Motivational Monday #79

Happy Motivational Monday! There are lots of stories to share today, so I'm just going to jump right in to the good stuff :)

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Jennifer had a very busy weekend--she ran two back-to-back half-marathons! She had committed to completing the Marathons of Wisconsin series, which consists of running at least a half-marathon in five specific races this year in Wisconsin--and one has to be a full marathon. Last year, she really enjoyed the Brewers Mini-Marathon, and wanted to run it again this year. It just so happened to fall on the same weekend as one of the races in the M of W series. So she did what any crazy runner would do, and ran them both! ;)

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Mia started running in February, and not long after, she fell, causing her to break her fibula and sprain her ankle. After months of physical therapy and a 20-pound weight gain, she is finally back to running and hiking. She's lost half the weight, and she recently ran her farthest distance to date--4 miles! She's running her first 5K in October, and is super excited for it.

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Ashley just finished her first 5K! She was happy with her time of 42 minutes, especially considering the heat (105 in Phoenix--yikes!). Four years ago, she was at her heaviest weight, and decided to do something about it. She lost 40 pounds, and felt so great that she decided she was ready to start a family. She believes that her healthier lifestyle contributed to a happy, healthy pregnancy. After her son was born, she had a hard time getting back to the routine, but she's in a good place now and has lost 12 pounds of "baby weight". She feels great!

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On Saturday, Celeste ran her fastest 5K ever. She typically runs a 5K between 30-32 minutes, and once or twice she barely hit the sub-30 mark. She and her husband just ran a very small race in Osakis, Minnesota. She actually almost didn't run, because the weather wasn't great, and she wasn't feeling very good. But she crossed the finish line in 28:30! Celeste and her husband have lost a collective 100 pounds, and have run over 100 races together. (Celeste's blog)

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Mallory just ran her first 5K distance! Last week, she had her fastest 2-mile time, and was really nervous about adding another mile onto that. But she "shut out the doubts" and just did it. She met a friend, Andrea, in Zumba, and the two started running together. She said that having a running partner has made a huge difference in her motivation. The two have even lost about 40 pounds each over the last few months!

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Amy reached a huge milestone yesterday: she ran/walked 7 miles! She completed the Disney 10K in February, and her knees gave her problems afterward. She thought she'd never run more than 6 miles again, but she felt great during this run, and kept moving (despite the fact that it started to rain). She said while she was running, she kept thinking back to when she first started--she was gasping for breath within seconds. She walked some 5K's, and started to make real progress. There was one race that was very upsetting, and almost caused her to quit: she was given a size XL race shirt, instead of the 2XL that she was used to. The shirt didn't fit, and she was very upset that she wouldn't be able to wear it to the race. She was able to wear the shirt yesterday, and it's very big on her now!

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Last year, Rachel and her mom completed their first 5K at the Colorado Walk to End Alzheimer's, in honor of her Grandma Charlie, who was living with the disease. Sadly, Grandma Charlie passed away in December, but Rachel and her mom turned their team of 2 into a team of 22 this year! They raised over $1,000 for the Colorado Alzheimer's Association. This was the first 5K for many of the team members. Grandma Charlie's sister, "Aunt Bee", proudly walked the entire distance to honor her sister and other siblings fighting the disease. Rachel says that Team Charlie's Angels is proof that anyone, at any age, can complete a 5K!

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Erin and her husband completed their first half-marathon yesterday! They had been registered to run one last weekend, but it was canceled, so they signed up at the last-minute for a different race. It poured rain most of the race, but Erin was very happy with her finish time of 2:15. She also reached her secret goal: to beat her husband! ;)

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Jen was very proud of her little guy, who ran the Terry Fox Run at school. He ran the entire mile, without stopping to walk!

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Don't forget to check out more stories on the Motivational Monday Facebook post!

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Noah's first XC invitational

My internet was down all day yesterday, so I couldn't write a post. Charter finally came out this morning to fix it. It's so strange not having internet when I want it! I found myself thinking, "Oh, I'm going to Google that..." and then remembered that I couldn't. Or going to balance my checkbook, but not having access to my account info online. We've gotten spoiled, because everything is so convenient and quick.

Today, I wanted to make a pineapple upside down cake for my dad, because it's his birthday and that's his favorite. When I was looking online for a recipe, I was SO overwhelmed. There are so many different recipes for the same cake! I actually kind of miss the days when there weren't all those options--you just used the recipe that was in your cookbook. My dad's cake ended up turning out good, though:

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Anyways, yesterday was Noah's first cross country invitational. It was at the State Park, so he was familiar with the location, but we had run on the paved bike paths. For cross country, the entire race is on grass. It was a really pretty day outside, but kind of hot for an afternoon race--almost 80 degrees. I was nervous for Noah, because neither of us had ever been to a cross country invitational before, so we didn't know what to expect.

