#Runchat has challenged bloggers to come up with a list of 10 things we love about running.  They are a doing a giveaway related to it, but I just love the idea of reminding myself why I love running.

So, here are the 10 things that I love about running…

1.  That it’s mine.  All mine.  And I don’t have to share it with anyone. Unless I want to.

2. That moment when running feels effortless and I feel like I can run forever.

3.  The feeling of accomplishment when I hit my goal paces or leave it all on the course.

4. That it’s something I share with my dad, even if he can still leave me in the dust.

5. Feeling part of a huge network of people, even though I run mostly by myself.

6.  Silence.  That beautiful sound of no one calling for mommy.

7. That at age 41 I’m the same size as I was many years and two children ago.

8. The resulting peace and calm I feel, even after a less than stellar run.

9. That I frequently run more miles than I drive.

10. That it’s always there waiting for me when I need it.

Happy Valentines Day!  Beer Geek and I decided long ago that we’d rather focus on regular maintenance of our relationship than on one special day, so there won’t be any flowers or candy here (although I wouldn’t be upset if he walked in with a new Garmin for me LOL).  Instead, I’ll be heading out with my other love (running) sometime this afternoon to reaffirm our relationship.

Don’t forget my Sparkly Soul giveaway ends at Midnight EST tonight!!

AKA sometimes you have to leave it all on the course.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been in “racing form”.  I feel like I’ve been trying to come back from injury since Thanksgiving of 2010.  I’ve had some good runs since then, but no really good races and most of my speed work has been on the treadmill.  I’ve been dying to know where I am.

And I chose Love the Run You’re With to find out.

1st race in Pacers Series

I set out with two goals:  26:xx on the clock and leaving everything I had on the course, possibly even my breakfast…

Short story:  I missed my time goal by 16 seconds (27:15), but I could barely walk when I got done.

The day dawned wicked cold and windy.  The “feels like” temperature was 12.  I wore two pairs of running tights, a tank top, two long sleeve shirts and my running jacket plus hat and gloves.  My Brooks Pure Connects were warmer than my Vibrams, but they were still wicked cold because of the ventilation.  (Just for the record, even running flat out, I never got too warm).

The Plan:

1. Go out at about 8:46 for the first mile
2. Pick it up for the second mile
3. Hold on tight for the third mile until I hit the major downhill and then rock that sucker.

I was 2/3 successful.

I was running with my dad and he attacks hills, so we got up the nasty hill at the start with a pretty decent pace.  I thought no further than the next step and just focused on his back.  First mile: 8:40ish.

After the first mile, I knew this was going to be a tough race.  I made it my goal to keep up with my dad as long as I could.  I got to the halfway point and turned around.  I had the stupidest mantra going through my head “Just keep picking them up and putting them down.”  WTF?  Whatever, I was just trying to keep moving forward.  Second mile: 8:10.

And that was the end of my race.  Unfortunately, I still had 1.1 miles to finish.  The next .6 until the downhill was just about getting from cone to cone (and they were only about 10 yards apart.)  Finally, I crested the last hill and headed into the fast downhill.  Except my legs would.not.turn.over.  Seriously.  They were just done.  I gave everything I had, but I’ve never been passed like that on a downhill before (I’m really really good at using gravity LOL).  I came around the turn to the long straight finish and pulled out what little I had left.  I crossed the finish line and couldn’t decide if I was going to pass out or puke.

27:15.  Not what I wanted, but that’s ok.  I’ll get where I’m going.  And this was a great test of my fitness level.

Moral of the story?  Sometimes you just have to go balls to the wall and see what happens. Even if it blows up in your face.

Today, at 9am across the country, people are gathering to run in honor of Sherry.  Approximately a month ago, Sherry left her house for an early morning run and never returned.  This beloved wife, mother, and teacher was abducted and murdered not far from her home in Montana.

I didn’t know Sherry.  I don’t run in a rural area.  I never run early in the morning.  But the story has touched the hearts of millions.  Because it’s sad to lose one of our own.  And because it could happen to any one of us who runs alone.  I’m sure that every single one of us can think of a time when we realized we’ve been in a sketchy situation, whether it was because of where we were running or when we were running or just a random set of circumstances that put us in a bad place.

I ran my virtual run for Sherry yesterday.  I planned to go out and just think about Sherry and the fact that I was still able to get out there and run.  I ended up angry about the fact that we as runners have to even think about when and where we run.  I was pissed that the world lost a valuable person because someone evil came along.  I was sad to think of children without a mother.

