Pile On The Miles

I signed up for Pile On The Miles over at RunEatRepeat. 
 

 

Melanie @ 4Kottez blogged about how she signed up, I followed her link and decided that I wanted to take the challenge too.  My mileage goal for the month of November is 50 miles.  Some of the women who are participating have goals that just seem insane to me, there are a range of distance goals starting around 20 and going up to as many as 200 miles.  Seriously!  200 miles is incredible.  I can't wait to follow these women and be inspired by their ability.  Wow, I mean, 200 miles in a month!  I am just amazed by that distance.  I think that I am going to have to push it to make my 50 miles. 

Anyone else up to the challenge?  

Another 5k



This weekend seemed to pass by so stinking fast. 

 

Saturday was full of soccer games, baby showers, family, family, and more family.  Sunday was surprisingly filled with, wait for it....family! 

 

I also ran the Run Like Hell 5k yesterday.  It was a lot of fun people watching checking out all of the different costumes.  Melinda and I went dressed as pirates and sadly this is the best picture I got of us.  Sorry.

 

 

This race took place at 5pm and it was much hotter then it has been all week, way hotter then when I usually run.  Actually, I felt pretty good on this run, I could have run this whole thing but it was more important to complete it with Melinda.  I really enjoyed chatting with her the whole run.  I don't know what our time was because this was an untimed fun run, but I think I will be ready to run another timed event in the next couple weeks.  I can definitely tell a difference in my stamina from just a few weeks ago to now, I feel like I am actually accomplishing something with running.  It is exciting!  Makes me really look forward to all of my runs scheduled for this week. 

 

Did anyone else run a 5k this weekend? 

Can't get enough

I can't get enough of this baby!

 

He is adorable!

 

He will be 9 months this weekend, it has gone by too quickly. He is going to be walking running everywhere before I know it. He has the sweetest personality, I love it!  God could not have given me a more perfect fourth child, He definitely knew what He was doing when He placed this babe in our family. My Benjamin baby steals the heart of  pretty much everyone he meets. We are having dinner at my dads house tonight to celebrate my sister being sworn in to the Arizona state bar, that's right my sister is amazing! She completed law school while still being an incredible mother to three young children.  She rocks, except that she just moved to Phoenix, that part about her sort of stinks.  

 

 Anyway, while in my dads jungle, that is what all the grand kids call his backyard because it actually has grass and greenery, I snapped these picture of little Benny chasing me down for a kiss.  Sorry they are such cruddy quality, I took them with my crappy phone.

 

 Prepare for your hearts to be stolen.

 

 

 

I don't know what it is about a baby in a hoody jacket but it melts my heart.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Wednesday: weigh in day

Down 1.2 lbs!!!

 

Weighed in today at 177.8

 

I couldn't be happier with that number

 

I know some people wouldn't think that much weight was a victory but I do. Any weight off is something to celebrate.  I worked hard this week to shed those 1.2 pounds. Having my workouts scheduled on the fridge has been really good for me. It not only makes me stick to my workouts but it reminds me to make good choices every time I open the fridge. I can't wait to see what the scale says next week. Annie over at Crazy/Simple Mama posted about hitting a 20 pound weight loss and I am inspired! I am so looking forward to the day I get to post about my own 20 pound milestone.  And I am chipping away at it everyday! 

 

Thanks Annie for sharing!

So far, so good...

     Having my workout schedule calender up on the fridge has been working so far. I really didn't want to do the shred last friday but knowing I would see the calender over and over and not have Jillian's name crossed out made me do it. I have crossed everything off so far, well except Jillian for today but it is still early. I even added a run on saturday that I didn't have scheduled, which I of course wrote on the calender just so I could cross it off. I feel more accomplished being able to see what excersize I have done over the last week. Feels good, feels really good!

 

 

     I fully enjoyed this mornings run, it has been gorgeous weather here. I love this time of year in arizona, we don't get to have any of the beautiful changing fall colors but the temperatures are great for spending time outside.  This morning I completed just under two miles, I should have gone a different route because I felt like I could have gone on forever but I had reached my house so I stopped. I am going to go a different way next time.

 

     Onto family stuff, everyone is finally starting to feel better in our house, thank goodness. I LOVE sleep. I hope you all are having a great Monday!

Wednesday: weigh in day

Well, sadly I am back up to 179.  But it was 179.0 so that was kind of fun.  Not sure why but it made me happy having the point 0. 

 

I have been in a slump this week and I want out of it so I decided that I am going to make a calender and schedule all of my workouts on it.  Then I am going to put it up on the fridge so that I will see it everyday several times a day.  Hopefully this will help me be more motivated to accomplish the workouts.  I think it will cause I love getting to cross things off lists, silly I know but it just makes me so happy to cross things off that I think I will do the workout just to cross it off the list.  Who knows, maybe if I miss a day I will do a double workout the next day so I can cross off both workouts.  

