Girls On The Run 5k with Mindy

Today was Mindy's 5k with Girls On The Run. I got to be her "Buddy!"

We were the "Cougar Girls"!

The route was 2 times around Sugarhouse Park. We started off really well, but after a few minutes she had to stop and walk with a really bad side ache. I tried to have her breath and relax, but that dang side ache just wouldn't go away. We walked most of the first lap, and she was having a really hard time. She was almost to the point of crying a couple times, and sat down a couple times. She just kept focusing on how tired she was and how much the side ache hurt. I tried to just relax and not worry about how much we were walking.

Here's just a glimpse of some of the girls running with us. It was quite a big event, and fun to see so many girls out running all in matching shirts!

I would be able to get her to run just small sections, but she would always quickly stop and walk again, and this continued on until about half way through the first lap. I told her that I couldn't change her attitude, she was the only one who could do that. We went by a bathroom and I made a quick stop in there. When I came out, I asked her where she wanted to run to and she said, "That big tree that goes to the ground."

We had passed a big tree with branches hanging to the ground, but with space underneith that she wanted to go under on the first lap, but we didn't sttop. That was kind of a long ways away so iit suprised me that she gave herself that big of a goal, but I was excited that she was actually excited about something! She said she wanted to go under it when we got to it, and I said ok! She took off running, and she made it to the tree! That was awesome. She went insdie for a few minutes and was just so happy. When she came out, I said, "Ok, now we're going to run to the water station then we can stop and get a drink, then we'll run to the finish." And she was suddenly ok with running. Yay! So that's what we did. It was hard to keep her going all the way to the end, but she kept running, and we got to run under the finsih arch and she got her medal!

 Doing their cheer: "Go Cougar Girls! Rawr!" after the race.

The proud finisher with her very first medal!

On the way out, we had to stop and get our pictures taken as flowers. :)

I asked her if she was glad she did it, and she said yes! Whew! :) It was really hard for her, and I'm very proud of her for changing her attitude and finishing strong!

Drops of Blood on the Sidewalk

Do you ever see drops of blood on the sidewalk and wonder what happened? (I've seen this more times than you would think) Well, today I have a story to tell about one such trail of blood.

I went out for my long run at 6am this morning. It was a beautiful morning and I was excited to be running again. I even saw some friends right after I left my house, and waved to them.

Just before I got to the 1-mile mark, I looked both ways to cross a street, and my toe hit a seam in the sidewalk or something and I was suddenly falling.

It's funny how when you fall it feels like it's in slow motion.

At first I'm thinking, "Ok, I got this, I got this!" But then I'm still going forward.

I think, "Ok, I might have to put my hands on the ground a little to stop myself."

My hands hit, and I'm still going. They are now digging into the pavement and I'm still going down to my knees.

I was practically laying on the ground when the forward motion finally stopped. (I must have been running really fast! Hahaha) And a car was driving by right as this happened.

I was mostly embarrassed at first. I sat up and just tried to breath and pull myself together. I could keep going, I just needed to calm down.

Then I looked down and saw blood pooling and trickling off my hand. I looked at my other hand, and there was blood dripping off of it too! No, I was not going to go on. I was going home!

I slowly got up and started walking home, and I could tell I was leaving drops of blood all along the sidewalk.

I walked for about 2 blocks, then decided I wanted to run again. I closed my fists to try and keep the blood in and ran the rest of the way home. I was fine really. It must have been quite the site to see a girl running down the street with blood on her hands. Especially in my neighborhood... Nobody said anything, though. I passed two guys walking, and just smiled at them to let them know I was ok, but they hardly looked at me anyway.

I thought it was good that I had at least spared my knees since they didn't hurt at all.

Here are my nasty looking hands:

I made it home 22 minutes after I left.

With a little help from Mindy, who was awake reading in her room, I cleaned myself up and got some bandages on.

It was only 6:45 so I mustered up some courage and went back out to finish my run. (Cuz I'm hardcore like that!)

I had planned on trying for 9 miles today, but with this little hic-up I didn't have time for that anymore. I decided to shoot for 6. The rest of my run was pretty nice, but by the end I realized that my knees hadn't been completely spared because they were getting kind of stiff and sore. One of them got scraped up a little bit, but not even close to as bad as my hands. Good thing I was wearing capris and not shorts. Too bad it wasn't colder or I would have been wearing gloves too!

I finished with 6 miles in 1:04 which is pretty good considering 2 minutes of that were spent sitting on the sidewalk not quite crying...

Now I get to rock the fishnet gloves (bandages) Madonna-style for the rest of the day!

My New Shoes + Freedom!

After running with Mindy on Friday, I decided I needed to go buy some new shoes right away. I went in to Salt Lake Running Company (my favorite store), not even intending on trying any on. I was just going to grab a pair of Nike Frees and get out of there. I even brought George with me, I was so convinced of this. Of course, when I got there, I saw that they didn't have my Nike Frees. They had the new model, and one that was slightly different with a tong. I just asked him to check if they had the new model in my size, and they didn't. Of course. Dang big feet! He offered to call over to their other store to see if they had any in my size, and they didn't. So I decided to just go with the ones with the tong. They did have those in my size and they were all black with white details. Cool!

