Life is Good

5.27 miles tonight.  I have been moving around as much as I can so that my legs will loosen up, and it seems to be working.  My quads hurt a bit (my right more than my left), but right now, my knee isn't bugging me.  (Thank goodness).  I was able to run the 5.27 miles at an average pace of 9:34 min/mil. 

So, at work today, I got to take a field trip to ADOT to get Asbuilts... but the cool thing was that Rich (my co-worker) took me in his Miati, through down town Phoenix, with the top down.  I felt like I was on vacation... or a movie star.  It was AWESOME!

2.35 miles pushing Melanie in the stroller.  My average pace was 9:45.  Not too shabby.

30 minutes abs, then reps of pushups and the plank.  My abs are calling my name today.

4.85 miles at an average pace of 9:13min/mil.  I actually ran the first 3 faster and then the last 1.85 miles slower.  I was mentally setting goals for Saturday's race.  I'm started to get excited.  We will see how I do.

4 miles pushing Melanie in the stroller.  It was beautiful out this morning.  I love this weather.  I hope it holds for tomorrow.  It's funny how much cooler it is today verses last weekend.  Go figure, right?

Hello!  I am excited to announce that I not only was able to race today (after a long last weekend), but I was able to beat my expectations. 

At the starting line, I positioned myself right up front, and the only people in front of me was these two 10 year old girls.  I thought I'd be tripping on them when they tired out, but nope, they totally kicked my tail!  I think they beat me by atleast a minute.  I wanted to cheer them on when I saw them at the end (there was a spot where the course turns and over laps itself) but I didn't know if that would come off as creepy.

At the end, I was following a woman and a man.  I decided to kick it and gained on both of them.  They did not appreciate this to much and it turned into a sprint to the finish.  I'm super excited to annouce that I beat both of them to the finish line (but not by much, obviously).  I had been following the woman majority of the race and had mentally decided that I was going to pass her...  I'm so happy that I did!  Personal victory.

Brandon says there were only about 8 woman that finished before me, so I may have place, but we had a busy day play, and didn't stay for the awards ceremony.  I'll have to wait and see what the results show.

Well... I was 4th in my age group.  Close, but not close enough.  Apparently the ages were grouped in 10's not 5's.  O-well...  :o)  I'm still excited!

About the people I "raced to the finish" with.  I beat the woman by .9 of a second and the man by 1.4 seconds.  That's awesome.  The woman was apparently in my age group... so that's awesome.

Well... I have come to the conclusion that something *must* be up.  And no, I'm not pregnant! LOL.  but I have absolutely NO energy.  I've had people tell me it could be my diet, but that really hasn't changed, or maybe it's depression, but I argue that I'm a girl, and therefore, significantly emotional, yet have a problem handling it.  Do I get enough sleep?  come on.  Show me a mom that says she gets enough sleep, and I'll show you a pathelogical lier.  So...  I may be taking up my bike for a while to build up endurance again, but it's definitely lacking.  In the meanwhile... I have been enjoying my baby girl:

I ran the slowest 3.5 miles ever... I've been SO tired lately.  I get home from work spent and have been taking naps instead of running.  It's like all the energy has been sucked out of me.  I'm hoping I'm not coming down with anything.

Thanks to the people that have been asking about me though.  You make me feel special!

Happy St. Patrick's Day next week:

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/7y0DaW0iOXISC13D

Okay... I thought yesterday was slow... today I got 2 miles in and walked home.  My excuse: I was pushing Melanie in her stroller...  but that's a lame excuse since last week I pushed her every day.  How long does it take for someone to get THAT out of shape?

Well... I have come to the conclusion that something *must* be up. And no, I'm not pregnant! LOL. but I have absolutely NO energy. I've had people tell me it could be my diet, but that really hasn't changed, or maybe it's depression, but I argue that I'm a girl, and therefore, significantly emotional, but I yet to have a problem handling it. Do I get enough sleep? come on. Show me a mom that says she gets enough sleep, and I'll show you a pathelogical lier. So... I may be taking up my bike for a while to build up endurance again, but it's definitely lacking. In the meanwhile... I have been enjoying my baby girl:

2.1 miles at a much better pace, pushing my little Melanie in her running stroller.  I decided that I needed to ease back into my routine, so I didn't push the distance too much.  Plus, it was freaking hot out (or at least I seemed super hot), do I didn't want to bake Melanie alive. 

Then, after I put Melanie to bed, I did 1 hr of yoga.  :o)

So, I decided to take Melanie on a run this morning. I got her up (she was already awake and singing to herself and the monkey in her crib), and put her, the monkey, a blanket and a sippy cup of milk. So, we are doing great, the first 2.5 miles. She is giggling and playing peek a boo through the plastic "window" on the stroller with me. I decide that we will go a little longer and turn right instead of left. Another .5 mile and I realize that my decision was a big mistake. I'm running down the road and all the sudden her sippy cup goes flying out of the stroller. I stop, get it, give it to her, and resume running. Then... out it goes again. This time I pick it up and put it in the underneath bag and then return to my run. Next thing I know, her monkey goes over the egde. This time I decide I'm not playing this game, and I put it under the stroller with the sippy cup. This is a bad idea because when I started running again she start SCREAMING. So here I am, running down the road with a screaming toddler who is kicking her feet and throwing a huge fit, all while hanging herself as much as she can over the side of the stroller and pointing back. It dawns on me that she probably thinks I left Curious George behind, so I stop and give her the monkey... then she throws the monkey and her blanket at me, screaming. great! So everything goes under the stroller and I try to find the fastest way home. ugh! When I get her home and give her the monkey, so giggles, and runs inside to play like nothing happened.

You have to love toddlers. (Otherwise you'd donate them to Goodwill. LOL).

