Hoka 10k 2018

Hoka 10k 2018

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Talking, All Fours, Poor Sleeping, and Nashville


James is such a fun, happy baby. He loves to smile and giggle. It warms my heart :) He has been "talking" a lot lately...mostly "ma ma" mixed with a few "da da's." I'm pretty sure I heard him say his name (yeah right).


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James has mastered being up on all fours and can now do the baby version of downward dog. He tries SO HARD to crawl but can't quite figure it out yet. It's very entertaining for Mr. Boo and me! It's so funny to watch him play by himself. The ways he can keep himself entertained crack me up. The boy is all over the place which scares me for when he actually does start crawling. 


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My boy went from master sleeper to whatever the opposite of that is called. He's been waking 1-2 different times in the night, no real pattern. I'm still trying the Ferber method on those nights but it's so hard to let him cry. There are nights that I'll be awake an hour or two in the middle of the night and it really screws me up (that's in addition to the time I get up to pump). I would like to blame it on our trip to Nashville but how long do you give a baby to readjust to his regular schedule?!

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Last weekend. we visited our favorite city of Nashville. Our wonderful friends, The Lobbs, went along with us. Friday was sort of our "touristy" day. We ate at Pancake Pantry, walked around Belmont, Lipscomb, and downtown, then ate at Blue Coast. Later that evening, we walked around the Opryland Hotel which is always a treat.



Saturday, after James and I finished our 12 mile run, we checked out The Factory in Franklin and ate at this delicious hot dog place (I was craving a corn dog...weird). Later that evening, we enjoyed a BBQ with old friends and re-told stories of our past adventures in Nashville.



The next day, after a pretty chill morning, we went line dancing at Wildhorse Saloon. I put James in his carrier and we hit the dance floor! (Our boy is a flirt, by the way. There was a group of ladies sitting by us and he had them wrapped around his finger. I had to warn him, though, because they were from Michigan. No respected Buckeye boy would go for a Michigan girl :))






Monday, August 18, 2014

Half Marathon Training Weeks 4 & 5: Hip, Humidity, Rolling Hills of Nashville, and Snakes!

My hip pain continued into week four. Day two was SO ROUGH! I had to use part of my 2 minute rest to stretch. I actually had to decrease that workout because my hip just couldn't take it. I was supposed to do fourteen 400's but stopped after twelve. I took the next workout pretty easy and then took a rest day. My strategy worked because my hip felt tremendously better by the time the crazy workouts came along. I mentioned in my last update that the 10 mile long run sucked...it was so much better this week!

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Despite the crazy humidity, I felt great this past week. I ended up buying a rain cover for James' stroller so that I could take him with me if it was raining. We were able to take advantage of it earlier in the week. I was soaking wet, but my boy was dry as a bone :)

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Finally, my long run this past Saturday was quite an adventure. We were visiting Nashville so I knew James and I would be running solo. It was such a bummer to run without Jackie and Peyton! For those not familiar with Nashville, it's full of rolling hills. I kid you not, my ENTIRE run was ALL HILLS!!! I'm pretty sure I was praying the entire time. If I wasn't praying, I was cursing the land! Because of the hill situation (and the fact that I was without my running partner), my average was much slower than past weeks.

Besides the hills, I honestly had no idea where James and I were going to run. I had this grand plan in my head but it didn't work out because of construction they were doing on/near the trail I was going to run. Therefore, we ended up running up and down the streets around Cool Springs. There were 10 bazillion restaurants along the way that tempted me to quit.

Final side note about my 12 miler: I was concerned about James being able to make it through a 12 mile run. He was AMAZING! He fell asleep during the first mile and didn't wake up until mile 9 or 10! I gave him his bottle and that point and that's where our next to last adventure began. We were crossing a major intersection in our last 2 miles and the stroller was being weird...I thought I just ran over the curb. A couple hundred meters later, I noticed that his bottle was gone. I couldn't find it anywhere...until I looked across the street. It wasn't the curb we ran over, it was his bottle! AHHH! We ran back across the busy intersection, grabbed the bottle, and ran back across again! Thank goodness the bottle didn't get run over.

We ran our booties back to the hotel and ended the run by finding a lovely snake ready to eat us. O.k....maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but who wants to see a snake while running?!

