A year in running pictures 2018

Here is my round up of a year in running pictures 2018 style!

January:  We alternated between snow runs and runs with t shirts and shorts.  Winter is weird.

February:  Pyscho Wyco was a mud fest this year!  First year that we did this race and loved it.  

March:  March brought pacing duties for the Liberty Hospital Half and also some spring break running in Martin where I went to college and  in my home town of Jackson TN.  

April:  Deuce subbed in for Stella for the Dog and Jog 10k and Stella and I did our first official marathon together at the Flint Hill's 50 and trail marathon.  I paced Running with the Cows half in KC and the Bill Synder Highway Half in Manhattan.  #pacerlife

June: I paced the Hospital Hill half, found a kitten, and Andrew and I ran our second mud race at the Discovery Center in Topeka!  He still didn't want to get in the mud much, but we did the course twice this time and he seemed to have more fun this year.

July: Did my first overnight race, as I paced Lindsey at the Night Hawk (hello 2:30 am and no sleep), and did my first Snake 10 miler.   I really am loving the Trail Hawks races!

August:  Friends on the trail and beautiful sunrises!  Learning the Clinton lake trail system and all the wild life that lives out there. I sure do hate copperheads.  

September: First time crewing for an ultra for my gal pal Lindsey, volunteering at the top of the hill for Konquer the Konza 25K, and first time doing Flat rock 25K with stella ella.  

October:  1st place at Tails for Trails and first time seeing AMR live!  I WON a pair of AfterShokz headphones and I never win fun stuff!

November:  3rd place finish at Tails on the Trail with our good buddy Brue winning 2nd, and 2nd year for the turkey trot!

December:  Trails, trails, and more trails!

Hope your 2018 was awesome!  I am ready to start 2019 and see what 50 mile training is like.  Running Amok, I am coming for you!

Into the In between week 2!

Another 3 run week and I kind of feel worse than better.  I am weird, the less I run sometimes the worse I feel.  Both of my feet are bothering me and my hip is not happy.   I am going to stick with the 3 days a week for the next two weeks and see how it goes before launching into the 12 week cycle.  I tried on paper, loading up the 3 days a week to get the full amount of mileage I needed for that week, and honestly it was a little ridiculous.  I am not sure what is better or worse, spreading the miles over 4 days or trying to cram them into 3. Some of my week day runs would be 8 miles, which I could do a double and spread into 4  and 4, BUT that would bump into Cross Fit, which defeats the purpose.

When your BRF gets you

Monday:  Christmas Eve and rest.  We don't really have any traditions in place, sometimes we do our big dinner Christmas Eve and sometimes we keep it for Christmas day.  This year we decided to do movies and board games Christmas Eve and an easy finger food dinner.  That way we could get in bed early and get ready for Santa.  Well, that back fired because neither Andrew nor I could sleep, so we were both up past 11 pm.  I should also mention that Sparky our kitty has been missing for several days and I was pretty upset, which means at night I kind of hang out by the back door hoping he comes home. I  am pretty sure that someone has him in their house because we have seen NO signs of him other than our neighbor seeing him out at 5:30 am one morning.

Meet Boxy!

Tuesday:  Merry Christmas!  Andrew was very excited about what Santa brought (Nintendo switch), but he was the most excited about this little robot named Boxy.  I am glad we went back and got him because at first I thought the switch and maybe a few little things was enough.  He was probably the biggest hit of the day, bigger than the switch.  Go figure.  I love him too though and can't wait for Andrew to be gone so I can play with him :)  We had a big late lunch and then just kind of lazed around all day.  I needed to get 4-5 miles in for the day and shocker, it didn't happen.  We played board games all afternoon and night  with the family,and then headed to bed for an early bed time.

Boom hoarding all of the puppy toys!

Wednesday:  Back up, we had a Christmas Miracle Tuesday night!  Sparky came home, very well fed but jumpy and with a battle scar on his face (he is fixed, shouldn't be fighting, but who knows).  We were all SO happy and he promptly slept in the bed all night with all of us.  He has tried to run out of the door every single time it opens, so whomever he hangs out with instead of us must be pretty cool.