When we got there, it seemed so chaotic. There were a LOT of schools there, and each school had a tent (or two or three) set up somewhere that the runners could put their stuff or relax until race time. We signed Noah in, and discovered his team hadn't gotten their team shirts yet, unfortunately. They pinned a tag to his shirt, and then we had over an hour until his race time (we were told to get there at 1:00, and his race was at 2:20).

Once all the kids were signed in, the coach walked them around to show them their course (a 1.3-mile makeshift trail on grass). My dad came to watch his race, too, so we went over to the starting line together when it was time to line up. There were hundreds of kids at the starting line (I just looked up the results, and there were 216 total in Noah's division). It was kind of crazy to me to think that they would all start at one time (the races aren't chip timed, and there isn't a staggered start).

The horn sounded, and it was instant chaos. I was taking a video of the start, and I lost track of Noah. As I was taking the video, I saw a few kids fall, and other kids plowing over them or falling themselves. It was scary, and I immediately felt panicked for Noah.

I finally spotted him. He looked like he was really pacing himself, and he fell to the back of the pack, which was fine and what I had expected. My biggest concern was just that he would get discouraged.

The race was so short that my dad and I immediately went over to the finish line to watch for the kids coming through. The first kid, a sixth grader, came through in 7:00 flat. That's a 5:23/mile pace!! In the top 10 or so kids came this one boy who was carrying one of his shoes--it had obviously come off while he was running, so he carried it and ran with one shoe the rest of the way, still finishing with a 6:00-ish mile pace.

When Noah and I ran together at the State Park on Thursday, I took note of his 1.3-mile split, because I knew that was going to be the distance of his race. He did it in 17:00 even, which is a pace of 13:05/mile. I told him it would be awesome if he could hit a 13:00/mi pace at his race, and to do that, he'd just have to push himself a little harder than when we practiced. I told him that by the end of the season, he could probably have a pace in the 10:00's if he kept training.

About 12 minutes in, my dad looked at the clock and said we still had about 5 minutes before Noah would come through. Shortly after he said that, I spotted Noah!

He looked like he had pushed himself hard, and he crossed the finish line with an official time of 12:32 (9:38/mile pace). (There was confusion about whether the course was 1.25 or 1.3 miles, but the official results list 1.3, so we'll go with that.) He placed 161 out of 216. I was completely dumbfounded when I saw him cross the finish line with that time--I didn't even think he'd hit that pace during the whole season, let alone the first invitational!

Noah was exhausted, and he bent over for a minute like he was going to throw up. I handed him a bottle of water, and he said he thought he was going to puke. He had really pushed himself hard, and it just blew my mind how much time he took off of his practice run! I asked him if he had fun, and he said yes--so that was the most important thing anyway. He's really proud of himself and he really likes cross country. I'm so glad!

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Naked and Afraid

For the past few nights, the kids, Jerry, and I have been watching an episode or two of Naked and Afraid. It's a survivalist show about two strangers (man and woman) who are put in a very remote place (the Amazon, or on an island in the middle of nowhere, etc.) without food, water, or clothing, and they have to survive off the land for 21 days. The only thing they get for doing it is bragging rights. I wouldn't last an hour on that show!

Anyway, after watching an episode yesterday, Eli said to Noah, "Let's go outside and build a shelter!" so the two of them went out into the woods across the street and started collecting sticks and branches off the ground to build a "shelter" in the front yard. It was so cute to see them working together as a team! They even found a Christmas tree that someone had thrown into the woods, and when Jerry got home from work, they had him saw the branches off. They actually built a pretty impressive fort!

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This morning, I had my long run on the schedule--8 miles. I was feeling really, really lazy, and the last thing I wanted to do today was run. I got dressed to run right when I woke up, before I could even think about it, but after I got the kids off to school, I sat on the couch for about 10 minutes coming up with excuses not to run today. I almost had myself convinced to do my long run on Sunday instead of today, but I knew that come Sunday, I'd regret that decision!

Finally, I forced myself out the door. I decided to drive 20 minutes to a bike path instead of running around here, because I knew if I drove that far to get there, I'd be less likely to quit early. I didn't set any sort of time goal, and I just told myself that I could go as slowly as I felt like, as long as I was running it. It was 45 degrees again, and I felt really cold taking the kids to the bus stops, so I wore long sleeves for my run.

