Jingle Bell 5k - Race Report

I have been REALLY slow in getting this written up because I sprained my wrist, but that's another story so you'll just have to wait for it. (It's really not all that exciting).

The race was December 3rd. The night before, I got my race belt and shoes all dressed up:

Not the fanciest costume, but they gave us the jingle bells for our shoes in our packets, and I had to cut a few inches off Elle's red tutu anyway so that worked good for my race belt.

After everyone went to bed, Elle came up and threw up all over the floor. And me. Of course, after that, I started feeling sick too. I wasn't sure if I was really getting sick or if it was just psychological from seeing Elle throw up. Do you ever get that? Luckily she slept just fine after that and felt fine in the morning.

I wasn't feeling really good in the morning so I thought about skipping the 5k, but I got up and got myself some breakfast and started to feel better. I decided I would go, and that I could just run slow if I didn't feel better.

I met Amber and Cheryl from my running group there. We hung out and I ran around a little to get warmed up before the start.

I could not believe how good I felt during the race! I was expecting to feel sick, but it was the opposite. My mile splits were:

1. 8:51
2. 8:59
3. 8:44

I was so happy because I was shooting for sub-9 minute miles to finish in under 27 minutes. It was nice to have my Garmin there so I could make sure I stayed on pace, but I was surprised that I was able to stay on pace without feeling like I was going to die. I just kept going, picking people off one at a time to pass, and I felt awesome! It was a lot of fun!

I got to the "2 mile" sign after only about a mile and a half. I thought, "Hmm, that's in the wrong place." Then I got to the finish line way too soon. I looked at my Garmin and it was only at 2.5 miles. I was so annoyed by that and knew I wouldn't be happy unless I really ran 5k, so I turned around and added a quarter mile on before returning to the finish line.

As usual, my brain wasn't working while running so I turned around before I crossed the finish line so my chip time relative to everyone else is off. Oh well. I also turned around a little soon so I still didn't quite get 5k! Arg.

I saw Amber right as I turned around from adding that extra little bit on and told her it was half a mile short, then ran off to finish in 26:44!!

My total distance was 3.03 miles so still not quite 5k, but I'm really happy with my time! I didn't stop my Garmin until they were cutting my timing chip off, and it said 27:03.

After I got home and showered, I started feeling sick again. My dad came over to help us (meaning Pete) work on our basement bathroom. They got the shower base in, built a wall, and put up beadboard. I'm excited, it's going to look so nice! Here's a picture I took before they put the wall on the side of the shower up:

I felt bad because I pretty much just laid around feeling nauseated, taking care of George as much as I could.

I felt better after dinner and a good night's sleep, but still not great. I was a little worried I would still feel sick on Monday because we were planning on going snowboarding...

Starting Masters Again!

So Wednesday I went swimming early in the morning - not quite as early as I would have liked, but I got there by 6:30 or so. Just as I was getting into the pool, this guy came up to me and asked me if I just put my head down and swim laps or if I do workouts, and if I would be interested in doing Masters from 6 to 7 Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Am I?! :)

I told him I was very interested, and that I'd wanted to come, but that I hadn't been able to make it to the sessions at noon because I have kids at home. He was like, "Yeah, I don't know how people make it at noon." I kind of had a workout in mind, but I was happy to have him watch me swim and give me some pointers, some drills to do and a nice workout. He had me do a 500 ladder that was fun and hard. Then I did 5 more 100s and cooled down. I told him I would be there Friday and he said he'd have a workout for me. Saweet!

Today I was much better at getting up on time since I knew someone was expecting me! I actually had to wake George up to feed him before I left, and he pretty much slept all night for the 3rd night in a row! Last night he did wake up at about 11 but I was able to get him back to sleep pretty quickly without nursing him which I was ok with. I was still late, but only by 10 minutes so I got a really super good, hard workout in!

It was really cool because it was just me and one other lady who had her own workout so it was almost like I had my own personal coach. He had me do a few more drills, and a bunch of building and sprinting. He said I swim really well, I just need to work on stretching my arm all the way out. He said that my stroke smoothes out a lot when I speed up so I just need to work on that.

For the life of me, I can not remember everything I did. This is what I can remember, but I swear it was more than 2000 yards! I was so tired afterwards (I still am)!

300 free/back warmup

150 drill

150 drill?

400 (4 x 100 kick/sprint/kick/sprint)

200 kick

100 sprint

200 kick

100 sprint

200 (4 X 50 sprint, flip turn, easy)

200(4 x 50 easy cooldown & work on flip turns)

Yeah, he made me do flip turns too. Yuck.

It actually wasn't that bad, and I think I'm kind of getting it, but I have a sinus head ache from getting too much water in my nose I think. I'll get it, though.

I'm excited for my next workout with him on Wednesday! Anyone want to meet me there at 6am?

I'm not going Monday because hopefully I'll be going snowboarding!

Too Many Choices

It's that time of year again!

I'm not talking about the time of year when you get to eat a lot of good food with your family and stress about shopping for the perfect gifts for everyone you love.

Well, yes, it is that time of year too. But that's not what I'm talking about.

It's also the time of year where your inbox fills up with emails from event companies telling you all about the awesome races they have planned for next year. Registration is starting to open up, and prices are low for the early birds. It's the time of year when you start thinking about what your goals are and what races would just be fun to do.

At least that's what time it is for me. :)

So, this year I've made myself a list of all the local races I'm considering doing. Ah, it's so hard to choose! I seriously wish I could do all these races! Even if that were physically possible (note, several of them are on the same days), there's no way I could afford it! Even just adding up the prices for about half of them, the total came to $2,073! That would kind of clash with our other goals for the year - like getting out of debt.

Anyway, my point is that we have a TON of awesome local races and I'm so excited to participate in some of them next year!

Would you like to see this glorious list?? I thought so!

Wait, first let me tell you a few other things to consider.