After I tried those on to make sure they worked, I asked the salesman about having 2 pairs of shoes to switch off. He said it's a good thing to do, but that it's a good idea to have 2 different kinds of shoes because that way you're working different muscles. That made sense so I asked him what shoes he would recommend to go with the Nike Free, and should my Nike Frees be for speed work or distance? He said they would be my distance shoe, and to try the Saucony Kinvara for my speed shoe.

It seems like I've tried the Saucony one on before and didn't really like it, but I was willing to give it another try. This time when I put it on, it felt comfortable. And when I went and tried it out on the treadmill, it felt fast! I've heard people say shoes are fast before, and thought that was kind of silly. But that was the best way to describe how these shoes felt. They're also florescent green! (Dang, now I just found them here for $68 and with more colors to choose from! Oh well.)

I got both pairs, and my budget said, "Ouch!" But I was excited to run in my new shoes the next day!

Background music.


Saturday was my long run so I took out my black Nikes and did 12 miles in 2:12!

I ran up City Creek until I got to 6 miles, which took me about 1:15. It was slow work getting up there, but I enjoyed it. And I really enjoyed the view once I got up there! I found a bathroom just before my turnaround, and it was right where I needed it. It was off the road a little bit and a jeep trail continued on past it so I took that trail instead of the paved road I'd been running on to finish out my distance. That was really fun, even if it was just for a few minutes. I really need to start trail running more! When I stopped, I just felt so excited about how far I'd come, what I had accomplished, and just how beautiful it was up there!

These pictures from my phone really don't do it justice. It was such a beautiful morning!

Then I got to run down, down, down back into the city and home!

It was so much fun running down, and being able to go fast for so long! I felt so good, and so happy to be out there running. Then the 2010 world cup song (That you should be listening to right now...) came on my ipod and I got really emotional as I was running past the temple. I think it was a combination of listening to this powerful song, feeling the spirit as I looked at the temple, feeling so free and grateful that I'm getting stronger and able to run, and the endorphins I had from running. I was seriously fighting back tears and hoping no one would think something was wrong with me! I highly recommend adding this song to your running playlist.

The last mile or so was hard. It's always the hardest isn't it? It seems extra hard because that's where the ground flattens out after running downhill for so long. I got home and got a shower before making breakfast for my family and my brother's family who were stopping buy. Then it was a quick nap before taking the girls to their ballet rehearsal. We brought 2 girls home with us to play when that got over, and right after they left, we baby-sat our 3 little nephews for the rest of the night. Whew, what a day!

It felt really good to have 12 miles done!

Sunday was rest day.

Monday was the day to try out my Sauconys!

It's my recovery week this week so I decided to just do a 30 minute, not too hard tempo-ish run real quick before my swim. I ran my first mile nice and easy, feeling really good. When my Garmin beeped, I was shocked to see that that mile had taken me less than 10 minutes! It usually takes me more like 12 minutes to do my first warm up mile! So, I decided to try to keep it under 10 minute miles the whole time, but to keep my heart rate in zone 2. I did it! I finished the 3 miles in almost exactly 30 minutes! And it felt really nice and easy! That was awesome!

I told Pete about it, and how I think it might have been the shoes and he said, "You're like a little kid who thinks getting new shoes makes them faster." I know it seems funny, but I think that might have been exactly what happened!  I don't know how to explain it other than, because of the shape of the shoes, it feels like they're launching me forward.

I swam 2500 yards strait after that, and was able to finish in 47:10! I know that's not really super fast, but it's good for me! And that's counting the 30 seconds I stopped to stretch after the first 500. I was happy with it, and it was so awesome to be done with both my workouts by 7:30! I'll have to do that more often.

I haven't tried my Sauconys again because I got the stomach flu Tuesday right after my easy run with George to the ducks and my short, hard bike ride. It was weird because I would kind of feel sick, but then I'd be ok. I even had a few visions of throwing up on the side of the road during my bike ride, but for the most part I felt fine. The last mile or so, I started to not feel good again and I ended up just getting into bed without even showering when I got home. I slept for like 3 hours, then woke up and had Pete go pick Elle up at 2. She had gone home with a friend after school which turned out to be really nice for me since George was sleeping so I could just sleep. Then I was really sick until about 7 or 8. Yuck.

It was awful, but I'm so glad Pete had been able to stay home that day so he could take care of me and the kids. The other kids were all sick too and they just watched TV all day, but George needed attention. Elle got sick at around 5, and I felt bad for letting her go to her friend's house. I hope they don't get sick!

I just had to lay in bed for like 8 or 9 hours, and it really made me appreciate my health and made me feel so bad for people who have to stay in bed for days, weeks, or months! That is one of the main reasons I like to run - because I can! I almost feel like I would be wasting this precious health I've been blessed with if I didn't. I really do feel that "when I get older, I will be stronger." At least up to a point. :)

It was a hard day, and I was so glad to be feeling so much better Wednesday! I realized I wasn't 100%, though, when I had to lay down after going down and up the stairs. I took the day off from training, and went on a cleaning rampage because my house looked like a war zone after me being out of commission for a day! I didn't realize I cleaned that much every day!

