Golf, Dreaded Phone Calls, Garage Sales and Mothers Days to forget

It's that time of year again- GOLF!!!  I love to golf, but really really suck at it.  We joined the Country Club this year so I could golf more often (and have access to a pool!).  There is a ladies league on Wednesday nights, but I just cant commit to every week, so I signed up as a sub.  I got called in to sub the first night so I was pretty excited.  And then I realized I am horrible.  But the ladies I golfed with were fun and didn't make me feel stupid.


I took Monday and Tuesday off to recover from my half and planned to run on Wednesday.  But..I golfed instead.  I hit the gym on Thursday since I didn't have a baby sitter and got in a great workout.  I had some steam to blow off and the gym helped.


So, the dreaded phone call.  Usually when I get a call from the school in the middle of the day, it's b/c Chloe broke her arm again (sadly, this used to be true, knock on wood!), but this call was the bad behavior call.  Chloe sometimes gets in trouble for small things (talking, getting up when she isn't supposed to, etc) but never anything major.  Bg has been really struggling with behavior at home, but I didn't realize it was happening at school.  It turns out Bg has been throwing fits if she doesn't get her way, getting hysterical if the teacher has to leave and (hanging my mom head in shame), hitting other kids.  My sweet baby is actually a bully.  I was horrified and embarrassed.  I was a bit speechless when talking to the teacher and hung up and shed a few tears (which I NEVER EVER cry).  I texted the mom of the girl she hit (she is a good friend) to apologize and that mom called me (she has 4 girls) to let me know it was all right, we all go through this, etc etc and it really made me cry.  I had to hide in my office for quite some time waiting for ugly cry face to go away.  I then texted Bg's teacher to see how Bg was being punished at school and to ask for daily behavior reports and ideas for punishments at home.  Her teacher has 5 adult sons so she has a lot of experience.  She was so sweet in her reply. 


It's good to know that Bg hasn't been a horrible monster all year- just the past few weeks.


So, Bg's at home punishment involved writing apology letters to her teachers and the kid she hit:





She also lost electronics until I get good daily reports and her bedtime has been moved up a half hour. 


I decided at last minute to have a garage sale on Saturday.  I knew my sister was having one but I just haven't had time to put stuff together.  But when I saw my pile of garage sale boxes in the basement, I took Friday off and put everything together.  I left the house with around 9 tubs of stuff and came home with just 2.5 tubs.  Such a weight off my shoulders!!  And I made enough money to pay for my annual greenhouse trip!





So, my Mother's Day started off nice.  I slept in a bit, the girls made me beautiful cards and got useful gifts.  However, it started going downhill after that.  The girls lolly gagged, we fought over breakfast, had meltdowns over getting dressed for church and were flat out rude and whiny all morning.  We left for church and they were just so hateful.  That combined with Bg's school call had me feeling VERY down on myself as a mother.  I don't wallow in self pity too often but I was questioning my job as a parent and wondering where I went wrong.  Luckily we had about 2 hours apart at church and I was in the nursery cuddling sweet, non talking babies, so that helped my mood.


My friend Kelly invited the 4 of us to join them for lunch and golf at the Country Club.  The girls were so excited and on their best behavior.   The day was looking up.  It started raining while we were eating, so we were delayed on heading out to the course for a bit but took a good photo op:





But the day went downhill from there.  Chloe was getting mad that she wasn't doing good, Bg was loud and wouldn't quite down when we told her to, Chloe was demanding about driving the cart and we were all getting upset with each other. 


Then disaster almost struck.  It was misting so the grass was wet.  We were letting Chloe drive the cart and Jeff had hopped on the back (which I am sure is against rules).  We were going down a grassy hill when I felt the cart start to fishtail.  I was trying to hold onto Bg and grab the steering wheel.  Chloe was screaming and we started spinning.  I felt that we were going to flip for sure.  We somehow righted ourselves and started sliding backwards downhill.  I could see Jeff was no longer on the cart but didn't know where he was.  We finally stopped, the girls are hysterical and Jeff is on the ground.  He jumped off and injured his shoulder so he was mad.  The girls wouldn't stop screaming and he started in on them.  We were done.  Our friends didn't see our near crash and we just drove by them saying we were done.  We were all mad and shaken up and some words were exchanged.  We got off the course just in time for a downpour, which canceled my run which I desperately needed.  TO make matters worse, somehow the keys got locked in my car when we got home and my only spares happened to be in the car.


