool down.  I opted for the shortest warm up and cool down and almost poked my eyes out several times running on that thing.  I had the music going and the tv on in front of me and still couldn't stop staring the display.  What do you mean it has only been 2 minutes?  It's been an eternity!!!!!  Plus hubs had to coral the kiddo who wanted to join me and he was screaming bloody murder most of the time I was running.  Basically forty minutes of pure torture.  I really, really admire all the blogging ladies that love and embrace treadmill running.  I think I will have to force myself outside no matter what, unless it is icy.  

I think it works best when I just get up and go versus having all day to think about how cold it is outside.  That is what I did this morning.  Got up two hours before I needed to go out, fueled and had some coffee and then headed out.  Luckily, we didn't have wind.  Unluckily, the temp was -14.  Luckily it was up to 0 by the time we got done.  I really love my mizuno breath thermals.  I was not cold at all other than my face.  I double gloved this time, tech gloves on bottom, cotton on top.  I had my breath thermal shirt on with my brooks running  jacket on top.  Brooks headband, low pony and my mizuno tights.  This time I did wrap a scarf around my neck just in case I needed to pull something up over my face.  I did try several times to cover at least my lips and nose with the scarf but it never would stay in place.  It was funny, I decided to go to linear trail so I would have some sort of wind barrier.  There really wasn't much wind but my normal 6 mile route has NO barriers at all so I think it creates wind even when there is none.  Well, parked and started running and about 2 miles in, there was a huge road closed sign.  Huh?  They can close the trail?  Well, they did so, at least the portion that goes under the very busy road, so I had to think quickly.  I knew another way to get to another part of the trail but it meant running across a very busy four laned road.  We did so  thanks to a working cross walk signal, but by the time we got to the end of the trail before it headed back into town we weren't at 4 miles yet.  I didn't want to have to go back on the sidewalk to get to the next section of trail so I headed back.  I figured I could finish my run by running past the parking lot and down the trail a little bit the other way.  When I got back to the car, i was only at 7.3 so I had to run back down the trail for a while and then circle the parking lot.  I think my watch gets confused when I turn back suddenly so I feel like I probably did more than 8 but oh well.  I am sure the people in the business where I parked my van had a good laugh at me running circles around my van.  I just can't stop till the garmin says we are done.  

Tonight is going to be my first mommy's night out with some mommies I really would like to get to know.  I have a four mile run planned for tomorrow but it is like an 80 percent chance of snow so may get my first snow run in!!!!!

A 5 K to see where I am at or something like that

Why do I always want to start out my blogs with the word So?  So, LOL, i wanted to do a race to see where I was in my training.  I have noticed that my times have been getting progressively faster so wanted to see how that transitioned to a race.  I run on hills and flat but more flat than hills and I havent started back to hill work yet.  My hope was that I could find a 5 K that was more like where I trained and run my heart out.Well that sort of happened but sort of not.  I chose the winter runderland race in manhattan.  It had two options, an option where you ate doughnuts and ran (i think 4, 2 at mile 1 and 2 at mile 2) or just flat out ran.  I chose the non-eating option because frankly i think i would blow chunks if I ate doughnuts and ran the hills I ran.  The race was small, 98 runners in the regular run and 65 in the doughnut challenge.  That is probably a good thing because the beginning of the race used a trail that became very narrow in places.  Luckily this is a trail that we use for the group runs so I knew where the narrow spots were.  I also decided that even though I could run with my dog, that because I wanted to PR and because i wanted to let the other runners have plenty of space, i would leave her home which made her very unhappy.  She sulked for hours after I got home.  She thinks that if I have running clothes on that she needs to go.  I felt guilty for leaving her but wanted to be respectful of people's space.  This is my support crew giving me a kiss before I headed for the start line.  They had an awesome playground at the park where the race was and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