I call this particular path the Metropark Trail, because it connects four of the Metroparks around here, and is probably about 30 miles long. I usually run the southeastern 5-10 miles of it as an out-and-back. I parked at the community center, and then headed out. Immediately, my legs felt really clumsy and rubbery, so I knew my pace wasn't going to be on par with last week, but I was totally fine with that. I just wanted to finish!

The run was pretty uneventful, except for when I almost got hit by a car (twice!) due to drivers who were texting while driving. Thankfully, I pay attention to the drivers, and I was able to jump out of the way before getting hit. I always obey the crosswalk signals, but the drivers who aren't paying attention don't notice when I'm crossing, so when they go to turn on red while looking at their phones, they nearly hit me.

The hardest part about this path is that there is an overpass that I have to run over. That's the only form of hill training I ever get, because we just don't have hills around here. I love running the overpass, even though it's hard, because it's a pretty cool view from the top.

Eight miles later, I was so glad to be back at the car! Of course, after running, I'm always glad I did it--it's just hard to make myself go when I really feel like wearing sweats and reading my book on the couch ;) But now, I have two rest days in a row, so it was worth it.

Tomorrow, Noah has his first cross country meet--eek! I'm nervous/excited for him. I know he'll do great, though!

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Noah's a runner!

For the past couple of days, I've been consumed with reading a book that I impulsively downloaded from the library to my Kindle. It's called Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn. I read her book Gone Girl a while ago, and I really liked it, so I wanted to try another of her books. I love the way she writes from different characters points of view. Each chapter gets really interesting, and then suddenly it switches to a different person's point of view, and I get hooked on their storyline. It makes me not want to put the book down!

I was reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed, but after reading a page or two at a time for a couple of months, I finally gave up on it. I wanted to like it, especially because it was recently turned into a movie, but I just couldn't get into it. I like books that are suspenseful, because then I want to keep reading, and they're hard to put down.

Anyway, Jerry was off work yesterday, and we decided to go for a run together. We got the kids off to school in the morning, and then got ready to run. We planned to go to the State Park to run four miles, but halfway there, Jerry suggested going to the Metropark instead. It's a little farther away, but I liked the idea, so we went there to do an out-and-back four-miler.

Usually when I run with Jerry, we end up going pretty slowly, because we talk a lot. We hit the first mile in 10:07, so I suggested we try to get negative splits (faster each mile). The second mile felt really hard to me for some reason (a lot of it was in the sun), and the third wasn't much better. But I felt really good during the last mile. When I looked at our splits, I saw that our second mile was just 1/10th of a SECOND faster than the first... but we'd managed negative splits!

Yes, that's right--46 degrees! I actually wore a long-sleeved shirt to run in. With the full sun, though, it wasn't as cold as I'd expected, and I wished I'd worn short sleeves by mile two. It was nice to run with Jerry, though. It's been a while since we were able to.

For those that comment on Jerry's smile (the "Jerry face") that he usually has, he deliberately tried to smile "normally" for this photo. He said this picture just proves why he doesn't smile normally, because when he does, it makes him look like a creeper ;)

Noah had cross country practice in the afternoon, so we went to watch. (I'm the only parent that actually goes and watches practice--so it may be weird, but I like to see how Noah's doing!) As soon as we got there, we saw Noah was running with the coach, and he looked really upset. He came over to the fence to get the Gatorade we brought him, and he was crying.

I asked him what was wrong, and he said that a group of girls were making fun of him because he's a slow runner. I stayed calm, but inside, I was pissed--I wanted to find out who they were and get all "bitchy mom" on them. Noah is a slow runner, usually last in the group, but he never felt ashamed of that until yesterday when the girls teased him for it. I had told him when he joined the team that it doesn't matter how fast or slow he goes, that he should just do his best and try to improve HIMSELF, and not worry about what anyone else does.

He didn't try to quit or anything when we got there, thankfully. I didn't want him to cry, because that would certainly make the teasing worse, so I just gave him a quick pep talk and he kept going. There was a boy that stuck with him the whole time, which made me glad that Noah had someone to run with (the reason he joined was to make some friends and become a better runner).

They had to do a 1.2 mile run, and the two of them finished last, but they ran the entire distance (a lot of the kids would sprint, then walk, then sprint... because they didn't know how to pace themselves). I was SO proud of Noah for running the entire way, because when we did the 5K, he was only running one minute at a time (run one, walk one, over and and over).

He didn't have practice today, so I decided to pick him up from school and take him to the State Park to go for a short run. There's a small loop there that I guessed to be about a mile around, so I figured we could do that once. I told him that he could run at whatever pace he wanted, and I would just go along for the company.