But things settled down when we got home.  I cleaned closets, cooked supper, the girls had baths and we worked on a chore chart and a behavior expectation rule list.  The girls were wonderful, they went to bed early and my Mothers Day ended on a much better note.


I almost didn't post this b/c it exposes a lot of my weaknesses that I like to hide: crying, self doubt, parenting fails, etc.  But it's life.  We all go through these trials.  I have had a lot of prayer time questioning myself and am thankful the Lord provides peace!


Oh, I did get a finish line photo- it looks like I am happily skipping in.

Lincoln Half Marathon Race Recap

I traveled to Lincoln, NE on Saturday with Meghan and Kristen to run the Lincoln Half on Sunday. 

But first things first.


Chloe had her season end soccer tourney on Saturday.  It started at 9 and we waited to leave until 10 so I wouldn't miss all her games.  The team she was playing they have beat before, so she was pretty sure they would move on.  However, due to a few mistakes, they lost 4-3 in the last 20 seconds of the game.  It was heartbreaking but they had a good season.  Chloe has improved so much since last year and it was a blast watching her play.  The field was soaked but I am a wimp and cant handle wet feet, so I was prepared in the latest soccer mom "must have" accessory of the year- my muck boots (+/- a little pig poop)!

Bg also had a game that I missed.  I figured she would do her normal sit on the sidelines and cry but both Jeff and another parent texted me that she played great (well, for her) and didn't cry at all.  She was goalie the 4th quarter and stopped 3 goals!  She did good the week Jeff was out of town, so maybe she can only handle one parent at a game.

Back to the race weekend.

We left Higginsville around 10:30.  Meghan had her girls with her so they could see all their family in Lincoln.  We made good time and I believe we arrived at the Expo around 3:45.  I was really excited about the Expo as I knew it was a large race so I assumed the Expo would be huge.  I was pretty disappointed.  I realize it was near the end of the expo on day 2 but it was really tight, cramped and a lot of the vendors had already left.  I had a few things on my list I wanted to buy (socks, hat and Gu Chews) and was out of luck.  Checking in for the race went smoothly though.  It was very organized.

We met up with Meghan's parents, sister and her family and decided to go out to eat.  Her nieces chose Mexican, which wasn't my idea of a good pre race supper, but I wasn't going to argue (and it turned out to be fine).  Her aunt and uncle met up with us and we had a dandy of a time.  Meagan's parents took the girls and they all went off to stay at Meghan's sisters while Meghan, Kristen and I stayed at her aunt and uncles.  They were excellent hosts and we had a very good, relaxing evening.  Best part...I got a bedroom completely to myself and we were 20 minutes from the starting line!!

We decided to leave around 6:15 for the race so I set my alarm for 5:40.  I woke before the alarm so got up around 5:30.  I had all my stuff laid out, so I got myself dressed, had my coffee and ate 1.5 peanut butter pop tarts.  We weren't going back after the race, so I also packed everything back up.

The forecast was about 45 degrees with a chance of rain during the race.  I wore a dry tek long sleeve tee, my Team Beef Jersey and a light jacket.  I also wore full length tights and for the first time compression socks from ProCompression.  When we got there, we had trouble finding a parking spot and then walked about 1/2 mile to the starting line.  The race started on the University of Nebraska campus (beautiful campus!) so we had use of indoor bathrooms (so so so nice!) and hung out inside waiting for our waves to start. 

There were 13,500 people signed up for the marathon and half.  We were assigned start times based on our expected finish but since Meghan's sister signed me up, I wasn't in the wave that I wanted to be.  I was in the expected finish time of 2:40-3:00.  Remember my goals (A- 2:05 B- 2:07 C- 2:10)?  The rules say you cant start in a faster wave, but I went ahead and snuck in.  While waiting for my wave, it started raining but I found a trash bag on the ground and made myself a poncho (it was a clean trash bag in a box, not a random used bag).  Not sure what exact time wave I started and silly me didn't even look at my watch when I crossed.  I have never run in a race anywhere near this big and it was so neat starting with so many people.  I was being a bit of a Debbie downer and was pretty sure with such a huge crowd I wouldn't be able to PR.