I thought about getting back to my schedule today, but when I got up at 5:30 for swimming I still wasn't feeling great so I got back in bed. I'll take one more day off, and hopefully feel great for my long run tomorrow!

New Shoes! & Mindy's Practice Run

Wednesday I did speed work on the track with Amber. We did 8 x 200 meters, with 200 meters walking inbetween. We did some good work, averaging 51 seconds per fast 200, but I felt like my shins were going to just break every time I ran they hurt so bad! When I got home, I soaked them, rubbed them down and put on my compresson socks and that seemed to do the trick, but I still had to wonder why my shins have been hurting so much lately when I do speed work when they were totally fine on my last long run.

I asked this question on twitter and got 2 reponses:

@JamesonBull - "I had something similar. Found it was tighness in the bottom/arch of my foot. Rolled it out with a rolling pin or golf ball."


I tried that, but it's hard to say if it really worked or not...


@JHCTriathlon - "new shoes: a pair for longer/slower runs and a different pair for tempo runs + speedwork. And... sounds like your body has not adjusted to the speedwork? shin pain is usually a sign of bad/dead shoes and/or too fast too soon or hard surfaces running hard...move speedwork to track (if you are not already) or to soft trails and see if that helps. !!"


I thought that sounded spot on! I totally am not used to speedwork yet, and though I did run on the track Wednesday, I usually do run on sidewalks or paved bike paths. Then I went and looked on my log to see how many miles I've put on those shoes and it was 348 miles! Yep, sounds like I needed new shoes!

I didn't have time to get new shoes for myself that day, but thought it was more important to get Ethan some because his toes were sticking out of his old ones! I got him 2 pairs. My kids are so spoiled!

George may or may not have been trying to put those little white shoes on in the background...

Thursday I didn't have any running. I swam then went on a fun bike ride with George in the bike trailer!

Here's some background music.

Friday was supposed to be my long run, but I ended up not going because Pete woke up just as I was about to get up at 5am with the flu. I didn't really think it would be nice to leave him with the kids, even if they were all asleep. It was ok, though, I was supposed to go run with Mindy later in the day, and I was a little worried about running more in those shoes anyway.

At 1:00, I dropped the other kids off at a friend's house and met Mindy at the school for the "Girls On The Run" practice run. I got there just as they were handing out new shoes to each girl so that was really exciting! It's kind of hard to tell in this picture, but look how cute Mindy's are:

After the girls all got their new shoes on and the buddies had all arrived (I am Mindy's buddy), we went outside to do our run! The lady in charge had planned out our practice run to be 3 times around the block the school is on. She said it would be a little less than a 5k, but it ended up being just about half. It was hard work for those little girls though, I was so proud of all of them when they finished!

Mindy and I started out at about the middle then quickly worked our way up to the front of the pack, but only for a little while because she had to stop and walk so a few people passed us. Then a couple of them kept walking to a certain point, then running again so Mindy said, "when they stop to walk again, we'll run." She also wanted to stop and walk when they started running, but I said that since we would be in front of them it would be hard to tell when they stopped so we just stopped whenever Mindy needed to. We went back and forth with those girls for a while and it was fun. Mindy would go so fast when she was running, then she would have to stop and walk. I tried to teach her how to relax and get into a good rhythem, or just to run slower, but that's a hard thing to explain. And I guess it's a good thing that she naturally wants to run fast, we just need to build up her endurance.

Every time we passed the start/finsih line, they would hand the girls a braclett or silly band to keep track of how many laps they'd done. That was a cute idea. It was also really cute that they had gone around and written little messages all the way around to encourage the girls as they ran:

This picture was actually taken by a friend of mine later in the day who posted it on twitter not even knowing what it was for, but thinking it was cool. :) 

On the last lap, when I tried to encourage Mindy to keep running, she said she was going to die! We stopped and walked again. When we started running again, Mindy started singing, "We are young!" I added on, "so let's set the world on fire..." then we both sang, "we can burn brighter! than the suuuuuu wowowuuuun!" It was awesome! I was so happy to be running with her and sharing that great moment with her! That gave her the energy to get to the next courner, and we only had about half a block to go!

Then we saw the little girl who had been in the lead almost the whole time (my friend, Amber, was her buddy and she had just gotten done running 10 miles before she came!). We were kind of catching up to her! So I told Mindy, "Let's see if we can make it a tie!" And Mindy just took off! I couldn't even keep up with her. (And she was "going to die!" a few minutes ago!) When she caught up to the other girl, she started running faster too! It was an exciting sprint to the finish! The other girl stopped about 10 yards before the finish line so Mindy got to finish first! (Not that it was really a race or anything, but I've got to brag...)

We sat down and stretched and cheered for the the other girls as they finished. Some girls were more than a lap behind us so we cheered and gave them a lot of encouragment as they passed! For the last few girls, we all made a tunnel with our hands and had them run through it to finish. It was fun to see the girls all support each other so much like that! 

