The weekly runs: Training week 6, 14 weeks till chicago

We saw Minions yesterday!  It was a very cute movie and other than little red getting up and walking down our empty aisle once, he stayed glued to the screen and enjoyed the movie.  He and I got a little annoyed at the 30 minutes of previews before and he asked after each one, Is minions next?, which got some laughs.  We went to an early showing at 11 and the theater was mostly all kiddos.  Most if not all of the kids were very well behaved, which made for a very enjoyable experience for all.  5 stars for cuteness, funniness, and a fairly good storyline.  I loved Bob and would love a cute little stuffed Bob.

This is stella's really face this weekend.  Andrew has stopped napping regularly, which in a way is good, because it more usually than not means he goes to bed early.  The problem is, he can be a handful until he goes to sleep.  See him in the background rolling around on the floor?  Yep.  He did go to bed around 7:30 last night which is really, really early for my little night owl.  The hubs and I got to watch a movie!  It was really nice to be able to watch something with violence and no cartoons.  I am so behind on the Hunger Games movies so we watched the 3rd one FINALLY.   Two movies in one day, a new record for me.  I think the 10 miles and getting up at 5 am, plus the 100 + degree heat outside made me tired and more apt to sit still.  

I had to post a pic of my budda belly.   I am kind of proud, although I still have a long ways to go.  It's kind of hard to see, but I am getting some definition there!  I am also getting a waist!  I have always been kind of thick in the middle, so any chiseling away of that is a bonus.  Plus the cellulite on my upper legs is slowly melting away.  Part of that is running, but also the strength/toning I have been doing per Coach Jenny's work outs.  I have always had big thighs due to sports and riding horses , and it is nice now to be able to wear shorts with confidence.  Ignore the naked baby in the background.  My hubs just pointed out he was in the pic too LOL!  He likes to play trains while I work out since i work out in our bedroom, and it gives my hubby a break from always having to watch him while I do my running so it is a win/win situation.  Keeping clothes on this child is another story.  Let's just say he likes to be naked pretty much all the time.

Here are the weekly runs for my coach.  Kind of squished them all into three days to enjoy the cooler weather.  I feel pretty good after running three days in a row, so I know my strength training is paying off:

Monday: 5 miles, comfortable pace

Tuesday: Tempo run: 6 miles  of tempo: 1 mile warm up, four miles of 6 minutes at Marathon pace (10:00-10:20 range with an average of 10:00), 6 minutes of easy pace, 1 mile cool down.  I ran this with the speedy Mel so we hit around the 10 minute mark on our hard intervals.  

Wednesday: 4 miles, comfortable pace

Thursday: Strength

Friday: OFF

Saturday: 10 miles, comfortable pace

Sunday: Strength

Total miles for the week: 25 miles

Kind of a cut back week this wee,k but I am good with that.  The mileage is going to start creeping up in the zone that my body tends to crumble in, so any rest and recovery I can give it, the better.  I really do think the strength training is helping, as I only have very minor aches and pains (knocking on a huge piece of wood as  type this).  I take my recovery from each run very seriously, and am making sure I get a good balance of fats and proteins post hard work outs and long runs.  The rest of my diet has kind of been crap this week, and I need to get back to being good, especially at lunch.  Last week we didn't have any sample prep in the lab, so I ate out three days (BAD ME).  I am going to be good this week and stick to my hummus for lunch and my quest bars for my sweet tooth.    


Have a great week!  Since my hubby will be at home all week due to a short lay off, I am going to get to run in the morning.  Pray that my kiddo goes to be early every night!

A week in a blur

Wow, where has the week gone to?  It's saturday already!  Here is some randomness for ya!  This week started out super cool so I got three of my runs done Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday while the highs were in the 70s and there was no humidity.

Four years ago she packed her bags and came to be a part of our house.  She has been the hardest aussie I have ever raised but we LOVE her so much.

So much that we ran in the rain together for our five miler.  We both needed that run and the rain didn't bother us at all.

We also had half priced cones at sonic one night.  It was PACKED but we got our ice cream and enjoyed it.  

Speed work with the speedy Mel.  I love running with her because she is quite a bit faster than me and even though we try to take it easy to stay at my pace, we still end up running a tiny bit faster than I mean to.  It's great to be pushed.  My BRF did it to me when we ran together at first and it helped me become a better runner.  

Rainbows on our 10 miler this morning.  It was almost 100% humidity but 74 when we headed out.  We had to take a few walk breaks due to the high humidity but we got our 10 in.  I think we were both covered in salt by the end, even though I was drinking my Nuun.  Mel went with me this morning and I was SO glad she did.  I needed the distraction from the horrible humidity.  I think we are going to have to start getting up at 4 to beat this crap:(  I say that every weekend but I think I am going to have to next week.  At least sneaking off and going to bed early helps.  I was out by 9:30 last night.  HEAVEN.

Again, four years?  WOW.  