*RaceTri has a deal where if you sign up for Salem Spring (Sprint), Rock Cliff (Olympic), and The Utah Half, you get %15 off!

**BBSC has a similar deal when you sign up for Mountain Tropic, Scofield & Park City. They have to be the same distance, though, so I wouldn't be able to do Mountain Tropic Half or the Escape distance at Scofield.

***The Ultimate Tri Relay is new this year from TriUtah, and it looks really fun, so let me know if you're interested in that! It's like Ragnar, only with 4 x swim bike and run totaling 125 miles!

Ok, I know, you're just here to see the list.

Well, here you go (If I know the price, it's on here, and it reflects the lowest price you could get):

January 28 - SLCTC Winter Running Series 5k $40

February 11 - SLCTC Winter Running Series 10k

February 18 - Leave Your Love Behind 10k $30

February 25 - SLCTC Winter Running Series 15k

April 21 - Salt Lake City Marathon/Half

April 21 - Rage Tri (Half IM)

April 28 - Front Runner Century (100k or 100 mile)
May 5 - Ironman St. George $600.00
May 19 - St. George Tri (Olympic) $90.00
May 19 - Bear Lake Monster Relay (50 or 100 mile)
June 2 - Salem Spring Tri (sprint)*
June 2 -Utah County Women's Century
June 2 - Little Red Riding Hood (Century)
June 9 - Utah Valley (Half Marathon) $69.00 - Already signed up for this!

June 15-16 - Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay
June 23 - Rock Cliff (Olympic)*
June 30 - River Rampage (Olympic) 65.00
June 30 - Mountain Tropic (Half IM) 170.00
June 30 - Mountain Tropic (Olympic)** 73.00
June 30 - Bear Lake Monster Century
July 14 - Echo Tri (Olympic) $65.00
July 28 - Scofield (Olympic)** $73.00
July 28 - Scofield (Escape) $170.00
July 28 - Spudman (Olympic) $85.00 (Lottery)
July 28 - Salt Lake Moonlight Run (5k)
August 4- Ultimate Tri Relay*** $85.00
August 11 - Herriman Black Ridge Tri
August 11 - Park City (Olympic)** $73.00
August 18 - Jordanelle (Olympic) $65.00
August 25 - Front Runner Century
August 25 - The Utah Half (Half IM)* $150.00

August 25 - Women Rock (Sprint Tri or 5k)
September 1 - Bear Lake Monster Half Marathon (trail)
September 8 - Camp Yuba Tri
September 15 - Top of Utah Marathon $75.00

September 15 - Ogden Valley Tri

September 22 - Murray Moonlight Run (5k)

September 29 - Women of Steel Relay Run
October 6 - St. George Marathon $80.00 (Lottery)
October 20 - Pumpkinman (Half IM) $170.00

Ok, deep breath...

Kind of overwhelming, hu?

What races are you thinking about doing next year? Have you done any of these and either loved it or hated it? Help me decide on a plan of action here. :)

PS - I'm not affiliated with any of these race companies (is that even what they're called?), I just like to make lists and know what all my options are. We've got a lot of options here in Utah!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Today it was just me, Amber and Brittany for our group run. I'm sad to say that my little running group is dwindling. (I blame it on the cold! Ok, and maybe the holidays.) But that was kind of fun because they're the ones who have been running the longest so we didn't stick to the couch to 5k plan, and just ran.

We were going to do 5 miles, but at almost 2 miles, Amber's stroller tire had a huge blow out! It was kind of funny because she had those tubes with the green slime in them, so it was oozing out all over! Luckily Pete was at home, and I had a spare wheel that I thought might fit her stroller so I asked him to bring it to us. The wheel fit (what are the chances?!) so we just popped it in and finished our run. Since the flat tire had taken up quite a bit of time, we just ended up doing 3.8 miles. That was good, though. Amber said that was the farthest she's ran with her stroller. Yeah! It was a nice day for a little adventure on our run too. :)

This evening we had the sister missionaries over for dinner, and I made breakfast. We figured missionaries probably don't get good breakfast very often so it would be something different for them. I made eggs, sausage, orange slices and cream cheese filled pumpkin muffins. These muffins are my new favorite so I wanted to share the recipe. They're so good - I may or may not have eaten 5 of them!

I got the recipe from Annie's Eats, but I health-ified it a little:

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yield: 24 muffins
Ingredients:

For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the muffins:
3 cups whole white wheat flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1¼ apple sauce

For the topping:
½ cup brown sugar
5 tbsp. flour
1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
4 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions:
To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1½-inches in diameter. Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log, and reinforce with a piece of foil. Transfer to the freezer and chill until at least slightly firm, at least 2 hours. (I didn't do this, I just mixed it then put it in by the spoonful)

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and apple sauce. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.

To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (1-2 tablespoons). Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 24 equal pieces. Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely. Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving. (It may be hard to resist immediate consumption, but the cream cheese filling gets very hot!)

A New PR and Rock Climbing!

I actually got both of my swims in this week! Yay! Wednesday and Friday. That's the first time in the last 2 months that I've gotten 2 swims in a week. Tha'ts actually pretty sad. But, I'm happy I was able to do it this week, even though I slept in both days so I was rushed and had to cut them a little short. I still did it, though, and I hope that means I'm on the way back to making it a habit.

Yesterday morning I got to sleep in - well, stay in bed - until 9, which was really nice. After breakfast and getting george back down for his nap, I headed out on my run. I usually like to do a long run on Saturdays, but since I missed both my fast runs this week (Monday for snowboarding and Thursday for sleeping), I decided to do a fast run.

I ran nice and easy for a mile to warm up, then I did 5k as fast as I could, with another easy mile to cool down. It was hard.

I was able to do my first mile in 8:46 which was awesome, and I was so excited because I felt good and thought I could keep that pace up.

No, I couldn't.

Before I knew it I was back to my 10 min/mile pace thinking, dang it! I went out too hard. I need to learn to hold myself back a little more that first mile.