We ran 1.56 miles in 17:49, which is pretty darn good for a 9 year old! My shins were hurting even after that, though. Arg! 

We all got in a big circle and stretched as a group then played a little running game. Then it was time to go. We are doing the 5k next Saturday so I hope it goes well! That will be a long ways for them!

The New Shoes Saga To Be Continued...

It's A Kind Of Magic

I love running to that song by Queen because running "is a kind of magic that can be only won!"



I really didn't want to get up and run this morning. Mondays are so hard! I thought about all the other times I could run or what else I could do, and just how nice it would be to go back to bed. But going back to bed is over-rated! (at least most of the time, sometimes it truly is needed)

I got up 15 minutes after my alarm went off and got myself going.

I started out on my run, then remembered I was supposed to turn on the sprinkler before I left! So I turned around and ran home to do that. Of course, this was the first time turning on this sprinkler for the year so I had to dig the dirt out from around the valve before I could start it. Then I noticed it was spraying Pete's car, and knew he wouldn't be happy about that so I ran inside to wash my hands and grab his keys so I could move his car.

Whew!

Then I got going again. The good thing about all that commotion was that it warmed me up and I was able to just leave my jacket at home. I still had long sleeves and gloves on because it was quite a chilly morning.

I wanted to do a 60 minute tempo run, with the middle 30 minutes as close to 9 min/mile pace as I could get them.

Well, the Garmin was going crazy and telling me my easy warm-up pace was like 6 min/mile! So, I turned it off and turned it back on, hoping to fix the problem. Then for some reason it wasn't picking up my heart rate monitor! Arg! So, I just went with it like that and tried to keep my pace. I did pretty good, I think. I ran for 10 minutes, then stopped at the bathroom, the did 10 more minutes fast and turned around. I stopped and walked for a few minutes while I turned the Garmin off and on again to see if I could get it to pick up my heart rate. It worked!

Unfortunately, I discovered that I'm in zone 3 (the no-no zone) when I'm hitting my tempo pace. I can almost stay at the very top of zone 2 at a 10 min/mile pace. Hmmm, I'm not sure what to do. Is it ok to be in zone 3 for tempo runs? I don't know enough about heart rate training! Should I be taking it easier and keeping it in zone 2, or should I be pushing harder and getting it up to zone 4? I don't know if I could keep my heart rate up in zone 4 for 10 minutes...

So, my last 10 minutes weren't quite as fast because I was doubting myself, and not sure what I should even be doing. I tried to finish out the run in zone 2 as close to 10 min/mile as I could.

If you know anything about heart rate training, would you please tell me what you think I should do?? I've tried looking it up, but didn't really find a clear answer about what heart rate zone you should be in for a tempo run.

Anyway, it was a great run, and I'm so glad I went! I managed to do about 6.3 miles in 63 minutes (I think, all the stopping and starting I had to do messed things up so I had to use math!) so I was happy!

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I got home, stretched, made breakfast and got the kids to school just in the nick of time. As usual.

Then George and I went strait over to the Rec Center so I could do my swim. I took him into the daycare and he was happy and excited to play with the toys until I stood up to leave. :( Then he started screaming. The poor lady who was working in there just took him, and I ran out. I hate having to do that! But I would really like to get him used to going there. It's just so hard!

I cut my swim short because I wanted pick up George after an hour, and that would include locker room time so I only swam for 45 minutes. Here's what I did:

300 warm up
200 drills (50 of each: finger drag, one arm, catch-up, 6x6)
16 x 25 on :30 (basically :10 rest)
1:00 rest
400 (I did it in 7:20)
1:00 rest

16 x 25 on :30 (again!)

150 cool down

Now that's a solid workout! Doing 16 of anything (twice!) is just hard! But I also really liked it and was able to keep my 25s at around :20 most of the time!

George was crying when I picked him up, but at least she said that he only cried off and on, not constantly. He'd play, then remember I was gone and get upset again. On my way out, the guy at the front desk was even like, "Oh is this the little guy? He's got a good pair of lungs!" I'll keep trying and see if it gets better or worse. It's just so hard, and he was sad for the next 10-15 minutes after we left too. I hate to traumatize the poor little guy! He's napping now so that's a relief.

Overall, good morning of workouts, and I'm so glad Pete did the dishes last night so I can just sit during nap time instead of having a bunch of housework to do. 

Looking Back and New Discoveries

I decided to look back to my days when I was training for Ironman and see where I was at 15 weeks away since that's where I'd be right now if my Half Ironman were a Full which it will be next year if things go as planned! The one I want to do is Expadition Man which is the same day as Utah Half so I wanted to see where I'll be next year at this same time.

Guess what, though. When I looked back at my long ride during that "15 Weeks to Ironman" week, it was only 29 miles! That was the farthest I'd ever ridden, and it took me 3 hours. I was also scared to death on that ride and really doubting wheather I'd really be able to do an Ironman or not. Go read about it, it's kind of funny! 