Once again, I wasn't nervous.  I felt very prepared, even though I had run 7 miles at a very fast pace for a long run  thanks to my BRF a day before and then had stupidly had two beers the night before.  It was an afternoon race anyway and I felt good by then.  I made sure to drink lots of liquids prior to the race.  The race started out very fast.  I was about mid pack and boy those people were serious about those doughnuts!  I have never started that fast. I kept seeing 7s on my watch and started really freaking out.  When I start out, for about a quarter of a mile, my body fights me and I struggle to get my breathing under control.  Well, add being really out of breath because i am running crazy and fighting my body and you pretty much get panic mode.  I finally just let all the crazies pass me and picked out a person to hang with.  I quickly decided she was too slow so picked another person.  Never could catch up with her but I kept close to her the whole race.  She finished maybe 7 seconds a head of me.  I just couldn't catch her no matter how hard I tried.  She was a beast!  So mile one ended at 9 minutes.  I was super happy but turning up a huge hill. My BRF did this race last year and had warned me of the hills but wow, those hills from  mile 1-2 were tough. My watch hit 10 even and I glad to keep that pace.  I am super out of shape with hills because i haven't done hills since before my half.  I so need to get back to hill work.  These hills kept going up and up and up.  No down hill till about the end of mile 2.  I knew we headed back to trail for the end of mile 2 and 3 so I was just hoping i could keep it together till then.  Mile 2 to 3 was nice.  I was trying to hold back till the end to let it go.  I was seeing 8s come up on my watch.  I didn't want to kick it in too soon though and loose.  There was a lady I had been battling and she was trying to pass me.  I finally just said screw it and let go.  Thank goodness because she was in my age group:)  I ended up finishing 0.69 seconds ahead of her.  I think i wore her out LOL.  I think she probably thinks I am crazy but I didn't want to be passed at the end.  I may or may not have almost puked at the finish line.  Snot was the enemy, just like the last time I ran a faster 5K.  It wasn't even cold so I guess speed makes me snotty?  8:34 for my final mile!  

I had signed up for the FB alert that I had finished.  My BRF had already seen that I had finished and imediately commented.  I clicked on the link and low and behold, I had won 3rd place for my age division!!!!!! I was SO excited.  Now I thought i had a PR but my 5 K this summer was quicker by 0.06 seconds.  If only i hadn't slowed down on those dang hills!  I tried and for the record I never walked and I walked in the 5 K that I had a faster time.  So there is that!

I hope I get to do this more often!  It was an awesome feeling!

I will cherish this medal:)

Glad one of my FB friends was helping with the race so I could get some cool pics!

I was 16th female out of 67 and 3rd out of 16 in my age group.  While I think the hills killed me, I am so excited where I am at and I think I can do better.  What this weekend taught me more than anything is that I can push it beyond my comfort zone and I can survive.  I won't fall over and I do have kick (sorry lady in purple, I really liked your shirt).  If i can get at least 2 miles in the 9s and one faster mile, man, I think i could be in the high 26s.  I have so much more work to do but i feel like I am on the right track.  I am so very excited for the future!

So much to be thankful for

Time for the I am thankful post.  Was going to post something on FB but I have so much to be thankful for so I'd better just do it here.  Right now I am thankful for a sleeping toddler so I can blog:)

I am super thankful for four healthy dogs.  Yes, two of them are seniors and two are silly and young but they are all very healthy and happy and I am very thankful for that.  Not a day goes by that I don't log into FB to see someone loosing a dog or finding out about cancer in a dog and my heart goes out to them.  I almost lost miller this year so I totally get where they are coming from and my heart goes out to all of them.

I am thankful for my healthy, happy, super active baby. Some times I don't get to do what I want when I want to or my activities are made harder by his presence but again, I read too many stories of kiddos that are battling genetic or terminal illness and I thank the Lord that I was spared these issues thus far and hope to be spared them for ever and ever.  I love watching him grow up and discover the world around him.  He is the climbing phase and trying to give me a heart attack on a daily basis but I am thankful that he has also learned how to fall carefully, how to sit down and scootch or lay on his stomach to go down something, and how to leave certain things alone no matter what.  He still pushes his limits and we have just installed yet another baby gate but I am thankful he has the mobility and motor skills to get around and get into trouble.

I am also thankful that I have had an injury free cycle of training and as I embark on the next cycle of training, I hope to continue to be injury free.  Once again, I read lots of blogs and am FB friends with lots of runners and it is so tough reading when some one is injured.  I treat myself like a true athlete, even if I am not really a true athlete, and get lots of massages and stretch and foam roll.  As i try something truly epic (for me that is) of four half marathons in 3 months, I hope to continue to be thankful for no injuries.

I am also thankful for my job even if it is lately very stressful.  I think we will be able to remain open, even if it is only another year.  We have lots of clients but we are having lots of issues with sample prep and well, the buck stops at me.  We have tried lots of protocols and lots of ideas and we are closer but still not where we need to be.  I am thankful to have so many awesome scientist helping me get this straight and I am blessed to be trusted with coming up with such a big protocol that takes some a whole PhD to get straight.