I was so impressed that he didn't end up taking any walk breaks! He's improved so much since the 5K's we did over the summer. During his first 5K, his mile time was about 13:45-14:00 on average. Today, his first mile was 13:07. The loop ended up being longer than I thought--1.56 miles--and the 0.56 part of the run was a pace of 11:57. So he overall average pace for 1.56 miles was 12:42. A big improvement!

He was very proud of himself for being able to run the entire way without stopping. On the way home, we stopped for an ice cream (probably our last of the season at the local ice cream shop). It's so strange--since I started intuitive eating, I can count on one hand the number of times I've eaten ice cream! Ice cream is my very favorite food, but I just haven't craved it much when I've really been listening to my body. Today, though, it sounded really good after our run. I got a small flurry, and I only ate half of it before I was satisfied. What the--?! I can assure you, I've NEVER eaten just half of a flurry. I threw the rest out, and it wasn't even hard to do. That was a big moment for me ;)

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Gettin' crafty

Yesterday morning, I had three miles on the schedule, so I went to the State Park after getting the kids off to school. I've been going there (and other places) a lot for running lately, because I was just getting tired of the same old routes from my house. The State Park has a loop that is a near-perfect 5K (it's 3.14 miles), so I like to use that for my 3-mile runs.

I had forgotten my heart rate monitor for my 8-miler on Friday, so I made sure to put it on before I left the house. Then, I drove 10 minutes to the State Park, and realized that I forgot my Garmin! Since it was only a 3-mile run, and it would take me 20 minutes round trip to pick up my Garmin, I decided to just run without it (gasp!). I knew the distance was 3.14 miles, so I decided to just use the timer on my phone to have an accurate time when I was done. (Because God forbid I make a guesstimate for once!)

I was trying really hard to run slowly and enjoy the scenery, but I had no clue what my pace was. At times, I felt like I was running ridiculously slow, and other times, I felt like I was going too fast (based on my breathing). I kept my phone in my Flipbelt the entire time I was running, so I wouldn't be tempted to calculate my pace.

I took it out at around the 3-mile mark, to get ready to hit the stop button, and I noticed I was really close to 30 minutes. I wanted to at least hit a sub-30 5K, so I picked up the pace--but it was too little, too late. Finished 3.14 miles in 30:18 (a 9:41/mi pace). Not bad for not having anything to pace off of, though!

Yesterday afternoon was a bit of a disaster. On Sunday, Jerry and I bought a nice futon frame at Goodwill (for $25!), but we had no way to get it home. So I asked my brother, Nathan, if he could pick it up in his truck, and he said he could do it Monday afternoon. Noah had cross country after school, and my dad had told me he'd pick up Eli from school.

I realized I forgot to give Noah his Gatorade for cross country, so at 3:00, I went to his practice to give that to him. Then Nathan called me to say he was on his way to my house with the futon, so I told Noah I'd be back by 4:00 to pick him up, and I went home to meet Nathan. He brought the futon, and we wrangled it into the house, and then he left because he had an 18-mile run to do. Just before I was going to leave to pick up Noah, I decided to call my dad to double check that he had picked up Eli.

Turns out my dad was fishing! He forgot to tell me that he wouldn't be picking Eli up after all.

It was too late for ME to pick up Eli, so I had to wait for him to get home on the bus, which arrives at around 4:00. Noah's practice ended at 4:00, and Jerry was at work. Nathan was gone, my dad was fishing, my mom was 40 minutes away. This has never happened before, and I panicked for a minute. I either had to stay and wait for Eli, making Noah wonder where I was while the other kids left, or go get Noah, and Eli would arrive to an empty house.

Then I remembered that Noah's friend was on the team, so I sent a text to his mom to see if she could wait with Noah until I could get there. She said she could do one better, and her husband picked up the boys and drove Noah home after practice. So I was here when Eli got home, and everything worked out fine in the end, but it was pretty crazy for a little while.

Nathan drove up near his girlfriend's house to do his 18-miler, otherwise I would have planned to meet him during the run and refill his water and all that. He set up the live tracking on his Garmin and sent me a link, so that I could see how he was doing.

I called his girlfriend and suggested that she go meet Nathan at around mile 12 or so, because he'd be really surprised to see her, and she thought that was a great idea. We didn't know his exact route, so I was watching the live tracking and trying to figure out about where she could meet him. At mile 9, he turned around to do an out-and-back, so that made it easy! She met up with him before mile 13, bringing ice water. Ice water during a long run is so good!

Nathan had an AWESOME 18-miler. That was his longest distance run to date, and he held a 9:09/mi average pace! The live tracking is a really cool feature on the new Garmins that I really should use more often. Nathan is going to use it during the marathon so that we can find him along the course. I'm going to try and make it to miles 8, 15.5, 19, 22.5, and then the finish line. It's going to be close getting from 22.5 to the finish line before Nathan, but I'll try!

