The race...

In a nut shell the race was awesome!  I ran the whole damn thing! Which I wasn't exactly expecting to be able to do. I run every other day for 30-45 minutes. But there is some walking in there too. So I guess I expected to do some walking like I usually do. I don't really have a plan to my *training*, mostly to just keep moving, sweat a fair amount and feel good about myself when I'm done. For the race I decided I would run until I felt like I needed to walk and then run some more. At one point I realized I'd been running for awhile and being familiar with the route I knew it had been more than 1/2 way. I was feeling good and just kept running. And then I got to the 2 mile mark and just kept running. And then I began to think I could probably run the whole thing. At the home stretch I began to tear up because I was about to finish running the WHOLE THING! O and Morgan were at the finish but Morgan's phone had run out of charge so there are no pictures of me running! Just this one of me and O at the end. Owen wanted to know what had taken me so long! And they hadn't even been there the whole time.

 

This is the first race I've run the entire way since before Owen was born. After I got pregnant I stopped running and haven't been able to pick it back up until last fall.  And while 3.1 miles doesn't seem like a long distance to a lot of runners, to me it's an accomplishment. As I mentioned before I have never considered myself an athlete let alone a runner and now I am. And I'm proud of that. My pace is some people's walking pace but I don't care about that either. Given time and some weight loss I'm sure I will get faster but my goal is not to be the winner. I always just want to finish and not be last.

Just some fun facts about the race. It was 3˚ when the race started. For my celsius friends that is -16˚. What I have on in the picture above is what I wore for the race, plus a pair of running gloves. The magenta top is fleecy on the inside. I was comfortable. Not too hot, not too cold. And below is a little alteration I made to the top to accommodate my phone. I used a piece of fabric from my running pants (they needed to be shorted) to stick a pocket onto the running top. My running pants have a very small pocket just large enough for a key and my ipod.

 

Voila! Pocket for my iPhone. It was very handy. Even though Morgan thought it looked ridiculous! My sister will appreciate my ingenuity! Those are not my usual running pants!

 And lastly, my pre-race breakfast. Greek yogurt, blueberries and granola. I like to eat light before I run. Most days I don't eat at all before I run.

My next race, another 5K, is in April. Hopefully it will be warmer than 3˚ by then!

First 5K of the year...

Tomorrow I am running the Valentine's Day 5K. My first 5K of the year. Along with my goal of getting exercise everyday I am also planning to run a 5K every other month plus (maybe) the Twin Cities 10 miler in October. I am a goal oriented person and I like to have deadlines and things to work toward. Last fall I started running again and my goal was a 5K in December. Check, got that done. My friend Jen ever so graciously ran it with me even though we are the most incompatible running partners ever! 

Today I picked up my number and shirt for tomorrow's race. The *taken* is for my back. Since it's a Valentine themed event people can wear a sign on their back (if they want) to indicate if they are available, taken or it's complicated (I think that's the other choice). I guess meeting someone at a race is better than a bar (maybe).

 I also got my shirt and was able to find a cold weather compression top at Target on clearance. I'm not opposed to having something like this in my running wardrobe but I will most likely not wear it often so I was happy about the clearance part. It's a little fleecy on the inside. I may need to sew a pocket on it though as my running pants only have a small key pocket and I like to run with my phone too.

 When I picked up my race number and shirt the running store was offering 20% of purchases for race participants so I picked up some new shoes. It may not be the best idea to run a race in new shoes ( I don't really know) but they are just the newest version of my current shoes. I have been having some foot pain and the guy at the store thought maybe my shoes were wearing out. He said he gets pain in the same spot when his start to go. They also match my outfit better than my old ones :-)

 We've had an unseasonable warm winter here in MN but for today and tomorrow it's going to be much more arctic. Lucky me! Which is the reason for the warmer top! As long as I'm moving I'll be fine.

It probably seems as though I'm making a big deal out a little ol' 5K. BUT I am not a runner. Well, I guess that's not true. I run, so I'm a runner. I don't subscribe to the whole "jogging" thing because if it's not walking, it's running. And I'm not fast. I guess what I mean is I'm not the traditional runner in the sense that I've been doing it since high school or college. I started running in my mid 20s and it was a long process to get to a place where I feel like I enjoy it. Partly why I started was because I am a little competitive but I'm not a team sport person. I was a dancer and I did that competitively for awhile but after college I basically gave it up. Running is just a personal challenge that I enjoy and it's faster than walking. Although lots of taller people can walk as fast as I run! And in junior high and high school part of the Presidential Physical Fitness challenge was running a mile. I could not do that. And it always bothered me. Now, I can run a mile. And I may not run all my miles consecutively (I still take walk breaks) but now I can run. And I'm damn proud of that.