I didn't turn music on b/c I was told that there would be people lined the entire course with lots of music and I enjoy the crowd.  Around 1/2 mile mark, I saw Meghan's family and got high fives from her girls, but that was the last I ever saw them.  I did the first mile at 8'58.  I felt GOOD but was worried I was doing the firecracker thing again.  Mile 2 was right at 9 minutes and I still felt good.  I slowed down a bit and hit 9'20, 9'17 and 9'23 for miles 3,4 and 5.  The rain let up a bit and I was getting hot, so I took off the homemade poncho and tossed it aside.  I still felt good and my legs felt strong, so mile 6 was 9'02 (pretty good negative split!).  Mile 7 was a bit slower (9'20) as we got onto a pretty narrow trail for several miles.  The rain also picked up (dang me for getting rid of that poncho) and I got boxed in a lot.  I got kind of tangled up with some marines running in a formation with big flags and had a lot of trouble getting around them.  The flags were wet and were whipping in the wind and the path narrow, so I used up some time getting around them.  Not sure at what point I realized I was no longer getting my splits, but I passed mile 8 and realized I hadn't heard my last two splits so I went ahead and took out my headphones.

Mile 9 was a hill.  It wasn't a horrible hill but it was long.  The crowd was great on this hill and they really offered a lot of encouragement.  I run up the hill with another lady and we had a nice conversation.  We passed a lot of people and when my legs felt fatigued, I remembered to use my arms and pumped myself up.  I was still feeling pretty good.  I had no clue what my time was, but I knew based on my first 7 miles I was doing great and since I wasn't slowing down to walk, I knew a PR was in sight. 

I was pretty much in awe of how good I felt.  The last few weeks of running have been a struggle.  I was pretty wet and my feet were cold but my breathing was great and my legs were tired but still had life.  At mile 10, I knew there was no way in heck I would walk- I was determined to say I ran the entire thing.  I was counting backwards in my head.  30 more minutes, 20 more minutes, 15, 10, etc.  

We finished in the stadium on the 50 year line.  Right when we entered the stadium, a chick charged past me and I though, "my legs still have life" and I took off and finished stronger than I have ever finished!  It was awesome!  I didn't even look at the clock as I crossed, as I had no clue when I started so I knew it wouldn't mean anything to me.  There was a bottle neck to get into the food area, so I pulled out my phone and my FitBit app had crashed at mile 7.25.  I am getting really frustrated with the app, as it has crashed multiple times in my last few long runs. 

I got my chocolate milk, cinnamon donut hole, half banana and blanket and headed upstairs to the massage room.  I felt good, but a free massage is a free massage and I knew I had plenty of time to kill.  Luckily the massage area was heated, but I doubt it was much warmer than 60 degrees.  My sweat got really cold and I could not stop shivering.  My neck/back hurt worse than my legs due to the shivering.  I got my massage and went back downstairs.  I instantly turned back around and went back up.  It may have been cold up there, but it was dry and out of the wind!  A volunteer gave me a 2nd blanket and I hunkered down in a corner.  Another runner joined me who was waiting on her MIL and she told me I could track my friends.  I pulled it up and saw their anticipated finish time was still about 45 minutes off, so I stayed put, shivering.

But, I also found my time........drumroll......2:03:39!!!!  I knew it was going to be a PR, but I didn't realize how fast I did it.  I was so excited!!  2:00 still seemed like so far off, but now I believe I can get there!

Around 11, I made my way out of the stadium and stood outside at the entrance to the stadium to watch for my girls.  The wind was COLD but I wanted to see them finish.  The estimated time of arrival was pretty close, so I got to cheer them on.  Runners were not supposed to be able to get back into the stadium but I just walked back like I knew what I was doing and they didn't say a word.  I met up with the girls and then met up with Meghan's family outside.

Here is a picture of my medal.  I am not in the picture as I looked like crap.  I was soaked, cold and my hair was doing some weird things (it literally started to lock up- it took me forever to comb out my dreads, ha ha).  It was nasty.