I also looked back to see what my long run that week was, and there wasn't anything longer than one hour. I did do a 90 minute - 8 mile run the next week, though.

It's so exciting to see that I'm already ahead of where I was back then, and I'm only training for a half! That's also really comforting because it hasn't been hard to get this far this early in the season so I should be able to fit in full IM training next year. Maybe I'll even do the new St. George 70.3 as my half. 

That's right, they've changed the St. George Ironman to a half from now on. Yesterday was the last St. George Ironman, which is kind of sad, but it sure went out with a bang! It was super windy so the athletes had to battle huge waves for the 2.4 mile swim, then I read one report of the lead guys only going 8mph on the ride to veyo. There were probably 300 people who didn't make the swim cut-off and even more who had to quit after the bike. That's so sad. But at the same time, an Ironman is supposed to be hard, right? Those people who finished sure should be proud! I wanted to go down and watch, but it was just too stressful to work it all out logistically so we stayed home.

It was really nice to have a Saturday at home. I didn't even ride because my house needed some serious attention. I did a lot of cooking, cleaning, and working on the basement bathroom. It's getting so close to being done!

I did do my long run on Friday, though! 

When I went to get my stuff ready the night before, I couldn't find the Garmin anywhere so I ended up just taking my basic heart rate monitor even though it's been acting up when I run with it lately. 

My alarm went off at 4:45am, I turned it off and got back in bed. I totally decided I would just do my run on Saturday. But then, I was just laying there feeling hot, listening to the birds sing, and thinking about how if I did my long run on Saturday I wouldn't be able to get all the things done I wanted to and I wouldn't be able to stay up late Friday night with Pete. Friday night is pretty much my only night I get to stay up late, and I didn't want to loose that time with Pete! So, I got up! I'm so glad I did too because it really turned out to be a great run!

I left at 5:30 so it was still a little bit dark, but the sky was starting to lighten up, and everywhere I went was really well lit so it wasn't even a problem. I had my phone in my ifitness belt and I just carried some hammer gel in flask. After about a mile I took my long-sleeve shirt off, and tied it around my waist thinking, "I shouldn't have brought this." It was ok around my waist, though. It proably even helped my belt around less too.

When I got to the train tracks, there was a big freight train just stopping so I just turned and ran down to North Temple where I got to run over the big viaduct. Then I just headed strait down to Memory grove and up, up, up I went. When I got to the top, I turned around and ran back down to the gate. Then I turned around and went back up for 15 more minutes. I went a little past the top of Memory Grove this time, and turned around at the base of City Creek. Man, I love that drinking fountain there...

There are bathrooms and a drinking fountain in Memory Grove too which I didn't discover until this year! Very nice!

I put my longsleeve shirt back on at the top because it felt much colder up there and my hands were startingt to get stiff. The problem was, if I pulled my shirt down over my hands, it was a lot harder to hold my hammer gel flask. Hmmm, what to do? That's when I made the discovery that my flask fits in the little back pocket of my capris!! Wahoo! So I got to run back down feeling a lot more free this time, and it was really fun like usual!

It took me 10 minutes to run back down the distance I ran up in 15. 

I ran home from there, cutting through West High's track where there's another drinking fountain, and then their campus so I didn't have to stop for any red lights, yay! 

I did have to stop for another train though! Dang it! This one was actually moving, though, so I just stopped and waited a few minutes for it. 

It's funny because I was shooting for 2 hours, and I made it home in 2:03. If it weren't for that train, I would have been right on time! :) I was also shooting for 11 miles, and that's almost exactly what I ended up with! I'm pretty proud of that since, I didn't have the Garmin with me! 

On the way home my heart rate monitor started freaking out again, telling me my heart rate was like 44 and beeping at me at random times. That's so frustrating! I think that's why I stopped training by heart rate the first time I tried it. But the Garmin hasn't given me any problems yet, and the one on my bike works just great so I'll figure it out.

I ended up finding the Garmin in George's closet! I need to stop putting it on my nightstand where he can reach it! That baby is just getting to be such a cute little trouble maker! When I got home, Mindy had already changed his diaper and gotten him dressed, and he was just walking around all happy. It's been really nice because I haven't nursed him since Monday. Now he's just happy in the morning because he doesn't feel like he needs that, and I can just get breakfast going instead of spending 10  - 15 minutes nursing. Yay, George! He's had a couple times in the past few days where I could tell he was trying to tell me he wanted to nurse, but I've been able to avoid it. It's kind of sad to be done nursing him, but at the same time, he's almost 16 months old and it will be much nicer not to have to be the only one who can help him at certain times.

Mindy's First 5k!

Our Stake put on a little 5k on April 21.

I was totally planning on running it, and seeing how fast I could do it. But then I had a couple friends who wanted to run, but didn't have anyone to watch their kids. I told them that I'd come prepared to run, but that I'd stay with the babies if there was no one else there to do it.