I ended up running faster than I have in a very long time.  I pounded all of that anger into the pavement.  I thank God that I was still able to run.  That I was running with my dad.  That I could make my body hurt in that good way.

I’m still sad.  But I hope Sherry’s family can find some peace.

If you’d like to donate to help Sherry’s family or just find out more about the virtual run, head on over to Shut Up and Run.

As I mentioned earlier, I joined Team Tough Chik in January.  I’m not sure exactly why I joined, other than the shirt was cute and I like their philosophy.  As it turns out, it’s a group of women from all walks of life.  We are all different ages from different parts of the country.  We are young and old.  Some run, some do triathlons, one woman rock climbs (holy cow!)  What I found (and had no idea I’d find) was a wonderfully supportive group of women who are willing to discuss everything from menopause to injuries to fashion while running.  One of the TC’s came up with the idea of a weekly “Riddle me this?” question for those of us who blog to answer if we feel like it.

This week’s question:  What running rule do you break?

Me?  I don’t follow the rules when it comes to mileage increase.  I’m all over the place.  One week I’ll run 19 miles, the next I’ll run 27.  My long run one week might be 6 miles and the next it will be 10.  I’m even an RRCA certified coach, so I know better than to do this.  But, I’ve been running for a long time and I’m really good at listening to my body.  (OK, I might hear what it has to say and ignore it, but I hear it LOL).  Do I ever plan to follow the rule of no more than 10% mileage increase per week? Maybe if I run another marathon.  Otherwise, I’m likely to keep running whatever mileage makes me happy, with the general goal of hitting at least 20 miles per week and working my way up to a half marathon in Vibrams.  (Eeek!)

In other running news, yesterday I ran 5 miles while I was figuring out a route for a new local race.  It was interesting to run an area and look at it with the thought of 1000 runners going down the road.  Certainly very different way of running an area.  Wouldn’t it be cool to actually do that for a job LOL?

Today, I’m going for a run with my dad in honor of Sherry.  Tomorrow is a rest day, so I’ll be thinking of her on my run today (honestly, I’ve been thinking of her on all my runs lately as I always run alone).

Sunday I plan to race the Love the Run You’re with 5k.  My plan was to run hard enough to puke at the finish line, but now they are calling for ice and snow the night before.  This might mean my plan is to not fall on my a$$.  We’ll see.

Run on friends!  The weekend is nearly here.

Beer Geek was on travel earlier this week. I am quite thankful that his current job does not include the frequent travel that his earlier positions had. I’m also thankful that my boys are older and not as needy as younger children.

Some random things from the week:

1. When Beer Geek is away, we tend to have a much looser schedule and our meals are much more hit and miss. Last night I offered the boys “breakfast for dinner.” They were all over that, but they wanted muffins with their eggs and sausage. I discovered the only mix I had was a banana nut muffin that pretty much had every nut known to man in it. Jones is allergic to peanuts, almonds, and hazelnuts. As you might guess, that mix hit the trash immediately. So, I baked pumpkin muffins and pumpkin custard. This is only notable because I.never.bake.

2.  Yesterday I made the rookie error of showering in the morning and putting on a pretty bra.  I had a meeting, so I wanted to look decent (no, they wouldn’t see the bra, but a sports bra would have totally ruined how my shirt looked).  Unfortunately, the meeting went late and I missed my yoga class.  Since I was clean, had on real clothes, and had done my hair and make up, I didn’t work out yesterday.  I’m not beating myself up for it, but sheesh, apparently soap washes away my motivation.  Note to self:  Always wear a running bra.

3.  After my run Monday, my body was a little beaten up.  10 miles in shoes with no cushion whatsoever (Vibrams) is a bit far.  Fortunately (unfortunately?), we had dropped my Pilot off at the dealership to get it  inspected and have an oil change.  With Beer Geek out of town, I only had one way to get it back.  (OK, I lie – I live in an urban area and there are cabs and I have friends, but whatever.)  I forced myself to run to get it.  It was an incredibly slow, stiff run, but I got in 3.5 miles before I got to the car.

Today I’m running a potential race route with some friends and then my parents are getting here.  I can’t wait.  I sleep so much better with other adults in the house.  And the boys have talked my ears off the last two nights, so it will be nice to hand them over to my parents LOL.  I might just sneak out to make up that missed yoga class.