Happy New Year!...Oh wait, it's February...

I have written many blog posts since the last one I posted. They just reside in the madness of my mind. Obviously I feel off the Daily December documentation Train. No surprise. I have however accomplished many things in the last (almost) 2 months.

• We celebrated Christmas. It was lovely. Owen did not receive any clothes from us which I was informed was not a fun gift. He did receive a few clothing items from my mom and sis but they know his particular taste so they were received with a smile. He is already planning for his birthday and keeps asking how many sleeps until then. 
• We celebrated New Years Eve with friends. They boys stayed up until midnight and then watched fireworks out the window of our friends' house. I'm pretty sure neither of them had ever stayed up that long ever. It was declared, "The BEST night ever!" Morgan got sick. Which we thought was because he ate too much (he never does this (wink, wink) but it turns out he had a bug. Which we realized after Owen got it. I avoided all of it. Amazingly. 
• For my 2012 goal (not a resolution) I decided I would get some exercise everyday. I didn't declare a number of minutes or the type of exercise it should be. So far so good. For the most part I either run or ride my bike. Once a week I go to the Y for a weight class and then get on the ellipse machine. My workouts are usually 20-60 minutes. Riding my bike has been a great opportunity to Keep Up with The Kardashians. (Much to the dismay of my sister and my marketing co-worker.) And I am able to keep running thanks to good LOUD music and a goal of the next 5K. (Which just happens to be this Saturday!) Moderation is not something I am good at so to not have rigid guidelines about how much, when, where and for how long is a big accomplishment for me. It has become a habit that is just part of my day and I don't need to think too much about it.
• Morgan and I have begun keeping track of our eating habits and are working on making healthier choices. To help us with this we are using a cool app called Lose It! It's free and works quite well. It's even equipped with a bar code scanner so we can scan foods, the app with then will then find the food and show the nutritional information. I know that keeping a food journal works but I have not been successful at this for a long time because I hated having to look everything up online or in a book. This is super handy since it's on my phone and I can either scan things or search for them. Homemade meals are a little trickier but we've gotten good at figuring them out. It has been very helpful for me that we are both doing it. 
• I've become a morning person. I'm not sure when this happened but it did. And it's been beneficial for getting my workouts in. I'm usually up and at em' early enough to get a workout in before taking O to school and going to work. This has always been my preferred time to workout, I just wasn't usually up early enough to do it! It may have something to do with getting better and more continuous sleep, which has happened as a result of Owen getting older and mostly sleeping through the night now! Although Ludwig still does his share of waking up in the night. 
• For 2012 I realized I need to take more pictures for my own creative self. When it came time to make my 2012 gift calendars I found I had not taken very many pictures that weren't portraits! In the end I pulled it together but this year I need to make a point of shooting more of what I see with my creative eye. 

And that's about it for the last 2 months. At least that I can remember right now! Maybe it won't be so long in between posts this year.

Oh Look! I'm behind...

So much for posting daily in December. I made it one day. One day of a daily post. Don't worry though, we've been busy enjoying the season. Here's my recap of days 6-14. 

12/6 The Christmas tree is up!! We are very heavy on the bottom 1/2 of the tree this year. O had a great time decorating.

12/6 We added a little tree to the Lego display.

Our Little People nativity set is all arranged.

Owen's Christmas stocking and on the shelf with it is the most wonderful smelling pine candle.

12/7 presents under the tree.

12/7 Owen sporting a mustache! He was singing a song about a mustache so I broke out my stick on mustaches for him to play with!

12/8 I created an outdoor pot for outside of our breezeway door. It makes me happy every time I come home!

12/8 A new ornament from Santa. Toosy inspected our tree and declared it festive and sparkly!

12/8 Toosy taking a break in one of my ornament jars.

12/9 Our first batch of holiday cookies. These are made with a peppermint kiss in the middle. My friend Jen has dubbed them Dr. Seuss cookies.

12/10 The lego set got a new guy who got a fishing pole and a fire.

12/11 Owen at lunch at Culver's. His Christmas program was that morning! He was a sheep.