I ran 10 miles the day before so I didn't really feel like I needed to run, then I woke up with a really scratchy throat and runny nose so I just decided not to run. It turned out that I was needed to sit with babies anyway so I'm glad I didn't plan on it! The kids came down with me. I had asked Mindy if she wanted to do it, and she had decided that she wasn't going to do it. But then we saw one of her friends (who's actually a year older), and she was going to do it with her mom. Again I asked Mindy if she wanted to do it, and she said, "no." There was a bunch of hustle and bustle before everyone lined up to start. Then I looked over and saw Mindy on the path with her friend! She had decided to do it. It was awesome because she was just wearing jeans, but that was no big deal!

I sent Pete the word that she was doing it, and told him he should come down and watch her finish so he joined us. It was nice to have another set of eyes watching the kids too! 

The 5k was a 2-loop course. When she came around the first time, she handed me her jacket and asked for a drink, then headed out on her second lap, walking.

I was so proud of her when we saw her running by herself at the end! It turned out that her friend had stopped to walk, but she wanted to run to the finish so she did!

She finished in about 50 minutes which I think is awesome for a 9-year-old!

She's planning on doing another 5k with an after school program she's doing called "Girls On The Run" next month. They just meet every Friday afternoon, and she's gone 2 or 3 times. I've signed up as a buddy and will run it with her. I'm excited to do that with her and see how she does with a little more practice!

I ended up feeling better a little later in the day, and very inspired by all those people who did the 5k! Plus it was such a beautiful day so I did go on my long ride in the afternoon. I did 40 miles in 2:30, which was really good since the Frontrunner Century was the next weekend and I felt like I needed a few more miles under my belt!

I felt sick off and on for the rest of the week. I still don't know if I was actually sick or if it was allergies. I took Monday and Wednesday completely off so I didn't end up swimming at all last week! Tuesday was our last trainer ride class so I had to go to that! It was a great workout and I felt great, so I'm glad I went. They made breakfast burritos for us at the end too which was awesome! Our teacher, B.J. will be doing St. George Ironman on Saturday so good luck to him!

Anyway, I'm feeling mostly better, but still wake up with a really dry, conjested throat every morning so I don't know what the deal is. It seems like I turn the alarm off every morning and get back in bed, but I've managed to drag myself back out of bed and get back to training as usual this week. Once I get going, I feel fine except that I was really slow at my track workout yesterday morning. :( That was hard. I'm hoping I'm still just a little sick and will be back on my game soon!

Frontrunner Century Ride

Friday morning started off at about 5am when I got up and got ready to run. It was my long run day, but since I had such a long ride planned for Saturday, I was just going to run for 1:30. I didn't really have time to go longer anyway.

I wanted to at least get 8 miles. A couple weeks ago, I did had a really hard long run and ended up only doing 7 miles in 1:30. This was the day before Ethan's birthday party so I just tried not to worry too much about it, and started my recovery week early. The next week I ran 10 miles so I felt better about that!

This time I did end up making my 8 mile goal! I actually did 8.2 miles in 1:30. It was fun because Pete got a new battery for the Garmin's heart rate strap so I was able to have heart rate and speed for this run! I ran up a seriously hard hill that shot my heart rate up too high, so I ended up walking most of it. But that's ok! It was fun to have such a hard first half, then a really fun, fast second half. I actually turned around at :50 and made it home right at 1:30. I love it when my timing works out like that. It was so nice because the kids had already eaten when I got home, and Pete just took them to school on the way to work so I could get showered before dropping Elle and George off at my friend's house, and meeting Mindy at school to join her on her field trip to the Museum of Fine Art. It was a Spanish day, meaning the teacher and students were only supposed to speak Spanish (except for to me, of course). This was really only for the bus ride over, though. Once we got to the musium, it was all English since  we broke up into smaller groups and the docent's took over. It was a fun little outing with Mindy and her friends.

When we got back, I picked up Elle and George (who had just slept the whole time and was so happy when I got back! Perfect!), we went home for some lunch and to finish packing for my kids to go to my dad's house. Then we picked Ethan up from school and met back up with Brittay and went to Red Butte Garden for their free day. Mindy had Girls on The Run after school so she didn't come with us. The kids had fun running around all the different paths and gardens for a couple hours.

Before we knew it, it was time to go get Mindy. Of course, when I realized it was time to go, we were all the way at the bottom of the garden! George started crying, Ethan fell and bit his toung, then Elle fell and scraped her knee. Unfortunatly, I don't think either of them will remember the fun they had there. We all servived, though, and made it back in plenty of time to pick up Mindy. Actually, she was late coming out, which made us late to meet my dad. I met him at a gas station near his work, and he got ice cream for everyone because of Ethan's sore toung. Poor kid, it looked like it hurt! Anyway, the kids were all excited to go to Grandpa's house, so it was an easy drop-off.

I went home, met Pete and we had a nice night out that included buying some nice new water bottles, dinner at a little Thai curry place, picking up our pakets for The Frontrunner Century, and some shoping at City Creek. I always just feel so unstylish there! I'm not good at shopping and didn't find anything I liked. Oh well, it was fun to look around.