Deuce got to sub in due to the cooler temps this week.  We did 4 together and had so much fun.  He really is starting to enjoy running with me, especially when i just take him.  

I loved the sunrise this morning but I was hoping those clouds would keep that sun behind them.  We were lucky till about mile 7.  Oh well, summer running, here we come.  Gotten lucky so far, probably time for our luck to run out.  

Have a great weekend! We are going to try despite the heat wave predicted. We are taking little red to see Minions today.  I can't wait!  He LOVES minions and I LOVE movie popcorn, so this should be fun.  Plus, the local running store is over by the movie theater so may sneak a visit in.   Talk to y'all later!

The weekly Runs-15 weeks till chicago!

Okay I am a little late with this for my coach.  Last week was kind of crazy with family, having a few days off and then the holiday.  Here were the runs for last week:

Monday: 5 miles, easy pace

Tuesday: 6 miles  of tempo: 1 mile warm up, four miles of 5 minutes at Marathon pace (10:00-10:20 range with an average of 10:13), 5 minutes of easy pace, 1 mile cool down

Wednesday: rest-carnival night

Thursday: off-DATE NIGHT

Friday-14 miles with some of my running group

Saturday- 4 miles for the fourth!

Sunday-Off

I took three off nights this week.  I felt it was important to spend time with family as much as possible and then by sunday, I was coming down with Andrew's cold so needed the rest.  I am back at it this week.  I may run three nights back to back to take advantage of this cooler weird summer weather this week.  I will resume strength training for sure this week.  Sometimes you just need a break!

Happy 4th of July part three

Seriously, if you want to celebrate the 4th in a big way, come to Wamego KS.  Not only do we have a carvnival that lasts almost all week, but we have a car show, tractor show, ice cream social, parade, band concert and fireworks.  I probably left out something but for a town of 5 K people, we really put on a great day and week for that matter.  Here are some of the pics we took at the festivities.  IT was amazing as always and I am so glad we got to share it with not only family, but good friends.

Fourth of July Love

Mad max at the car show

You never know what you might find at a car show

my car, waiting for them to deliver it any minute

Uncle Sam

Homemade ice cream social

Fire trucks are the bomb!

Parade watching and candy catching

Sparklers are awesome!

New friends made!

pink smoke bombs

Couldn't wait till dark

Worn out after a long day of fire works, parades, candy and family

Can't wait till next year.  The fire works were amazing as always.  I am not sure how many people we had this year in our little town, last year it was 60 K but it seemed like more this year.  We are all in recovery mode here in casa Coleman with the late night and or the adult beverages taking their toll.  Hope y'all had a great fourth of july as well!

Happy 4th of July Part 2

 Okay 4th of July continued.  The friday after our date night, I had 14 miles on tap.  I headed out at 6 am with two ladies, Mel G and Sarah E.  They are both super speedy, but were very kind to stay slow and stay with me.  We did my normal 6 mile loop and then headed out on the road.  Stella loved running with the super speedy Sarah.  I felt surprisingly well for two beers and not my normal pre long run night meal.  I am still amazed at how well UCAN works.  I tried less water this time, around 12 oz, so not as much to chug, and didn't gag near as  much getting it down.  I fueled around mile 8 and no more.  I felt so good, am getting super excited for my marathon!

Afterwards we played trains and laid around.  That was fine by me because well, 14 miles.

Andrew and I headed over to a family friend's place to do a pre-fourth party.  There were TONS of kids and little red played so hard that he was asleep by nine.  That was fine by me because 5 am had come way to early.

This morning I got up and did 4 for the 4th with my running group. 

It was the perfect morning and the weather was cool and comfortable.  My body was a little sore even though I drank water all day yesterday.  Oh well, we got it done and tomorrow I can get some strength training in since I skipped a day of it to have date night (coach approved skipping:).

Stella thinks i am silly but these pretty pink flowers were so cute and delicate that i had to have one behind my ear.  

Happy Fourth of July from the Coleman's!  More to come in part 3 which will happen this afternoon!

Happy 4th of July! Part one

I am sure this will be a two parter so here is part one.  I am up early to go for a 4th of July group run.  We are trying to make some of these group runs an annual thing for us crazy folks.  I ran 14 yesterday and am a little tired and sore, but had to re arrange my whole schedule this week and I am happy for it.

This happened on Thursday night!  Tony and i had an official date night, complete with yummy beer and good food.  Tallgrass beer, our local brewery that does some super tasty beers, opened up a Taphouse in down town.  I have been DYING to go, but knew that it wasn't going to happen for a while.  Since Grandma Mobbs was in town, I asked if she would mind having him for a day and a night, and she said, "No problem!", so off we went.  Unfortunately, I had moved my long run day to friday, so I had to reign it in and only have a couple and lots and lots of water.

I had heard that the food was not the best, but the beers were awesome.  I am not a huge foodie and will eat pretty much anything that is remotely good, so for me the food wasn't bad at all.