This afternoon, I was really in the mood to make some sort of craft, so I went to Hobby Lobby for some beads. I'm going to try to replicate a purse that my sister has. Here is a picture of hers:

It'll be a big, tedious project, but I love that purse! I actually took that picture in 2010 with plans of making one, but just never got around to it. She bought it at a Goodwill store, and said she gets compliments on it every time she uses it.

I wasn't able to find some of the matte beads, so I'm going to wait until I get them before I start on it. But I bought some fabric paint and a couple of t-shirts, and when I got home, I got to work making a couple of Runs for Cookies shirts (for no particular reason at all).

Lettering with fabric paint was a thousand times faster and easier than doing fabric lettering and ironing/sewing them on. The other shirt I made is a long-sleeved black t-shirt, with the same "Runs for Cookies" letting on the front. I'm hoping that the paint holds through the washing machine; if it does, I'll probably stencil a couple of tech shirts for races. (The ones I did today were just $3 cotton shirts.)

I was supposed to run four miles today, but I'm going to do it tomorrow instead. Jerry is off work tomorrow, and he said he wanted to run with me, so I just switched my rest day to today instead. Running with company sounds much better!

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Motivational Monday #78

Happy Motivational Monday! It's been feeling so good to get back in a nice routine now that the kids are in school and it doesn't really like summer anymore. The weather here has been absolutely perfect all week long, and I'm starting to remember what it was that I enjoyed about running. It's easy to forget the good parts about running when it's so hot and humid all summer!

My "proud moment" of the week was when I hit my goal of sub-10 miles for my 8-mile run on Friday. It wasn't a very lofty goal, because I've been running sub-10's regularly for a couple of years now, but my pace has slowed a LOT this summer. So I was very happy to hit that goal for my long run this week.

I have some inspiring stories to share for Motivational Monday today. Enjoy!

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Jessi has been working really hard to have a healthy pregnancy. She's currently over 33 weeks pregnant, but she just completed The Color Run 5K! She took her time, and says she was "nowhere near fast", but she was out to have a great time with friends, and her friends stuck by her the whole way. She's very proud to have completed the race, and plans to continue with the exercise as long as she can.

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Andrea ran her very first 5K distance this week! About six weeks ago, she decided that she wasn't going to be overweight or unhealthy anymore, so she started tracking her calories on My Fitness Pal and following the 5K Runner app. She registered for her first 5K race, which will take place on October 12th. Her goal was to run the whole race in less than 45 minutes, and this week, she decided to see just where she was as far as distance and pace are concerned. She took a few short walk breaks, but she beat her goal of sub-45... a whole month early! She's lost about 15 pounds and gained tons of confidence the past few weeks, and now she's really looking forward to her first 5K race.

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Emily just completed her first 5K! She said she was always the kid panting at the halfway mark in the high school mile, because nobody ever told her about pacing. She's been running off and on since college, but not consistently, and she has gained weight over the years. On August 1st, she decided to take charge of her health, and she signed up for a 5K. She's lost 20 pounds, and last night, she completed the Girls Night Out 5K in 50:06! She's also proud of her daughter, who completed the 1/4-mile Rosebud Run. Her daughter's advice to her before the race was: 1) Don't get hurt; 2) Don't run too fast, or you will get "hydrated"; and 3) Don't drink too much or you'll pee your pants!

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Lindsey just completed her first triathlon! She's done 5K's and half-marathons in the past, but a triathlon was new to her. She said it was very different, but a great experience! She enjoyed it so much that she's planning on focusing on triathlons for a while.

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Renee is proud to announce that she PR'ed her 10K time yesterday! Despite a difficult summer for training (moving, starting a new job in a new city, and the heat/humidity), she finished 31 seconds faster than her previous best time. She feels confident that she's going to do great at her second half-marathon next month! (Renee's race report)

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Marine, and her friend, Caroline, completed their first race--the La Parisienne 6.7K race around the Eiffel Tower! They had a great time, and saved enough energy to sprint to the finish line. They finished in 40:28, and they're already planning on doing another race together!

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Don't forget to check out the Motivational Monday Facebook post for more stories!

If you have a photo and accomplishment you'd like to share for Motivational Monday, you can email it to me at Katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com, with the subject "Motivational Monday", and I may include it on a future MM post :)

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Jerry's birthday weekend

What a relaxing weekend! The last couple of weeks have been so busy, it was nice to have all weekend without any real plans. I actually spent most of the weekend like this:

When I saw that sweatshirt at the thrift store, I just had to buy it! I love how Estelle seems to be rolling her eyes at Jerry, who was taking the picture ;)

On Friday, Noah was invited to a sleepover birthday party; Eli felt left out, so my parents let him stay the night at their house. Jerry was off work all weekend, so on Friday night, we had a date night. We decided to go see a movie at the theater we used to go to when we were dating, because we hadn't been there in ages. When we were teenagers, we used to go to the movies all the time--probably twice a week!

