Back at it

After a very long and fantastic weekend it is time to get back to the grind.

I hit the pavement right as it got light out and apparently the ground was still a bit icy....As I took my first few steps I was slipping and sliding all around....I debated on turning around and waiting, but I was ready and going and didn't want to have to start over. My first mile was a bit slow and careful. Fortunately I did not bite it and stayed on my two feet the entire run.
Pretty good run otherwise. Cold, but that is to be expected as it was 28*. Four miles steady is what the training plan called for.

Work out stats:
4.24 miles, 39:19 time, 9.16 min mile.
28*. Light rain. Ice patches.
Felt good, had negative splits. Very cold.

The rest of my day consisted of work, cleaning the house, laundry, putting away my fall decorations and pulling out my xmas bins (have not opened them yet). The Beast had a wrestling meet today, she had a great win and one loss. Looking good after 5 days off.

Black Friday - Long Run

I am no Black Friday shopper. In fact, I did not even get out of bed till 8:30am. I did do a little online shopping, does that count?

I forced Bob to take me down to the beach for my run this morning. I say forced, but he was willing. We started down at the far north end of the beach at the Peter Iredali. It was wet, windy and wet. And foggy. And wet.

I knew right when I started out this was going to be a very long 6 mile run. Glad today was a sort long run. (is that an oxymoron?). I had a strong head wind and wet sand to work with. That makes for a slow run. Bob drove a head a mile at a time so I had a beacon to run to. And he could make sure all was alright with me. He is a good one. I think I will keep him.
By mile 2 was was getting slower, and already regretting my decision. Mile 3 I gave myself a pep talk that I was now half way. Mile 4. Not much to say about that mile. Mile 5 I said, Self, You got this. 10 more min and you are done. Mile 5.75 Bob was waiting and drove along with me and that made me smile and so it wasn't so bad after all.
I was slow. I was VERY wet. I was wind blown, but I was not defeated. I am thankful for the ability to run. I am thankful for the loving support I have while I am running.

6 miles in the bag

We headed out to a diner for some grub afterwords. Nothing sounded better than hot food and even hotter coffee. I was wising I had another sweat shirt to put on, but you cannot have it all.

As we are sitting there waiting on our food, I say to Bob,, "Man, it really smells like razor clams in here" he laughs and says " No sweetie, thats you." OMG I died laughing. "OMG it IS ME!!!!" Wow that beach was smelly. The best part was getting back in the truck and driving back to the folks house. It was a VERY STINKY ride. Of course I laughed the entire way. :-)

We headed home later this afternoon and are settling in for the rest of the weekend. Good times.

Work out stats:
6 miles, 1:02:13 time, 10:21 min mile.

VERY windy, heavy mist and fog. 59*.  Ran on sand. Slow, difficult run. Probably the hardest run in a very long time. Very glad I did it.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2014 is in the Bag! Hope everyone had a good day filled with family and/or friends, peace and happiness. I have spent my day surrounded by Bob's family. What a great group of people I have the pleasure of being a surrounded by.
Our day has been very relaxing and low key, as usual with this bunch.

I got my workout outta the way right away. Crossfit.com had posted the WOD of the day last night and so I decided to commit right then. One of the worst. I did it once before and it sucked bad....

Nov. 27 Workout of the Day: Open Workout 12.1

Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes of:
Burpees

Burpees suck. There is no other way around it. They do. But they are an ass kicker and a great workout.

So here are my stats for today:
Warm up
---
7 min of burpees - 84 was my total
---
Core

Total workout time: 21:08

Kicked my butt. Location: Stocks basement.

Best part was I wasn't alone......
My Pea did it too with Cam and let me know how awesome they are! United!!

The rest of the day has been all about food and family. Football. Reading and knitting. And best of all flicking each other sh*t all day.
I touched base with all my family and my dear friends. Feeling very blessed and thankful for all the great people in my life.

Carving up the Turkey! 

The caos of dishing up the plates.

The best part, coffee and pumpkin pie!

I am so thankful for this guy. Love him so much.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well look at me skipping a day! Gosh, I remembered at about 10:30 last night after I went to bed....I considered getting up and posting but then sleep took over.
Yesterday was a busy day. Workout, school, work, wrestling meet, basketball practice all in one day.
The Beast had a meet and did great. She had one win and two losses. She is getting stronger by the day.
Moose had a late, late practice, 7:30-9....ugh. But it was a good one, his coach is really challenging the boys and I think it will really pay off.
We got up at 2:45am and said our good byes....the kids are off to Palm Dessert for the holiday weekend. Lucky kids. The plus side is I got to go back to bed after they left! Silver lining people, silver lining.

Tuesday was my Crossfit day. I had figured out my wod on Monday night so I was totally ready at 6am.....fortunately the temperature has risen and it was not so bad out in my garage. It was a good one and boy did I feel the burn.....and I am sore today. That is a good work out!

Work out stats:
Warm up
---
Power Cleans #65 x10
Handstand hold - 20 sec
KB high pull #20 x20
KB Bent row each arm #20 x20
x4 rounds
---
Core

See the sweat droplets?

And for Wednesday....
Work out stats:
3.01 miles, 26:51 time, 8.55 min mile
50*, very mild. It was a really good run. I am really enjoying this process. I think I have said that a few times, but I really truly am.

This afternoon Bob and I headed out to Seaside to his folks place for the holiday. We are calling it the Thanksgiving 2014 Lovers Indulgence Tour. It started out with a stop at Starbucks.

Then we stopped off at Willamette Valley Cheese Company for some local cheese.....mmmmm the smell of a dairy......reminds me of where I grew up.

Third stop on the tour was Canas Feast Winery for a bottle of our favorite wine.