12/11 We had a little home improvement time on Sunday. It was supposed to be just a parts replacement but ended up being a new toilet!

Toosy left Owen a message on the chess board.

Our days have been filled with work and school and homework and family time. Last night I went out with some ECFE friends. It was lovely to catch up. On Sunday Naunee came to visit and brought Owen the cutest Christmas pillow case and a felt ornament for me. Saturday night I had book club with some girlfriends and Owen and Morgan went to a spanish party. O had a great time. Tonight we are just enjoying a quiet evening at home.

December 5th

It was back to school and work for all of us today. Mondays are one of my two job days. I work in one department in the morning and another in the afternoon. Things have been slowing down in both departments the last few weeks and I'm okay with that. I had lunch with my morning boss and our processor (it was her birthday) and that was nice. Then I left early to do a little shopping during which I ran into Owen's preschool teacher. I was so excited. Jen & I have been trying to get together with her for a few months now but our schedules just haven't aligned. Then after I picked the boys up from the bus stop we visited at O's buddy's house for a bit, which is always nice. 

 Morgan moved my bike inside and hooked it up to the trainer so my morning workout was on that while I watched the news. A nice change from the treadmill.

The Lego set for the day was another part to the police station.

In the evening I had bible study at church, which has been a nice addition to my weekly schedule and then a little shopping afterward. All in all not a bad Monday.

Daily December Posts

Every year I think it would be great do a Daily December album. But...I'm not good at it. I fall short. I don't like the albums I make. I end up abandoning the plan and don't have anything completed at the end. Last year I didn't even bother thinking about it. Part of it depends on whether or not it's a travel year for us at Christmas or not. This year is not a travel year so I feel more relaxed and able to enjoy Advent. And even though today is December 4th (so I'm already behind!) I've decided to my Daily December will be documented here on my blog. I can post pictures without having to print them and I can write about our adventures or the lack there of. And at the end I will have a record of December. And the lovely part is doing a Daily December takes us through Advent and Christmas.

So this is my catch up post. 

December 1st

We opened the first door on the Lego Advent Calendar. I think it's a crook. Owen added the wrench thing on his own! He was pretty excited about the calendar. Our Christmas Elf brought the set when he came on 11/30. We also opened the first door on our Advent house. Each spot contains either a piece of candy or an except of the Christmas Story. 

After school Owen's best buddy came home with us. They spent the better part of the evening creating Lego vehicles and pretending. I'm sometimes surprised they don't get sick of each other because they spend quite a bit of time together but often when it's time for them to depart they get upset because it just wasn't enough playtime! 

December 2nd

We added a snowball launcher to the Lego set. Again, Owen thought this was a thrilling addition!

 On Fridays I don't work (and O doesn't have school until the afternoon) so we were able to go to the orchestra with Owen's best buddy, his sister and his mom. We saw an abbreviated version of the opera Hansel and Gretel and then had lunch downtown. Lunch with three kids is always interesting!!!

 We opened day 2 of the Advent house.

 And found Toosy sleeping on the shelf in the morning and after school putting together a puzzle. 

December 3rd

 

The Lego Set piece was a Police man. 

 That morning I ran the Reindeer around Lake Harriet in Minneapolis with my friend Jen. I've been preparing for the race for the last three months. Despite my training I was not able to run the entire thing but I was able to finish in the 45 minutes I had projected. 43:44 to be exact. And the song blaring over the speakers when we came into the home stretch was Maroon Five's Moves Like Jagger, which just happens to be my favorite running song right now!

 

We also saw this interesting Santa who had apparently run the race in just what you see in the picture as his race number was pinned to his behind! 

 That evening the three of us went to see the play A Silent Night for Peef at the Stages Theatre. Prior to the play we had dinner at a Brazilian restaurant. Fortunately for Owen they had cheeseburgers and chocolate cake for dessert!

 It was a lovely play and we had a great time. 

December 4th 

I don't have any pictures to post for today. We went to church where Owen and Morgan had an Advent activity during Sunday school. Owen made sand art brownies in a jar for me. We ran a few errands after church. I spent some time leisurely on the couch watching football and perusing Pinterest for holiday ideas. Morgan and Owen went to the pool. I'm hoping to get the rest of the lights up on the Christmas tree tonight and after O goes to bed do some shopping at Kohl's, which is open until 12am. Shopping after bedtime is my favorite time to shop.