My next mile took 9:21 and I wasn't quite as happy with that.

I tried to keep my pace at around 9 for the last mile, but it was really hard and every part of my body was telling me to slow down.

I fought and fought, and even said, "come on!" out loud towards the end. I finished that mile in 9:20 (with :47 for the .1 which is 7:55 pace!) and I was dead!

5k Total Time: 28:15

Average Pace: 9:07 min/mile

It was hard, but it was worth it because that is :54 faster than my last 5k! Wahoo! I am so close to the 9:oo min/mile mark, though! That will be my goal for my upcoming 5k. I don't know if I've mentioned it on here, but I'm doing the Jingle Bell 5k on December 3rd with some of the girls from my running group. If you'd like to do it, join our team! It's called "West Side Stroller Runners" and we're going to have so much fun dressing up all Christmas-y for it.

After I got home, and got showered, we went up to Bountiful where the kids and I went to Joann while Pete and George went to Zapponi and ordered pizza. I was able to find the fabric I need for the rest of Ethan's quilt and curtains! This was the first time it was actually EASIER to go to Joann with my kids! It worked out so perfectly because there was a gingerbread house decorating contest going on so the kids watched that while I found my fabric, then they waited in the long line to pay while I got the fabric cut, and we were able to get back to the pizza place not too long after the pizza was ready! SWEET!

When we got done eating, we decided go to look around in DI since it's right there too, and I got a nice pair of jeans and a nice pair of Asics running pants for $10! I was pretty excited about that!

When we got home, Pete said, "Should we go climbing tonight?" Of course I couldn't turn that down so I set about texting some girls while hemming my new jeans because they were a little too long and frayed on the bottom. I was kind of skeptical about finding a baby-sitter since it was already 4:30 and we wanted to leave at 7, but I did get one!

We went up to The Front in Ogden. I'd never been there before, and it is really nice! Two weeks ago, we went to Momentum climbing gym with some friends and it was really fun, and it's bigger than The Front but it was so crowded and loud. This one just had a more relaxed atmosphere and there was never more than 3 other people climbing with us. It was fun. We spent 2 hours there and we both climbed until we couldn't climb any more. Pete did 9 routes and I was able to do 7.

Too bad when we got home, we found out our baby-sitter's mom had to come over and get George to sleep because he was just so sad. I'd really like to start climbing at least once a week, but that makes it really hard to want to leave George. :( But the good thing was he was asleep when we got home and he only woke up once at 4am, then went back to sleep until 8:30 which was better than usual!

Caldo, Caldo, Caldo

I got this recipe from a Spanish book Mindy brought home from school a while back. It's called Caldo, Caldo, Caldo and they made it sound so good, I had to make this the next day. Since it's pretty much the best soup I've ever made, I really wanted to put the recipe on here so I wouldn't lose it. This is such a perfect way to get your vegetables in on a cold winter's day!

Caldo

Broth

1-2 soup bones (I never found these so I haven't tried it with them, but I'm sure they make it so much more delicious!)

1-2 lbs lean stew meat

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tps cumin

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 ribs of celery

Fill large pot with 4 quarts of water and set on medium heat. Add bones and meat, bring to boil.

Skim off the brown foam.

Add seasonings, onion, garlic & celery and simmer for 2 hours until beef is tender. Add more water as needed.

Add vegetables: (use your favorite vegetables, here are some suggestions, the ones I used are in bold)

2 large carrots

1 turnip

3 large potatoes

1/2 green bell pepper

1 zucchini or squash

1/2 small green cabbage

2 ears corn cut into 4 pieces each (I just dumped some frozen corn in the second time I made this and liked that better, but I might have used old corn the first time)

1 medium tomato

3 sprigs cilantro

Continue to cook soup 30-40 minutes until vegetables are tender. If needed, add more water, salt and seasonings to taste. (I ended up adding a bunch more salt and pepper)

Serve with hot tortillas with a bowlful of flavorful rice on the side and a thin slice of lime.

I really like it just with bread and butter, but that's how I grew up eating soup. You know, you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl. Or something like that. :)

Enjoy.

1st Snowboarding Trip of The Season!

I didn't go running today, and I'm not sad about that at all because I got to go snowboarding instead!

I know, sometimes I just feel like my life is just too good to be true!

Driving up there, listening to Audioslave with Pete, I didn't feel like a 31-year-old mom.

I felt more like I was 21.

Skipping school on a Monday morning, going snowboarding with my boyfriend.

The funny thing is that we didn't do stuff like this when we were 21. We didn't really have money for lift tickets back then, and I guess we were also living in St. George where snowboarding was far from our minds.

I also realized that when I was 21, I had a baby which also made it harder to do things like go snowboarding. And here I am again, 10 years later, with a baby again. Crazy!

Anyway, driving up there was kind of weird because there was no snow at first so we were a little worried. By the time we got up to Brighton it was 27 degrees and the ground was covered in snow.

We got there and went to make sure we'd get our tickets right away. We got the Pass of All Passes in the spring and it almost seemed to good to be true (like my life) so we were a little worried. It was just fine though! Phew!

I was getting ready to hook my pass onto my jacket, and put the metal hook in my mouth to zip up my jacket or something, but when I pulled my hand away my finger got stuck so I ended up cutting my lip a little. Smart hu?

Anyway, we got up there and I made it down with only falling once or twice. Yay! I was worried I would have to start all over, but I felt like I was almost at the point I left off in March 2010 (I know the date because the tag was still on my jacket).

It was so much fun! We did 5 runs before it was time to go, and it was awesome!

When it was time to go, we started driving out of the parking lot and saw a bunch of fire trucks and they had closed the road because there was a house fire somewhere in the canyon. They told us the road would be open in about half an hour so we went back to the lodge and got some cheeseburgers and took in the view of the mountains for a while longer. It was so nice, and I couldn't help but feel so happy to live where I live! I love it!