2.02 miles, pushing Melanie in the stroller...  with an average pace of 9:20.  That's not bad at all because I live in a "hilly" area.  I'm really starting to feel better.  (Thank goodness!)  Now I need to find another race to work torwards...  My arizona friends, any suggestions?

I talked to a really good friend of mine on Saturday.  She really hasn't run since highschool, expect with me for a few weeks before I found out I was pregnant.  When I start running in July, she announced that she was pregnant (with her 5th) and wouldn't be able to run with me until after she had the baby.  Well...  she is 3 months post pardon and ready to hit the pavement.  We got up before the sun and ran through our neighborhood.  I'm quite proud of her.  She did 1.25 miles in 13 min, then we walked home.  She could have gone longer, but her leg was bothering her.  She has a goal of running in a half marathon, but first, some 5Ks.  I'm excited to help her with her goal. :o) 

Personally... I have this aweful pain in my hip.  I'm guessing it's from carrying my daughter for the 2+ hours we were out on Saturday.  If I had known I'd be doing that much walking around, I would have brought the stroller.  O-well.  I may or may not run tonight.  If I don't, I'm planning on doing yoga.  Maybe I can stretch out my hip.

Here's some food for thought:

Happy 12th birthday to my niece Adle!  I really enjoyed making this cake for her!

Worked in the field today. I'm doing a pavement presevation project on I-8 out by Casa Grand on the way to Gila Bend. I walked the interstate from about 8 am to 2 pm... good stride too. I'm pretty happy about my stride. anyhow, I'll find out how many miles I walked and report, but I did count it as my exercize for the day. I will be out in the field the next two days.

Ran 1.6 miles with my neighbor at 4 am this morning.  She was feeling much better today... and did AWESOME!

I will be out in the field walking the interstate again today, and will find out how many miles I covered and report. :o).  I found a 1/2 marathon I want to do in April, so I need to bring up the miles and decide if I should register or not.  any thoughts?

Well, I was stood up this morning, so I did 1.5 miles after I realized she wasn't coming, and then, this evening, I did another 5.  I think Misha and I are going to be coming up with a better schedule so that we can still meet up and work on her goals, but so that I don't lose sight of mine.  And having said that, I have decided that I'm going to work torwards participating in that 1/2 marathon on April 18th.  Brandon and I talked it over, and he has a lot of faith in me.  I love that about him.  Melanie and Brandon are going to do the 2 mile fun run! :o)

Okay... the counts are in.  I walked 7+ miles both Tuesday and Wednesday (each).  Measuring gaurdrail as I went.  Here is a picture of me working hard:

And here is one of me hardly working:

I love my new job!

Yoga! I did an hour of Yoga, and loved it! Yoga really does stretch everything so nicely, doesn't it? I'm going to run after my hubby gets home tonight. I'd run sooner than that and take Melanie, but she got her 15 month shots today and hasn't been very happy with the world. I'm thinking it may be nap time here soon!

4.75 miles tonight while Brandon and Melanie went to get dinner.  It turns out that I could have gone for on hour...  When I got home from my run, I was locked out.  It wasn't but another 15-20 min. before Brandon and Melanie returned to let me in.  I guess the restraunt Brandon wanted to surprise me with dinner from is now closed and he had to improvise.  He did pretty well.  Dinner was yummy!

The miles felt really good.  There was some strong head wind around mile 3, but I persevered.

1.5 miles to MCC Red Mountain's dirt trail, 2 loops around the trail, then 1.5 miles home.  I like the dirt trail around the college because it's challenging and it's scenic! :o)  Happy Saturday!!!

Okay...  I had to do some Yoga tonight.  HAD TO!  I'm freakin' stiff and sore from yesterday's yoga experience.  I did 40 minutes of yoga stretching and feel a little more relaxed and loose.  (did that sentence make sence to you?).  Anyhow, while bent in half, my right side of my face started to tingle.  It was a weird sensation.  At first, it felt like I was going to have a bloody nose (if you know what I mean), but then it spread to the whole right half of my face.  I paused the tape, stood up and tried to will the numbness away.  Anyhow, if any of you yoga-ers or medical people are reading this... is that normal?  Have you had that happen to you before?  It's gone now, but it was really weird.

Okay, off to bed!

I forgot to set my alarm this morning (though I did get up before 5 and am on time for work).  Needless to say, I'll have to do my running tonight instead of this morning.  Not that big of a deal.

But, my exciting news... I registered for my half.  It's a different half marathon then I had originally planned.  Instead of running on April 18th, I'll be running on May 2nd.  Brandon and I had been looking at the calendar and realized that I wouldn't have any time to recover from my wisdom teeth being pulled (this Thursday) before the race.  If something were to go wrong with my recovery, I'd be in a bad place.  This is much better!  I'm stoked!  It will probably be my last race of the season... we shall see.

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After work, I took Melanie on a 1.5 mile walk while I delivered some things to a few of the scouts in our ward.  Melanie wasn't feeling too good after her shots and I thought the fresh air would do her good.  She was pretty happy... but it may have been the fact that she was eating a yummy granola bar.

Then, after dinner and Melanie was put down, I went out for an 8 miler.  It was really nice out!  I really enjoyed myself.  I didn't have to stop at a stop light until I was at mile 5 and then not again until mile 7.  I was lucky, because I did pass several street lights, but it just so happened that they were green when I approached them (sweet!)

I hope everyone is having a good monday!

I got up with the alarm at 4 this morning planning to go on a 5 mile run.  At a mile and a half away from my house, I had this overwhelming feeling that I should continue the direction I was going, so I turned back.  3 miles was a good distance this morning though, because it turns out, I was super tired (imagine that... being tired at 4 in the morning). :o)