5 is better than one

...I should actually say THREE is better. I decided to step up my friend game the other day and scheduled a 5 mile run with Michelle, Amy, Matt & John for this morning. Maybe I should mention that I woke up pissy about WHY I agreed to run in the first place, as I am NOT a morning person, but John wouldn't indulge in my child-like behavior and we left the house in spite of my mood. LOL
I think we only had the guys with us on the walk out to the street from Michelle's house, then they were gone. Oh well. I didn't think my body was quite ready for 5 miles but I figured I'd do the best I can and walk if need be (which wasn't that much, to my surprise). I admit, running with friends is SO much better than doing it alone! Time went by faster than I thought and I was able to even gasp out a few words here & there....but it was fine by me to just listen to the 2 of them talk. Better than my ipod ;) And it was so great to have a change of scenery from what I'm used to seeing. It was nice to not smell horse poo, be chased by a goose or have 2536 dogs barking at me! So I think I will make a trek across town every other week to run the hills out by Red Rock and bask in the company of these girls...like sunshine for my soul ;)
I have to eek out two more 4 (or dare I do 5??!!) mile runs this coming week (alone.....forever alone!!), then I'm off to Aspen on Thursday morning for a long weekend with my girlfriends {no husbands, no kids!} Super excited!!

Thanks again girls for motivating me this morning!! ♥

PS- looks like Napa Valley Ragnar is in the works for us....YAY!! That makes me happy!!

Confessions...

I hate running.

I curse the day I ever decided to be a good wife and have a hobby that my husband & I could enjoy "together". Running blows. I think I need a friend who lives by me (damn you Michelle & Amy for living all the way the hell across town!) and who runs at my slow ass pace (oh, well...then thank you Michelle & Amy for NOT living by me cause I couldn't keep up with you hookers anyways! :/) . I get so freakin' bored that my mind gives up way before my body does. Funny how much longer it seems to take to run 4 miles than it does 3....when really, 9 10.30 minutes is not a long time in normal day to day stuff. I was trying to think of anything at all possible on my run today to keep my mind off of the fact that I'm running and it's hot as hell outside (I will dread summer time runs!) and I have a long sleeve shirt on (stupid!)........so I have the balls to take my shirt off and run in my capris and sports bra. YES- I went there! But, I tied my shirt around my waist to hide my muffin top from flopping all over the place, as if that makes it better. Anyways, if you wanna know what a lone runner who hates what she's doing thinks about, let me give you a scary peek inside my brain (don't judge me...I have no control over what thoughts overcome me during these lonely, boring miles):
**Please let me see a coyote. **I know I'm supposed to run against traffic, but I'm scared, because if a car is going to hit me, I'd rather it be from behind so that it takes me by surprise and I hopefully don't feel it. **Oh yay! It's the bunny house! Hi bunnies! (there is a house in my neighborhood who has like 56 bunnies in their yard and I feel better when I see the white one. Random, yes.). **I wonder if running sucks for the majority of people who do it or if they actually really like it. **How the hell did I end up with 4 kids? **Will I be able to get through a Half marathon? **I wonder if I look like a crazy red-faced lunatic to people as they drive past me. **There's my pee tree! heeheehee (yes, I had to pee one day REALLLLY bad on my run, I was about 2 miles away from my house, I live out in the nothingness, so I actually peed in a bush. I'm not proud of that, but there was no way in HELL I could hold it any longer. **I really need to get rid of this song on my ipod. **What should I make for dinner...or should I be a terrible mom and grab pizza instead? **When I see other women out running at the same time that I am, I always think "hey, I wonder if she will be my friend and run with me" but I would never ask, in fear she'd think I was a crazy lesbian out to get her.

That's all, pretty much. A whole lotta nothing, yet things that help me forget the torture I'm enduring. Ok, so...ummmm....this is awkward now. Alright, well.......call me if you wanna be my friend and run with me :/

Crappy day!