Group picture of all the finishers:

I will definitely be back for this race.  The course was awesome, the crowd was great (even though they say the bad weather really kept people away) and the finish sprint in the stadium was inspiring.

I have never felt this strong after a race either.  My legs didn't cramp, I wasn't sore and probably could have run further.  I didn't like the almost 2 hour cold wet wait but that was just due to the weather.  I don't know if it was the compression socks that made a difference but my legs never felt this good before.

I also love the stats the race gave us.  I love seeing how many people I passed!

We went to Valentinos, a local pizza buffet after the race.  It was so nice to have on dry shoes and socks and eat a warm Italian meal.  I completely over ate but I needed it.  The food was honestly sub-par but I didn't really car.

We started our trip home and about 45 minutes into it, I had to have Kristen stop so I could get a coke.  I was about to fall asleep and was craving one.  It hit the spot.  We made another stop a few hours later and I got the biggest ice tea they had (it was like 50 ounce or something crazy) and it hit the spot.  You could tell I was dehydrated from the race, as if I drank that much on the way down Saturday we would have stopped 5 or more times!

It was a great race.  2 hours is in sight.  Next race is May 21st.

Taking the IIFYM plunge and Lincoln Half Marthon Goals

I have been researching and tossing around the idea of hiring a nutrition coach to help me achieve the body I want.  I am doing well with strength training but need to "lean out" and shed a few pounds. 


I have looked into a few coaches that I have found through Instagram and just could not go through with it due to the price.  I have spent a lot of money this past year with running, gym memberships, race fees, race gear, etc and just did not want to spend more.


One of the fitness bloggers I follow announced that she was going to start coaching.  Her blog is https://runningwithstrengthblog.wordpress.com/ and she was one of the first runners I started following on Instagram.  She has an amazing body and excellent race times!  Her coaching was a much better price than some of the other coaches so I took the plunge and hired her!


Through just some random searches on IIFYM online, I thought I had my calories and macros figured out.  Hers were a little different and include more calories and fat grams, so that makes me happy! 


My new macros:
Calories: 1700
Carbs- 165 gram
Protein- 125 gram
Fat- 60 grams


I have figured out my eating today.  It was a little tricky but I finally made it work.  I kept getting too many proteins and not enough carbs.  If I stick to what I have planned, here is my numbers for today
Calories: 1700 (pretty exact!)
Carbs- 156 g
Protein- 135 g
Fat- 58g


We had a freak hail storm yesterday that was BAD.  I was in town when it hit and luckily was close to Sonic so I parked under their awning.  It was golf ball sized at some points and did a lot of damage.  Luckily the corn is just starting to come up so hopefully it can recover from the damage.  This is the beginning of the storm.




The temp was in the 70's and there was a lot of rain too, so it started melting pretty fast, but it completely covered the roads at one point:



This picture if from this morning- 15 hours after the storm in one of the hardest hit places.  Piles of ice that were about 3 ft deep in spots.  The pile is dirty but it is all ice:





I am running a half marathon in Lincoln, NE on Sunday with my friends Meghan and Kristen.  Running has been a struggle for me lately but I seem to do okay in races.  I have 4 goals:


Goal AA: 2:00 hours (I made it AA rather than A, b/c I realize it probably isn't realistic but is my ultimate goal for the year).
Goal A: 2:05
Goal B: 2:07
Goal C: 2:10


These may be hard to reach, as the weather is supposed to be windy and rainy and overall nasty.

Bg's 5th birthday, funny stories and the ugly side of running

Bg turned 5 today!!!  I am so not the emotional type but it does make me sad that she is getting older! 


We had an eventful Saturday.  Chloe had a soccer game in the morning.  She played goalie and did awesome.  She loves goalie and told me that her coach only trusts her to be goalie b/c she doesn't let anything by her (I have no idea if he really said that or if she was just being conceited).  She didn't play as an attacker very hard but had a good game.  She had a friend come with us after soccer for a quick lunch and then back to the soccer field for Bg's game.  Bg played a good first quarter and then was done.  Completely done.  Cried, whined, cried, whined.  Her dad was NOT very happy with her.  We finally convinced her to go in the 3rd quarter and she got hit hard in the thigh with a ball and it was all over at that point. 