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The Workouts:

Week 4
  • Day 1: Does mowing the yard count as cross training?!
  • Day 2: Stroller run, 7.5 mi: 2mi WU, 12x400m with 2 min rest, 1mi CD
  • Day 3: Stroller run, 5mi + 4x20sec strides, 9:58 average
  • Day 4: Rest (my hip needed it!)
  • Day 5: Stroller run, 9mi: 2mi WU, 3x2mi with 3min rest, 1mi CD; pace range 7:39-9:28 (obviously still learning to pace)
  • Day 6: Rest
  • Day 7: Stroller run, 10m, 9:22 average

Week 5
  • Day 1: Rest
  • Day 2: Stroller run, 6mi EZ, 9:32 average
  • Day 3: Stroller run, 9mi: 2mi WU, 2x3mi with 3min rest, 1mi CD; pace range 8:44-9:25
  • Day 4: Rest
  • Day 5: Stroller run, 7mi: 1mi EZ, 5mi steady, 1mi EZ; overall avg 9:30, 5mi avg 9:19
  • Day 6: Rest
  • Day 7: Stroller run, 12mi; 10:07 average (ROLLING HILLS OF NASHVILLE!!!)



Friday, August 8, 2014

Half Marathon Training Week 3: Rough and Rainy

Last week was kind of an annoying week of training. Day one is always the day after a long run so I typically do 3 easy miles. When I run with J, I always have to be aware of the rain forecast because I don't want him to get soaked. We headed out that afternoon based on a 0% forecast for that hour....LIARS! It started POURING on us when we were inching closer to the mile mark. I turned around and ran my booty off to get James home.

The weather peeps lied again later that week. On day 4, it was crazy raining as Jimmy and I were driving home from work. I checked out the weather app and it made it seem as if it was going to be that way the rest of the night. I made the decision to take my rest day rather than taking my chances (I usually prefer my rest day to be Friday since it's the day before the long run). It ended up being gorgeous that evening but I couldn't change my mind about running because we had to be at dog agility around 7 p.m....SO ANNOYING!

Stroller running is a rough world when it comes to the weather.

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Most of my runs this week presented some sort of challenge. I've been bringing a bottle on longer runs in case J gets hungry. He's gotten to the point he can hold 3 ounces. Day 2, he was hungry and lazy. I handed him his bottle during the WU but he refused to hold it himself! Little turd. I stopped in the middle of my WU, fed him his bottle, and continued on...he was a happy baby after that.

He's also learned to throw his bottle out of the stroller. During our 10 miler, I gave him the bottle around mile 8. He kept throwing it down until I got sick of it and took it away! LOL. He was pissed at me but, when I finally gave it back, he actually held it and ate! Again, little turd.

Because I had to run on Friday, Saturday's long run was a little more challenging. I had some hip issues during the run (mostly piriformis tightness) that made the run not so ideal. I was able to keep with Jackie for about 8 miles then I just had to slow down a bit. I felt like my hip couldn't keep up with my lungs. And that's when the bottle crap happened. So I ended up averaging in the 9:40s rather than around 9:36 like we usually do. I felt like total crap and had my hip/thigh pain until the following Wednesday. It's still tight but feels much better!

STRETCH,STRETCH, STRETCH, people!

One more thing: Props to my girl, Jackie. When she finished, she knew I had to end the run on a hill. What did she do? She ran back to meet me at the bottom of the hill and run it with me even though she just finished her 10 miles! Now that's a good friend. I secretly started crying from the act of kindness but then I couldn't breathe so that ended quickly...LOL. Thanks, Jackie!

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The workouts:

  • Day 1- 1.75 mile stroller run, no watch or GPS
  • Day 2- Combo run with stroller, 7.4 miles: 2 mi WU, 3 mi @ half pace, 3 min rest, 4x2min with 90" rest, 1 mi CD; 3 mi average 8:43, overall average 9:20
  • Day 3- Hip Hop Fitness
  • Day 4- Rest
  • Day 5- Stroller Run, 5 mi + 4x20" strides; 9:32 average ranging from 9:18 to 9:56
  • Day 6- Morning SOLO run, 6 mi: 1 mi WU, 4 steady mile, 1 mi CD; 4 mi average 9:08, overall average 9:26
  • Day 7- Long stroller run with Jackie, 10 miles; overall average 9:36 until the last two miles, ended with 9:40 something average (my mapper jacked up)

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Pumping, Irish Festival, Godparents, and J is Eating Food (SIKE!) BUT...

...He does HAVE A TOOTH! Is it possible for a baby to be teething 1 1/2 months prior to actually getting the tooth?! It sure did seem like he was teething that entire time.

He had to be asleep in order for me to open his mouth for the picture!

BREAKING NEWS: J ate food last week on Monday! I bought one of those pouches that had a mix of two fruits and a veggie. We had just finished our run and sat down to watch Mr. Boo play volleyball. I decided to give the pouch a try...the boy ate about 1/3 of the pouch!! I was shocked. I thought for sure this was the turning point in his eating adventure. Not so much. That stubborn turd hasn't eaten since then!