Today has been the most annoying day I've had in a long time! I hate letting other people dictate what I do on my days off....I only get 1 "real" day-off per week (when kids & husband are actually not home with me, I mean!) so I try to plan my time off to get things done that I'd like to accomplish. Anyways...I have my running training schedule planned out from now until the Half in June and I don't like unnecessary crap getting in the way of it. I had planned for a 3.5 mile run before noon and then grocery shopping, but since husband didn't start work until 3pm today, he had other plans for my day, which got me in the wrong mood. All in all...my entire morning was a complete waste and just got worse as the day went on. I actually DID finally get my run in @ 3:45pm and it was one of the worst runs I've had in a long time (which did nothing for my crummy mood). I tried to tell myself (as I mentally said the F word to my achy knees , gave up part way up a hill and walked) that at least I was out there. Didn't matter.

Here's what I've learned from today's events:

Change my day off from Tuesday to Monday...it will save my marriage in the long run. Trust me.

Don't let other people dictate what I am planning on doing with my day. When someone tells you "just do this "one" thing with me, then you can do whatever you had planned on doing...it will only take an hour!" Lies. It NEVER just takes an hour.

Do not let your kid ride his bike along side you while you run if you are not a talker while running (which I most definitely am not). Roman does not appreciate hand signals as my sign to say "yes buddy, I heard you"...so this is what I heard the ENTIRE run: "right mommy? mom? did you hear me? mom? mommy? right mom?" or some variation of that. THE.WHOLE.TIME.

It sucks having to push a bike up a hill. A bike I can't even ride. It also sucks to have to help said kid take off and tie his jacket to his handle bars 53 times.

Hold my kleenex in my hand, not in a pocket where it inevitably gets lost. I can handle wiping my runny nose on my shirt sleeve once in a while, but I did not love having to finally result to blowing my nose into my gloves. Gross, yes...but effective.

Do not wear a long sleeve shirt AND a running hoodie if you secretly already know when you step outside that you are going to burn up when you start to run...even if it's 37°. You WILL burn up.

Next time your day is shit, skip the run and drown oneself in the bathtub. Or a bottle of wine...which ever one is easier.

NOW I know why I run....

On Thursday, a couple of friends and I went to the new Cosmopolitan for dinner. That place is absolutely beautiful inside and there was a lot of action that night (but that's not a story to tell on this blog...and it's not the "action" that your dirty mind is probably thinking!) ;) Anyways, thanks to a friend's husband, we got seating in the VIP section for dinner and who do we see a few tables away...??? ....Kellen Lutz, who plays the vampire Emmett in the Twilight movies. Hot! One of the gorgeous 6 foot tall blond bomb-shell girls I was with had the balls to actually go up to him and ask him to take a picture with us. So he amused us and came to our table to smile prettily for our annoying pics. He sat down in our booth (where I rudely told one of my friends to scoot her ass over so that he would sit next to me...what a bitch, huh? I am shamed!) ...but he did and as we crowded into the booth seat, Mr. Movie Vampire clutched my thigh (gasp!). His hot, steamy, muscular hand was touching my.....sorry. Did you hear my silly high school girl giggle from here? ::Swoon:: So of course I had to promptly post that picture on Facebook (right from the restaurant. Yes, I am juvenile) and change my profile picture to one of me & vampire man (after cropping my hot friends out of it, of course!). My husband said "he clutched your thigh??" Me (grinning hugely): "yes...and I liked it." Husband: "it's a good thing you've been running then, huh?" LIGHT-BULB MOMENT! Yes! THAT'S why I run! I run so that when a hot, young actor clutches my 37 32 year old thighs, they are nice and muscular (somewhat) and not saggy like regular mom thighs ;)

Wow...life is grand when you know why you do things that are mentally and physically challenging...so that when you are silently cursing yourself for doing something stupid like running up a hill feeling like your lungs are going to burst, or running in the street and get bit by a passing dog, you know that there's a purpose for your actions. I love that! And hot, steamy, young vampire hands are what got me through 4 miles today in the damn cold!