Last night, I was inspired to make Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese. I’d seen it on at least a couple of blogs and ended up pinning the recipe. (Pinterest for keeping track of recipes and races = best.thing.ever.)

So, I pulled up the recipe and got to work.  But I didn’t have butternut squash, so I substituted acorn squash.  And I didn’t have gruyere or mozarrella, so I substituted a mexican mix.  Dijon mustard?  Nope, I didn’t have that either.  What I ended up making only vaguely resembled the original recipe.  But you know what?  It was still really really good.

I realized as I was making the recipe that my method of following it was pretty much embraced my “life rules.”

1.  Use what you’ve got – I’m the queen of making what I have work.  Not enough time for a long run?  Do a tempo.  Weather sucks? Hit the treadmill.  Need a break from running?  Hit the gym.

2. Make it up as you go along – I might have a goal in mind, but I very seldom have a strict plan.  I just try to make sure that the choices that I make move me in the right general direction.

3. Don’t be afraid to fail – I’ve come in near last in a race, I’ve fallen over a few times in yoga (ok, more than a few times), I’ve had complete and total technology failure in a webinar I was leading…  But at least I try and sometimes I’ve found a strength or talent I didn’t know I had (or in this case, I had a really yummy dinner LOL)

4. Learn from your mistakes – Think about ways to do it better next time – Life is one big experiment.  What can you do today to improve upon last time?  (In this case, I think the mustard would have taken this from good to excellent.)

How do you roll through life?

That’s right.

This…

Average pace: 10:31 AKA right where I wanted it

In these…

I wonder how many miles these will last...

I honestly thought I’d never break double digits in minimalist shoes. Of course, lately I can’t seem to run single digits in regular running shoes, so I was beginning to wonder if my days running anything longer than a 10K were over. I’m happy to say they are not. Today I’m a little sore (but who wouldn’t be after their first double digit run in almost a year?), my calf is a little tight and cranky, and the balls of my feet are a little roughed up. All in all, I would say it was a successful venture.

In other news, Sparkly Soul sent me two headbands to review (and offered two more for my readers!). I’ve now run in them a couple of times and worn one to yoga once. I even wore one running with my hair down (something I pretty much never do). I have to say they were awesome. I did have to make sure I didn’t push it too far back, but other than that they performed great when running and the sweatier I got, the better they clung. I wore the thin one to pilates and it came off, but I was doing something that had my head on the ground. This is where I should insert a picture of me wearing one LOL, but the self pictures I took made me look insane and no one is here to take a pic for me.

OK, I only look mildly crazy here.

I chose green and silver

Want two of your own? Just check out the Sparkly Soul website and leave a comment as to which colors you want. Winner will receive one thin and one thick headband in the colors of their choice. Giveaway ends Tuesday, February 14th at midnight. One winner will be chosen at random from all entries.

Not willing to wait? Sparkly Soul is offering a 15% discount for the month of February. Just enter FITFLUENTIAL during check out.

Disclaimer: Sparkly Soul gave me two headbands to review and is providing two headbands for the winner. All opinions are my own.

Remember the last time you moved into a new place?  You spend weeks packing things in every spare moment.  You change your address everywhere you can.  Then you pick up everything and move it to the new place.  Then you begin unpacking.  You might find that a few things got broken or that the movers packed a trashcan full of trash.  But eventually, you get all the big boxes unpacked and a few pictures hung on the wall.  It starts to feel like home.  There’s still that one box in the garage that’s moved with you every time and never gets unpacked (why exactly it never gets opened or thrown away is a mystery.)  And there are probably some rooms that still need painting.  But for all intents and purposes, your new place is now home.
That’s where I am now with the blog.  Any of my old posts should point directly here.  My blogger location is operating behind the scenes, but it should never show up in your browser again.  I’ve still got some prettying up to do, but the migration is done.

We all know that google friend connect is on its way out.  Although I’ve transferred my feed here, if you read me through that, pretty soon my posts will be gone  (and I don’t think GFC is updating anymore).  If you want to continue to read MCM Mama (and I really hope you do!), please subscribe here or click on one of the side buttons and follow me on facebook, twitter, or pinterest.  Heck, if you want, you can follow me on all of them.  ;o)

Now that the move is over, we can get back to the business of running.  And beer.

