Mom On The Run

Tell Me I’m Not the Only One Who Wimps Out

Janice — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:14:58 PST

I just categorized this as “Running Inspiration” but that’s cause I don’t have a category called “Excuses”…

I totally wimped out today. I was supposed to get up and run 19k before hubby left me to solo parent while he went out for a great “Guys Weekend” (road hockey, poker, video games, beer and lots of chicken wings). But when I woke up I was greeted by this very beautiful sight:

Gorgeous!

But not fun to run in. The thermometer is hovering near 0C which means that snow is heavy and wet – the kind that turns to slush under your feet and very quickly. Ya know, the kind that quickly leads to these babies:

Blisters – my nemesis.

The Chilly half is two weeks away – not quite enough time for one of those to fully heal. So I wimped out and went to a nice warm and dry BodyPump class instead. I’m glad it’s a long holiday weekend here (Family Day) ’cause this gives me another opportunity to get this LAST long training run in on Monday.

Tell me, am I the only one who wimps out?

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

Fifteen Months

Janice — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 10:35:23 PST

Dear Amber,

Wow girl! You’re 15 months old already!! Where has the past year gone? You are growing up to be a very happy and smart little girl – eager to play and chase your sisters around the house.

Lately you’ve been a bit cranky though – I think you may be teething, and getting your “eye” teeth. You have a total of 12 teeth now – the four front teeth across the top, four front teeth across the bottom, plus four molars. There’s a gap between those four front teeth and the molars for your eye teeth that I believe you’re working on getting now. That said, you love to eat with your beautiful little chompers, especially your favourite foods: Pizza, Buttered pasta, fries, cucumber, green melon and mommy’s Chobani yogurt:

You, my darling, are VERY independent! When you notice us getting ready to leave for work/school/shopping/out to play etc, you get your jacket off of your hook, bring it to us and say, “Go… Go… Go!”. You just love to try and do things youself, and you get so mad at us if we try to help you. Socks are your favourite – you take them off yourself at bath time, and put them in the laundry hamper for mommy and daddy. When I try to take your socks off for you you throw a VERY big temper tantrum! Oh the injustice!

I saw these socks called Ezsox and thought they’d be perfect for you:

You could grip the little handles on them and pull them on and off yourself! I also saw that they give 40% off to their facebook fans so I “liked” them in order to get you some. It’ll be really cute to show you how to do it, especially since you’re so keen on doing EVERYTHING yourself.

Ahhh speaking of doing things yourself, little miss independent…. You love swimming lessons with daddy – but aren’t too keen on doing what everyone else is doing. You really like to jump from the edge of the pool into daddy’s arms – you don’t even mind getting your face wet! One night daddy was too sick to take you, so I took you to your class and I had to do an “underwater pass” with you. This is when the instructor passes you underwater to me! I thought for sure you would freak out but you loved it!! Holy moly kiddo – you LOVE to swim!!!

Oh Amber – you have no idea how perfectly you fit into this family – we love you, your independence and your bright beautiful smile so much!

Thank you for being part of our lives – I love you!!

Love,

Remember: “You’re only one workout away from a good mood!”

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

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Less Than 4 Weeks until the Half Marathon…

Janice — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:27:00 PST

And my training hasn’t quite gone as well as I had hoped. Remember that blister I wrote about last week? Well it was way worse than I had initially thought and it hurt like a son of a so I didn’t run on it (aka used it as an excuse not to run last week). It also didn’t help that it got infected (I’ll spare ya the visual this time). Also? The kids and hubby got a nasty, disgusting virus that had them fighting over puke buckets, toilets etc… It was so bad that even though Sierra and Brooke are completely potty trained, we had to make them in pull-ups. Oh – and my washing machine broke down after all the laundry and sheets it washed. Again – I’ll spare ya a visual.

So I only got out to run once last week – on Sunday. I ran 8k with my training partner. It was awesome – the ground was DRY! And we ran pretty fast. I just looked at my training plan though – we were supposed to do 18k, not 8. Oooops!

I have only three more hard weeks of training, then a week of taper. I have to accept that I’m a mom – and family comes first. I know it really doesn’t matter how fast that I do this race (there will be others), and I should enjoy the fact that I am healthy enough to do a few half marathons each year, but it’s tough to keep that in mind, especially when I think back to my “glory days” of running. I guess soon enough these days WILL be my glory days, and I should just enjoy them.

Question/sharing: Have you ever ran a race with less than perfect training and surprised yourself with how well you finished? Please hit me up in the comments with your stories.

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

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Longest Training Run in YEARS!