First, we went to check out a bar that my friends Mike and Lance bought. Mike lived next door to me and Lance lived behind me when we were growing up, so I've known them for about 30 years. I love that we're still friends after this long, and I thought it was really cool that Mike and Lance bought the bar together. (For any local readers, it's called The Rockery in Wyandotte)

I wanted to go there early, before the show, so that it wouldn't be busy and I'd have a chance to chat with Mike (Lance wasn't there). It was a fun place! They'd put a lot of work into it over the past couple of weeks, and they still have a lot more work to do, but it was nice to see how excited Mike was about the place. I told the bartender to make me whatever drink she'd like, and she made me something with cherry vodka and lime juice, which was really good.

We stayed and chatted with Mike for a while until it was time to head to the movie. When we got to the theater, I nearly had a heart attack at the cost of a movie--$10--because the last time we were there, it was only $6.50. Hahaha, just shows how old we are! The people working there were about half our age (literally).

We had a very light dinner so that we would be hungry for popcorn at the movies. With intuitive eating, I'm starting to get the hang of planning ahead for stuff like that. We got a large popcorn, but dumped half in the garbage so that we could put butter on the rest and shake it up in the bag. Then we only ate about half of that during the movie. Back in the teenager days, I would eat a whole large popcorn by myself!

We saw the movie Into the Storm, and it was awful. We both really like those kinds of movies (natural disaster/end-of-the-world kinds of movies), but the acting was so bad for this one, which was about tornadoes. We had a good laugh about it, though. Despite the bad movie, we had a fun date, and I'm glad we went.

Yesterday, we spent some time cleaning up the yard (we've been building a garage all summer long, and there are building materials everywhere). As we moved scraps of lumber, we found so many frogs hiding underneath! We started catching them and taking them across the street to the woods. We probably caught and released at least 12-15 frogs and toads. There are five just in this photo (one is in the top right corner, and hard to see because of the grass right there).

Today is Jerry's birthday--he's 34!

It's crazy how fast the time goes by. Jerry and I met when I was 16 and he was 17, so we've been together for exactly HALF our lives! We still act like children (Jerry does way more than I do, but that's one of the things I love about him). We both were just saying that we don't feel as old as we are--in my mind, I feel like we're still 16 and 17.

We had a pretty relaxing morning, and then went out to run some errands in the afternoon. Jerry said that he wanted to walk to the local bar for dinner--they have the BEST boneless wings we've ever had. We ordered them on a whim one time when playing Keno, and we were both so shocked at just how good they were. So we went there for Jerry's birthday dinner tonight--nothing fancy, but definitely good!

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Nostalgic eight

Today's weather was just like yesterday's, and I was grateful because today was my long run. This week, I started week five of Hal Higdon's Novice 2 program. I would consider myself an advanced runner, but I really don't want to do speed work right now, and I liked the idea of going back to the basics, so I decided to go with the Novice 2 program. I'll probably start doing speed work again this winter, on the treadmill.

Today's long run was eight miles. I briefly thought about recreating my very first eight-miler, but the route wasn't saved on Garmin Connect (just the distance and time). I remember I ran the neighborhoods around here, but that's it. My first eight-miler was probably my proudest moment in running--even more so than my first marathon! I'd attempted it twice in the couple of weeks before that, but I just couldn't complete it. The first time, I made it 7.5 miles and nearly had a heat stroke. The second time, I just wasn't feeling it at all, and it was all I could do to get in 5.5.

I had been craving carrot cake something fierce, so I decided to buy a big slice of carrot cake, and only eat it after I'd completed the eight-mile run. I felt super determined to get it done that day! So I hydrated well, woke up early, and headed out. I did my best to go the distance, and I did it! I ran an 11:01/mile pace, and after I showered, I ate a big piece of carrot cake.

First 8-mile run! August 5, 2010

This morning, I thought about going to Monica's Bakery to get a piece of carrot cake for after my run, but something I've learned about myself through intuitive eating is that sweets just don't sound good to me in the mornings. I love sweets, but I don't really desire them until the afternoon. So I just figured I'd wait and get something this afternoon if I really wanted to.

I had a couple of pieces of sourdough toast with butter and a glass of milk this morning before getting the kids off to school. Then I decided to drive into town to run along the River Raisin. I don't normally like to run that route because there are a few traffic lights, but I was really craving some different scenery. I chose a lollipop route that went along the river, then through a park, and then back along the river.