It’s cold and gray here today and one kid is sick and crabby.  So, I’m ignoring everyone and answering the questions I got asked as part of the 11 random things.  Maybe I’ll get motivated to run later (or maybe I’ll run to get away from the crabby kid…)

From Larissa of Larissa Milano Fitness

1. How long have you been running and what made you start?  I’ve been running off and on for my whole life, but I truly became a runner when I suffered with postpartum depression with my older son.
2. What is the farthest place that you have traveled to? Australia
3. Favorite race that you have run? Marine Corps Marathon
   
4. Favorite thing to do on a rainy day? Read
5. If you could meet anyone (dead or alive) who would it be and why? I hate this question LOL.  I always feel like I should have some deep answer here. 
6. Do you have any pets? What are they? All we have these days are fish and sadly our numbers are seriously down right now.
7. Craziest thing you have ever done? Some would say giving birth at home was pretty crazy.
8. Biggest fear and why? That somehow a parenting mistake I make (and let’s be honest, we all make them) is going to totally screw up my kids.
9. If you won the lotto would you still keep your current job? If not what would you do? Well, since my main job is “mom”, I’d be keeping that.  I’d probably also continue working a few hours a week for a friend.  Beer Geek, on the other hand, would drop his job like a hot potato.  (And replace it with some geeky geography or geneology thing.)
10. What was your #1 New Years Resolution? Are you still on track? I don’t do resolutions – I set goals.  My main goal was to run pain free.  I’m rockin’ that goal.
11. One bad habit you want to break? I really need to start going to bed at a reasonable hour.
    

From Raul of Raul Gone Mobile

1. Favorite obscure movie? (And why..) Top Secret – It’s the stupidest, most pointless movie I’ve ever seen.  But it used to make me laugh until I cried.
2. Favorite kitchen appliance?  (And why..) My toaster oven.  My stove is older than I am (serioulsy, the directions manual includes a message about cleaning up and meeting your husband at the door), so I hate using it.  I use my toaster oven every.single.day.
3. Favorite Olympic sport? Anything that involves running
4. What method(s) do you use to make time for yourself? I sign up for a race so I have to do training runs.  ;o)
   
5. Favorite alcoholic beverage (if beer, be specific. ) Beer, but I can’t pick just one.  My top ten are here.
6. Why do you blog? Because my husband got tired of hearing me talk about running.
   
7. What is one place you’ve always wanted to travel to, but haven’t made it there yet? South America, specifically Argentina.  We were just starting to make plans for a trip there when I got pregnant with Jones.
8. What’s your take on reality TV? Not my thing, unless it’s a cooking show LOL.
   
9. Favorite band? Uncle Tupelo
10. Mac or PC? Mac
11. Favorite season to work out in? Fall

(I am currently messing with my feed.  I apologize if anyone is getting old posts in their reader or duplicates or anything like that.  The only way I know to test it is to publish posts.  Hopefully I’ll have it figured out soon.  Edited to add:  Looks like the best subscription is the one on my sidebar.  Please click on the RSS feed on the right and subscribe to that one.  Thanks!)

I was recently discussing breakfast with another “Team Tough Chik” runner.  I’m kind of boring  I have two go to breakfasts.  If I’m running more than 6 miles before lunch, I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread.  This seems to be the perfect carb + protein combo for me and has never (*knock wood*) upset my stomach on a run.   If I’m not running, I eat a piece of crustless quiche.   I promised Elizabeth of See Lizzie Tri that I would post the recipe of the quiche.  (I’m pretty sure you all know how to make a PB&J LOL)

I use whatever veggies I have in the fridge, as well as whatever cheese.  The best combination for me includes some sort of green (spinach, kale, arugula, etc), mushrooms, pepper, onion and either squash, broccoli, or cauliflower with the Mexican blend of grated cheese you can buy.  (My recent combo of turnip, onion, pepper, mushroom and squash was “meh”, but tasted great once I added salsa.)

Turnips, mushrooms, onions, pepper, summer squash, cheese

Ready to go into the toaster oven

MCM Mama’s Crustless Quiche

1 1/2-2 C. diced veggies (Whatever you want, but I recommend always including greens and onions. And I often put in more)
1 1/2 C. grated cheese
4 oz meat (Canadian bacon(diced) or lean ham or fake crab; I pretty much never add meat)
8 eggs
1/2 C cottage cheese
salt
pepper
spices (whatever sounds good to you. My favorite is with Italian seasoning and garlic)

Spray pan (9×9 or 9″ round) with cooking spray or a squirt of olive oil. Spread raw veggies in the bottom. Top with cheese and meat. Beat eggs and add cottage cheese and spices. Pour over top.