Janice — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:04:27 PST

So today I had 18k on my training plan – marking this as the longest I’ve run (not in a race) since well before kids – probably since the last time I ran a full marathon which was in the fall of 2003.

Wow! Training this long/far sure is different when you have kids because the minute you get home, your spouse hands the kids to you and takes off, even though all I want to do when I get home is shower, stretch, eat, and nap. HA! I sure miss those good ol’ days….

All in all the run went well. It was cool out – but not bitterly cold. Cold enough that it was snowing, but the snow was turning to slush when it hit the ground. Oh – it was windy too, so the blowing snow was whipping me (and my training partner, Emma) in the face. OK – truth be told the run sucked, but now that I’m a mom, it totally felt great to be away from home for two hours.

When I got home and took off my shoes I was greeted by this:

And found this beauty when I took my sock off (what shall we name her?):

Have I ever mentioned that my feet don’t do well when my shoes get wet? Sigh – it’s gonna be quite awhile until that bad boy heals, thank goodness for ReSkin:

These things are seriously AWESOME! I was wearing one on my other foot because last week’s arch blister was still healing – guess I shoulda had one on my other foot as a precaution. Let’s file that under: Lessons Learned.

Ok – so for the running geeks out there, here are my splits:

(I apologize for these being in min/km, but I’m Canadian and that’s just how we roll up here).

My sub-2 hour half marathon attempt is in 5 short weeks! This coming week my training is as follows:

Sunday: BodyPump
Monday: Spinning class
Tuesday: Easy 5k at lunch
Wednesday: BodyPump
Thursday: Speed workout 4 x 1 mile repeats with 0.5 mile recovery jogs
Friday: 5k easy
Saturday: 18k

Have a great week everyone!

Question/sharing:
How do you prevent blisters? How do you treat your blisters?

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

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Mom on the run is back!

Janice — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:57:22 PST

I’m back from a blogging hiatus – I have lots of mojo and lots of things to write about. (Really I do).

First off I wanna tell you about this year’s running GOALS! I’m currently training for the Chilly Half Marathon – not just to finish it this time – but to PR it! My previous PR from like 8 years ago on that course is 2:01, but I’ve been running faster and stronger these past few months, so this time I’m gonna CRUSH 2 hours. Training is going well despite the cold weather, because I have this KICK ASS pony tail hat from the Running Room:

Isn’t it sweet?

Other goals for 2012 (OMG! It’s 2012 already! Do you realise I started this blog back in 2004!!):

Around the Bay 30K
PR a 5k in April?
PR a 10K – in May?
75 K Ride for Heart in June
Olympic distance Triathlon in July
August – just train
September – Half marathon
October – another half marathon
November – just train
December – just train

A little update on the kiddos…. They’re growing (big surprise). Sierra is now 6.5 and loving grade 1, Brooke is 4.5 and likes Jr. Kindergarten, but isn’t happy that she only goes every other day and Amber is almost 15 months old – cute as a button and happy as a clam (as a third child I guess she has no choice).

Time sure flies folks, doesn’t it?

FTC – I bought the hat on my own because I LOVE it and no one has paid me to blog about it, so suck it.

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

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I Finished The Half Marathon!

Janice — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 18:57:01 PDT

Hey guys! This is just a quick post to let you know that I finished my half marathon today! The weather was cool and very windy, but all in all I did well, actually VERY well… I set a new post-babies personal best! My finishing time was 2:00:30! I’m so excited!

I was hoping to break two hours, as I have quite a race history of FLIRTING with two hours – 2:01, 2:04, 2:06, 2:08 etc… Those results are from almost ten years ago while I was still in my late twenties, so it feels really good to know that this mom of 3, who is closing in on 40, and is still nursing a baby can still run!

I’m off to celebrate with a much deserved Guinness now that the baby is asleep:

Tomorrow I’ll give you my full race report – I promise!

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

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Wordless Wednesday: Niagara Falls

Janice — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 04:30:35 PDT

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

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Let The Half Marathon Training Begin…Again.

Janice — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:53:02 PDT

In January of this year I whipped out my credit card and registered for a few races this year. I vowed to myself that THIS YEAR would be THE YEAR that I finally returned to running. Like really running… Running as often as I did BEFORE kids. So my race registrations included TWO half marathons – one in the spring and another in the fall. My goal was to FINALLY lose stomach fat – and LOTS of it!

My spring half marathon “training” (if you can even call it that), consisted of running 5k three times a week, with a 10k longer run on the weekend for three weeks in a row before the “race”. Yes – I kinda faked that half marathon, but did surprisingly well, all things considered. (6 mos post-partum, no training, very little sleep the night before because of the baby). I finished in 2 hrs and 8 mins. Not too shabby.