After soccer I dropped Chloe and her friend off at the skating rink for a classmates birthday party and then rushed home to get things ready for Bg's party.  We had about 15 4-6 year olds over and they had a great time jumping on the trampoline, running around and enjoyed the great weather.





Both girls had a friend stay the night Saturday night and Sunday they sang at church, followed by a retirement dinner for Chloe's teacher.  She retired after like 45 years of teaching, 34 at their school.  She was Jeff's teacher as well.  What a career- she will be missed!


I did my long run on Sunday (details below) and then came home and we just enjoyed the nice weather.  The girls rode bikes, rode the go-cart, played outside and played with Bg's new toys ( I think we officially own every Shopkin ever).


Funny story- I was back in the bedroom yesterday evening and I heard a slight commotion in the kitchen.  Nothing bad sounding just a few little yelps.  Bg comes back grinning and told me there was a frog in the kitchen.  Chloe was back there too and she said there wasn’t.  Bg laughed and said a frog jumped on her head and was now in the kitchen.  I had to go see and we walk in and there is a frog on the floor.  I assumed it was a play frog that she got at her birthday party, but when I got close, it hopped away!  It was a tree frog!  Bg opened the screen door and I guess it was on top of the door and landed on her head!  It had a slightly hurt leg with a little blood, so I don’t know if it had got shut in the door or if Bg hurt it when she threw it off her head!  It was able to hop, but we were afraid of hurting it, so we caught it in a butter container and set it outside.  It curled up in the container and was still there when we went to bed, but was gone this morning.  Bg thought it was hilarious!  She asked if she had to wash her hair last night and I was like, “You had a frog with a bloody leg on your head!!!  Of course you have to wash your hair!”  I just had lunch with her and she told her classmates.  They are all boys, so they thought it was a cool story.


Last time putting a 4 year old to bed:



Bg slept great last night and woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed!












Chloe had to get in the action too:





Bg got a new baby doll called "Little Sis Birthday Doll" or something like that.  Grandma Judy called her this morning and asked what she got for her birthday.  Bg told her, "a little sister!"  Judy asked again and Bg responded the same way.  I could hear Judy being a little shocked and I was yelling, "tell her a doll, it's a doll!"  Ha ha, no baby sister here.


Chloe said the morning prayer on the way in.  She prayed, "Dear God, please help mom and dad to get more money and pay less taxes."  I SWEAR Jeff and I have no complained about money or taxes, especially around her, so I have no idea where her prayer came from.  She is a hoot.


Long run recap:


Had my last long run before the Lincoln half marathon.  I don't know what my problem with running has been lately but I have just really struggled.  I typically do okay in races, so hopefully that will continue.  I ran a little over 10.27 miles- GPS says 10.27 but it quit on me a bit, so I had a magically flying experience again, so not sure how far that was.  It was HOT yesterday.  I am not used to running in 80+ degree weather yet and really needed a water stop several times.  And I had a lot stronger wind than normal. My splits aren't pretty.  I am getting slower rather than faster.  I really need a mental jump start.  I did 10 miles in 1:36 just a few weeks ago.





 So to the ugly side of running.  Sunburns and blisters.  This was my 2nd run with my new Brooks Pure Cadence and my 2nd time getting some ugly blisters.  I think I will wear my old trusty Asics in Lincoln:





I know there are way worse foot pictures out there, but I ran way more last year and never had blisters.  I used to get them bad in high school, but haven't struggled with them in years.


And I don't know why my font keeps changing.  It is driving me crazy and I keep trying to change it and it wont let me.

Fun Run and a Mud Run

I have been working hard on IIFYM and eating well.   I have talked to a few coaches about nutrition plans and really want to take that next step, but I am being an el-cheapo and wont quite take the plunge.  So, while I am tracking my Macro's, I really don't know if they are the right macros for me.  I did a macro calculator on bodybuilder.com and came up with 153g carbs, 153g protein and 34 g fat.  I actually struggle with getting enough carbs and protein and keep getting too much fat.  But I am learning more about what are better foods to eat, so that helps.  I am using myfitnesspal to log my food.


But...all that macro tracking went down the drain over the weekend! 