Here's the view from the cafe.

What a great morning.

To top it off, Elle and George were both so happy, and had a great time with my awesome friend and her kids while I was gone.

Eight is Great!

This morning Pete took the kids to the screening of Happy Feet 2. We got 4 tickets when we went to the zoo for Halloween, and the kids were so excited. Too bad, when they got there, it was all sold out. They had over-booked, and apparently they do that a lot. It was disappointing, but no harm done. They picked up Toy Story 3 from Red Box on the way home and we had popcorn and candy so I think everyone was ok with it.

While they watched the movie I went running. I parked up by the capitol and ran up and down and around there for 8.2 miles. It was really fun. It was cold. It was actually warmer than last week, it was in the 40s, but it was windy so it felt colder. It wasn't quite as pretty as last week either, since there was no snow and a lot of the leaves had fallen off, but it was still pretty. I just really felt good and was so so happy to be out there and to be able to run.

8 miles is my favorite distance to run. It's long enough to be a bit challenging and sound impressive, but it's short enough that I don't need to bring fuel. It's even more fun when I run it at a nice easy pace, especially when some of it's downhill so I get to run it nice and easy, but still kind of fast!

What's your favorite distance to run?

Hard but Good Training Morning

This week has kind of been lacking training. For some reason or another, I didn't run at all on Monday. I can't remember why now... I think it had to do with George being sick and off schedule because of Day Light Savings and all that. I don't know. I did get the kitchen clean for a few minutes instead, though!

Tuesday was good. I always look forward to my Tuesday run because that's when I meet with my stroller running group! It's always so fun to see everyone and have a nice easy run. I did 2.2 miles with them, then did that again by myself, plus the almost half-mile to/from our meeting spot which totaled about 5 easy miles. It was good, but I totally had to pee during the last part and kept having to walk. That was so annoying, and I was just so mad that they've already closed the bathrooms at the parks I run by! George was asleep in the stroller so I didn't really feel like I should run in to 7-11 or anything either.

ANYWAY.

Yesterday I intended to go swimming in the morning, but I woke up feeling pretty crappy and like I was getting sick so I just went back to sleep. George didn't sleep well that night either so I was just feeling dead, and came home and took a nap for the entire time Elle was in preschool! Thank you George for sleeping for 2 hours so I could do that, it was nice!

Today, I turned my alarm off and almost skipped my workout again, but then George woke up at around 6, so I fed him and got myself moving and to the gym by 6:30. I ran for 10 minutes on the track, then one lap as fast as I can/one lap recover repeated for about 16-17 minutes. Then I just did another 10 minutes easy to cool down and hurried home. I stretched, made breakfast and got the kids ready for school, then Pete drove them in so I got to stay home with George.

While he was happy and playing, I did a Nike Training Club workout called "Full Action," but it really should be called "I Don't Want to Be Able to Walk Tomorrow." It's a ton of squats and lunges and jumping, along with pushups and planks and all that kind of fun stuff!

George was awesome and actually just played and let me do most of the workout without wanting to be held or climb on me. Then he got a hold of my phone and somehow got out of the app and ended my workout when I had like 6 minutes left. Luckily I was just to the stretching part so I did that on my own, then I was done!

Yay, what a morning! Then I was even able to put him down for a nap and take a nice shower without being rushed or barged in on, then sit and put my feet up for a few minutes (right now).

Sadly, I must go wake him up now and go pick up Elle. Luckily he's usually totally fine with that. :)

First Snow!

There's something about going running after it snows that turns your usual running route into something new. There are puddles to jump, ice or slush to watch out for, and trees, weighed down by the snow, to duck under where you could normally just run. Everything just seems so much quieter and more serene, while at the same time more exciting.

That's how it was for me today after our first snow of the season! We got a good 4 inches which is a lot for Salt Lake. It had snowed all night so we woke up to a nice white blanket outside. When I told Elle, she immediately ran downstairs to wake Mindy up and show her. Mindy's first response was, "Our leaves are really pretty! I didn't realize they were so yellow." That was an interesting thing to notice when everyone else was looking at the snow. When George woke up, he was so sad and stuffy, but he even got excited when he saw the snow. I sat him in his high chair at the window while I worked on breakfast, and he just made cute sounds and watched the big fluffy flakes fall. It was cute!

Of course, the kids had to put their snow clothes on immediately and get out there! After some digging, we were able to find everything for everyone except boots for Ethan. I told him to wear my Uggs, which ended up working really well for him I think! They actually played outside for over half an hour which made me glad I got them nice new gloves this year! Usually they take more time getting ready to play outside then they actually play outside.

I had hot chocolate ready for them when they came in, and some pumpkin cream cheese muffins that were really, really good!

I was jealous of the kids getting to go out and play in the snow, and couldn't wait to go do my run. By the time I got George down for his nap, it had stopped snowing, and I went out in just a short sleeve + a long sleeve tech tee, gloves and ear warmers. Strangely, I wasn't even very cold at the begginging. I warmed up really nicely, and even pushed my sleeves up for a few minutes towards the end.

Everything was so beautiful, and I made a point to notice the beautifully colored leaves under the snow, along with all the white.

I ran up North Temple and through Memory Grove towards City Creek. I was surprised not to see any other runners out there. There are usually a lot on this route. I saw a few people out taking pictures and that was pretty much it. When I got up into the canyon, it was just so peaceful, and I had it all to myself. I had my music on, but low enough that I could hear the river and take in the stillness of the new-fallen snow and the trees surrounding me.

I really felt like I could just keep running forever! But I had told Pete I would just do 6-7 miles since I needed to get back for him to go help his brother move, so I reluctantly turned around at 3.5 and headed back down the hill.

I realized that this hill feels like about the same grade as the one you run down for a long ways in the Utah Valley Half Marathon. I think I'll have to do repeats on it when I get more into training for that race. That will be fun!

