A New Thing

Good Morn!!!

So I had a great 10 mile run on Friday!  Averaged a 9:04 for the run, so I was happy with that.  Nothing much to say other than a good training run.  This weekend I will do 8 miles and then it's race day May 10th!  Woohoo!!!

So onto the new thing... it's really not that new I just came on board with it.  We are doing the whole Dave Ramsey get out of debt thing.  My hubby has been into it for years, but I felt it was just cramping my style (which it was, and still is), but I decided to stop spending money and try to pay off all our debt before our little kiddies arrive.  So I decided that every Monday starting next week I'll do a little video to show the cheap things that I have that are just as good as my beloved, nicer, more expensive stuff :)  We'll see how it goes, I hate the sound of my own voice, so I hope it's not like nails on a chalkboard to everyone else!  Hah.

Today is my rest day cue the Hallelujah chorus!  My legs just feel pretty tired.  So I'm excited to rest.

Do you guys get excited for rest days?  Or do you dread them?

Family Time

Hello there!

I have had an awesome week!  I spent all my extra time with my brother and his family while they were here and it was so much fun!!!

Yesterday we went to a petting zoo and I think I loved it more than the kids!  I tried to convince my hubby to buy me this bunny, but seeing as we have a beagle I'm thinking he was right in saying no.

I have a ten-mile run on the schedule for today so I'll update my instagram with how that goes.  I'm waiting until this afternoon because it's supposed to be beautiful out!  I love running in nice weather.  This winter was brutal, we had record-breaking snow and ridiculous amounts of ice, super cold weather, etc.  So it's exciting to be able to run in nice weather :)  Thanksgiving day we were in a 10K and woke up that morning to 6+ inches of snow!!  It was my worst race ever.  It was a trail run in a ton of snow.  Ew.

Have a great weekend!!

Birthday Celebrations!

Good Morn!!

I have been getting in my training runs... just 2 more weeks and it's race day!  I got in a 6 miler and a 5 miler and may take tomorrow off.  I am prone to shin splints and I feel them sproutin' up and I almost turned around and cut my run short today but I didn't, so we will see how tomorrow feels.  I'm sleeping in my compression sleeves so hopefully it's a magical fix :)

It's my brother's birthday next Monday and he is here now from NC so I made him a super hero cake!

I think it turned out okay... it's a little sloppy but it tasted good and that's the important part, right?

We are off to the petting zoo so I'm hoping for some nice weather.  I will have some great pictures from that amazing adventure, I'm sure!

See you soon!

Weekend Update

Good Morning!!

It is such a good morning.  I had an awesome weekend!!  Started with meeting my new baby nephew!  He is so so cute!

Saturday morning was the 5k.  No PR here.  But I'm not disappointed at all because Saturday morning was just one of those days I didn't care about going fast.  I was just like "eh, let's enjoy this day."  And I still mustered up an 8:25 pace.  So it made me very happy that when I do decide to go fast I may make my PR then :)

Saturday afternoon was spent with 2 of my 3 brothers and their families and my mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and my sister-in-law's mom, too!  Phew.  It was busy but so much fun!  We even took the paddle boat out for the first time on the pond.

Sunday morning my brother and I decided to do a 5 mile run together.  We stopped to take an Easter morning selfie.  We had such an awesome time catching up and running together.

Off to church we went with the fam after the run.

Don't mind my crazy face... or my dirty mirror :)

Church, dinner, Easter Egg Hunt.

A great weekend with great family.  Hope you all had a great Easter!

5k and Pinterest FAIL!

Good Morn!

Wish me luck... I'm off to a 5k.  Would love to PR, but I really don't think it's going to happen.  My previous PR is 24:30.  To beat that would be pretty amazing for me!  But we will see how it goes!

I made a birthday cake for my fabulous sister and it was supposed to turn out like this

 

Here is mine...

Yes you see that right, it looks like poop.  So... I was too embarrassed to take it over to my parents.  I ended up spreading it all out to look like this.  Not much better but it didn't look like piles of poop.