I almost decided to wear my jacket, because it feels chilly in a tank when it's 52 degrees. But I knew I'd warm up when I start to run, so I just left it in the car. I forgot to wear my heart rate monitor, which bummed me out, but it wasn't that big of a deal. (As long as I have my Garmin, of course!!)

I didn't have a "real" goal for this run, but in the back of my mind, I was hoping to run all sub-10:00 miles. The first couple of miles felt good, and I thought the sub-10's would be a cakewalk. But miles three and four were tough, and I was trying not to give up on my sub-10's so soon. Miles four and five were on gravel, which is harder to run on, but I managed to keep pace. Once I hit mile six, I knew I could do the last two.

It was a little discouraging to see how hard this pace felt--a little over a year ago, my long runs were at an 8:45 pace! But I've been trying not to compare now vs. then, because it makes me feel bad (just like with my weight). So I'm going to set new goals and be happy when I reach them (like today's sub-10 goal) rather than focus on the fact that I used to be much faster. Today, I felt awesome when I finished my run! The weather played a large part in that, but I also felt great because I pushed myself to reach the small goal I'd had in mind.

Speaking of goals, with vacation and then going to my brother's wedding, I'd completely forgotten to set a goal for September. For August, my goal was to eat all of my meals at the dining table--and I did it. I ate every single meal at the table, and even though the month is over, I've continued to do it. It really helps with the intuitive eating! I've realized that I'm starting to disassociate the couch with eating, or watching TV with eating. So now when I sit on the couch, I don't automatically start thinking about food.

I've been eating breakfast at the table with the kids every morning, too, which I really enjoy. When counting points or calories, I never wanted to eat that early--I'd put off breakfast until about 8-8:30, so that I wouldn't use up my calories and be starving by 10:00. Now that I'm eating intuitively, it doesn't matter if I eat early, because I just eat again when I get hungry. It sounds so "Duh!" but it's been so nice! ;)

My goal for the rest of September is just to stick with my running plan. There were several weeks this summer where I didn't do a long run, which was fine--I wanted to give myself a break from a structured plan--but now that the weather isn't so hot and humid, I want to get back to a regular schedule. Even though the summer was short, it feels great to get back to a routine!

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Virtual 5K

It was 50 degrees when I woke up this morning. Fifty! I love love love this weather, and I'm hopeful that it's here for the season, and not just teasing me.

After getting the kids off to school, I decided to go to the State Park for my scheduled three-mile run. I had to get a couple of things from Kroger, so I figured I might as well have a scenic place to run while I was out. When I got to the park, I stood outside the car for a minute, just feeling so happy that it felt like fall. It was really peaceful this morning, too.

Dani at Weight Off My Shoulders is hosting a virtual 5K this month for a charity that she's very passionate about, so I had signed up for that. (I met Dani in Boston for the Heartbreak Hill Half, and she is SO sweet!) I decided that since today was such a nice morning, I'd run 3.1 miles and call it my 5K. I knew there was no way in heck I could hit a PR, so I didn't even attempt that--but I ran at a pace that felt comfortably hard.

One of the first things I noticed when I started running?

LEAVES! There were leaves on the ground! I'm so excited for the trees to change color. Michigan's winter and summer isn't exactly desirable, but the fall totally makes up for it. The leaves are beautiful when they change color.

It was a great run, and the weather was absolutely perfect for running this morning. My virtual 5K time leaves much to be desired, but I'll work on getting my speed back in a few months.

I finished in 29:00, a 9:20/mi pace. (You may notice I wore the new Altra shoes--I really like them! I've worn them a few times now, and it's nice to try something different. I'll still use my Adrenalines sometimes, but I like having an option.)

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Noah had cross country practice again today, and I realized I forgot to send him to school with a water bottle for practice. So I got him a Gatorade while I was at Kroger, and then Jerry and I went to the school at 2:35 to give it to him and watch his practice.

He did great! He's been listening to my advice not to start out too fast, so he's usually in the back of the pack, but ends up passing people at the end. He doesn't seem to mind being at the back at all, though, which is good. I'm sure his speed will improve as he practices, but I don't want him to worry about that. I'm just glad he's enjoying it!

While we were sitting there, I got a call from Eli's school. The nurse said he had fallen off some playground equipment and hurt his back. She said there weren't any bruises or anything, and she didn't sound too worried. School was going to be out in 10 minutes, and my dad had already told me that he'd pick up Eli, since I was at Noah's practice, so I didn't worry about it.