I am also thankful for my hubby and for him to have his job mostly this year.  These last few months have been hard with him working so much but I will take that versus us not having two incomes.  He has for years put up with my dog habit and my science habit and now he puts up with my running habit and even is running more and more so he can say he has an addiction too!  He has endured many mornings of taking care of an infant so I can go work out or run and he still lets me watch the one tv show I LOVE (AHS) and takes care of andrew that night.  He still grits his teeth when the dogs have accidents or he has to wrestle hair bunnies the size of our child, but he does so and loves me still.

Working on a toy car at the discovery center

I am also very thankful for my mom who has become the best grammy ever.  I think the dogs taught her how to be a great grammy anyway so the transition to a tiny human was easy.  She just drove 9 hours out to KS to deliver a van that her and my stepdad bought for me because it was a steal of a deal and they couldn't pass up on it.  I am 36 and I have yet to buy my own vehicle because they keep giving me vehicles.  Yep, the vehicles are old but they get me to where i need to go and I am thankful that they love me enough to keep giving me vehicles so that I continue to commute and travel.  

Last but not least, I am thankful for my friends, agility, running, FB, college, high school, work, whatever you are.  You have listened to me, gave me advice, helped me with my kiddos, trained with me, watched my endless post about training, celebrated my accomplishments both agility and running and helped me with mommy issues as I navigate this new lot in life.  I probably would have lost my mind if it weren't for you.  You are too many to name so I won't even try, but thank you.

And with that, I will end my thank yous. Lots to be thankful about!  Now bring on the holidays, winter running and another year that hopefully will be full of awesomeness!

Weekend runs

Hello winter, nice to finally meet you this year.  This will be my fist adventure into running in the winter.  In previous years I either hibernate, recover from some injury or hide in the gym and strength train.  This winter will be different.  I have four half marathons coming up in the spring, two in april, one in may and one in june.  So i don't get the luxury of taking the winter off this year and I am okay with that.  I don't want to loose what i have and have to start over.  Starting over is tough.  I like where I am at now and I don't want that to ever change.

Had my first really tough day saturday.  Let's just say feels like 16 with 20 mph winds.  The kind that cut you like a knife.  My running partner actually turned around and went back.  I was tempted but I wanted to be tough and get through it.  There will be worse days for sure.  I figured if i could master that day, I could make it through most anything.  The bad thing was, my watch wouldn't find satellites and I had my phone buried in layers so when my BRF peeled off to go back, I had to hurriedly dig my phone out and probably missed at least a mile.  The miles i got on my phone and watch were 5.68 miles in 57:28 or 5.85 in 59:18.  Both had me at about a 10:08 minute mile.  I know I at least ran a mile before I got anything turned on.  I am SO excited because that is so much quicker than my usual "easy" runs and that was with the wind and cold!!!!  I need to do a race to see where I am at.  Apparently cold weather makes me run faster!  When I got home and in the house, I was aware at how cold it really was.  I was numb all over.  I couldn't use my hands at all even though I had gloves on.  I couldn't get stella's harness off and had to have tony get it off because she was running through the house dragging me.  I am happy with my winter gear that i have purchased.  I did not feel cold at all even though the wind was howling. I ran in my new target tights, my new brook's headband, my mizuno thermal breath shirt and my brook's jacket that i got at the expo with my new target gloves.  Target has some good stuff so if you need new gear and want to save money, go to target.  I got my mizuno stuff on the sale rack before last spring so didn't pay full price.  The only thing I would like is maybe some mittens to put over my gloves when it is super cold and maybe something to cover my face on really windy runs.

Today it was a bit warmer.  I think it felt like 21.  I took stella and deuce.  I had four on the docket but since I ran a little bit more yesterday, i could run 3.37 and be good to go.  We just ran.  I looked at my watch when the first mile passed, 9:25.  Hmmm...felt easy.  Next mile 9:19.  Still felt easy.  9:35 last mile because deuce took a poop and I had to stop.  Wow.  PR on my five K.  WOW.  That didn't even feel hard.  Major runner's high.  Immediately entered a race in december when I got home.  I always run faster in a race than I do at home by myself and bonus, this run I can run with stella.  Stay tuned!  Hope I can PR in this race too!  3.43 miles in 32:08.  Let's do this and do it right!