me & vampire guy LOL

hanging in there

It seriously has not been 2 weeks since I've run (although my last post was that long ago...). I'm hanging in there, slowly but surely. Ok...maybe it's been ALMOST 2 weeks, but who cares, right? Tis the season to be lazy. And lazy I have been! Today was such a beautiful day that I couldn't stand sitting on my couch eating holiday cookies for one more second. I picked up where I left off on my training schedule and muddled through 3.5 miles, half uphill...which is not an easy task since I've probably put on 12 pounds in the last week alone. Actually, I don't feel too bad, since I think my body needed the rest (so I'm telling myself). For those of you not on Facebook, on my last run 12 days ago, I got bit by my neighbor's dog. I'm not kidding. I was running at about 5pm and it was getting a little dark. I had about a half mile to go to finish my run and I saw my neighbor on the sidewalk walking his dog so I got into the street and ran on by. The rest kinda happened in slow motion....I turned my head to look at the dog at the same time I saw him kinda do a little leap off the sidewalk right toward my ass. Now I KNOW my ass isn't big enough to resemble a ham-hock...God, at least I hope not! and the stupid dog is a golden retriever, not a Kujo-type dog or something exciting like that. How embarrassing! I said "Holy shit- your dog just bit me!" and the neighbor kid had no idea! Duh! I ran home & saw that I had a good size bloody bite on my thigh, near my butt-cheek! WTH?
Anyways, I have taken a little run break for my boo-boo to heal and now I'm out there again. I'm dreading this half marathon now. I feel like 13.1 miles is a long damn run and get so bored! Hubby is telling me that it's completely different running in a marathon setting rather than doing a lone run around the neighborhood. I hope so!!!

Always something

I have been super excited and consistent on my weekly runs and it feels awesome! I'm on the last week of my 5K training and I will be moving on to my 10K.. It's been hard to get out there to run when it's cold outside, or I've worked, or my kids are on the way home from school...or the holidays are here and I've eaten 12 pounds of holiday goodies in a single day. Ugh. I feel gross just thinking about it!
On the up side, my knee has been holding up ok. When I started my run yesterday, my left ankle was killing me and I knew the run would not be great....it kinda felt like a little bit of everything was hurting, sore or heavy. It certainly wasn't a great run, but I hung in there and did the entire thing without walking. When I got to my finishing spot and walked, I was in agony. I think I have a weird muscle thing in my calf that's wrapped around into my ankle. There's always something....which is where I start to get annoyed and frustrated. I kept my run super slow, then came home & iced and rolled. Feels ok today so I'm hoping for no aches or pain tomorrow :)

On my way to a Half....

This past weekend was the LV Rock & Roll Half/Full Marathon. John, Matt, Michelle & Amy all did the Half and kicked butt, so that has me totally motivated. I figured by my training calender, I should (and I say that loosely) be ready for a Half by around April. Problem is, there's no good half marathons coming up during that time frame. So......I had the bright idea that we should do the Half in Seattle in June. I've been wanting to go there for a long time now anyways, so John & I registered to do it! We will take the kids with us and stay for a few days to hang out after the marathon is over. I'm excited! I'm hoping Michelle & Matt will be able to come too...that would be so much fun!
I'm pretty much sticking to the training program I have mapped out. I'm still on my 5K training, but I should be done with that next week and I will start the 10K. I already have a Half program mapped out, but I won't start that until February. I really don't want to do too much too soon. I only did 2.5 miles today at a slow, easy pace & I can feel my left knee tweaking :( I will ice and roll and hope for the best. I'm due to do 3 miles tomorrow, so I will make sure I take it really slow. I'm really trying to avoid any injuries which is the point of this tedious and boring training program, so if I have to stay at low miles for weeks on end, I guess that's what I'll do (ugh...I hope not!).
Anyways....now that I have something in my horizon to train for, I'm motivated and determined!!
Thanks for reading my boring & unimportant updates...you guys keep me motivated!!! xoxo