My weekend started off grand, with a girls night at Buco de Beppo.  Yum, is that place good, but wow on the amount of food!  We started off with bread and I was starving so I ate way too much of that.  Our salad was granny smith apples, feta cheese, walnuts and was delicious.  We had chicken caprice (I am probably spelling that wrong) along with chicken fettuccini alfredo.  A lovely lady from church knew of our plans and sent us a sampler platter at well.  I believe it had fried cheese, fried mushroom and other fried things, so since I don't do fried food, it didn't hurt my diet.  And when I say I don't do fried food, I can stomach some fried things, but most breaded and fried stuff is so nasty to me- it isn't diet related, I just don't like it.   


Jeff headed out at the crack of dawn to have a weekend fishing trip with his dad, so it was just us girls.  My friend is the county prosecutor and she was hosting a Victims Advocate Fun Run on Saturday.  It started off with a kids fun run followed by a 5K.  There was also life flight, fire trucks, tow trucks, police cars, etc for the kids to look through.  The girls did the fun run with their friends but I couldn't do the 5K due to Chloe's soccer game.  I was disappointed but it is what it is!


The girls and their friends:





I didn't get a picture of Chloe finishing the fun run, but a friend shared this of Bg:



The girls got to sit in the drivers seat of life flight.  The prosecutor snapped this photo and Bg had to hide.  Should I be nervous that Bg is already hiding from law enforcement?



I really like this photo of Chloe and I.  I have finally figured out the "sock" bun and am enjoying it!


We headed straight to soccer after the run.  Chloe played great and her team won 5-3.  Not sure what Chloe is doing in this picture:



Between soccer games we rushed to a birthday party of Chloe's dear friend Kiley.  Filled up on burgers, potato salad and cake.  Quit tracking my macros at this point!


Bg was bribed with ice cream if she wouldn't be a baby at soccer.  She did well the first half and only whined the 2nd half.  She played goalie 4th quarter and this is pretty much what she did the entire time.  Probably the reason the other team scored their only goal of the game on her:





The girls and I had a date night on Saturday- dinner and a show.  We went to the local youth theaters production of Peter Pan.  Our friend Ellie was the crocodile and the play was adorable.





Chloe stayed the night with a friend on Saturday night, so it was just me and Bg. 


Sunday morning I took Bg to my MIL's and then met up with Chloe, her friend and her mom to go to a family style mud run.  We had a BLAST!  The girls were troopers and enjoyed the challenge of the obstacles.  This will definitely be something we do again.







So, I didn't get any solid running in this weekend and don't really foresee a lot of time this week either.  I hate that running is taking a back seat to my crazy life right now, but hopefully I can add some miles soon.  That is definitely the downfall of living down miles of gravel road.  If we lived in town, I could run in the mornings/evenings but I don't really like running on gravel, especially in the dark!

Speed Work

I am trying to extend my running from just one long run a week to multiple nights of running which include: 1 long run, 1 day speed work, 1 tempo run.


I did my long run (my very wimpy long run) on Saturday.  I didn't have a chance to run Sunday or Monday, but knew I could hit up the track after Chloe's soccer game on Tuesday,


Quick soccer update: Chloe played AWWWEEESSOMMMMEEEE!  She is 150x's more enthusiastic than she ever was last year.  She isn't the best player out there, but man, she is on top of it.  She played almost the entire game except maybe 2 minutes of the 4th quarter.  She had some awesome assists and wasn't afraid to get after it.  She also played goalie and didn't let anything by her.  She would dive in the middle of kicking feet to grab the ball.  I was impressed.  They don't officially keep score, but all the kids do.  It was 6-4.  Chloe's face anytime her team scored a goal was priceless.  She bent her head over with a little grin and mouthed yes while pumping her elbows.  It was adorable.