I had two beers, one was a ginger peach Saison and one was a chocolate porter.  Chocolate porter for the WIN!  Tony also had another Saison that was amazing (although super high ABV and I was driving), and we tried several of the others that they had on draft.  We pretty much know all of the Tall grass beers, but they had a few others we had never had from other beer companies and they do free tasters!

Yes, I was one super happy camper. I like my beers cold and full bodied, and this was both and more.  Try the Great Hambino.  It won't leave you disappointed at all!

Yeah, the food was a little fru fru for me, but still good.  First, we had an appetizer of seared queso fresco, which was big blocks of cheese that had been pan seared, with some pico de gallo on the side, and some sort of reduction sauce.  It was good, would have liked more pico and more chips, but we ate it down with our delicious beers.  We had an hour wait to be seated, but, the cool thing was, they had a huge bar complete with booths in the back of the restaurant that served beer and appetizers, so we had a nice place to sit and wait and eat our appetizer.  When it was time for food, I ordered the chicken and biscuit and Tony ordered a pepperoni pizza.  The pic above was of one biscuit and some of my fries.  I cleaned my plate.  The fries were really, really good and the chicken and biscuit was different, but yummy.  The biscuit had gravy on it with the chicken and bacon, so everything was contained.  The biscuit was a little dry, but again, I cleaned my plate.  Tony's pizza was more than enough for one person and thin crust.  The sauce was a rustic tomato sauce with a balsamic vinegar taste.  He ate the entire pizza but it was big enough it could be shared between two people if needed.  

Dessert was good as well.  I ordered the buffalo sweat float and tony ordered cheesecake with strawberry sauce.  I have to admit, I did not like the bitterness of the beer with the ice cream.  I mainly just ate the ice cream out and left the beer, since I was already at my two beer (plus a few free tasters) limit.  Overall, even with the hour wait, we had a very enjoyable night with GREAT beer and pretty good food.  We didn't come for the food, we came for the beer, so we weren't disappointed at all.  We already have picked out what we want to eat next date night, whenever that might be.

A little carnival fun

This will be short and sweet.  Hopefully longer posts coming this weekend:)  Again, crazy busy at work, but I see a slow down possibly next week.  This is good and bad.  We need clients, but sometimes my poor brain needs a break from troubleshooting all of these projects.  It is tough because we have so many going at one time, all at different stages, and my brain just goes into over drive trying to think about all of them some time.

This week has been fun too because my mother in law is in town with her bestie.  I took off work tuesday to show them around town and took them all over the region to check out cool stuff.

I so want this solid oak cabinet!

Old carousel horses

 

Lemon drop doughnut from Varsity!  DELISH!

We saw some beautiful antiques, had some good lunch, some yummy doughnuts and some tasty coffee.  I am really really thankful that my kiddos in the lab took over for the day and allowed me to get away.

Then last night, we got to head to our town's 4th of July carnival.  I blog about it every year but it is amazing!  I was so excited because this is the first year I felt like Andrew would really want to ride the rides.

We started off on the carousel.  He was so excited when we got on, but that quickly changed.  As soon as the ride started, he freaked out and tried to bail, but was thankfully seat belted on.  I was right there to comfort him and I have NO clue what freaked him out, but we stayed on and worked it out and he actually had more fun and rode a second time.   

From there we moved on to giant spinning tea cups.  He asked to ride them, and since him and I could ride together, he seemed pretty excited till once again, the ride started.  The cup spun a little on its own, but you could really make it spin by moving the wheel in the middle.  As soon as it started,  he looked at me and said DO NOT MAKE IT SPIN!  As with the carousel, by the end he was fine and laughing and screaming a little.  After that, we had to have a break, because he declared all of the other kid rides as scary (think cars going in a circle and motorcycles beeping and a giant slide).  We let him have a  grape snow cone, and walk around and for whatever reason, he declared he was not scared and wanted to ride more.  We ended up riding all the rides I could ride with him, including the elephants that go up and down in a circle (my fear of heights kicked in big time on this one, see my death grip on the bar?) and the helicopters that go up and down in a circle.  Also the giant spinning colorful dinosaurs that he allowed me to spin a little.  We had a ton of fun but it sure was HOT.  We were dripping by the end, and cut it short to head on home and cool down before bed. 

Thank goodness I am short and can ride all of this rides with him:)

 In a way I am glad that he doesn't love the rides yet, so we don't have to pay so much for riding (the arm bands are 22 bucks per person now, WOW), but I do like getting to ride some of the rides with him and hear him giggle and scream.  I mean, who doesn't love riding the carousel?  Maybe next year I can ride next to him on my own horse rather than standing next to him:)  

The hubs and I are having a date night tonight.  Pretty excited because we don't get those often!!! Should be interesting, going to the Tall grass Tap house tonight that has the BEST beer around, and I have a fourteen miler on the books for tomorrow.  I guess this will be a good experiment ( i probably won't have but one or two beers) to see what I can get away with, and still have a decent long run the next day!

Have a great 4th of July weekend (we get tomorrow OFF YIPPEEE!)