 

Plus I started a fitness challenge today and I have an awesome group of ladies on my team working towards winning prizes for our weight loss, talk about motivation.  I love it when people are depending on me cause I hate to disappoint.  I lost so much weight when I used to have to meet my friend, Linette, for our daily workouts, I couldn't not show up cause I might disappoint.  So I am excited to step on the scale next week.  Maybe I will actually hit that 175.  

Over it

Over it, yep, I am over my horrible time and ready to move on.  Just needed a day I guess. 

 

Oh, I forgot to mention the funniest part about the crazy lady from the 5k.  After running to get away from her I yelled, "my shin is killing me and I ended up next to a crazy lady" to my friends as I went past.  They yelled something back but since I was actually running at that point I missed what they said.  When I finished the race Diana asked, very concerned, "so what happened? A crazy lady kicked you in the shin?!"  Hahaha!  I almost died it was so funny.  I can't believe I forgot to mention that part.  Oops. 

 

Anyway, like I said, I am over the crazy lady run.  Melinda has already talked me in to signing up for another 5k at the end of the month, a costume one so we will see how that goes. 

 

Getting up tomorrow and planning on finishing my normal 2 mile route. 

Should be fun, right? 

 

 

Here is a picture of my adorable sick bugger.  I swear he has been sick for over a month.  I took him into the doctor again today, they are starting him on antibiotics finally, I felt like he needed them last week.  Hopefully he starts feeling better right away cause I love him but I really would like to sleep at night again.

 

Still growing

My last post was not supposed to be such a downer.  I wrote about my first 5k and I really enjoyed the experience. 

 

Then after writing and publishing my post I ended up reading "5 Lessons from My 5th Half Marathon" over on Roni's Weigh.  I am going to actively try to accept more encouragement.  As Roni said, "support comes when you're open to it."  

 

And I definitely need support.  

I finished

Well, I finished my first 5k.

 

It was horrible!

 

The way I felt during the run and my time, 42 minutes and 21 seconds.

 

Ugh. I had thought if I did poorly I would get a time around 36 or 37 minutes not 42! Oh well, I did run more then I walked so that is good. I guess it just gives me a time to beat next time.

 

Man, I just had really hoped for a little better. I can list all my excuses for why I ran so horribly (didn't feel good Saturday, was up for a little over an hour with a sick baby the night before) but I don't want to use those to feel better. Fact is I ran slow and I walked, which doesn't usually bother me. I made it through the first mile ok but at about a mile and a half my shin started hurting so badly. I have never had that much shin pain. That is what started my walking, my shin. I should thank the kind of crazy older lady that I ended up walking next to for getting me running again.  She started out by just encouraging me, saying it was ok to walk, but she went a little to far, ended up saying I was her hero because I was out there walking. I know she meant well but it really sucked having her tell me that, more discouraging then encouraging, am I the only one who would feel like that?  Of course, she didn't stop at that, she kept on talking and it got strange, I don't think I even said more then two words the whole conversation.  At one point we went past one of the volunteers, you know the ones who are suppose to cheer you on, and he yelled at us that there is no walking in triathlons, she was pissed! Started yelling at me about how he probably has never even done a tri before, oh did I mention that she was telling me all this while walking backwards, yep backwards, because when she first started talking to me apparently I had slowed her down so she said keep it up and that she was going to walk faster now cause she had people waiting for her, that was ok with me but then she turned around and just started going on and on, I honestly don't even remember most of what she said, it didn't make much sense. I guess I can't really explain how strange it was, it was weird. So if her goal was to get me to start running again just in order to get away from her it worked.  That rant may have sounded bad, sorry, way to go lady for being out there at all, I really am impressed by you doing the whole tri not just a relay, I hope when I am your age I am still doing these events.   

 

After running to get away from crazy I made it about a half a mile before walking again.  I walked about half a mile, ran half a mile, walked half a mile all the way back.  I probably would have walked more but my awesome friend Linette, found me and ran the last bit with me, pushing me to go faster.  So I finished wanting to die strong. 

 

All in all the tri was a good experience.

And now I know what it feels like to run/walk a 5k. 

 

The girls on my relay team did great!  Diana started us off with a fantastic swim, barely missed her PR by like 18 seconds.  Then Melanie completed her first ever bike race and I ended the tri with my cruddy 5k run. 

 

 I had a lot of fun watching everyone and getting to hang out with some of my favorite people. 

