Love on the Run

Hubs and I made a commitment to running this year.  Not that we haven't in the past - this spring will mark officially my 4th year of running.  I can't even believe it's been that long. And I can't even begin to express how much I despised running before I finally figured it all out.  I'm so glad I tried it (with the urging of my neighb friends) and stuck with it.

Don't get me wrong - I still have good runs and not so great runs for sure.  There are times I take out and just turn back around knowing I can't push through whatever it is that is bothering me at the moment.  But more times than not, I fall into my groove, listening to tunes that inspire me, and I finish feeling that fantastic runner's high.

For February, Hubs and I selected a race neither of us had run before.  The SweetHeart Run was held at the Downtown Kansas City Airport last weekend, a fast and flat 4 mile run (which are typically hard to find).  I was a tad bit worried about our weather in that Saturday was pretty chilly with a strong wind chill.  Luckily though the weather shifted and we awoke to 26 degrees and climbing on Sunday morning.

It was awesome to run around the airport and see all of the airplanes taking off and landing.  Although around mile 3 Hubs did catch glimpse of a plane coming in hot and slamming on its brakes (I'm sure it was fine, but it looked like it was going to crash).  After reading last month's book club selection as well as watching Flight (Denzel... I love you), I'm about over the whole airplane crashing concept!

Cool A10 at the Airport

The run felt amazing.  No creaks, no pains, no side stitches.  Just perfect.  And in my ever need to receive recognition, the medals proved to be awesome as well.  HEAVY but awesome!

With our snowmaggedon in Kansas City, I've had time to sign us up for four more races.  Gotta love Spring in Kansas City... it's racin' time!

Hope you enjoy your Saturday, friends!

Jen

On your Mark....

AND... we're off!  Hubs and I made a vow (okay, call it a resolution if you MUST) to run a minimum of one 5k race a month.  Running in the 'hood is always good but something happens to your dedication when you sign up (and pay) for a race.

A. You have to go, because paying $25-$35 for a sometimes crappy t-shirt just isn't acceptable.  

B. You have to run more frequently, because if you don't your race will suck (as will your lungs.  And legs.)

C. Feeling the energy that only being around other crazy runners can give off will catapult you to want to keep running.

Yesterday Hubs and I ran our January 5k and we were given the best gift ever.... a 41 degree morning!  In January!  In Missouri (well, Kansas)!  Our luck was beaming as I ran the inaugural race by this sponsor last year and it was 4 degrees.  Yes, FOUR.  With a negative 10 windchill.  And 20 mph wind.  I honestly thought I was going to die that day.

But not this January.  My luck is turning around.  It was beautiful:  the sun was shining brightly, the wind was minimal, the course was clean of snow and ice and it was 41.  This girl was HAPPY!

I love the concept of this race:  it's called the Battle of the Bean.  Coffee versus Cocoa.  I ran for coffee, of course.  Hubs ran for cocoa (not that he drinks it but he doesn't drink coffee so he chose by default I suppose).  Our swag bag was awesome with super soft tees this year that I would actually wear (in public even!), great coffee mugs and of course, Christopher Elbow chocolates post race.  

Heaven.  This girl was in heaven.

Egg Nog - um YES please!!

We didn't finish to bad considering neither of us have run much this winter.  I came home and promptly signed us up for February and March... both 4 mile races.  Bring it on!

I hope you had a great weekend, friends!  

Jen

   

A Runner is Born

Little guy took on a new feat yesterday - his first 5k!  He joined a running club at school a few weeks ago and has been running twice a week "training". 

He loved it.

He has obviously been paying attention to hubs and I training programs.  On running club days, he reminds me the day before that he needs to "carb up" (any pasta possible, according to him).  He's been avoiding sweets, sodas and sugars and asking for more protein.  

I think it's really just the structure of it that he loves so much.

His club ran this weekend in a 5k for our school district so I knew he had friends running with him so hubs and I opted to not sign up and run with him.  About an hour before the run, he asked me to run with him.

"Sure, buddy.  I'll run with you."  (Dying with my response, I haven't run in three weeks.  Hubs and I fell WAY off track with our training due to football (and a zillion other excuses), so honestly I was a bit intimidated on how my body was going to feel about this).

We took out at a 13.50 pace - much slower than I typically run but I wanted to try to keep him from sprinting.  He's a true football / basketball / baseball runner - short distances, fast speed.  Not really conducive for a three mile run.