Since I didn't get my run in Christmas day when the weather was perfect and beautiful, I decided to run when it was cold and rainy and horrible of course.  I don't regret waiting, I was really, really out of it yesterday thanks to poor sleep.  Since I am only running 3 days a week, I have some slack in when I get runs in so there is that.  I tried to stick to the roads to avoid all the water because everywhere was flooded, but I think i just got to hit every single giant road puddle instead.  I kind of enjoyed splashing in the water and I think stella and i got a little over 4 miles in.  

hair cut day so we don't get nailed in wrestling!

Thursday:  Cross Fit. I took last week off to see if that was what was kicking my hip's ass.  My hip still hurt, so it had to be the running.  Long story short, I need to go see the chiropractor and I don't want to because he is going to tell me to stop running.  Anyway, since Coach Erin is still out of town, I saw Coach Kate and boy did we do some very simple stuff that whipped my ass.  We worked on Turkish get ups with the 45 lb sand bag and I struggled and struggled.  We ended up (for my confidence) doing them with a dumbbell (15lbs), and I was able to complete those while paying attention to form.  We also worked on dead lifts and heavy kettle bell swings, which I love.  She also had me doing some reverse lunges in place, and she really helped me with every aspect of form.  When I do these right they really work on my hips big time!  Cross fit has helped me SO much with so many aspects of my body and my aches and pains, I just need to trust that I can do the classes and not worry about time or reps, just do what I can do.  

Friday:  Easy run.  I had an option, wait till Tony was around the office to head out and possible go to the river trail again, or run on the mill and just get it done.  I chose to wait and wait I did.  We have a ton of work going on at the office, and Tony needed me most of the day, so didn't get out till past 4:30 pm.  It was a good thing though because the wind had died down, so the temp was cold but manageable.  I tried out my new Craft running jacket again and LOVED it!  I felt perfectly warm and didn't feel sweaty.  I figured it would be perfect for colder weather, and I was right.  I did have some aches and pains, so took it easy and did a walk break every mile.  My back is now tweaking a little bit, but overall I think everything is getting better (being cautiously optimistic here).  

Saturday:  Wrestling tournament #2.  Two wins, two losses, 3rd place out of 5 and first medal.  I am bursting at the seams with pride.  Andrew really has come a LONG way.  If you saw how he wrestled the last two years versus this year, you would be shocked too.  He wasn't born aggressive and athletically gifted like many, so he has worked hard to get to where he is now.  AND we lost our top tooth FINALLY!  I was so worried it would get knocked out and he blew it out making farting noises at his friend, go figure! 

Sunday:  I can't call it long run day, since I am technically not suppose to be doing long runs.  I will call it "longer than the other runs this week run day".  I was trying to decide between 6 or  8 and just figured I would run and see how I felt.  In the end, at mile 6 I was ready to poop and be done:)  I posted this on my FB and it is SO true:

I was also dreaming of coffee and that dream is hard to kill.  Plus, I had had not one but two experiences with loose dogs.  One was a lady walking her toy poodle and small fluffy dog (NO LEASH in sight) and the other was a lady walking two large doodle looking dogs (at least she had the leash in her hands).  These types of people are making me not want to run trails.  I don't get up as early in the winter because I don't have thanks to the temps, but maybe I do to avoid the stupidity.  

Another 3 run week in the books!  Ending the year with 1180 miles, which is less than previous years, but still not too shabby for having PF and hip issues on and off all year.   Happy New Year Y'all!!!!  See you in 2019!

I am linking up with Wendy at Taking the Long Way Home and HoHo runs!

Check out all of the great blogs in the link up!!

Andrew's Second Wrestling Tournament 2018 Rossville

As always two warnings.  This post has nothing to do with running and turn the volume down when you watch the clips.  We weighed 61.8 lbs going into the tournament and I had entered 64 lb, but they luckily put him in the 61-63 weight bracket (thanks flexible tournament directors).  Our first match of the day was a kid we wrestled with and beat at the last tournament.  I tried videoing the periods one at a time so they weren't so huge.  Here they are. 

I think the ref tried to call for locking hands, but the head ref stepped in and told him that he wasn't based on arm positioning, BUT I could be wrong.  Also from my angle it looked like he had pinned the kiddo a few times, BUT it could look totally different from the angle the ref had.  I was super proud of him for working SO hard and for almost pinning the kid a few times!  I think more than anything Andrew needs confidence so I am hoping these wins give him that. 