I ran a total of 7 miles at a nice easy pace (10:33 min/mile average) in 1:13:56.

I got home just in time for Pete to leave, then I had to hurry and get ready to get to my brother's graduation party in Logan. That was a little stressful and rushed, and we didn't get lunch, but I'm still glad I was able to do that run. It was just lovely. Everyone was fine, and we had homemade doughnuts and hot chocolate at the party (my brother just graduated from the police academy). That was almost a re-do of our breakfast! Oops, not the healthiest eating day! Afterwards, we went to Cafe Rio with my sisters and my dad before heading back, and that was really good.

When we got home it was practically bed time. Man, this day went by quickly!

Happy Halloween! (aka Chocolate Sugar Cookies)

Check out the cute cookies we made yesterday!

We made regular sugar cookies a few weeks ago and tried to use these cookie cutters, but the dough was too gooey and just stuck to the cookie cutters. We were very sad, and just ended up doing circles. But this recipe makes much stiffer dough and it worked perfectly with our fun cookie cutters!

I had originally planned on putting orange frosting on these, but couldn't bare to cover up the cute faces so I just sprinkled them with sugar. After the first batch, I realized that I had to sprinkle the sugar before cutting them or it would obscure the faces. I don't know if it really even needed this, though.

Not only are these cookies cute, they are also really good! They aren't too sweet, and feel really holliday-ish. I found they are perfect with the pumpkin ice cream I had that was (almost) too sweet to eat by itself.

I'm dreaming of a pumpkin ice cream pie with a chocolate cookie crust for Thanksgiving...

Anyway, here's the recipe (Slightly altered from Southern Living here):

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups whole white wheat flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add egg, beating until blended.
2. Combine flour, cocoa, and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating just until blended.
3. Divide dough into 2 equal portions; flatten each portion into a disk. Cover and chill 10 minutes.
4. Place 1 portion of dough on a lightly floured surface, and roll to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with a 3- or 4 1/2-inch butterfly-shaped cutter. Place cookies 2 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheets. Repeat procedure with remaining dough portion.
5. Bake, in batches, at 350° for 10 to 12 minutes (for 3-inch cookies) and 15 to 17 minutes (for 4 1/2-inch cookies) or until edges are lightly browned. Let cool on baking sheets 5 minutes; remove to wire racks, and let cool 30 minutes or until completely cool. Decorate baked cookies as desired.

Hello Again, Avenues My Friends (8 miles)

Today I ran 8 miles.

It felt so good!

Most of it was up The Avenues which is one of my favorite places to go, but I haven't done it for a long time.

I had just dropped the Jeep off to get the breaks checked (they were making a terrible grinding noise!) so I just ran from there. I really liked doing that. It made me feel so flexible and adventurous - even though it was only a mile from my house. :)

Starting out I was a little cold, and my calf was still feeling pretty stiff from the hard track workout I did Thursday morning at the gym, but it warmed up after a few miles. It was kind of hard running up those hills too, but I really just felt so happy to be running and to be able to do that at all - even though it wasn't super fast. I did let myself run pretty fast on the downhills, though. That's so fun!

When I got closer to home, I was trying to decide if I should just go home or check in on the Jeep. Then I saw that a train was going across the street I'd take to go home. No problem. I just went down a few more blocks to the street that goes over the tracks and got to do one more "hill." This was also the street where the Jeep was so I just stopped in to see how much longer it had. He said it would be about 45 minutes so I just decided to run home and figure out how to pick it up later. Doing that extra mile made my run a little more than 8 miles (maybe 8.2? I don't know for sure because it was a cloudy day and it took the Garmin forever to locate the satellite). I had planned on doing closer to 7, but I felt good so it was fine.

I felt really good for the whole run, other than my knee hurting a little at a few points. I realized after I got home that I ran for 1:28 without any fuel or even water. And I felt fine. If I knew I was going to be out there for an hour and a half, I would have probably brought something, but it ended up being just fine. It was actually really nice to just run and not worry about anything like that! It probably helped that I had a peanut butter and banana toast right before I left, and that it was a cool day.

I've been doing pretty good with running 4 times a week. Tuesday at running group, I didn't do any extra so I just did 2.29 miles. I usually want to do 4-5 miles on that day so I'll make sure to do that next time. It's always just so fun to hang out with everyone afterwards, it's hard to just run away. I've really loved my running group! Making some new friends and having more of a social life (if you could call it that, but it was pretty much non-exsistent before this) has been really, really good for me! I've just felt so happy lately, so thank you to all you girls who humor me and come run on Tuesdays! :)

Other than the running, I haven't been doing great. I know I need to do cross training to avoid injury and I really want to do other things, but it just keeps not working out and I have nothing (read: no race) compelling me to do it. I'm trying not to worry about it too much, though, and just enjoy my off-season. I am so excited about snowboarding, I can hardly stand it! And I also want to get back into climbing so we'll see what I can start fitting in.

There's A Light At The End of The Tunnel!

I've spent this last either week being sick or taking care of a sick baby so I haven't had time to write.

It was so weird because as soon as we got home from the 5k on Saturday, Pete and I both started sniffing, and by the time we went to bed, we were both full-on sick. I took Sunday and Monday off to recover. It was weird because it was my abs and back sore. I don't know if that was from the cold or from the race...

Tuesday I walked/ran 2 miles with the stroller running group (We started our couch to 5k plan over since we got a new girl who had just had a baby 6 weeks ago), then I ran 3 more with one of the girls to make a total of 5 miles. It was funny because everyone else was still there when we got back so we still got to sit, stretch and chat with them which is the best part of having a running group!