By the end of the first mile, he wasn't so excited.  His shoulder hurt (still can't figure that out), his ankle was "sore" and he was breathing erratically.  So we did only what I know to do - we slowed down further.  I told him I would run as slow as I could as long as he promised not to walk.  I wanted to see if he could do it.

He wasn't so sure.  But as we crested the top of the last hill, he smiled at me... he knew he had it.

It was an awesome feeling to watch him unfold his own success.  He did it all on his own.  He pushed himself and fought through his desire to quit.

And that, my friends, is why I love running.  Even when I don't!

He and I sprinted across the finish line together and he had the most giant smile I have ever seen on his face.

Thank god the rest of the day provided rain - football was canceled and he was able to just chill.  

I can't wait to run the next one with him.  He was a great running buddy!

Have a great Sunday, friends!

Jen

Born to Run

Another week of  running down!  Hubs and I start our "official" training schedule (16 weeks) in two weeks but we have been pre-training to get our miles up before Hal Higdon starts kicking our asses.

I'm so freaking excited to report I have NO remaining pain from the Warrior Dash Debacle!  Woo hoo!  I'm running 10 to 15 miles a week with no pain in my ankles.  Oh don't get me wrong, my hips and IT bands are screaming at me.  But no pain in the ankles! Guess it's time to dust off the foam roller once again.

I'm so excited to jump in.  Hubs and I have printed calendars for the next 4 months and for those of you that know me, I love them.  They are like to-do lists for me.  Something to check off once accomplished.  I am totally going to buy us some stickers.

Not our actual calendar- just a substitute :)

Yes, I'm 5.

Seriously though - I've been reading around the blogosphere about runners that give themselves rewards... real rewards (not the sticker kind) each week during training.  I'm SO down for that!

How in the world will I come up with these?  Oh yeah... 18 hours in the car with my daughter did it!  Crazy our similarities since she is building rewards for nugget at the same time I'm trying to come up with stuff for hubs and I.  Ah, circle of life.

Bubba wasn't much of a "reward system" kind of kid.  He was more of the "scream your head off and lecture until your eyes bleed" kind.  Obviously that worked!  Hey, I'm not trying out for mom of the year anytime soon so just relax.  I couldn't incent Jer to do anything.  If he wasn't going to do it, then he just wasn't.  Period.

My little guy though is a HUGE reward system kid.  He LOVES recognition, celebrations for his successes, sports wins, etc.  With each award he is given he pushes himself harder to get to the next one.  Especially money.  If he knows I'm going to give him a dollar he will do just about anything.  And he hoards money (thank GOD).  Never impulsive, he thinks through every future purchase with great thought.  I am so lucky he is just like hubs!

So I can't WAIT to get started.  I can't wait for our first reward!  We've gotta have SOME incentive to putting over 500 miles on our bodies in the next 4 months!

Happy Sunday, friends!  

Jen

Weight a Minute!

I have heavy boots.  Nope, I'm not sad.  I just have some extra baby weight hanging around.  Oh yeah, we can't say that 10 years later, can we?  Maybe it's Nugget sympathy weight.  Well, he's almost 2, so maybe that won't work either.  Ugh.

I hate when I get in a slump fitness wise.  It happens to me at least once a year, where I just cannot seem to motivate myself to get off the couch.  Oddly enough, it usually happens in the winter.  Hmmm... I wonder why?

But no real great excuses this winter.  Our winter has been fantastically mild.  So I can't use that either.

I wonder how many hours I spend making up excuses?  I'm sure I could crank out a few thousand sit ups in that time.

I guess the only good news about working out is that it is always waiting for you to start again.  Of course starting wouldn't be so hard if I never stopped, but I digress.

Hubs and I started running together about a month ago.  It has been awesome, even on days when we aren't exactly "together" the entire time.  He motivates me from his pure drive and determination post back surgery to meet his new found goals.  He even did 30 days of Insanity Asylum, which I tried one day and about died.  Even when he doesn't necessarily feel great he still works his exercise plan.  Geesh, I wish I could find that right now.

I can't just stick to the running much longer.  We are t-minus 45 days to Warrior Dash and I have to have some upper body strength to hurl myself over those damn walls and climb cargo nets.  I gotta get with it, and pronto!

Oh, and did I tell you my gym is closing?  Yeah, awesome news.  End of this week, no notice to members (heard via my aerobic class club).  Nice.  The good news is they are transferring our membership to another local gym so I'll give that a shot.  I have GOT to lift something other than coffee to be ready for the throw down.  Davis is going down - there is no WAY I will let him beat me!