The second match was not as great, and I will post the video even though most of the video is of me screaming and the camera videoing the mat.  The ref called it a pin, but none of the coaches said it was. I do believe this kid would have eventually pinned him, BUT I wish the ref would not have stopped it so soon.  He was pretty upset coming off of the mat, but I am glad to see emotion because that means he cares.

Of course it wouldn't be fun unless that loose tooth we had been trying to get him to pull for ages didn't come out right? I am just glad it wasn't during a match and that he didn't swallow it.  That is our fifth tooth!

The third match was after a bit of a lay off.  He had a bye in the third round and so we got to have lunch and rest.  This kid we had wrestled before at the last tournament, and he immediately pinned Andrew last time.  I am glad to see that he went at least 30 seconds with him, and was fighting pretty much the whole way. 

The last match was going to be close as I had watched this kid wrestle and he and Andrew were on the same skill level for sure.  This kid barely beat the kid that Andrew beat in the first match, so my nerves were on high!  

I am really, really proud of how he battled this kiddo.  We have a lot to work on but again, lots of good things coming out and proud to see he is listening in practices and learning.  I am so proud that I might burst any minute of how far we have come this year!

Two wins out of 4 matches is good enough for third place!  This is his very first wrestling medal that wasn't for last place :)

This picture cracks me up!  He chose this pose and I had to snap some pictures of it!

We have a week off of practice and then back at it. Our next tournament is January 19th and it is our home tournament.  Hoping we can stay in the 60-64 lb weight class and have some more great matches.  I am loving the try I am seeing and can't wait to see more!

December Runfessions

It's the end of the year so these will  be short and sweet and to the point!

Andrew got his first W of the season with wrestling and I am SO excited to see everything finally clicking!  One of his friend's dads is coaching this year and he is making sure that Andrew is getting attention and really understanding the moves.  I runfess that I can't wait to see what the season holds, after two seasons of almost immediate pins every.single.match!  I also runfess that I was happy to see both emotions out of him in his first tournament.  I am glad that he finally cares and hope that he can ride that wave of happiness to some more successful tournaments.  I do also runfess that I did sort of bribe him with some extra incentive if he got a pin or a W.  #sorrynotsorry.

I runfess that I am starting Cross Fit classes in January and I am pretty nervous.  I know the coaches will take care of me and help me scale everything, but my one on one time with Coach Erin has become like a security blanket and I am not ready to give it up.  I knew that i would have to at some point, mainly because of the cost, but I wanted just a few more months.  I also know that there is so much more accountability for meeting someone for one on one work versus classes for me.  I do runfess thought that I am loving seeing the muscle definition and the overall strong I am feeling lately.

I runfess that I think something is really wrong with Boom.  Let me explain.  He has always been an excited to see you peeing dog, but it has really gotten out of control no matter how he is greeted or even ignored.  Then he started having accidents in the bed and in his crate which isn't normal either.  I took him to the vet and he had crystals in his urine and very basic urine pH.  The vet had me just treat him with Vitamin C, which seem to work for a couple of weeks, but now he is back to copious amounts of pee and accidents in the bed.  I runfess that tidepods are expensive and we are going through them like candy with all the bedding I am washing, so a recheck is first on the list post Christmas for sure!  I am also scared that there is a behavioral component to this too and I runfess that I am not sure how we are going to handle it.

Whew, there you are!  Hope your holidays were magical and that you don't have too much to runfess this December!  See you in 2019!

I am linking up with Marcia's Healthy Slice for runfessions!  I really am enjoying linking up with other bloggers and reading other awesome blogs! 

2018 Crunching the Numbers

Oh boy it's my favorite time of the year!  Looking back on the races I have done, the miles I have run, and seeing if the goals I set for last year were success or failure.  Let's dive in!

1.  How many races did you do in 2018?

I did 15 total races this year.  One trail marathon, three trail 10 milers, four half marathons as a pacer, one trail half marathon, two 25K trail races, and four 5Ks with two of those being dog themed.  Stella did 10 of the 5 races I did.

2.  Total Miles?
Depends on what gadget you look at.  I use my garmin for all runs unless I am on the mill as it seems to never be right on the mill. I have a Garmin 235 and it tries, it really does, but it still doesn't get it right.  I also use map my run for my garmin 235 to dump to.  I have had a handful of runs this year when my watched died and i had to turn it on to use for tracking.  The totals are slightly different.