Wednesday, the kids were home from school for Fall Break, and I was going to go swimming. Pete was home so I just put George down for a nap, then waited for him to go to sleep, but he just wouldn't stop crying. I don't know how long he cried, but it seemed like a long time to me so I went in to check on him and he had thrown up in his crib. I picked him up, but I couldn't get him to stop crying. Finally he threw up again, all over me, and Pete came and put him in the tub. That calmed him down a little, but he was still so sad! Well, swimming was out. I couldn't even put the poor baby down. After holding him while he cried for a while, I decided to try taking him for a walk and that calmed him right down! Whew. The kids came with me and we went to the park.

Thursday George was still really super sad, but I remembered my trick from the day before, put him in the stroller and headed out for a run. He slept the whole time. The kids came with me again, this time on their bikes, and we went to the park with the track around it so I could run around with the stroller while they played. This works out so well, I love that we have this park a mile from our house! I did 30 second on/off bursts of speed trying to go as fast as I could (usually in the 7:00-7:30 pace range) then recover. This is such a hard workout, especially with the stroller! I wanted to do it for 15 minutes, but only really managed 12 or 13. Still good, though.

Friday I was so proud of myself because, despite George not sleeping well, I got up and got to the pool by 6:30. I really want to get better about going swimming! It was so good, and I'm so glad I went. I was able to get a pretty good workout in and still be home by 7:30, and George woke up right when I got home so it worked out perfectly! Again, I love where I live because we have a pool half a mile from the house! After everyone got up and ready, I put George down for his nap and left him with Pete so we could go to the clothing swap Mindy's ballet studio was doing as a fund raiser. It was pretty cool, we left with a bag full of stuff. I got several new shirts which is nice because I've been needing new clothes, but don't have the money to spend on it right now! We also went to Costco. Fun fun!

Feeling exhausted from George being sick and so needy, I thought I'd go to bed early that night, but every time I try to go to bed early I jinx myself and end up having a terrible night! This was no exception. George hardly slept at all. He seemed to be feeling better during the day and we'd get glimpses of our little happy guy back every once and a while, but he woke up every few hours during the night and one time he was up for about an hour just crying and he threw up again. It was so sad.

Saturday morning I wanted to do my long run, and I really didn't want to take the stroller, but I knew it would make George feel better so I took him. It wasn't that long of a run, and having the stroller was probably good because it helped me not worry about going fast. I ran 6.5 miles and it took me 1:10, but it was good because George slept so peacefully the entire time, and at least half an hour more after we got home. He really needed that! During his afternoon nap, Pete kept the kids downstairs and took care of George when he woke up so I was actually able to take a 3-hour nap. I needed that! :) We both felt much better after that. We still kept George home from church on Sunday, but last night he went to bed like a little angel and he has been so happy today! Yay! I was beginning to worry that he would never be as happy as he used to be again. That would be so sad.

Now, to get to the title of my post! Hahaha

I got up early today and was going to go run on the track at the gym, but I didn't end up getting out in time and the kids wanted me around while they got ready for school so I waited. They rode their bikes to school and I ran with them. George was still asleep so I left him with Pete (who was also still sleeping) and I felt like I was flying without the stroller! It was fun! Mondays are my 400 meter (.25 mile) interval workouts and this is what my intervals were today:

1. 1:57.2 - 8:00.5 pace (this one was a tad short....)
2. 3:36.1 - 8:42.6 pace (umm, accidentally didn't push lap so this one includes recovery)
3. 1:59.2 - 7:56.2 pace
4. 1:54.2 - 7:33.5 pace!
5. 1:49.8 - That's 7:22.4 pace!! (WHAT!?)

These felt hard, but awesome at the same time! If that makes sense. I feel like this speed work I've been doing is actually working and I can very vaguely see the light at the end of the tunnel! I might actually be getting faster! I mean, I can hold a 7:22 pace for a quarter-mile at the end of an interval set! I can't believe some people can run a whole marathon at that pace (or faster)! I'm not going to focus on that, though, I'm going to focus on the fact that I've never been able to do this before and I'm happy.

When I was about half a block from home, I saw the guy Pete carpools with pulling up. I hurried home, thinking Pete would be waiting for me and wondering where I was. He came out by himself. A little confused, I asked him how George was and if he was still sleeping. He said, "I guess so. I was just going to leave, I thought he was with you." Yikes! I will never sneak out and leave George while Pete's still asleep again! I didn't have keys or my phone so it was really really lucky that I got home when I did because I would have been locked out and the baby would have been in. Crazy! I just thought George would wake up before Pete so not knowing he was there wouldn't be an issue! Anyway, everything turned out ok, and George even slept for another half hour, until 9:15! And he's been so happy today! YAY!

Awesome Saturday and Murray Moonlight Run 5k

Saturday was such a perfect day.

It started out with getting to sleep in a little bit and having a nice leisurely morning with pumpkin pancakes (recipe coming soon...).

In the afternoon, Pete and I took the kids on a little hike at that park we found this spring. It was really fun, and George fell asleep on Pete's back. It was so cute!

When we got back to the car, my dad called to tell me he was at our house. Fifteen minutes later we were home and the kids were all happy and climbing on their grandpa, like usual.

We all had ice cream cones.

Then I put the kids to work doing their chores while I worked on cleaning the kitchen and Pete and my dad worked on putting bead board up in the basement bathroom. I can't wait till it's finished, it's going to look so nice!

A quick dinner of Papa Murphy's pizza with Root Beer and peanut butter Checks mix. (Such a healthy day!) I actually just had 1 piece of pizza then had some oatmeal with peanut butter and bannana. It was weird preparing for a night race, and I felt like I should eat what I'm used to eating before I run.

I got George to bed, and Pete and I headed out for the Murray Moonlight Run. We picked up two of my friends from my little running group, and got there quite early.

Here we are before the race, trying to figure out what to do with our glow necklaces that didn't have clasps. I ended up putting mine through my sports bra in the back so you could see it through my shirt. I have no idea how it looked, but I figured that way at least no one would run into me!

(First pony tails since I cut my hair! Whoop!)