A little while later, my mom called me to say that Eli wasn't doing well at all. She said his back was really hurting, and he couldn't take a deep breath. So I decided to take him to the emergency room, and I rushed home to get him. When my mom said he couldn't take a deep breath, I was worried that maybe he broke a rib and punctured his lung or something.

He wasn't doing very well when I got home, and I worried the entire way to the hospital. Once we got there, it was a lot of waiting. The doctor checked him out, and said they wanted to x-ray his back and chest. After lots more waiting, the doctor said that his x-rays looked good--nothing was broken or misplaced, and he had probably just bruised it pretty badly. So that was a relief! He's probably going to be pretty sore tomorrow, so I may keep him home from school, but I'm just glad it was nothing serious.

When we got home, we played a game of Hedbanz, so he's feeling quite a bit better now :)

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Cross Country

Today was such a lazy day. I'm back to a running schedule, and today was a rest day, so I took that quite literally. It rained all afternoon, so Jerry and I watched the season premiere of Sons of Anarchy and the season finale of Extreme Weight Loss. I had been really excited for Sons of Anarchy, but both Jerry and I agreed it wasn't a very good episode.

The Extreme Weight Loss episode was awkward, to say the least. I think I'm done watching that show. There was a 15-year old girl on last night's episode (along with her father), and throughout the episode, there were several things that I just didn't agree with. I've already mentioned how I think the initial (very public) weigh-in is degrading to the contestants, but to have a 15-year old girl go through it was awful to watch. I think the show should have had her weigh in privately, and not reveal her weight. Also, she was given a very lofty weight loss goal for the first 90 days, and I think they should have given her a goal that was much less intimidating, or no "numbers goal" to focus on at all.

*SPOILER ALERT* (Skip to the next paragraph to avoid spoilers)--She doesn't reach any of her weight loss goals through the entire year, which couldn't have been good for her self-confidence. The worst part of the episode, in my opinion, was when Chris and Heidi were driving around, following the girl and her dad to catch them in the act of cheating on their diets and cutting their workouts short. Then, Chris and Heidi confronted them, and they lied about it--of course they shouldn't have lied, but the way they were confronted made it seem like an attack. Heidi shamed the teen for drinking a 200-calorie coffee drink with her friend, by discussing that she should have been eating just 1250-1300 calories per day, and working out at Crossfit for two hours, along with walking an hour or two after school. I'm no dietician, but that sounds a little "extreme" to me--1300 calories for a teenage girl doing 3+ hours of cardio each day? (Yes, it's "extreme" weight loss, but I don't think that a 15-year old should be on the show in the first place).

Anyway, I just feel like the show has changed its purpose. In the beginning, I felt like Chris Powell was truly passionate about helping people with their weight loss goals, but the show this season really felt like it was all about exploiting overweight people. Does anyone else feel that way? To me, it seemed similar to what happened with The Dr. Oz Show--at first, he was all about helping people, and later, it just felt like one gimmick after another.

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On Friday, Noah brought home a sign-up sheet for cross-country at school. He said he was thinking about joining, and of course I encouraged him to. It's only six weeks (so if he didn't like it, it wouldn't drag on), and I would love for him to get involved with a sport in addition to summer baseball.

His first practice was yesterday, and I was so nervous all day for him. Noah is a worrywart, just like his mom, and he said he wished he didn't sign up because he was so nervous about it. I gave him some tips on not going out too fast (when you tell kids to run, they usually sprint--so I told him not to try and keep up with the kids in the front, because he'll burn himself out).

His practice was at 2:35, and he told me to pick him up at 4:00, but of course I went to the track at 3:00 to see how things were going. The high schoolers were on the track practicing, too. When I first got there, I saw the middle schoolers, including Noah, running around the track. He looked like he was pacing himself well, so I was glad! Two of his friends had joined the team, also, so he knew a couple of kids there (easing his anxiety). It looked like the kids were running a lap, and then taking a break or walking a lap.

I was really interested to watch the high schoolers practice. They were running 400-meters, two kids at a time, and they were fast! Being the running nerd that I am, I used my phone to time them, because I was curious if they were as fast as they looked from the bleachers. The faster kids were doing the 400's in 60-65 seconds--that's pretty fast, especially considering it was the first day of practice! They did 50-meter sprints after that.

Seeing the high school kids practice made me really wish that I'd run track or cross country in school. I actually never even really knew what track or cross country was! I knew it was something to do with running, and that I hated running, so I wasn't interested. Noah really liked his practice yesterday, so I'm hoping that he continues to enjoy it. I'm glad he chose cross country and not football--watching kids run is so much more enjoyable to me than watching football! ;) His practice today was canceled because of the storms, but he has another practice tomorrow.

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