Wednesday, December 17, 2014

T's First Visit to the Cow Train

So this was an old post I never got out, along with the one from the zoo...I'll get better!

We have taken P to a local farm the past two years around Halloween. There is a hay ride and tractors to play on, a mini corn maze, swings/tunnels, hay bales to climb, a cow train, plus these silos filled with corn kernals to play in. This was T's first visit to the farm and she LOVED it!





As Usual...

I could come up with all sorts of excuses, because I have them, but I won't. It's been a ridiculously busy semester and I'm getting to the end.

Here are some updates:
Training: I took a month+ off of any regular schedule after the half marathon. But two days ago I started day 1 of my Boston marathon training. 18 weeks of training, here we go!


The girls: We have our up and down moments of being nice and not being nice. T has become more aggressive in her attitude (saying No a lot and very defiant). She has been sent to the "principals" office (the director at daycare) twice now for her behavior because she has been throwing toys at other kids. Awesome.

P is doing well, managing her emotions much better. But still has her moments. They are both genuinely happy most of the time but they sure are crazy!  P did have her first of two dental appointments for fillings and sealants. She did great and wasn't bothered at all by it!



On the home front: I've been trying out some new recipes, some have been good and others not. The sweet potato crust quiche, coconut flour blueberry pancakes and stuffed acorn squash were all successes. The sunflower seed flour cookies were a complete disaster (like that they turned green).


I took a trip back to Fayetteville, and it was so fun. What an amazing time I had seeing my wonderful friends! I followed that up with a Garth Brook concert where we got upgraded seats to the front row!







Last up, we got our tree and decorations up and the girls are enjoying counting down the days until Christmas!









Thursday, November 20, 2014

Other Happenings

EZ's parents came down to visit for the weekend and of course the girls had fun with them! We stayed busy and went up to Pilot Mountain one day and to the zoo the other. This was our first visit to the zoo and the girls loved seeing all the animals. It was a long day though, as our zoo is rather large and very spread out!




We've also been swinging and enjoyed the bounce house!





Monday, November 17, 2014

Mayberry Half Marathon Race Report

So a month or so ago, I kind of decided I would run a half marathon. I haven't run one since summer of 2011, and I felt like I had been training relatively well recently. So I semi trained on a modified Hanson half marathon plan, kind of did my own thing, ran with Jenny some and would just see how it went. We signed up for a race in Mt. Airy (home to Andy Griffith) and the website was a bit lacking in information about the course. It did say there were a couple hills, and luckily I did find a mapmyrun version of the course two days before the race. And well, yes, there were hills as evidence on the race shirt:

Jenny and I knew it would be mainly uphill the first 2 1/2 miles and then mainly flat and then there was a good uphill at the end. But you really don't know how hard the hills are until you run them. It. Was. Tough.

I had set out some goals with my A-goal of breaking 1:40, B-goal of breaking 1:42 and C-goal of breaking 1:45. Jenny and ran together and got through the first set of hills no problem and through the straight part, but I was hurting. We were both on track to break 1:40, and around mile 9 1/2 I told her to just go ahead, I didn't think I could keep up at that pace anymore. I ended up pretty dehydrated which was totally my fault, but I just kind of fell apart the last few miles.  Here is a breakdown of the course profile-and some of the hills were at 10% grade, and then my splits.


Ended up running 1:42:08 which was good enough for 3rd place overall, and Jenny smashed her goal and ended up running 1:39. I'm so lucky to have such an awesome training partner, we are so evenly matched with our paces. Although, I assume not for long, as she is just going to blow by me soon!



Wednesday, October 22, 2014

School Pictures

I have never once order school pictures, but I still dress them up for the pictures anyway, thinking if there was ever a time when they turned out really good I might order them. Well, just so happens this time the pictures all turned out really good. I'm still debating on ordering them, maybe just a couple of one of the pictures-am thinking perhaps one of the ones of the two of them.


Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Last Two Weeks in Numbers

Last Two Weeks:

Monday:4 ez miles (9:15pace)
Tuesday:off
Wednesday: 7.5 miles- 6 at 7:35 pace.
Thursday:off
Friday:off
Saturday: 5 miles (8:00avg)
Sunday: 12.5 miles (avg 8:30) miles 7-10 at 7:50 avg pace
Total: 29 miles

I took an extra few days off this week for no other reason then I just didn't feel good and was unmotivated! The cool this this week though was Wednesday's run was during the lunar eclipse followed by the blood moon. I got to witness just after the start of the eclipse through the full covering and then the starting of the blood moon part until the sun came up which was really cool!