Bake @ 325 degrees for about 40 minutes- center needs to be cooked.

A wee bit overcooked

At this point, you can either just stick it in the fridge (lasts for about 4 days) or cut pieces to freeze. For me, it makes 8 servings.

In November, Samantha of Running and Cupcakes challenged everyone to do 30 minutes of exercise for 60 days in a row.  I wasn’t sure how I felt about the challenge because I’m a big believer in rest days, but I figured I’d give it a try.

And I succeeded!  Most days I did more than 30 minutes.

My end results for the challenge?

46 runs, 7 circuit workouts, 6 workouts on the elliptical, 2 workouts on the stationary bike, 3 yoga sessions, and 1 walk.  While some of the workouts were at a lower effort, only one (the 2 mile walk) did not feel like a workout.

What I learned?  My body does well with “active rest”.  The easier workouts made me feel better than not working out at all would have.  In fact, I planned to keep streaking, right up until about 6pm yesterday when I realized it just wasn’t going to happen.

This past week was physically exhausting.  I was burning the candle at both ends and the middle.  I was staying up too late and getting up too early (and getting disruptive sleep due to Shoo coughing all night for the last few nights.)  This week was also mentally exhausting.  In addition to getting my blog moved, I did a webinar for work that I’ve never done before.  Not only was the prep for it a lot of work, there was a horrible technical failure during the webinar.  Nothing like planning to train people on a live system, only to have them not be able to get in.  Thank goodness for an extensive powerpoint presentation LOL.

Could I have worked out yesterday?  Sure.  Jones was home with me, but I could have hit the treadmill, or the weights, or my new favorite, Bex Life on Youtube.

But I didn’t.  I decided a break was more important than an arbitrary goal.  And some days, that’s ok.

I was tagged by several people for this — Raul, EMZ, Larissa and Antonetta.  (If anyone else tagged me, let me know LOL)

Here are the rules:

1. Post these rules
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer
5. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people!

The Randoms…

1.  On weekdays, I always hit my snooze button four times.  I need that time to slowly get my body awake and moving, but will fall back to sleep without the alarm.  So, my alarm is set for 20 minutes before I have to get out of bed.

2. If you talk to me while I’m reading, I will hold a conversation with you.  There’s a 50/50 chance I’ll remember said conversation.

3. Whenever our beer fridge gets down to just one shelf of beer, I start feeling the need to buy more beer.  I think I must have lived through Prohibition in a previous life.

See?!? Too much empty space!

4. When I was pregnant with Jones, I craved soup every.single.meal for the first 6 months.  Then I had soup at a local Ecuadorian restaurant from the “native” side of the menu.  It had a big hunk of fish with the skin still on floating on it.  I didn’t eat soup again for almost a year.

5.  I nearly failed Russian in college.  At my first job interview, I walked in and the interviewer started speaking to me in Russian.  Apparently he’d seen it on my transcript and not noticed the D.  Needless to say, I did not get that job.

6.  Despite my love of beer and my plan to brew my own, I don’t actually drink that much.  *Most* weeks I have two beers – one on Friday night and one on Saturday night.  If I’m feeling wild and crazy, I’ll have one beer with dinner and one later.  (You can send the Old Lady card over now.)

7.  There are certain foods that I buy every time I go to the grocery store because we eat them regularly.  I always forget to check beforehand how much we have.  Because of that, we currently have 8 jars of peanut butter and enough cheese sticks to feed an army.

8.  Every night, when I put the kids to bed, I put on my pajamas and then a pink polyester robe that looks like a snuggie met Forever Lazy (so not linking to that LOL).  It’s like I age 40 years in just a few seconds.

Sexy, right?

9.  I’ve lived in 9 different states.  I’ve visited all 50 states. I’ve now run races in 17 states.

10.  My migration to WordPress was not simple.  In fact, I installed and uninstalled WP from my site four times.  The final solution involved pulling code apart and uploading some things individually.  I know I’ve still got a number of things to fix. The weird part?  It.was.so.much.fun.  Geek, much?

11.  I love shoes.  No, really, I have a huge collection and strongly believe that each outfit should have its own shoe.  But I never wear shoes in my house,  run barefoot on my treadmill, and do most of my other miles in Vibrams.  As you might guess, I don’t wear my shoes out very fast LOL.

The Questions

Since I’m pretty sure EMZ hit me up first, I’ll answer her questions here.  I’ll hit you with the other questions another day.