Back to running...since it is track season, I cant run on the track just whenever, but the track was empty after the game.  I was pretty excited to run on a soft, smooth, flat surface and to really test how well my technology clocked my miles.  I ran a 1 mile warm up in a little over 9 minutes.  I felt like I struggled a lot in that warm up, but first mile always seems hard to me.   My plan was to then do about 3-4 speed miles with a half mile cool down between.  I did my first fast mile in 7:28 ( I know, not that fast compared to other runners) and it really wiped me out.  I ran a slow half mile and realized I honestly did not have it in me to do another fast mile, so I just finished that half mile out a bit faster and called it a day after just 3 miles.  I am disappointed in myself, but I also know I need to listen to my body.  I have had a nasty allergy cough for several weeks now that keeps me up a lot at night.  Plus work is pretty stressful right now, so I think my body is telling me that it needs me to just take it easy. 





I think these are the coolest tennis shoes I have ever owned.  Brooks Pure Cadence.


I did the gym thing Wednesday night and felt pretty strong.  Hopefully my energy comes back soon.

Running out of steam...

I actually felt pretty good after my race weekend.  It usually takes me a few days to recover.  So YAY for getting stronger. 


I did skip the gym/running Monday night, as we had NOTHING on the calendar and I thought it would be nice just to go straight home for once.  It was beautiful weather, so the girls and I took a long hike and played in the creek.  While we were grilling, Chloe decided to try for broken arm #4 and worked on her trampoline basketball skills (no, she did not break her arm this time!).


Tuesday night I surprised the girls with tickets to the Royals Ring Ceremony, where they got their World Series Champion Rings.  It was AWESOME!  The girls had a blast at the game and even though we were in the cheap seats, we had a good view of the ring ceremony.  This is Salvador Perez celebrating!





We unfortunately had to leave the game early, but it was for a good reason- Chloe's first soccer game.  Her team lost but she played her heart out.  She has improved so much since last year.  I was a bit proud...









Bg had her first soccer game on Saturday.  It didn't go as well.  Bg played offense okay the first quarter (she was a little lost, okay, a lot lost) but she stayed out there.  She played goalie 2nd quarter.  She blocked a shot but they were able to kick it in after she reflected it.  And then she was done.  She had no desire to go out there and she whined on the sideline.  Her coach finally convinced her to go back out there, she got lightly hit with the ball and it was drama queen time.  Needless to say, she didn't play the 2nd half.  Only 5 more games...





After her game, we (the entire family) went to the track.  Chloe ran 400m in around 2:25.  She had to walk a bit around the 300 m mark.  We also did the 100M dash and she was around 26 seconds.


Skipping ahead a few days, we went back to the track at Chloe's request.  She wanted to try again.  I told her to try to beat 2:20.  She said her goal as 2:15.  She actually paced herself and finished strong.  She never walked this time.  Her time........drumroll.....2:00 even!  She blew her goal out of the water.  She did the 100M in 20 seconds. She wanted me to race her and I actually struggled to keep up with her the first 25M.  She went out like a flash!


Back to Saturday.  After Bg's game, I went out for my long run.  I wanted to do a minimum of 10 miles.  I worked really hard at the gym on Wednesday and did dynamic yoga on Thursday and was still a bit sore.  I started off and as usual, the first few miles were hard.  I really struggled but figured I would run out of it by 1.5 or 2 miles.  Around mile 3, I was starting to worry that I wasn't going to run out of my funk!  My legs felt heavy and my lungs were struggling.  I realized that my GPS shut down somewhere around mile 6.25.  I was very irritated and restarted it but it continued to crash.  I believe that caused my cell battery to die, so I lost music and GPS.  I realized I was still a good 3-4 miles from my car and I was done.  My legs were heavy, I was wearing new shoes and was starting to feel blisters, all my technology had given up and my mental game was done. 





Yes, this is a picture of me in the passenger seat of a car.  I hitchhiked.  I gave up.  No, I didn't catch a ride with a stranger.  I happened to see one of my besties husbands and he gave me a ride.  I believe I ran about 8-8.5 miles total.


Here is where I magically floated around a loop park.  Thanks GPS.  I was happy with my pace.  It was faster than my average race pace.







So, I have not been training anywhere like I should be.  I basically run 1 day a week and hit the gym 2 days and do some hiking on the 4th day.  I know I am physically in better shape than I was last year but I don't have the endurance I did.  With both girls playing soccer 5 nights a week, it is hard to get the runs in.


Found this gem on my phone:



My baby has kindergarten testing tonight!  Chloe has been giving her "tests."  Ha ha, we will see if she is prepared.