2015 Santa visit

We had our first successful santa visit!  If you want to read about last year and the year before, go here and here.  I am happy to say that this year we had no tears.  We were still pretty shy but we sat on santa's lap and actually had a short conversation.  I want to thank IBEW L.U. 226 for having the most awesome Santa as usual.

I just love the woodwork in this building! 

After Santa, we went to our usual post santa meal at Juli's.  We found out some super sad news though.  Juli is moving to Texas, but the shop will remain open.  I hope they keep the same food we have grown to love over the years.  Coffee you can reproduce, but good food, pretty hard to do.

We love Juli and wish her the best.  Andrew fell in love with this Indian statue.  He kept kissing it, so I had to take a picture.

 After lunch we decided to head over to the Overland Station in Topeka as well.  All of my Topeka friends had told me we had to go, but I honestly didn't believe them that it was as awesome as it was.

 I mean, not only did they have a kid's area complete with Thomas train table, they had a full caboose for the kids to play on and in, plus tons of train books, coloring areas and puzzles.  The best part?  On the other side of the doors that andrew was standing by in the picture, there were real trains passing by!

 Plus, the museum part was pretty cool too.  Tony and I couldn't walk through at the leisurely pace we would have liked but we will be back!

We had a great day and can't wait to go back!  Sometimes I wish we could just move to Topeka to be near all of this cool stuff BUT, I could never leave our cute town!  Speaking of our cute town, we made not one but two newspapers this week!

In both pics, he is playing with trains. His little obsession is making us famous!  We also made the video about the the season of lights in the park riding what else, the train!

Well have a great weekend!  My running has been pretty light this week with recovery from the 10 miler being the biggest priority.  Mel and I did an easy 4 miles wednesday, I did an easy 5 miles friday and then yesterday post Christmas and trains, I did an easy 3.  Today I am planning on a long run but I have no clue how many.  It is raining cats and dogs out there with no end according to the weather reports.  

My favorite winter weather gear

Kind of odd to be talking about winter weather running when it has been 60 degrees but here goes, since it is the season for it!  I wanted to share my favorite winter outfit piece by piece, just to give you an idea of what I do for our Kansas winters.  We have been spared really bad winter weather the past year, and of course are starting into a very mild fall/winter.   You never know when Mother Nature will finally kick in and get the snow/cold temps started.  In our little part of Kansas, we get several days of negative wind chills and a little snow here and there, so I will show you what a typical winter day would look like for me to go out for a run.

Let's start with the head:

First, I always cover my ears.  I LOVE this brook's fleece lined head band. Covers my ears, doesn't move, and bonus, it's pink (which is my favorite running color).  I picked this up at my very first half marathon expo, so it has special meaning, but you can find them at any running store or on Brook's awesome website!  If it is raining/sleeting/snowing, I will cover my entire head with one of my cool running hats.  Right now I am all about my trucker hat that I got from Another mother runner for the Chicago marathon.  I never would have thought I would say that I LOVE a trucker, hat but I DO!  

Moving down the body, I have my saucony drylete neck warmer.  I just picked this up from my local running company this year, and have only got to try it out once but WOW!  I use to try using a full face mask thing when the wind chill got worse.  I don't like things covering my face and impeding my breath.  I find that stuff like that just makes my face sweaty and hot, and I feel claustrophobic.  Plus, even though I had the full face mask deal, my neck wasn't always covered, so I would have to put on yet another piece of clothing, a fleece scarf, to keep my neck warm.  This does all of those thing in one piece of gear!  Notice the little pocket looking thing at the top?  That can be worn up over your nose and mouth and even has a little mesh vent  for getting rid of hot breath.  Plus even when this is pulled up over my face, it still covers my neck down into my jacket.  

What makes this even better is the drawstring with clip on the back.  You can cinch it as tight as you like.  I love this little feature because that is the problem I have with a lot of the face masks, they just don't fit me and my little head and face.  I can't wait to test the gear out more and more this winter.  You can find these neck warmers at your local running store or at Saucony's website.  

Moving down, I have my base layer.  I have tried lots of brands, and the Mizuno breath thermo line is the BEST for me and my body.  It seems so odd to go lighter when it gets colder, but I have found the more bulk you have, the hotter you get, and the more sweat you produce.  The more sweat you have under all of those layers, the more chance you have of actually getting chilled.   I love the breath thermo shirts for my tops and the  Breath thermo tights for keeping me toasty warm.  Both run around 70 bucks retail, but I found them on the clearance rack after winter a couple of years ago,  and I snatched them up for MUCH less.  This find has caused me to pay full price for some other pieces in their collection, but I still scour the racks post winter for great deals. 