So no excuses today, friends.  Get movin'.  20 minutes is all you need to maintain where you are right now.  GET UP!

Have a great one!

Jen

Bean Buddies

My friend CC and I are running today ~ first run of 2012!  The 2012 Battle of the Bean - Coffee versus Cocoa.  How fun is that?  Race chotchkees includes a mug and the long sleeved shirts are SUPER cute!  Thank god, we're gonna need 'em.  We must have picked THE coldest damn day of the winter thus far to be out running!!

Last year at this time I started my marathon training.  I loved running in the cold.  Well, let me clarify a tad bit:  36 to 48 degrees seemed to be my perfect running weather.  I could handle down to about 28 as long as the sun was shining on my face.  Anything lower and it takes a bit of a toll on my joints.

My most memorable run last winter had to be in February.  The actual temp wasn't too bad if I recall - maybe around 22?  My friend Nutt and I had a 10 mile run that Saturday morning, which caused us to need to get an early start.  We met at 6:00 am at our corner to begin our trek.

What we didn't realize until we stepped out was that during the night, a nice slow rain occurred putting a beautifully glassed layer of thin ice on the pavement.  Hmmm.  This might cause a bit of a challenge.

We took out (as all good runners know, the weather does NOT preclude you from getting in your miles!) and quickly realized our run was going to turn into a bit of an acrobatic routine.  Each single, solitary step had to be taken with light grace and forward motion.  No push offs.  That just wasn't in the cards unless we wanted to face plant.

We made it all the way to one of our turnarounds, mile 4, and stopped to regroup.  This was impossible.  We were most certainly faced with a sprain or break if we kept on much longer.  Our inner thighs were burning (not to mention arches) from trying to augment our steps so we wouldn't fall.  It was the first (and only time) we made the decision to quit moving forward and turn and run home. 

As we rounded a pretty sharp corner on a narrow two lane road we watched a minivan coming towards us, spinning out of control.  Stupid soccer mom.  Don't you realize you have no WEIGHT in that thing!  We both jumped off the road and onto the shoulder for safety.  Although she was across the street from us, we didn't want to take the chance.

We head back home and arrived unscathed.  Our 10 mile run turned into an 8 but we were so thankful to be off the road we didn't care.  Oh the things you will do to get in your miles.

Today's run will be much shorter, just a little 5k, but I'm excited to get back out there.  I do love running and how it makes me feel.  Mostly I appreciate how strong I feel when I'm finished!

So we're off ~ wish us luck!  The temp is 16 with a windchill of 6.  We must be nuts.  Of course, the run is called Battle of the Bean, of which we are both coffee drinkers.  I see a GIANT latte in my near future!

Just the Facts

This one will strike a chord, I'm certain.

I awoke this morning to a beautiful fall rainy day.  The weather shifted during the night and we dropped from 85 to 45 in a short amount of hours.  While I should have been dressing for a run, I didn't.  I looked up statistics on a controversial topic amongst some of my mom friends....school transportation.  Yep, I'm a dork.

So I want to give the facts... numbers are the most consistent means of persuasion in my opinion.  If they are indisputable, then it just is what it is.

In terms of TIME:  On average, my mom (and sometimes dad) friends spend approximately 30 minutes (at LEAST) of their time each morning and evening sitting in the "car rider lane" at their kiddo's respective schools.  For my math major friends, that's an hour a day (yep, I'm sarcastic today). 

According to the Missouri Department of Education, there are 174 school days in operation.  Total hours spent over a nine month period in the car rider lane = 174 hours.  You are getting my point I'm sure - LOTS of time is spent in the car rider lane.  I can think of a TON of productive things I can do in 174 hours! 

So for those of you with the argument of SAFETY, here are those facts:  In 2004 (last data captured), 45,625,458 students were bused in the United States.  This averages 54 students per bus.  In 2009 according to the national bureau of stats, 800 school age kids were killed in vehicular accidents.  Less than TWO percent of that total (16 kids) were killed on a BUS (those include ALL bus related accidents, not just the ones taking kids to school).  The remaining  98% of school age kids died either in their family's vehicle or on foot/bike.

Okay, so for the FINANCIAL facts:

The United States earmarks $17.5 BILLION dollars each year in state funding for school transportation.  That averages to $692 per student per year.  Obviously each year that figure gets cut due to the current economic conditions; however how do you suppose that money is raised?  YOUR TAXES!

Also - sitting in the car rider lane an hour a day adds an additional 180 gallons of fuel per year to your personal usage... approximately $663 a year to YOUR personal budget in additional fuel cost.  Not to mention that although you are virtually sitting still the majority of that time, the often additional trip to and from school adds on average an additional 3,600 miles to your vehicle per year.