Monday:4 easy (9:15 pace)
Tuesday:off
Wednesday: 6 miles-intervals- 1x2mile (7:16pace), 2x1mile (7:10, 7:04)
Thursday: 4 easy (9:20 pace)
Friday: 7 miles- 6 Tempo at 7:38 pace
Saturday: 5miles (8:20 pace)
Sunday: 10 miles negative split (8:35 avg first half, 8:08 avg second half)
Total: 36 miles

I jumped back in again and ran a lot this week. Still lacking some motivation, and Wednesday interval run I had planned to do 2x2 mile but when starting the second one I just couldn't do it. So I stopped after a mile took a few min to recover and then did another mile. This run was also in the pouring rain in the dark which didn't help. Sunday's long run was the first run in awhile without my running partner Jenny and it definitely was harder to do those miles without her!


Monday, October 20, 2014

Dentist

I took P to her first dentist appointment the other week. She seemed to do very well with the xrays and cleaning and everything. We were there for almost 2 hours with the waiting and everything and I was impressed how well she did. On the down side, she has two cavities that need to be filled in her back molars, and 5 other teeth that need sealants.

There were a few other things they noted, like one of her top front teeth is yellow compared to the others and they asked if she had some trauma.  I do recall something at some point with her falling so many that was it. Apparently, the xray shows that the nerve closed itself off on that tooth which is why it is turning yellow. They also mentioned she has really deep groves on her teeth which will be problematic for cavities (yeah), and then she also has some loss of enamel they said was likely from when her teeth were developing that she had an infection.

Either way, we have two visits scheduled to get cavities filled and sealants done. Woo hoo!!


Monday, October 06, 2014

Last Week in Numbers

Last Week:
Monday- 4 miles easy (9:45 pace)
Tuesday- off
Wednesday- 6.6 miles included 2x2mile intervals at 10K pace
Thursday- 4.2 miles easy with strides
Friday- 6 mile with 5@half marathon pace
Saturday- 4.2 miles easy
Sunday- 10.1 miles (8:30 pace)

Highlights-I included some Hanson elements this week with 2x2 miles at 10K pace (7:12 was my avg) and then a 5 mile at pace run (7:42 pace). Not sure really what my goal HM pace is going to be. I'm shooting for below 1:42 for sure and breaking 1:40 would be a huge A+ race. 

Wednesday, October 01, 2014

All In For Boston

I made it...I got in! It was such an emotional wait for me to receive the confirmation (took 9 days!) but in the end my time was fast enough to get to me to Boston. Words cannot express the happiness I when I got this email...this has been a long journey and I am so super excited to go run what I consider the greatest marathon on the planet.


It was a long year training hard to get myself ready to running Tobacco Road and the Hanson's Method plan I used was challenging to say the least, but it worked and I will use it again to try and PR at Boston. Right now I'm leaning towards a 3:30 goal, but I also want to just experience all that Boston is. Still got a few months until training plan will start, but of course I've been training away and contemplating a half marathon in the beginning of November. 


Monday, September 29, 2014

Last Week in Numbers

Oh Yeah...I've been running, actually kind of a lot for me. After the last triathlon, of course I stopped swimming :) and only rode my bike twice, instead I've been ramping up my running miles contemplating a half marathon at the beginning of November.  Here are last weeks numbers:

Monday: 4 miles easy (9:15avg)
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 6 miles (8;30avg)
Thursday: 6 miles- 3x1mile intervals (6:48, 6:54, 7:12-um yeah started out too fast perhaps)
Friday- 4 miles easy (9:30)
Saturday- 5 miles (7:57)
Sunday- 12 miles (8:28)

Total: 37 miles. -Most since marathon training in March. My mile intervals were not great but not so bad either. Surprised that I ran the first two as fast as I did. Saturdays run was a progressive run from 8:23 down to 7:17, and then Sunday's long run was actually quite strong. Ran with JF (as usual) and we were comfortably running around 8:30's the whole time and then both pushed the last few miles. We split with 2 miles to go and while I just kept running slightly strong around 8:00 pace, she told me she ran more like 7:15!

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Janji

A couple months ago I spent some time emailing back and forth with the co founder of an amazing company-Janji. They make running gear/tshirts/shorts where every piece of clothing you buy helps provide clean water to someone in need-whether this be in the US in the Navajo Nation or in other countries around the world like Haiti, Peru, Kenya, Rwanda or Tanzania.