When we start having wind or a wind chill, I layer on top of my breath thermo gear with a light wind jacket like this one:

Honestly, I have had my Brook's jacket for years and LOVED it, but it was getting pretty ragged after a few winters of running in it all winter and fall.  I wanted to get myself one piece of gear at the expo in Chicago, and when I saw this Saucony jacket, it was perfect for my "I ran a marathon" gift.  Not only is it light weight, but it is also reflective, eliminating my need for my reflective harness thing i wear when I run at night and HATE.  

Plus I just found this cute little pocket on the back. Never noticed it till a few days ago.

Just looking at the outside, it doesn't seem very big but look at the pocket from the inside!  WOW!  It is huge!  That little pocket fits my iphone 5S in it's otterbox, no problem.  I love the fact that it keeps it close to your body so no flapping and it keeps it warm with your body heat so it doesn't shut down due to cold during winter running.  Having this pocket also eliminates my little fanny pack I normally wear for my phone, and the other pockets on the jacket are perfect for gels and whatever else you need to store.  I LOVE It when a single piece of gear that is needed eliminates  a piece of gear that you have to wear extra.  

This jacket, or this type of jacket, has proven itself worthy in wind chills below 0. I think the coldest I ever ran in was -14 and I felt fine the whole time as far as warmth.  I can't wait to test this particular brand this winter and I hope it serves me as well as my brooks jacket did for so long.  

As far as gloves, that is a toss up.  I really haven't found a brand that I LOVE.

I use these when it isn't super cold out.  These came from Target and are part of their champion line.  While the touch screen fingers really don't work on my phone, I have heard for others it works just fine.  I am kind of sad because I wore these last weekend at the 10 mile trail race, and lost one of the pair.  If anyone has lost a left one and has an extra right one they don't want anymore, I need two to make this work:)

If it is colder out, I will go with these.  They have a layer of thinsulate in them and are toasty warm.                                 

I got them at the local farm store, so I don't know what brand they are.  If it is super cold or I think maybe my hands will get too hot, I will layer these on top of some thinner gloves.  I don't like cold hands, so warm hands is a must.  I have never run with hand warmers but may try those out this year too.

So there are a few of my winter favorites.  I like to layer because you can always take a layer off, but I still keep my layers super light weight, even when it is below 0.  I don't do any special socks, will usually just stick to my normal balenga's or procompressions and my feet usually are fine.  I do have a fleece hat that i will toss on occasionally from time to time, but I find my normal running hats breath better and the fleece makes me sweat. I have friends who run much more bundled up than me, so it is a journey to find what works best for you but I wanted to share what works for me.  

Have a great week!

SORE!

WOW, I feel like I have been in a long fight and lost!  I have never been this sore or tired after a race, not even Chicago.  Yesterday was so bad that after hobbling around the grocery store and eating lunch, I took a nap.  For those of you who know me, I have to be in BAD shape to take a nap mid day with it being gorgeous weather outside (50s in december, YES YES YES).  I even popped a few advil as well, and even that didn't touch the pain.  I am not sore like injury sore,  more just I used every muscle in my body for 10 miles sore.  My hubby at one point yesterday looked over at me hobbling around and wincing and asked, why do you do this to your self ? He is an on again off again runner, but never has raced, so he truly doesn't  understand.  Even though I am in pain, I am still smiling about how much fun that run was and planning on my next one.

The worst part probably? My toes.  Gross picture alert!  Don't scroll down if you don't want to see some gross toe photos!  You have been warned!



The first pic is from that day.  I had these huge blood blisters on both big toes from my feet getting wet and then rubbing for about 9 more miles.  The second pic is from last night.  I tried popping them and nothing came out, so I gave up. I don't see any running happening for a few days till these get better. I am talking with my trail nerd friends to figure out how to not have this happen again as they were pretty painful.  Any advice is welcome!  I plan on doing more of these runs for sure and would like less pain this next time if I can avoid it! I don't have issues with blisters or calluses during road races unless it is marathon or raining.