The Grand Lodge in Forrest Grove was our lunch stop. I had a fantastic Blackberry cider, or 2. We love stopping there on our way. Really cool place with awesome atmosphere.

Last stop was the Bell Bouy for some smoked salmon. And then to the Stocks Casa. Awe so nice to be here. His brother who lives in Texas is up for the holiday also.

Looking forward to a day of Thanks tomorrow.

Monday, Already?

Well that weekend went fast......
Moose had 2 ball games Saturday morning, he played well making 4 baskets. We then stayed and watched a friends game too.
Later that afternoon we headed to the movie theater for Mockingjay Part 1. We got great seats and ate some yummy food too. The movie was amazing!!! So good, They just keep getting better. After the movie we split up the boys from the girls. I got the girls. They were giggly and hyper as can be. So much fun. They made a huge fort in the living room and watched movies late into the night.

The wrestler and the basketball player - Best Friends

Goofballs!

The Crew! Besties!!!

Twins! Love these girls!

MAJOR sugar high!!

And this is how I dealt with their sugar high!

Sunday was pretty chill considering they late night of sugar binging. :-) Lots of reading and movie watching.

The perfect Sunday morning!

So today is day one of week 4. OMG! I am so very much enjoying this process.
I set my alarm for 5:45am with intentions of getting my run in early....something happened with my phone and it was turned off? So the alarm did not go off and when I realized it (5:55am) it was to late to go out and make it back in time for my morning kid routine. So I went back to my ever so cozy, warm bed for half an hour.
That meant I had to go out after kid drop off. I try not to do that because it cuts into my work day, but some days it just cannot be helped. The plus side is I had daylight to run in. :-)
It was a very good run. 3 miles steady. I chose a bit of a hilly route this morning. No need to spoil myself with flat land. The race will be all flat, so I figure training with some hills will only help me in the end. My last mile was awesome, my pace was way faster than I have been averaging (8.27). I felt great and had a lot left in the tank. Its getting easier and easier every run.

Work out stats:
3.04 miles, 27:11 time, 8.56 min mile
Overcast, mid 40s. Felt fantastic.

Week 3, Work out 5 DONE

Awe it feels so good to accomplish these small goals to reach a large one. Week 3 is complete. Today was Long Run Friday!

I was pretty nervous about todays run. Nothing really in particular. Just the small things, do I have the right layers on, what route am I running, when do I turn around, did I eat enough, did I eat with enough time to digest so I don't get cramps, have I used the bathroom enough...so you can see how there are a few factors that go into this.

Turns out I did have the right clothes on. Accept maybe my socks. I am getting some blisters and they were sore when running. I still need to work on that one.

I ate accordingly. Bathroom was accomplished. Route was good, few hills, but it was pretty and mostly straight.

The one thing I failed at was when to turn around. I told myself when I headed out that I would turn back at 3.75. I calculated it multiple times. When it came time to turning around though.....I had a different number in my head. I went back at 3.5......So when I got home and stopped I realized I was half mile short. UGH!!! So out I went and banged out that last half mile with some irritation and frustration and a little humor. SERIOUSLY!!! I think next week I will write the number in sharpie on my hand. There is nothing like thinking you are done with something huge to only discover you are not. It is a mental punch in the face. I am laughing at myself now, but SERIOUSLY!

Work out stats:
7.61 miles, 1:13:40 time, 9.41 mile min.
Misty sprinkles, 42*. Felt great, only issue was my feet blistering.

The other thing I need to work on is eating. I think I am not getting enough food into my body. Long run days require a little different approach. I will work on that and plan ahead next time. I have had a headache all day and have been STARVING!!!

Well we are settling in for a nice fun weekend. My neighbor dropped off some fresh crab, so thats dinner. YAY! Tomorrow Moose has 2 ball games and then we are going to see Mockingjay part 1. Beast and her bestie are SO excited, ok I am too. They are then having a sleep over. It's tradition as they would say.

Claire is a silly cat. She demands attention.

Working through obstacles

One of my goals that goes with the half training is that I will blog about it also, everyday. This serves a few purposes. 1.) Documentation 2.) getting my blog going again 3.) Completing a goal!

I have been doing great and not missed a day yet, but these last 2 days have been tough! As you can see last night I made it by one min and tonight it is almost 9pm....Close!

I had to go to Seattle for a staff meeting yesterday and then flew home today. Well that was a great plan until my flight was delayed an hour and a half this morning. I passed the time by shopping the airpot, I did find a few small xmas gifts so that was nice. I checked emails, called my dad, ate sushi and got some coffee. 

I enjoyed sushi for the second day in a row.....

Airplane time, coffee and a good book! 

I did manage to get up at a decent hour (7am) and make it to the hotel gym for a workout. I had not checked out the fitness center yesterday so I had no idea what I was walking into this morning. So, thankfully when I did walk in I was happy to see a rack of dumbbells. YAY! I quickly came up with a work out and got to work. My brain was on overload from yesterday, so I was not very creative but I did get the job done.

Work out stats:

Warm up
---

Bent row #25 

Push ups

Side Lunge with #25 

---

Dips

Dumbell swing (front raise) #25

---

Core

Hotel Fitness Center, Seattle

After picking up the boy and rushing home to make a snack for the kids, we headed to pick up Bob and then to the Beasts wrestling meet. She had a good day with 1 win and 2 losses. She has improved and was much more aggressive this week. 

The Beast! 

She is not a huge fan of my need for photos....

I am finally cozy on the couch with a glass of wine and a cat curled up next to me. The kids are both home and all is well. I am already mentally planning for my long run tomorrow morning....7.5 miles. This will be my longest run ever. My longest before was 7.2, the loop on Lummi Island. I am excited, a little nervous and hoping I have the energy. It is SUPER foggy tonight and so I am anticipating heavy fog in the morning too.