 

Diana, Linette, and I decided that we are gong to train and individually complete the entire triathlon in March 2013.  We will all be 30 then and thought that would make it even more fun.  Why would being 30 make it more fun?  I don't know but I am going with it.  =)

 

Linette, Me, Diana, and Melonie

 

Even with my HORRIBLE time I am really excited to run another 5k. 

 

Linette just texted me, It's a baseline for improvement!

 

So, here's to improvement.



My first real race

Man, I had every intention of posting this first thing Monday morning but Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and now almost all of Wednesday have come and gone and I still haven't posted.  This week has been nuts, fall break at the kids school equals a busy time for me. 

 

Back to the run. 

 

This past Sunday I ran in a fun run 3k.  I was super nervous and my only goal, which I am pretty sure I mentioned before, was to run this nonstop.  I didn't care what my time was, well, we should say that I never verbalized that I cared what my time was.  I had a number in my head that I really, REALLY wanted to beat but I guess I didn't want to get greedy and I knew that just being able to run the whole thing was going to be hard enough. 

 

 Well guess what?!!! 

 

Not only was I able to run the whole 3k, pretty easily I might add, but I beat the number in my head, which was 24 minutes.  That's right!  Melinda, my sister in law, and I were able to finish in 23 minutes and 20 seconds.

 

23 MINUTES 20 SECONDS

 

Sorry about all the bold caps but I am pretty excited about our time.  We had done some "checkin' out the course" runs and had finished in about 26 minutes.  And I had been running at about a 13/14 minute mile when jogging in the mornings, I am by no means a fast runner.  I really didn't think that I was going to be able to knock off 2 minutes.  2 minutes!!  Ok, I'm done now. 

 

Here is a picture of Melinda and I after the race.

Jon isn't the best photographer, but I love him anyways

 

  Jon and the kids came out to support us but they completely missed us finish.  Oh well, maybe next time. Since there will definitely be a next time.  I am running the 5k portion of a relay triathlon this coming Sunday with some friends.  I hope that race goes as well as last weekends.  

Friday Favorites Vlog link up

 

Today I am linking up with Holly and Emily, two pretty amazing women, who have put together a vlog link up of Fridays favorites.  I was so stinkin' nervous making this video.  You see, I hate talking in front of people, my mind gets all jumbled up and I usually just start to cry.  I know, pretty sad huh.  I can handle up to about four people, anymore then that and I turn into mush.  My Tuesday morning Bible study has actually been pushing this for me cause I have to share my feelings in front of people every week, so maybe I will get over this soon but I doubt it. 

 

Anyway, back to the vlog. 

 

I made it so I might as well post it and link up.  I think it is a pretty sad little video, I mean, at one point I say that I don't have any favorite things, really.  Also, sorry I am talking so fast.  Good luck deciphering my gibberish. 

 

Thanks for checking out my blog. 

 

Can't wait to watch everyones, I do love seeing your mannerism and hearing what you sound like in real life.   

 

 

 

 

And here is a cute picture of my baby just because

 

 



Change

My sister excepted a position as a law clerk in Phoenix today.  I find myself sad but excited for her.  And jealous, jealous of the change that their family is getting to go through.  I don't know why but I have been craving change lately.  We have a great life and everything is good right now but there is something inside me that is yearning for change.  I can't explain it exactly.  I can't even really understand it myself.  I just feel unsettled, like there is something else for us.  I have been praying about it a lot. I don't know.  We have a nice house, it is completely torn apart still but slowly getting put back together, maybe I am just wanting a complete home, but I don't think so.  I love our house and am excited to be transforming it ourselves.  I would be sad to move.  I love the kids school but find myself thinking maybe I should switch them to the one in our neighborhood, we could walk to school, save money on gas, but the kids school has a great community of Christians which is awesome in a public school.  Plus the Spanish program they are in is great, they are learning so much and being bilingual is such an asset now a days.  Our church is wonderful, I definitely feel like that is where God wants us right now. 

 

I don't know, maybe it is just that I am jealous.  But it feels so much deeper then that.  I don't know, maybe God is preparing my heart for something.  Maybe it will be something minuscule.  But maybe not.  Maybe there is some big change coming up.  

Wednesday: weigh in day

It happened...

 

I lost weight!

 

 

I finally busted through and am down on the scale.  I am very excited about this.  I think that I might owe Jillian a big THANK YOU.  The 30 Day Shred is the only thing that I have been doing differently and now I lost weight.  Wow, I really hope the scale keeps moving downward.  I can't wait to hit that 175 goal, hopefully that will happen next week. 

 

Here it is, my weight is...

 

 

176.4

 

that is right, I lost almost 4 pounds! 

 

Yippee!!!

 

 

I weighed in over on Roni's blog again, go check her out.

How many miles?

How many miles do you think I would have to run everyday to be able to eat as much ice cream as I want?

 

Just wonderin'