I have also had many questions about how I run with stella on those trails.  I noticed that in several of the pics of other canine pacers/runners that the dogs were loose. I was not comfortable enough to do that on my first race. I did NOT want her to be the cause of someone having a bad race.  Her being loose would be ideal, honestly.  Then her position wouldn't be hard for me to deal with at all.  She always pulls the first few miles of any race, and as with any race, even though I have her on a hands free leash, I ALWAYS pull her close till she calms down. I don't want anyone to hate me because of my dog.  As the race spreads out and I can comfortably let her go to her natural in front of me position, I will.  I sometimes leave races with her with horrible shoulder issues, because of those first few miles.  My right shoulder is pretty sore as I type this, but it was all worth it.  The biggest problem I had with this race was the fact that she wanted to go balls to the wall down EVERY hill, and I am a downhill running wuss. I have this big fear of falling down a hill and not stopping till I  have broken every bone.  She does not understand that mommy wants to go slow and even walk most of the time.  The few times there were no runners around, i did let her go so she could just go at her own pace and then leashed her back up at the bottom of the hill.  Otherwise, I have to just hold her close and verbal tell her to hold up.  Now going up hill, she is AMAZING!  She just puts all her weight into her harness and pulls me up.  Of course I am not letting her drag me, I am doing my part, but that extra pull up sure does help.  Plus, just having her there, even if I am having to manage her, is a big mental bonus.  If I were out on that trail without any music or podcasts, by myself as I was for the last few miles, I would have come unraveled and probably given up.  Plus, when we got to the really deep mud, she really pulled me through and out of it.  Then I would just laugh at how ridiculous we both looked covered in mud with big smiles on our faces.  Just as i smiled the whole race, so did she.  She appeared to LOVE every minute of it.  She LOVES running and I can't wait to do another one with her.  

Okay off to drink more water and take more advil :)  Happy monday y'all!

Alternative Chili Trail Run 10 miler 2015- My first Trail nerds race

I had always heard of the Trail Nerd's races, but they are all in KC, and let's face it,  I am not a trail runner.  Based on my performance and the aftermath of my first sort of technical, but mostly just hilly 25 K, I had kind of sworn off trail running.  We don't train much on trails around here anyway, since we have to drive to the few we have, and Konza doesn't allow dogs (and for a good reason).  I would love to do more trails just to get a change of scenery, but I will admit, I am just lazy when it comes to going somewhere to run.  Heck, my whole marathon training cycle was done on the same gravel roads out by our house.

Enter my crazy trail running and obstacle course chasing running friends Pat and Mel.  They had done a trail nerds race and LOVED it.  I didn't have anything for December, and there was a 10 miler that just fit perfectly with my long runs that they were both doing.  I was a little worried because my training had been pretty low key up till this point.  I haven't done any hill repeats, and my long run/easy run route has 0 hills.  Plus, you throw in the word "technical" and I get a might bit nervous.  Being a good running friend though, I signed up, mainly because this group allows canine pacers at the races, but also who can beat beer and chili post race with two of my favorite crazy running friends?

My training or lack of has been pretty good as far as I had slowly been leading up to 10 miles.  I was feeling good after a speedy fartlek session monday, well,until I got the email from the race director which contained the following sentence:

• At mile 6 or so, after a long down-hill along a ridgeline, there will be 2 signs that'll say SLOWER-DANGER.  You need to heed this warning,  especially if you are a faster runner; it gets extremely steep and rocky here before a tight-right-turn…and we’ve had some broken bones at this location, in past races.
• 

Uh, broken bones? Whoa, wait a minute!  Then I started watching the chatter on the Trail nerd's FB page about the mud and how bad it was in places.  Hmmm.  What have I gotten myself into?  After a mini panic attack and a virtual snap out of it by Mel, I finally calmed down and thought to myself, this is going to be fun, just go with it.  How bad can it be with stella ella by my side?  I have NO goals other than to maybe not have broken bones and finish with a smile.

I swear, we didn't plan on dressing alike, honestly

The morning started early with a 5:30 am wake up to get ready to drive to KC.  We had an hour and a half drive to get to the trail head and pick up our packets.  I had NO clue how to dress, so since it was feels like 27 when we got there, I went with gloves, a long sleeved tech T, tights, a hat and ear warmers.  I also still felt cold due to the wind blowing, so I put my arm warmers on under my shirt.  I don't know why, but it did help me stay warm till my body made it's own heat.  I am sad to say I lost one of my gloves on the trail, but when I warmed up, I tied my warm warmers on my waist band for stella's leash and shoved my ear warmer band in my pack.  I decided to go with my hydration vest, and one pack of cliffshots just in case.  I opted for one 10 oz bottle of Nuun water, so I could put stella's new collapsible water bowl in the other pocket.  I am sure those trail runners thought I looked like a pack mule.   Most of them were in shorts and long sleeved Ts, and not much else.  I wish I could be that confident that I would stay warm!

Now let me start by saying this was our first truly technical trail that included mostly single track trail, with a few larger grassy sections.  We had tons of rain last weekend up until monday, so I amazed they were dry at all.  Mostly, they were leaf covering mud, rocks and sticks.  There were some very steep hills, some very tricky down hills, and some very fun switch backs.  This first pic was from the start of the race.  You can see all of the rocks poking out of the leaves.  Sometimes I would forget about them, and totally biff it.  I can't tell you how many times I almost fell.  I learned a lot about picking up my feet.  I also learned about mud and water crossings.  I will for sure be getting better trail shoes for the next one.  After my feet got wet from the first crossing, my shoes and socks started to rub and my feet became bloody blister minefields that pretty much hurt the entire race.  It's amazing how you can just push the pain to another place and keep going.  