And finally - I won't even go into the environmental concerns of adding an additional billion cars on the road (of which 30% of the morning traffic is attributed to parents toting their kids to school), the carbon dioxide that is swimming around the school as the other kids try to enter the building due to the car rider lane cars, etc.

What I hear a lot also is that the bus isn't a great environment.  Kids will learn things on the bus.  I've got news for my friends:  if you think the things your kids will hear and learn on the bus are any different than what they will hear and learn in the halls and at recess during school, I think you might be a bit naive.  Love ya!

As my little guy went to the bus this morning in the rain smiling the whole way, he reminded me how fun it is to ride the bus.  His bus in particular is a blast ~ the kids actually sing songs all the way to school and home every day.  His driver is awesome, knows all the kids personally and isn't cranky to be a bus driver.  They see their friends, forge independence and bravery and have some social time outside the confines of the school building. 

I'm sure there are some bus experiences that SUCK just like there are people everywhere in the world that SUCK.  But for me, there is an outstanding amount of evidence to show that it is a safe, economical, fun and time saving way for our kids to be transported.  Just one girls opinion...



Flash Alert!

As spontaneous as I try to live, my mornings begin the same way almost every single day of my life.  If I was successful at actually going to bed at a decent hour (before midnight), actually set my alarm properly (am - NOT pm) and can actually drag my exhausted butt out of bed (the trifecta) - I try to run with my neighbs.  Now some of my friends are SUPER excited about the mornings and can run at 5 am.  No, this is never a great idea for me. 

For one, ever since I started to train longer distances, I have a very specific running routine (oh man, this might be a pattern!)  I have to get up and be up for awhile first, drink some coffee, do some "business" and then I can go.  If things don't happen in that order... well, you get the point.

This morning I actually got up right at 5:45.  Drank my coffee, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, cleaned up the living room and was ready to run by 6:10 with my buddy JP.  We met right on time and had a pretty decent run (as opposed to last week when I had an epic failure - I'm remounting the horse after a 6 week hiatus).  I got back inside by 6:40 and went to chat with the hubs.

To keep my blog PG (or at least PG-13), suffice it to say I didn't get my youngest buddy out of bed until 7:25.  Yep, I lost track of time.  That happens to me OFTEN in my life ~ if you don't know this about me, I have a slight case of ADD.  Undiagnosed, of course.  I'm no dummy... I don't want that on my permanent record!

So the morning went into hyperdrive.  Get buddy dressed.  Feed him breakfast.  Finish homework we didn't know we had last night.  Take the dogs out.  Bring the dogs in.  Feed the dogs.  Take the dogs back out.  Bring the dogs back in.  Pack buddy's backpack and fill his water bottle.  Running around with my head cut off screaming every 5 seconds "Are you dressed buddy?  Are you dressed?  You're going to miss the bus!  Are you dressed?" To which I get "Mom~ of COURSE I'm not dressed!  I'm eating breakfast and doing my homework!"  Grrrr.

At 8:05 I throw him in the car.  Speed to the car rider line at school by 8:10.  Kiss and kick him out of the car.  Speed back home.  Kiss the hubs goodbye (who is smiling happily).  It's 8:15.  I'm in my running clothes.  I'm exhausted.  And I have a department meeting at 9:00.  Seriously?!

I pulled a total Danika Patrick move - showered by 8:22, stepping into the car at 8:30 am with make up on.  Only one small issue - wet hair.  It's no wonder my hair looks the way it does.  I forget to do it about half of the time.  So after sweating to death on my 80 mph drive in with the heater blasting, my hair is dry enough to pull in a pony and call it half good.

I rush into the board room at work at 9:02.  Luckily, I'm not late - people are still assembling.  In an attempt to hurry up and get my butt in a chair, I grab my giant purse/bag to grab my glasses out of it (of which they aren't - they are at home in the bathroom.. awesome).  And that's when the pinnacle of the morning happens - my purse snags the edge of my dress and comes right up on to my hip.  Yep - totally flashed everyone in the board room.  Fabulous.  Guess they didn't know when they hired me I would eventually show my ass - literally!  Oh well - at least the men in the department weren't in there yet.  The rest of the staff will know the real me (if they don't already) in short order!

I think it's time I try to figure out how to either slow down my morning or get up earlier?  Pretty soon I'll be up at 4:00 to watch Marcus Welby.  Ugh.