1.  Do you love or hate the treadmill and why? I’m neutral on this.  I love it when I need it. But I prefer not to need it.
2.  Describe yourself in three words. Laid back, detail oriented, outgoing
3.  Describe your best friend. He’s 6′, with brown eyes and dark hair and he loves a good beer.  ;o)  And he’s the first person I call when I have something to share.  (Followed closely by my parents.)
4.  Text or call? Text
5.  Favorite place to eat? Mad Fox Brewpub, duh.
6.  Where did you first see your wife/husband/significant other? I have no idea LOL.  He was an alum at my college boyfriend’s fraternity, so I’m sure I saw him plenty of times before we became friends.
7.  Do you buy lottery tickets? Nope
8.  The first thing you do in the morning. Smack my alarm clock
9.  Favorite recovery drink. Chocolate milk or nuun.
10.  If you could have any car in the world, which would you buy? I’m not really a car person.  I actually really dig the Honda Pilot I bought last year.

Questions for those I tag:
1. Do you sleep with a lovey? If so, what?
2. Where’s your favorite place to go on vacation?
3. Have you ever been on a cruise? If so, where did you go?
4. What’s your favorite day of the week?
5. Is there a vegetable that you absolutely refuse to eat?
6. How close to where you were born do you live?
7. How many states have you lived in?
8. Favorite snack?
9. Favorite non-running related blog?
10. Are you addicted to pinterest? (find me there if you are LOL)
11. What’s your favorite room in your current house?

I apologize if some of you have been tagged before. I know I’m late to the party (kind of the story of my life LOL).  I’d love it if you’d still answer the questions…

1. Anna B at Let’s Rock This
2. Viper at Booze Hounds
3. Rose at Eat, Drink, and Be Meiri
4. Silly Girl Running
5. TNT Coach Ken
6. Molly at I’m a Sleeper Baker
7. Amy at Welcome to Boston
8. The Jesse at Journey Through Life
9. Liz at Eternal Lizdom
10. Sarah at Sarah Fitness
11. SBMac at Running is a Life

Please excuse the dust, I’m still working on my “punch list”.  ;o)

If you are coming over here from my old blog, I’d love feedback on what you love and don’t about my new site.

If you are new and have just stumbled upon the new version of my blog, pull up a chair, get yourself a snack, and stay awhile!

Once again, Adam, the Boring Runner, offered us the chance for a race in the freezing month of January.  Freezing?  I think Virginia has forgotten what freezing is.  Even worse, I ended up having to do yet another virtual race on the treadmill.  Our weekend was insanely packed and I was left with one 30 minute window on Saturday morning to knock this race out and I had Shoo with me during that time.  (I could have run it on Sunday, but I had a hangover penciled in LOL)

x

That’s one of the fastest 5K’s I’ve ever done and I did it barefoot.  I’m in training for a 5K race in a couple of weeks and, based on my treadmill speedwork, I’m hopeful that I’ll hit my second best 5K ever.  (My PR was set on a wickedly downhill course when I was in awesome shape.)

Thanks, Adam, for giving me a reason to run fast.  I apparently only do speedwork in virtual races.  Who has one for me this coming weekend LOL?

Happy Birthday and Happy Blogiversary to Toni at Running, Loving, Living. In honor of both, I ran her 3.5 mile virtual run. It was icy outside and I’ve been wearing Vibrams lately (pretty sure that’s not a good shoe choice for ice…), so I decided to do her race as speed work on the treadmill. The only truly notable part of the run was mile 2 was my fastest mile ever at 7:25 and I did it barefoot!!!

I was just a little sweaty!

I had a little road rash on my feet at the end.

Thanks, Toni, for giving me an excuse to push myself!!

I’ve survived the most stressful parts of this week.  Just two more meetings today, the Pinewood Derby tomorrow, and then I can focus on our annual Holiday beer tasting that we are having tomorrow night.  You know there will be pictures from that.  ;o)

1.  Yesterday was my third time taking the jivamukti yoga class.  I find this class both extremely challenging physically and incredibly mentally freeing at the same time.  My arms were trembling by the end of the class from the poses.  I’m mildly sore at this point, but thinking that more will hit soon.  But what really got to me yesterday was the chanting and the talking by our instructor.  We chanted “Hare Krishna” (more than that, but I don’t remember all the words) at the beginning and then later while we were doing a particularly intense pose the chant was playing loudly in the background.  She encouraged us to chant loudly/yell/really get into it while we held the pose.  I surprised myself by totally getting into that.  And, surprise, it did help me hold a pose I didn’t think I could do.  Wonder if I’ll be chanting that loudly as I get to hard spots in my long runs LOL.