I learned so much on this run.  We had fun.  We almost fell multiple times.  We got mud all over and almost lost shoes. I pretty much smiled the entire race, and when I got done, I couldn't wait to sign up for another one!  At some points I couldn't believe i was doing the things I was doing.  Like one time, the trail was straight up, or so it seemed, and muddy.  Like super slick muddy.  I was able to hold onto stella's harness and she went up ahead of me.  We did that several times, her slowing down to steady me. Or when we had to use ropes to make it up the steep trail.  Or when we ran along a ridge line that went straight down if you stepped off of the trail (I couldn't look down, I am afraid of heights).  I got to talk with several people on the trail who were SUPER nice. Honestly, I  have never met such nice people at a race or at any event.  They gave me tips for my next one, complimented me on how I did (I came in 143 out of 153 but they didn't seem to care, I finished and that was good enough) and told me about upcoming races that Stella and I needed to do.  I stayed with a couple for the majority of the race, until the end when they stopped to fuel (i had fueled at mile 5), and we talked the whole time.  I was really worried about getting lost, but the trail nerd crew had that trail marked SO well that I finally got the courage to go on by myself and never got lost:)

We both ended up covered in mud, with medals, a cool calendar, a collapsible water bowl, and a trail nerd's hat.  More than that, we got a ton of confidence that we can both do hard things, and that we can master some pretty technical trails.  We also got a cool 10 mile sticker and a Trail nerd's sticker that have been proudly displayed on Sir Stubby, since the weather was warm when we got home.  I feel like i have been in a fight as my right hip is killing me, even after soaking in the whirlpool tub tonight.  I seriously feel just as sore as I did post Chicago.  Tomorrow should be interesting, and I anticipate having to take a few days off of training to rest and recover.  I honestly can't wait to do another one of these races.  You can't beat the nice people and swag and FREE race pictures.  

Have a great weekend and check out a Trail Nerd's race if you are in the KC area!

In the holiday spirit and bad weather time

Now that Thanksgiving is over I can officially be in the Christmas spirit! Pandora radio is blaring Christmas tunes, and the decorations are up!  Something about having a little one around that is so excited for Christmas just gets you in the mood.  He is super excited for Santa this year. and so are we.  We have been watching every Christmas movie on tv including Polar Express and the old Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer.  We even got the tree up and decorated the day after Thanksgiving.  Yeah us!

Let me go back to Thanksgiving, real quick, because as always, my hubby was an amazing chef.  We tried brining the turkey, a tradition we will forever do from now on.  I hate turkey and this was the most succulent and tender meat I have ever had!

He even went all out and made two home made pies complete with fresh made whipped cream.  No wonder I have gained 8 lbs recent!  I don't care, his home made food is to die for!

Glad our guests were dog lovers.  After stuffing our faces we all watched Despicable Me 2 with little red, and snoozed while the dogs snuggled and the ice pelted.

Ignore the muddy nose prints on the door and the cluttered deck.  See the ice?  I hate ice.  We had a sort of ice storm that night and throughout the rest of the weekend into monday.  Little red even got a day off of school, and me off of work, due to it downing power lines and making roads a mess.  We got lucky and only had a few power outages, nothing major.  Some were without power for the entire weekend.

I finally got a run in outside on Sunday.  I had 9 miles on the books and was NOT looking forward to milling it.  I had done almost 5 miles on friday on the mill, and had one of the worst runs ever.  Between indigestion and a toddler not wanting to leave mommy alone while she is on the mill, I just wanted nothing to do with it.  My luck happened that we got a ton of real rain.  While that meant slush and mud on our gravel long run road, it meant that the main roads we travel on to get to the gravel would be ice free.

my leg and mel's leg. You can tell that stella runs right behind me!

After 9 miles, two potty breaks and lots of mud later, I returned a very happy camper with a large load of muddy laundry to do but all in all, worth it.  Our last race of the year is this Saturday, and while I haven't really been on many trails or hills for that matter, I am so excited.  I love running races with my dog, since she trains with us, and I can't wait for the fun of one of the Trail Nerds races.  I have heard such great things about their races plus they give great swag and FREE pictures!  I will finish with a big smile on my face even if stella and I are covered in head to toe mud.  I am glad we can get outside for the rest of the week, since the weather has turned nicer and a tad bit warmer, and I look forward to some easy runs after monday's tough fartlek session (which is meant to be fun but somehow turned into work).  

The best part about running at night during Christmas time?  Seeing all of the lights!  This is the park by our house.  Our city goes all out and even has new lights this year that are so wonderful to see,  Have a great rest of the week and hope you are having a great holiday season!