The good part of this story is that the cake tasted amazing!! It is a chocolate/coffee flavored cake with mocha buttercream frosting.  I combined two cake recipes and a different frosting recipe and it turned out very well.  I think almost everyone had 2 pieces!!  

Okay, now I'm off... I'll post on instagram.  So check it out, if you want :)  Have a great weekend and Happy Resurrection Day tomorrow!!

Long Run- Check :)

Hellooooo!

Well today is going to be a great day because I already have my long run for the weekend done!  Woohoo! I love feeling on top of things (because it's a feeling I rarely get to feel).  I'm doing a 25k (15.5 miles) in a few weeks so I wanted to get in one last long run of 12-13 miles, so I set out to do 12 today.  I broke it up and did 7.5 on my way to meet my little run club and then did the rest with them.  My hubby met up with us and brought me gu and water and I didn't take it... not smart!  So I got to mile 12 and I wish wish wish I would've done one more because I had a good pace going, but I literally had NOTHING left in my tank.  Darn.

So I started a little faster than I normally do, but it felt so good and then I didn't pay attention to my pace AT ALL!  On long runs my goal is to finish :)  All I'm trying to say is it was a good run.  End of story.

One of my students got me this on Spring Break and it is my favorite thing on my car now!!

How sweet is that?  Now everyone will know that I love beagles.  I feel like it's an important fact.

Today I get out of work early, then have a dentist appointment.  This weekend we have family coming into town so I'm in charge of birthday cakes!  You guys will get some pictures of that for sure!  And maybe some tutorials... depending on how they turn out ;)

Have an AWESOME day!!!!

Transformation Tuesday- How I transitioned into loving running

Hi all!

This Transformation Tuesday I am not going to be talking about the transition that my body went through with losing 40 pounds.  I am going to talk into how I transitioned into a runner.  I feel like with running you either love it or hate it.

That's how I was pretty much my entire life.  Now I did sports, I played soccer and volleyball.  Soccer requires a lot of running and I HATED it.  When we would do conditioning I was the first to quit and start walking.  My friends would go run around the neighborhood and I would lag behind, walking and huffing and puffing because I was so out of breath.  I hated running.

Fast forward into 5 years of marriage.  I had gained weight and was very, very unhappy with myself.  I started to eat less and lost some weight.  I figured if I lost weight just by eating less imagine what would happen if I started to exercise.

I started slow, I don't even know what pace I started at but I would run around our apartment complex for 10 minutes.  It hurt, I sweated like a gross pig, but I did it.  I upped my time to 15 minutes and bought myself a purple armband (I'm easy to please apparently), and also signed up for a 5k.  I ran that 5k in 38:05, but it felt awesome to accomplish that.

This was right after my first 5k and I was so excited!!

After that I was honestly hooked.  I can't explain it, but I think that the more I ran the faster I got and it was a competition just with me.  No one else... although I do love to beat people in races :)  With running it takes time and a LOT of hard work.  It didn't come easy to me... hah, it still doesn't, but I know that with each step I take I am becoming a better me.  Something like that you hold on to.  That's all I got for today!  Are you going to run today?? :)

 Have a great day and a great run!

Weekend Long Run

Hello!!!

Back to work I go.  Last week was Spring Break and it was glorious!  After recovering from the flu I got in some good runs, and even did a long(ish) run to get ready for my 25k.

First things first, Friday Hubby took work off so we could spend some time together.  We went to a little neighboring beach town and explored, ran up some sand dunes, and ate some delicious food!  I don't take pictures of food but we had dill havarti soup, crab bisque, and a delicious sandwich with guacamole on it!  Here's us on the beach though!

We were also beagle sitting this weekend!  Our friends have a mini beagle so we watched her and it was so funny how the two beagles did the same stuff all weekend long!