Saturday morning, I woke up on my own at 6:30. How messed up is it that I can't even sleep in until 7 anymore?

I got myself ready, then woke Pete up at a little after 7. The ride started at 8:00 just a few miles from our house so we didn't need too much time to get there. It was perfect timing. We just walked over, put our shoes/helmets/gloves on, turned in our bags with our shoes in them for after the ride and took this picture, then it was time to start!

The first 20 miles were on the Jordan River/Legacy Parkway Trail which was almost exactly the same route I took for my 40 mile ride last week. It was fun doing some drafting, and passing little groups of people whenever we got the chance. We passed a lot of people and the first 20 miles went by really quickly! I was worried that it would be too cold, but I dressed warm enough that really only my toes were cold for part of the ride. It ended up being just about perfect because the sun was shining and there was no wind at all!

The first aid station was at around 20 miles. We took a few minutes there and they had a nice selection of food/drink. I had a peice of Pete's banana, a couple mini butterfingers, a blueberry Fruition bar which was really good, and a drink of poweraid. 

The next 10 miles were really fun because we got with this groupb of 4 or 5 guys and tried to stick with them. When we were with them, we were able to cruise along at a nice 18-20 mph with our heart rates in zone 2 which was perfect. I fell behind a couple times, though, and I'd have to fight to get back to them. That was hard! Just before we got to one stop light, I heard a sound, looked down and my hammer gel was gone. We stopped, and I thought about going back for it, but then I didn't want to loose my group! I decided to just leave it, but I guess I debated for too long because I got behind again. Pete was able to catch up to them, but then ended up falling back to wait for me. I just couldn't catch them! Oh well, we just decided to do our own ride and keep our hear rates low, not kill ourselves to try to catch them. After that, I wished I would have gone back to grab my gel flask since we ended up loosing that group anyway!

By the time we got to the next aid station at mile 40, I was starting to feel pretty sore and ready for a little rest! Fourty was the longest ride I'd done so far this year. I used the bathroom, had some more mini butterfingers, grabbed some more candy bars for later, and got a drink. Then I was ready to go again! 

We started just after these 2 guys that looked like we could keep up with so we tried to catch up to them. I think that ended up being a mistake because we were following them instead of watching for turn stickers on the road. We caught up to them, but only for a few minutes before we hit a big hill and had to slow down, and lost them again. 

A little while later, we realized those guys had turned and stopped with another little group of riders. There were no turn markers, but we figured they were with us so we turned and followed them. After following them for a few mintues, we realized that no one knew where they were going. We stopped after another big intersection, and the 2 guys we'd been follwing decided to go back and turn, but the rest of the group decied to keep going so that's what we did. We went down a little hill, with me in the lead, then I realized my back tire was flat! Dang it! I pulled over, and the whole group stopped, thinking we were going to ask for directions or something, but I we told them I just had a flat tire and that we were ok to fix it, so they continued on. 

I was so glad Pete was there with me to help me change my tire, get it back on my bike and fill it up. I probably could have done it myself, but I'm sure it would have taken longer than the 30 minutes it took us, and I would have been a lot more stressed out about it!

Just as we were finishing, the guy at the auto body shop we'd stopped at came out to see if we needed any help. It was nice because he let me go inside and wash my hands. They were totally black from my chain. We told him we were trying to get to the Union Pacific station, and that we thought we were off course. He told us the best way would be to go back 2 stop lights, turn left, and that that would just take us right to it. We felt bad for the group who had gone on, and hoped they found their way back because there was no way we could catch them!

We followed the nice man's instructions, and sure enough, it did take us right to the train station. A little too quickly! We finished the ride with only 55 miles instead of the 62 we were planning on. We could have rode around for 7 more miles, but it wasn't a big deal to either of us that we got 62 since we were just doing it for fun and to get a long ride in. We got back just before that group we were worried about. Turns out, they got back onto the route and finished up with 63 miles. Whew!

Here's what we did (top), compared to what we were supposed to do (bottom):

What happend was we missed a left turn after the 2nd aid station (I'm glad it was after the aid station!). I think the light must have been green and we were too excited to just get through it, and catch up to those guys, that we didn't pay attention to the other surroundings because all the other turns were really well marked and easy to spot.

Anyway, we made it and had a fun ride together, so that's what matters! It was fun to ride so far and not have to worry about riding back. We had a nice lunch, put our bikes on their truck, and got on the train to ride back to Salt Lake. Man, it is so awesome going from Ogden to Salt Lake on the train! I loved it!

Ethan's Baptism & 8th Birthday Party

Saturday, April 14th, 2012, Pete baptised Ethan and we also had his 8th birthday party.

Here's the before picture. This was the best one I got. I don't know what was so funny that they couldn't hold still for the camera!


There were four kids that got baptised from our Stake, and it was so funny to see Ethan up there with them as he was about a head taller then the rest of them!

Mindy gave a really nice 5 minute talk, that she wrote herself, about baptism. She talked about how she had a good feeling when she was baptised and about how Jesus was baptised to show us that we need to be baptised and she read the scripture Mathew 3:13-17 :

13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be abaptized of him.

