Turkey Trot, Reindeer Run and Life

Well, even though it's been a while, I want to give an update on what we've been up to the past few months. In November 2012, Thanksgiving day, Jason and I ran the Turkey Trot 8k (approximately 5 miles). I was thrilled to finish in the time that I had set for myself. I wanted to finish in less than 55 minutes. That was my wishful thinking/hope-I-can-make-it goal. I did it! I finished in 54 minutes and some odd seconds! I was thrilled!

The next week, I pushed Jianna in the stroller during a 5k race, the Reindeer Run. I hoped to make it in under an hour with her as well. It was a tough course, but I made it. Jason ran ahead and once he finished his race, he came back and helped me finish. I don't have the official time on that race, because it is a smaller race and I couldn't find my finishing time.

After those two races, we got several really cold blasts of winter air and I didn't want to take Jianna out in them, so I've fallen off the running bandwagon for a while. But this spring and summer I want to get back to it. In the mean time, I've been doing some exercise videos through sparkpeople.com. They have short videos that are easily played one after another to create my own unique workout every day. Jianna's favorite is a jump-rope interval workout. It is ten minutes long, but she enjoys marching and jumping with me. :)

For Christmas I decided to make the women in my family a scarf each. I decided to do that before I knew exactly how many people I'd be making gifts for. I also only thought of it Thanksgiving day. I was determined and crazy! But I pushed myself and without too much stress was done on time! I had fun figuring out what would be the best color for each person and who would like what style. Most of the scarves I made were my own creation. Not a single one was exactly the same as anyone else's scarf. It was fun to get creative with their gifts.

Since the beginning of the year, I haven't done much crocheting, but I needed the break. I've started back a few things here and there and am enjoying it tremendously! My goal this year is to make the gifts before Thanksgiving, so that I don't have as much last minute stress.:) We'll see how it works out.

Jianna is growing like a weed. This is my kitchen helper and enjoys helping me make dinner most nights and breakfast many mornings. She loves to dress herself and comes up with some interesting, but cute, looking outfits. :) She has started to ask me to fix her hair and help her put lotion on her hands. She hates to see anyone cry. It makes her sad when other kids or babies cry. She thinks her mommy and daddy can fix anything and tells us that a baby is crying and we need to go help. I keep explaining that the baby's mommy or daddy are taking car of it and that we can't go over and help. :) She has a very tender heart. She enjoys playing with play dough, coloring, drawing, playing with puzzles,  reading, building with blocks and legos, and so many other things. She keeps me busy.

Well I hope each of you are doing well. See ya later.

Running in September and Blessings

I've been following a 10k running plan to get ready for the Turkey Trot in November, and am excited to share that I am running faster, longer than I was before! I've been averaging a 12 min/mile and regularly running for a time in the 10 min/mile range, hills and all! This past week (I know it was the beginning of October), I had my first day that I just didn't feel like I could do the run that was scheduled. So I didn't, we went for a walk, instead. We didn't plan it that way, I just never got up the gumption to start running. Every time I tried, it was a like a mental/physical wall went up and my legs and mind said, "nope, not going to happen." So I didn't.

I've been regularly running 3 or 4 miles, 3 times a week, with a 5 or 6 miler on Saturday. I've found that I have to eat EVERY 4 hours to have the stamina when I run. Normally, I will eat a snack of trail mix or cheese or fruit or something like that. If I don't drink at least 1 liter of water a day (plus juice, and other things like milk and I take part of a powerade when I run), I can't run as fast, long or as hard as I normally do.

We've been getting some forced change of scenery on our runs, but it has been nice. We ran up near the dam this week, and enjoyed our time tremendously. They have some nice inclines and declines and it's not too terribly crowded, at the time of day that we went. The sound of the water and the scenery went from city park to country, and open. It was nice.

Jianna has been more and more talkative the past few weeks. This morning, her allergies were acting up and she sneezed. On me. :) After she realized what had happened and we laughed a second about she said, "Mommy, I blessed you!" I thought, yes, baby, you did! In more than the ways you're thinking about! It was a precious time.