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I'm  in a pumping slump. I was SO CLOSE to calling it quits last week. If it wasn't the life source of my precious baby, I would quit in an instant. I probably mentioned that I was getting up around 145-2 a.m. to pump since J was sleeping through the night. I did this EVERY NIGHT for a few weeks until I just couldn't stand the way I felt every day...I was so tired and sluggish in the morning. 

After seeking advice from other moms, I decided on a new method. I started pumping after his last feeding/just before I went to bed then again just before leaving the house for work/after his morning feeding. This is all in addition to the three times I pump at work during the day (I schedule pumping sessions like I schedule my patients!).  I've been doing this for about a week and just can't seem to get the same amount of milk. I've been feeling a little better since my sleep isn't broken but I just don't think it's worth getting less milk. Therefore, starting tonight, I'm going back to my 2 a.m. wake up call :( Until J starts eating food, I need to pump as much as I can.

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I'm loving all this family stuff we are doing this summer! This past weekend, we ate some delicious pizza at Dewey's then headed to the Dublin Irish Festival. The festival seemed lame, at first, until we found the Celtic game arena. We sat there for 2 hours watching these chicks throw these weighted bags over a goal post with pitchforks! LOL. James had a grand ole time, too.

 Dewey's
Mr. Boo!

Ninja in training!

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Finally, Jimmy and I have been praying and talking about the future with J and any other kids we may create. We knew we needed to write a will which meant we would have to pick godparents. We didn't want it to be any of our parents because we didn't want them to be senior citizens responsible for young children (sorry parents! LOL.). So, naturally, we went through our siblings next. Since we live in Ohio and this is where our kids will grow up (yes, things can change), we decided to first ask Chris and Amy (Mr. Boo's brother and our sister-in-law). Honestly, we were afraid they would say "no," at first, because they already have two kids and one on the way (very soon...yay!) but we knew they would be excellent at the job so we were hoping they would say "yes!" We gave them 2-3 weeks to think about it and they said YES!!!! We were so relieved because, if something ever does happen, we want J and other kids to have an easy transition.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Half Marathon Training Week 2: Warm Ups, Supplements, Cool Downs, and I Suck At Pacing


With the exception of high school, I've never been a "warm up" kinda girl. Of course, I know the importance of a warm up but I simply never cared to do it. After being pregnant and having James, I'm taking special care of my body. Since starting this training program, I've really noticed a difference in how I feel simply by doing my warm ups. It's hard to look at a workout plan and see "2 mile warm up" and be motivated to do it...two miles just for that?! IT WORKS!!! I feel so much better doing the actual workout part of the run when my muscles are warm and loose.

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I might have mentioned before that I started having protein drinks after my runs because I was feeling like total crap for a few weeks. It has really helped my fatigue and is a great post race recovery. My current drink of choice? One scoop of Peanut Butter Chocolate Muscle Milk mixed with 8 ounces of chocolate milk. Delish! I have it after all workouts and within 15-20 minutes of finishing.

I also decided to start training with Gu Energy gels. I just started this Day 7 this week. I ate a gel packet 15-ish minutes prior to starting my run and about 45 minutes or so into the run. I feel like it helped me get through the run but it's hard to say after only one time.

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I've been struggling with my cool downs during the week. I do the running cool down but I don't always get to stretch right away or as much as I'd like. When you take your baby on runs with you, they are ready for your attention and/or food as soon as you finish (especially after those long runs). That mixed with our crazy schedule takes away from my stretch time. I MUST make time for more stretching and haven't quite figured out how to fit it in. The last thing I need is an injury to get me down.

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Finally, I suck at pacing. I used to be so good at it My focus in week 3 will be to listen to my body as I'm running so that I can figure this pacing thing out. As you can see from day 2, I have a long way to go.

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The workouts:

  • Day 1- 3 mile stroller run, 9:43 average
  • Day 2- 7 mile stroller run (2mi WU, 4x1mi repeats w/90sec rest [8:10, 7:22?, 9:02, 8:30], 1mi CD)
  • Day 3- Hip Hop Fitness
  • Day 4- Hill workout (5.17 mi with stroller) (2mi WU, 5x[30sec uphill hard, walk down, 75" uphill at 5k pace, walk down], 1mi CD
  • Day 5 (accidentally did the wrong workout...mommy brain)- 6 stroller miles (1mi WU, 4mi at marathon pace, 1mi CD), 4mi average 9:17
  • Day 6- REST
  • Day 7- 9 mile stroller run, average between 9:25 and 9:36 (my phone app was trippin')