Me at the Toronto Women's Half Marathon May 2011

So… my second half marathon is coming up in 7 short weeks from now on October the 16th (which is actually an eternity compared to how long I “trained” for my last half marathon). Now that I have some time to train, here’s my “plan” (I’m awful at sticking to plans, but I’m hopeful sharing it with you will make me more accountable):

Mon – 8k
Tues – BodyPump class
Wed – 8k
Thurs – rest
Fri – 8k
Sat – BodyPump class
Sun – long run

My long runs will start at 10k, and I’ll add 1k to it each week, until 2 weeks before the race (which means that the Sunday long run 2 weeks before will be 15k). I’m back down to my racing weight (yay!) so I’m optimistic this “plan” will enable me to run a faster race than I did this spring.

Look out Scotiabank Waterfront Half Marathon… here I come!!

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

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CLOSED – Football Fashion 4Her by Carl Banks T-Shirt and Hoodie Giveaway

Janice — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:18:36 PDT

EDIT: Congrats to Heather (@notdiyheather) on winning this awesome prize!

Are you ready for some football??!!!

Football opening day is just around the corner and fashion and football are going prime time on HSN (Home Shopping Network)! On September 5, (a week before the eve of the 2011 football opener), at 1 AM, 11 AM, 3 PM and 8 PM EDT, NFL legend and Hall of Famer Carl Banks will appear on HSN (Home Shopping Network) to introduce the G-III’s Women’s Collection, 4Her, by Carl Banks.

Being introduced for the first time on HSN during their Football Fan Shop on September 5^th, 2011, Banks is releasing licensed NFL team T-shirts, Sweatshirts, Ringer three Baseball T’s and Sweatpants made of French terry, sueded fleece and combed cotton with distressed appliqué. Prices of the collection range from $19.95 to $49.95 with knock out best sellers from the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints teams, to name a few. This is a full line of sports lounge apparel that is stylish enough for Monday Night Football with the boys, yet comfy to wear out to game day tailgating events. This line of clothing comes in sizes 10 and up so they’re perfect for plus size girls – Awesome!

Carl is also offering a HUGE giveaway of two complimentary New York Giants tickets along with two free round-trip domestic tickets to the game, sponsored by Southwest Airlines! The winner will be announced LIVE on-air during the launch.

To enter for the two complimentary New York Giants tickets along with two free round-trip domestic tickets to the game, sponsored by Southwest Airlines Like Carl’s Facebook Page AND Follow Carl on Twitter

In addition to entering for the GRAND prize you can

Win a fabulous T-shirt and Hoodie of your choice from the 4Her Collection from me!

(Ends on September 4, 2011)

How do you enter? Like Carl’s Facebook Page AND Follow Carl on Twitter then leave a comment on this post to let me know.

EXTRA ENTRIES: (Leave a separate comment for each entry):
1. Vote for me @fitcheerldr in the 50 Most Inspirational Healthy Tweeps list = 1 entry
2. Tweet about this giveaway (click that Retweet button at the top of this post) = 1 entry.
3. Follow me on Twitter (@fitcheerldr) = 1 entry.
4. Subscribe to my Fitness Cheerleader newsletter of Fitness Tips & Motivation (subscribers get a FREE copy of my walk n tone mp3) = 1 entry.

This giveaway will end on: September 4, 2011 at 11:59 PM

Good luck!

Disclaimer: I did not pay for this product. It was sent to me and in exchange, I’ve posted an honest review of it. I was not compensated nor was I encouraged by the manufacturer to post a positive review. This review is based solely on my experience with this product.

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

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One day….

Janice — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 07:58:18 PDT

NKOTB CRUISE 2012 from New Kids on the Block on Vimeo.

Sigh… One day I’ll go…

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

Mom On The Run

Tell Me I’m Not the Only One Who Wimps Out

Gorgeous!

Other Posts You May Enjoy:

Fifteen Months

Random Posts

Less Than 4 Weeks until the Half Marathon…

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Longest Training Run in YEARS!

Have a great week everyone!

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Mom on the run is back!

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I Finished The Half Marathon!

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Wordless Wednesday: Niagara Falls

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Let The Half Marathon Training Begin…Again.

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CLOSED – Football Fashion 4Her by Carl Banks T-Shirt and Hoodie Giveaway

Are you ready for some football??!!!

Win a fabulous T-shirt and Hoodie of your choice from the 4Her Collection from me!

Good luck!

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One day….

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