Garmin Connect: 1181
Mapmyrun: 1174

I am sure the difference is the treadmill miles, since my Garmin usually goes higher than my treadmill on mill runs.  Either way, I did not hit my soft goal for the year (1500), but I was not hugely hung up on a mileage goal anyway.  Trying to get rid of the PF and trying to baby this stupid hip off and on really took a toll on my mileage, but it is what it is and I am not mad or sad.

ilovetorun.org

3.  2018 goals-Met or not met?

I think I hit it out of the park for sure this year!  Here is the list of what my goals were from my post last year and how I graded myself:

Strength training-A+ Not only did I do lots of online barre this year, but I also started doing Cross Fit this fall and am LOVING it!

Do a trail marathon-A+  While this was really on gravel and not really technical trail, I am counting this!  The Flint Hills Trail and 50 was rainy, fun, and Stella's first 26.2.

Pace more races-A+ I didn't pace any races this fall, but the spring was full of races paced!  I paced four half marathons and met so many great people this year!  I won't be doing as many this spring, but I will be pacing at least 2 of my most favorite races.

Rehab Prehab-B  Hubby bought me an R8 roller just because he knew how much I loved Lindsey's R8 and I use that and the stick religiously. I also am seeing a new massage therapist in Wamego every 2 or so weeks and using the sauna and cupping.  I was really going strong with my exercises from Dr. Needles and from Doug at Body first and I just stopped. I know, I know, bad idea, but I did and I will get back to it, I promise!

Do more dog friendly races- A+  Stella and I did 10 races together, which is more than we have ever done!  A huge shout out to the Trail Nerds and the Trail Hawks for letting Stella and I do so many races together!

Ambassador- F  I tried really hard and other than an automatic renewal from Honey Stinger, I did not get any of the other ambassadorships I tried to get.  I must REALLY suck at filling out those forms.

Fall Ultra-F  I will take this F gladly.  With me battling PF pretty much this entire year, I didn't think doing a big fall ultra was the best idea.  Plus, I wanted to pace my girl Lindsey at her first 100 and that loop was a 25 mile loop.  I am really glad I didn't do a big race this fall because I really, really enjoyed doing smaller distances with my Stella girl and getting some new to me races including Sanders Saunter, Flatrock, and Randolph's Revenge.

2019 Goals-What are you thinking?

1.  Get that 50 miler!  I am scared to death typing this, BUT I think it is time for my first 50 miler.  Plus I have found what looks to be a super awesome 50 miler for a beginner like me!

2.  Do a technical trail marathon with Stella-Rockin K, Stella and I are coming at you!!!!  I guess since it is technically 28 miles that it will be Stella's first ultra.

3.  Keep at Cross Fit.  I am really enjoying my gym time with Coach Erin and the Rising Strong Crew.

4.  Find my love for speed work again.  I am trying to do this through some fun and short speed work games.  Let's hope this works because even though I am NOT going for a PR at all this year, I need that fast leg turn over for these ultras I want to do.

There you go!  Everything down on paper and ready to start 2019!  Happy Running!

I am linking up with Wendy from Taking the Long Way Home and HoHo Runs for the year end review!

A year in Andrew pictures 2018

Another year of pictures of my kiddo Andrew!  Loved doing this last year so doing it again this year!  Enjoy:)

January: Another year of wrestling in the books.  Only one tournament this year but we almost won our first match!!!!!

February:  Lots of sickness in the house thanks to our first year in kindergarten.  At least we didn't get the flu this year!

 March:  Spring school pictures!  A trip to TN for spring break!

April:  Tulip festival and Mom and Son date at Chick fil A!

May:  First season of T-ball, first tooth out, and first corpse flower bloom!

June: 6th birthday party at Widgets, 2nd year for the mud run in Topeka, first T ball game, and a new found kitty!

July:  4th of July carnival, ready for the fireworks, and Team Titans Go at the movies!

August: First rock band performance, first day of 1st grade, and 1st one mile race (plus new puppy BOOM!)

September:  1st football game (GO KSU), third tooth out, and first time at Fire house subs.

October: Pumpkin Patch fun, another fall soccer season, first sleep over, and first drag queen story hour.

November: 1st grade fall picture, 1st thanksgiving with Grammy and Granddaddy in KS, 1st time playing Chicken foot, and 1st time playing Uno.  

December: First recital with his rock band, first wrestling tournament and WIN for the year, and hello santa magic!