2. I used to have wicked insomnia back when I had a full-time job.  I tend to internalize the stress from work and it keeps my mind racing at night.  I haven’t had it very often in the last few years.  Last night, I had full-on insomnia.  I just could.not.stop.my.mind.  I hate nights like that.  It was one of those nights when I probably would have been better served to have just gotten out of bed.  Instead, I flipped and flopped all night long and then struggled to get out of bed when the alarm went off.  Why does the sound of my alarm trigger an exhaustion that I wasn’t feeling prior to it going off?

3.  Jivamukti means “Liberation while Living”.  There’s a lot of spiritual talk during the class and we are frequently told to open ourselves up, to take chances, to offer our best to the world.  Two things the instructor said yesterday really stuck in my head.  One she’d said before (about some of the challenging balance poses) “So what if you fall?  At least you tried and you can get up and try again.”  I’ve been embracing that concept since the first class and trying to be more willing to say yes to new things.

Yesterday, though, she said something that really resonated with me.  “You don’t have to wait for your life to be perfect to be enjoy it.  You can be happy now.”  This really struck me because I spend a lot of time “waiting”, a lot of time thinking about things that will be better in the future.  When I finish paying off my car…  When I get my mileage where I want it to be…  When I get all the paperwork filed… When the boys are a older…   

There’s always going to be something.  There will always be more things I need to get done.  There will always be more wants than there is money.

I need to embrace the now.  I need to embrace the comfortable 5.5 mile run and not beat myself up that it’s not longer.  I need to appreciate the good in my children and my husband and my life.  Because otherwise, I have a feeling that insomnia is going to be my new BFF.

Have you ever had one of those weeks?  You know the ones.  On top of your normally busy life, a couple of out of the norm or unexpected things come along.  This week is insane.  The boys’ annual physicals (that I booked 6 months ago) were yesterday.  Two meetings (that I’ve been pushing for)finally came through this week.  My boss has me doing a training for him (and I’m a little nervous).  None of these is a huge deal, but to have them all fall in one week has made this one of those weeks where the only way to get everything done is to either skimp on sleep or skimp on working out.

I’m not skimping on working out.

Sunday night I sat down with my calendar and figured out my plan for the week.   My workouts are marked on my calendar, right alongside my work meetings, appointments, and actual projects.

It looks something like this:

Monday: Kids at home = workout when Beer Geek gets home (done.  3.8 miles barefoot on the treadmill)
Tuesday: Grocery store, run, work, annual physicals for the boys, 1.5 hours with them at the park (done. 5.5 miles in vibrams)
Wednesday: Half day of school, yoga, work, playdate for S
Thursday: Long Run, major grocery shop for weekend event, meeting at school, chiro, Cub Scouts
Friday: Run, work, work meeting, another meeting, collapse exhausted on the couch

Crammed in around that are all my normal chores and responsibilities, plus getting ready for the Pinewood Derby this weekend and friends coming over Saturday night.

What’s my point?  In the past, I would have dropped the yoga class or dropped a run.  But I’m loving that fact that I ran 20 miles barefoot or in vibrams in the last 5 days, I’m about to take my third yoga class in a row, and that I hit the gym for an easy bike ride on Friday (where I was entertained by watching the fire department guys play basketball).  I’ve done some form of workout for at least 30 minutes every day since December 1.

The question is:  how long can I keep this streak going?

On Saturday, Beer Geek and I participated in the Washington Wine Academy/DC School of Beer’s Beer Walk.   It was a walk through the Crystal City Underground with multiple beer stations.

After our designated driver dropped us off (and took our kids – talk about a good friend), we stopped at the registration table aka Station 1, where we got “race” t-shirts, bibs, tasting tickets and tasting glasses.  The volunteers were super efficient and we were quickly on our way.  

At the Station 2, I tried the Baying Hound Aleworks Long Snout Stout (which turned out to be my favorite beer all evening ) and New Belgium’s Snow Day.

Wonder just how slow this 1K will be…

The next station offered Port City beers where (as people who know me would guess) I enjoyed their porter.

Station 4 had Ommegang, Duvel, and Harpoon.  Why yes, I could have just moved in there.  They also had a decent selection of wine (not that I had any) and BBQ pork sliders  (YUM!) from Memphis BBQ.