It started with casual emails back and forth and the ending result was being asked to be one of the founding members of the Janji Corps Ambassadors. I am honored to have been selected to be part of a team that uses running to create a healthier planet.  If you have never heard of Janji, go and check them out at www.runjanji.com and look at all their cool gear and pick out something to buy! Or you can check out Janji's blog here, they're always posting awesome running related info!

No other running company offers what Janji does-the opportunity to help others through the simple purchase of running gear. How awesome is that! I am so thrilled that I have the opportunity to #RunForAnother

Of course there are about another dozen people who are also ambassadors and many of them are big bloggers (and also all around good people). And if anyone here wants to read about some other awesome peeps who will be running for Janji you can check them out at the following sites:


Friday, September 26, 2014

Shenanigans

We've been moving right along...things are busy as all get out around here. Having fun and trying to get into a groove this semester has been tough for me. My schedule is such that I don't have hardly any good quality time to actually work in between classes or good breaks during the day. Pair that with gymnastics and two students working on research projects with me, my time is pretty much shot.  But we have had some fun...


Doing mommy's hair and being silly...


How I like to finish my ice cream....

Monday, September 22, 2014

P Update

So P turned 4 back in July and we just took her to her 4 year old check up a week ago. Here are some stats:
Weight: 34lbs (mainly 4T clothes, size 9/10 shoes, 37% I think)
Height: I don't even remember...but in the 61% :)

Eric took her to the appointment, so this is probably why I can't remember the stats since he told them to me over the phone. She is very talkative and the doctor was impressed by her articulation which is good. Apparently, when she went to do the eye chart, the nurse asked her to read the letters, and she said she couldn't. So she moved closer and said she couldn't, and then Eric realized she was trying to actually read the letters together as words...ha. She went back to the spots and read off the letters one by one no problem.

She is starting to read some more, really trying to sound out words and figure out sounds which is great. She is crazy active and can't sit very still (although what 4 year old can). She teases her sister a lot and once T gets old enough to fight back, man, P is going to be in for a big surprise. She is pretty emotional  and loves dress up. She is a fairly good eater and is extremely physical/strong-doing monkey bars, flips on rings, climbing, ect.

We recently were given a trampoline from a neighbor. We had to buy a new net and pads for it, but because P is in gymnastic and so active, we thought this would be a good thing for the kids. They are playing fairly well on it together and P loves it! The cutest thing is that T calls it the "trampolina"! :)





Tuesday, September 02, 2014

Wow

yeah...it has been awhile. A lot has gone on. P turned 4, we went to Michigan for 10 days, went camping, saw family. I went to CA for a week for research. I did work, won a triathlon, started back up the semester, and got hit by a car on my bike.

A few highlights-
P turned 4 and we had a birthday party at a local park with a playground, carousel and train. I took a red eye back from CA the night before and by sheer luck even though my connecting flight home was canceled, got a ride home so I could actually be there for her party.  P is a firecracker and I lose my patience a lot with her. Maybe I expect more of her because she is older and I don't realize how a 4 year old should act. But she is super active and physical and doesn't sit still.






We drove up to Michigan. Saw my dad and Evelyn and then hung out with my sister and family, got in a quick visit to see my Aunt/Uncle/Cousin and Gma. Also went camping for a few days up at Sleeping Bear with EZ's family. This was our first time camping with the girls and it went well. We slept in separate tents, meaning P and I slept in one and EZ and T slept in the other (T was in the pack n play in the tent). But it worked well and we had lots of fun climbing the dunes and hanging out at the beach and lake.








I really did get hit by a car while riding my bike. Miraculously everything turned out ok. And a couple weeks later I did a sprint triathlon in which I won. It was not my best rest, I went off course on the swim because my goggles were fogged up and I couldn't see anything and probably lost a minute and then I really cycled really hard to make up for time. The run was super hilly and hurt but I held off the girl that came in second by about 40 seconds.


Work started back up and things are just getting into full swing. I feel like I have a busy semester and P is now moved up to the more advance gymnastic class which involves some more moving pieces getting her to/from gymnastics, ect. But we are surviving.

Saturday, July 05, 2014

Miscellaneous Photos

A few photos of the girls in the past weeks....
Daddy and T watching (probably) golf
 P likes the camera:
 Bubbles are always fun:
 T and her silliness!