I kind of wanted to shoot for 27 minutes, but I didn't really know if that was possible since we were running in the dark. There were volunteers with flashlights at the turns and lights at a few places, but other than that it was pretty dark.

I didn't bring a light or anything, but my eyes adjusted pretty well and I felt fine running. It was just hard when I'd come upon someone with flashing lights on their costume, or a headlamp because then all could see was the light, and my eyes would have to adjust again after I passed them. This actually gave me more incentive to pass people though!

It was so fun being able to pass people the whole time! I'm really not used to being able to pass people, especially in a triathlon since running is my weakest of the 3 sports and everyone I get ahead of on the swim and bike pass me on the run. This time I'd see someone in front of me and work on getting past them. It was nice to be doing the passing for a change, it made me feel good!

The first mile was an out and back past the finish line so I got to see Pete again after just a few minutes. Then we went the other way and kind of looped around. It was all on trails by the river and it was a really cool place to run.



I tried to push myself, but it was hard not being able to see my Garmin to tell what my pace was to know if I should push it more or not. I just had fun with it, though and tried to go by feel. When I passed the volunteer at mile 2 I did a fist pump and wondered where that came from. Soon after that I started hurting a little. But I reminded myself that I only had a mile left so I tried to stay strong.

I finished in 28:23 which is faster than my last 5k which took me 29:09. So it wasn't 27, but I'm totally happy with it!

Afterwards, they had pumpkin pie for the runners, and it was really good! We sat in the grass and stretched while we ate it. Pete was so great to come with me, I know it wasn't that fun for him, and like he said, we spent more time waiting around and getting ready for the race then the actual race. That's the trouble with 5ks, but it was fun and I'm glad I got to be there for both of my friends' first race.

We're excited to do another 5k in the daylight to really see what we can do!

Does anyone know of any good Christmas/New Years 5ks around here?

A Week In Pictures

I need to get to bed so I'm going to do a quick (maybe) update!

Last Friday I chose sleep over swimming again. I wonder if I'll ever get back to a place where I feel like it's worth it to go swim in the morning again. I've only been swimming once this week, and the only bike I've been on is my cruiser with the kids. Maybe once I'm training for something again...

Anyway, I went and gave blood at 9 so the rest of my day was pretty much shot for working out, but I was ok with that.

It took a really long time (like 40 minutes!) for some reason, but at least I had this beautiful view to look at while I waited for my blood to drip into the bag. Snow, glorious snow! I am SO excited for snowboarding this year!!

Elle came with me and was just so sweet and good. She had a grand old time watching 2 movies and helping herself to way more cookies than I would have let her have had I been close enough. Luckily George was able to stay home with Pete so I was really able to just relax.

I got started on Ethan's new quilt over the weekend. This is my plan for what it will look like, only twin sized. I'm excited for it! I'm also doing some curtains to match.

Sunday the kids were being cute and having fun being all matchy-matchy.

I had a really hard run on Monday. I did speed work with the stroller, but it wasn't really speedy at all. I don't know what it was, but I just didn't have my heart in it or something. But at least I had a really cute running partner!

George learned how to color the other day. It was such a beautiful day, I took him outside to play with sidewalk chalk with Elle. He actually colored with it too! It was so cute!

This chalk must have tasted pretty good because he kept biting off chunks. Mmmm.

Tonight we took the kids to Witches Night Out at Gardner Village. We had two cute little witches and (dum dum dum dumdumdum) Darth Vader! And a baby. It was fun to just walk around and see all the witch costumes. There were so many people there, and a lot of them really went all out for this, it was cool! Afterwards we got ice cream at Cold Stone because we didn't want to wait any any of the huge lines for food there.

Conference Weekend

George is just getting so big! In the last week or so he's started full-on crawling with his hands and knees, and it is just so cute! (He's been doing kind of an army crawl for a couple months.) He doesn't crawl too much, though. He'd much rather have someone help him walk around and he pulls himself up to standing any chance he gets.

He also has really started to enjoy food. I've found that basically, he just wants to feed himself so I just give him things that we're having that I think he can handle. He's getting pretty good at it, though he hasn't quite figured out bowls yet. He tries to just eat right out of them which is funny! The other night I made brown rice in the rice cooker, and it made it totally soggy (I haven't quite figured that thing out yet.). I was disappointed at first, but then realized it was just perfect for George, and he loved it!

This weekend was the semi-anual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is held at the Conference Center downtown on Saturday and Sunday, but we don't usually go there since we've got the kids and all, but that doesn't mean we have to miss it. They broadcast it on our local TV and radio stations, as well as stream it live over the internet so there are a lot of ways to be able to hear The Prophet's voice.

Here's George riding his pony while we watch. (notice our beautiful new blue wall? I LOVE it!)

We had two family get-togethers during Conference weekend. On Saturday, our sister-in-law was in town from Nashville for the very purpose of going to Conference so she came over for a while and so did our other sister and brother-in-law so we got to see their cute little baby!

Sunday we drove up to Logan for our nephew's birthday party, and just had so much fun seeing all of them!




George, Grandpa, and the birthday boy.



Aaaaand.... here's a sneak peak of our little Curious George's Halloween costume!

I also ran 8 miles in-between sessions of Conference on Saturday, and I guess that was a little far. I hadn't done a long run (more than 5 miles) since Utah half, over a month ago! I thought a nice, easy, flat 8 miles would be fine. And really, it was fine while I was running. I felt great and had a really good run (!!), but afterwards my calf was really really sore. I skipped my run yesterday (Monday) because it was still hurting really bad, and Pete spent half an hour working it last night, almost making me cry. I wore compression socks to bed, and it did feel better this morning, but it's still a little sore.

We had our second run with our stroller running group this morning which was really fun even though we got rained on a little. We had one new girl, but we were also missing a few people. One was sick, one was out of town and the last one still did the run on her own so I'm not too worried about losing people yet. They all seem interested and excited still, and so am I!

A few of us will be running the Murray Moonlight Run on October 15th. It's a 5k or 1 mile walk/run. It's at 9pm and there will be black lights set up a long the course so it should be really cool! I just need to find something fun to wear that will glow good...

Running With Strollers

I'm still here, and still working on my running. It's been fun to do shorter distances and to do intervals because then I get to feel fast even if it's just for 2 minutes or whatever. I've actually gotten to where I can do my 400s at about 7:30 pace and that feels really good! Of course that also makes me feel like I'm going to puke, but you know, those feelings are so similar. ;)

Recently I decided I wanted to start a stroller jogging group so I talked to some of the other moms at church and at Elle's preschool. I was surprised and excited by how many people were interested in doing it!

Today was the first day we met. I was so excited to have 5 other moms show up! It was cool to see 4 mini vans parked outside my house, and a line of strollers going down the street. Most of the women who ran with us haven't been running lately or at all, so we decided to start with the Couch to 5k training plan.

The first workout is a 5 minute brisk walk to warm up, then alternating between jogging for 60 seconds and walking for 90 seconds for 20 minutes. I think this was really good. I want this to be fun for everyone and not get anyone burnt out. We're hoping to find a 5k at around Christmas time to do together.

I led the way and watched the time to tell everyone when to start and stop running. We ended up turning around later than we should have so we walked for a while once we finished the running. It was really fun to just hang out with those women and get to know them a little better. I really hope I can help them learn to love running! It was also really cool that we covered 2.4 miles. That seems like an awesome start.

We're going to be meeting every Tuesday to do the first workout of the week, and everyone is going to do the other 2 workouts on their own.

I'm still sticking to my schedule: speed work on Mondays and Thursdays and a long easy run on Saturday. Of course I still haven't done a long run since Utah Half, but I'm excited to start that up again! (I wonder how long of a run I should do on Saturday...) Tuesdays are an easy 4-7 mile run so I'll just add a few miles after the group run.

I'm really excited about all this! If you want join our running group, just let me know.

Elle's 5th Birthday

My baby girl turned 5 last week. We had such a fun day on Saturday to celebrate. We went to the zoo in the morning with my dad and my sister. It was so much fun!

We got to see one of the 5 tigers really close and in the water so that was really cool!

The kids love the tiger statues almost as much as the real tigers.

We rode the marry-go-round and the train.

And some wooden horses...

We saw the bird show, and even though we've seen it a million times. This one was a particularly exciting one though. One of the macaws landed on the bald eagle and they had a little tuffel. It was crazy, but luckily neither of them got hurt!

After the zoo we came home and grilled hamburgers then got ready for the party.

We had like 10 4-5 year olds over, most of them girls since it was a princess party!

Crazy was about the only word to describe it.

And (drumroll...) THE CAKE:

Elle couldn't have had a better birthday and I think she was very happy! Thank you to everyone who came!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups whole white wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice (I didn't have any so I used more milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

Combine the egg, oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla; mix well.

Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips.

Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done.

I doubled the amount of zucchini and lowered the sugar so the zucchini/sugar ratio would be a little healthier. But then I meant to double to amount of chocolate chips, and ended up quadrupling it so that may have flipped my sugar/zucchini ratio back over... But it was really good! If you eat them while they're warm it's almost like they have a molten chocolate center. :)

A Whole Lot of Nothin' Goin' On

Ok, that's not true. A lot of things have been going on, but just not much triathlon training which is kind of nice for a change. It's been a week and 2 days since Utah Half, and I've gone running twice, and swimming once and I'm already in need of a new training plan. I have to have something to work towards, otherwise, I just can't get myself up in the morning! I've been so tired and feeling sick in the mornings that going running is the last thing I want to do! I think it's because I've thrown caution to the wind - eating some treat or other every night while staying up late, watching movies with Pete. (By the way, we just got caught up on Fringe, and the people who wrote that are just mean.) From here on out I'm going to try to be in bed by 11 or sooner, and no more eating after 8pm. I hope that helps.

Anyway, here are some of the things that have been going on this past week:

George has kind of learned to eat food and he's just so proud of himself! (None of this baby food garbage, though, he only wants things he can feed himself like that apple)



He also figured out how to stand up in his crib all by himself so we had to lower the mattress. Again, he's just as pleased as punch about it. Standing is his favorite, and it's pretty much all he wants to do lately.




I celebrated my 31st birthday with a delicious peanut butter chocolate cake from RubySnap that was to die for! It was gone within 3 days, and I ate most of it. Pete informed me today that he only ended up getting 2 little pieces of it. Oops. Well, it was my cake, and I had just done a half Ironman so I'm ok with that. :)


Photo bombed by my own husband!

It was kind of weird turning 31 three days after finishing my last race of the season where I had 31 written on my calf. I kind of already felt like I was 31 even back in July when I did Echo. I had 31 on my calf then too. It's kind of weird how they do that. No biggie, though.



Here are my kinds on the way to pick up my cake. I usually like to make my own cake because I like to bake, but, like I said, this one was to die for so I made an exception this year! We got cookies while we were there too. Fun birthday!



Also, Elle moved up to a booster seat so that's exciting! Her first official day of preschool (at this school) is tomorrow. I hope it goes well!

It will also be the second day of my new run heavy workout schedule that I got from Run With Jill. I'll just changed the days a little and added swimming so my week will look like this:

Sunday: Off (Maybe a walk)

Monday: Track 400m workout followed by Nike Training Club workout (NTC)

Tuesday: 3-6 miles easy followed by NTC

Wednesday: Swim

Thursday: Lactate Threshold workout followed by NTC

Friday: Swim

Saturday: long easy run 6-8 miles

At least that's the plan for now. We'll see how it goes. I did my first speed workout today and did intervals around the park while Mindy and Elle played. The loop around the park is a little more than 400 meters and it took me 2:06-2:13 to do (feeling like I was going to puke!). My goal is to get that down to 2:00 or less.