14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?

15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

17 And lo a avoice from heaven, saying, This is my bbeloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

I was very proud of her, and very proud of Ethan for choosing to be baptised. I am also very happy to be married to such a wonderful man who holds the preisthood and was able to baptise Ethan, and confirm him a memeber of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

All the boys. So handsome.

Our friend, Hui, with the little man.

We went to our house afterwards, and had Pizza at the Birthday Boy's request. It was from Papa John's and it was delicious! (plus it's an easy way to feed a lot of people!)
Katie did Elle's hair strait, and didn't it look pretty!?

Mmmm, pizza!

We had a lot of family that came and showed their love to us and Ethan. I was so happy about that, but sad that I didn't really get to talk to any of them very much! I was in the kitchen most of the time finishing up the cake.

Here's little Hillary, such a doll!

And her family...
Uncle Danny, entertaining everyone as usual.

What a cute grandma and grandpa!

Grandma Lasko, and the other Lasko baby present: Dexter. Another little doll. :)

Can you tell who gave Ethan this present?

Ethan got so many legos. He was one happy boy!

George was another happy little boy. All this attention AND Balloons!?

AND.... The cake!

I was so happy Katie had come to sleep over the night before because she spent 3 hours sculpting this Starcraft cake top out of fondant, even though she had her long run to do in the morning. It probably doesn't make much sense to you if you're not a Starcraft fan (Ethan is a HUGE fan), but didn't she do an amazing job!? (I made the little bug things. Not nearly as impressive.)



We were sad to see it destroyed, but it was quite a hit and Ethan was very happy.

Ethan's such a great boy, I'm glad he had a good day!

Day In The Life - Tuesday

Today went pretty well, so I thought I'd do an episode of A Day In The Life. Of course, my days aren't all like this. Some are much more stressful, and some are less. I'd say today was a pretty good day, though.

4:45 - George wakes up. Wake Pete up for him to get him back to bed while I lay there for a few more minutes.

5:00 - Get up, stick some oatmeal in the microwave while I get dressed and do the dishes. Add some bannana, agave and peanut butter and enjoy while I read tweets, facebook, email and scriptures. Then load my bike and trainer up and head out!

6:00 - Bike trainer class at the Salt Lake Running Company, taught by the one and only B.J. Christensen. It was hard today! We did an interval ladder with hard-recover: 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, 4-4, 3-3, 2-2, 1-1 The class runs a little late.

7:30 - Get home, hurry and make some eggs with avocado and a smoothie with milk, spinach, blueberries, bananna and vanilla.

8:05 - Take the kids to school.

8:30 - Spend a little time with George, getting him changed and myself ready to run.

9:00 - Super easy run, keeping my heart rate under 140 (a fun challange!), with George in the stroller. We go to see the ducks which takes almost exactly 15 minutes, looked at the ducks for 5, then back home for a total of 2.5 miles in 31 minutes.

9:30 - Remind myself that that run was supposed to be easy and slow... Then put a nice calm George down for his nap.

10:00 - Stretch, do a pilates video for 30 minutes, and eat too much Easter candy. Pilates feels so good after that hard bike ride!

10:30 - Shower and get (kind of) ready.

11:00 - Wake up the sweet sleeping baby, go pick up Elle from preschool and let her play with her friends in the school yard for 45 minutes because it was just too nice outside! Plus, I get to chat with my friends while she does this which is a highlight of my day so it's win-win!

12:00 - Get home, and cook some ckicken for lunch. Finally get George dressed while that cooks.

1:00 - Eat lunch. Don't as me how it takes an hour to cook some chicken, make a salad and sit down to eat it!

1:30 - George takes another nap, and after a little cleaning up, I lay down too. I don't know if I slept. Before I know it, George is crying, and it's almost time to pick the kids up from school! I manange to fold a load of laundry really quick first, though!

3:00 - Pick the kids up from school, and come home to commence saying, "Do your homework!" a million times.

5:00 - Homework is finally done so we walk to the store to pick out some vegetables for dinner.

6:00 - Pete gets home, and I start dinner a little later than I should have, like usual. We went with green beans which we had along with Broiled Tilapia Parmesan which was really good. It seemed a little sparce, I really should have made something else with it (sweet potatoes would have been awesome!), but it was fine.

6:30 - Eat the above mentioned dinner as a loving family. Awww :)

7:00 - Pete leaves for climbing, and I put George in the tub.

7:45 - Put George to bed then have prayers and read to the other kids. I'm reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe to Elle right now which is fun because I read it to Mindy when she was about her age. Elle can read some of it herself, but we take turns. :)

8:20 - Kids are finally in bed, later than planned of course. I sit down to check twitter, facebook, email, etc. and write on my blog.

10:00 (ok, maybe a few minutes later) - Finish writing on my blog and go to bed! Goodnight!

PS - It may sound like I had a really healthy eating day, but I couldn't stop eating Mini Cadbury Eggs and Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs all day long! They are all gone now, though, so I'll start fresh tomorrow! Exept that tomorrow is Ethan's birthday...