Now onto my 10 miler!  I was pretty nervous as I haven't ran over 8 miles in a long time, and my mind does terrible things to me during long runs.  I ran up some pretty big hills for the first couple miles (I knew I was going to) but was going to miss them on my way back... well being a glutton for punishment I decided it would be good for me to run the hills on the way back, too.  So I did.  So here are my splits for the run 8:46, 8:55, 9:02, 9:02, 9:09, 9:31, 9:10, 9:22, 9:30, 9:20.  Not my best, not my worst.  I was actually very pleased with my time and very happy with how the run went.  I did get my shoes all muddy though...

It's so exciting to not have to wear running tights and gloves and hats and jackets while running now!  Happy Spring!!

How is training going?  Do you get a Spring Break?  Vacations?  What's new?

Beagles like to sleep

Good Morn!!

I had a great day yesterday full of relaxing, eating, cleaning, and a little shopping.  It was wonderful to get up and not feel like I had to puke.  I hate having the flu :(

Onto bigger and better things... I thought I had lost all my running skills.  I was complaining to hubby that after a full winter on the treadmill I can no longer run outside!  What a tragedy because running on the treadmill sucks!  I decided to go out today and give it my all! 

Still not my best, but I am well on my way to be back where I was.  I thought winter and the flu made me not be a runner anymore... my thinking skills need some work huh :)

This morning my little Lucy did not want to get up.  She has had a long winter, too and has gained some weight.  So she is trying to eat less and move more.  Yesterday she went on a 3 mile walk and that did her in.  I took this picture this morning at about 9:00.

Yes, she is under the blanket, and yes I need a tan.

I got my hair cut and new sunglasses from a Dollar Store.  Woohoo for cheap sunglasses that I'm going to lose anyway!

I am training for a 25K that is in about a month so I am hopefully getting in a nice 10 miler this weekend.  What are you guys training for?

I can do this!

Good Morn!

Last Friday I woke up in the middle of the night and threw up.  I went back to sleep.  I woke up an hour later and threw up again, this time it was violent.  I was shaking, sweating, and pure white.  I woke up my husband and told him to take me to the hospital because this was the worst throwing up I have ever had.  He calmly said to wait and see what happens in a couple hours while rubbing my back while I'm puking in the toilet (I have a winner, friends.. seriously.)  So anyways, fast forward a few hours later, I'm still puking.  It was terrible. 

 

All day Saturday I felt sick to my stomach and didn't do much of anything.  Except I did get to see my brother, the one I ran the marathon with!  It was a special time.  After that I slept and slept some more.

Sunday rolls around and my stomach is in pain.  Like weird pain.  A pain I have never felt.  I lay down all day with a heating pad on my belly.  So I didn't know whether or not I could run today.

I got up and felt pretty good and decided to set out for an easy 3 mile run.  It was going pretty well and I decided not to pay attention to my watch at all.  I figured I just took three days off, and was pretty sick.  Whatever pace I'm going is good enough.  I got to 3 miles and felt good so I decided to make it to 4!  I was so excited!!  And my pace was all right, too.  Not too bad for my first run after sickness :)

Now for a day of shopping and maybe a haircut with my momma! 

How long do you wait to run after you are sick? 
How was your run today?

I'm BAAAACK!!!

Well hello there!  Good to see you again :)

I am back after taking a little hiatus.  Things in our house got a little busy.  We made the decision to adopt!! :) and between filling out paperwork, home studies, etc. I let this little blog go.  But I'm back and will still be posting about running stuff.

Here's a little bit of what we've been up to...

we are adopting!

Lu and Buddy meet (Buddy is Lu's great uncle)

found some (more) old pictures

my parents moved 6 miles away from us :)

celebrated my birthday with a good friend

had a full house for Christmas

went to a beautiful wedding

father/daughter

had a baby niece and a baby nephew born, I will get pictures up soon :)

had a very loooong winter with lots of snow and huge icicles.  p.s. that was from the roof.. of our house.

Running has been hard because of all the snow and below freezing temps this winter, but I stuck it out on the treadmill alllll winter long. ew.  Here's a gym selfie :)

And now that it's nice out, I have the flu!! :( but I'm recovering and will hopefully be back at it tomorrow.  

I will be back with my running update (hopefully) tomorrow!!