Smiling big about the Duvel being poured for me

We skipped Station 5 because, umm, I don’t like light(ish) beers.  (It was Yuengling – perfectly acceptable if you are into that kind of beer.)

Station 6 was a winner.  Bathrooms, a few seats, and Spaten and Magic Hat.  Magic Hat Howl was definitely in my top 5 beers of the evening.

I think the camera man had a few beers too.

Station 7 was the water station.  Luckily I didn’t want any LOL.

They were trying to find the keys to the gate.

I think we skipped Station 8 (Anchor Steam and Bock), but I really don’t remember LOL.

Station 9 was Sam Adams, where I had a beer.  What beer?  Couldn’t tell you.  I also ate a bunch of Cabot cheese.  Kudos to WWA for free food stations along the way.

Station 10 was awesome as well.  I had two favorites – Brooklyn Chocolate Stout and Flying Dog “Gonzo Imperial” porter.  I also ate more than a few m&ms.  Just sayin’.

Woohoo, I finished.

Because of our DD arrangements, we “had” to walk the course backwards.  This worked out really well for me as I was able to get a second and third taste of my favorites.  We finished back at the Long Snout Stout, where I used my last two tickets to get a double pour and called our driver to pick us up.

I was feeling just a little blurry LOL

All in all, it was an awesome event.  It was sold out, but the layout made it so it never felt crowded.  I never had more than a minute or two wait for a beer.  The number of tickets was perfect for me to enjoy myself without imbibing too much (although Beer Geek said he saw that you could buy more.)  I highly recommend this event and will be attending next year.

And now I have a 1K PR to beat:  1:05  – yes that is one hour and five minutes LOL.

Disclaimer:  I paid for our tickets and Washington Wine Academy did not ask me to review it.

To say that my long run mojo has been lacking would be to put it mildly.  I know why it’s missing:  cold weather, pain in my toes, and number of hours it takes.  I’ve crossed over the 1.5 hour time frame (and really with getting ready, etc, it’s taking two hours) and that’s the point where I start feeling like I’m “losing” a big part of my day.

Yesterday morning, I didn’t want to run at all, much less a long run.  I was just in a mood.  A crappy one.

Step 1:  Tweet – I whined about not wanting to run and got lots of “you can do it”.  I publicly reminded myself that I could go slow and even accepted that I wasn’t going to go far.   The support I got, pushed me out the door.

Step 2:  Grab a handheld and a Honey Stinger.  Just because…

Step 3:  Run easy.  Take Garmin only to track mileage.  Do not look at pace.  Instead, look at the sunny day around you.  Ignore the fact that you are running so slowly you aren’t even warming up.

Step 4:  Hit your “short run” distance and realize that you only need 1.5 more miles to hit your minimum mid-length run.

Step 5:  Break it up.  In my case, I changed shoes from my Saucony Triumphs to my Vibrams because SURPISE!  My toes hurt.  (If you don’t need to change shoes, walk for few minutes, stop for a drink, change the music on your ipod, whatever – if you are seriously considering being done, shake things up!)

Step 6:  Tell yourself you only have to run your x mile loop that puts you at the minimum distance you’d call a long run.

Step 7:  Trip and fall.  (OK, I wouldn’t recommend this one as I have a wicked bruise and scrape on my knee and bruises on my hip bones from hitting the ground so hard.)  But I was so embarrassed and mad that I ran an extra mile.

Step 8:  Realize you are only 1 mile from your goal for the day and that you can always do that last mile.

Step 9:  Trip again, but don’t fall.  Realize it’s time to head in.

Step 10:  Realize that in .7 miles you will hit your goal.  Get on treadmill.  Be unwilling to do less than  a mile on the ‘mill…

And that is how you go from not wanting to run to finishing 9.5 miles.  It involved two shoe changes (Triumphs > Vibrams > barefoot) and a venue change (outside > treadmill), but I got it done.

And at the end, running was no longer the enemy.  It was the solution.

Wait, that was many feet, one pair of shoes.

So, maybe Goldilocks.  But that only took her three tries.

Crap, I’m not up on my fairy tales.  What can I say, I’m the mom of two boys – all I hear about are legos and ninjas LOL.

But, seriously, I do feel like I’m on a quest for the perfect shoe and I can’t quite find the right one.  I love all of them, but each and every pair comes with a drawback.

Here’s what’s currently in rotation: