Santa Run Race Report

*Started writing this post on 12/2/12*
I was dreading this race when I got up this morning. Mainly because I've hardly ran in the last several weeks, but I was also worried about how it would be to run in a Santa suit. The weather was suppose to be pretty mild so I wasn't sure what I should wear since I knew I'd be putting the Santa suit over it. I ultimately decided to wear pants and my UA cold gear shirt because it hadn't warmed up that much by the time I was leaving.
My neighbor and my friends T and J (aka Ellen and Ryan...btw T was disappointed...he said he wanted to be Brad Pitt...next time T) did the race too. I made sure to get there early so that I could pick up my Santa suit. I had forgotten that I also ordered a hoodie sweatshirt, so that was a sweet bonus!!! The suit was so cheaply made that it was falling apart as I was trying to put it on...and it was WAY too big. They had said to order a size bigger because they run small. I guess I didn't take my weight loss into account because I was swimming in it! I'm not going to complain about that!

I lost my friends and neighbor as soon as the race started and within the first half mile my belt broke and fell off and my pants were falling down. I was able to get my pants to stop falling but my Santa coat kept flying open throughout the race. I have to be honest and say that I walked most of it. I am so off with my training that I was just happy to finish! I finished in 43:00 which I was thinking was an awesome time (I'm pretty sure it would've been a PR) until I saw that it wasn't anywhere near a full 5k course. My Garmin said I had gone 2.84 miles...and I made sure to check the route that the GPS picked up when I got home and it was accurate. It wasn't a timed event so its not a huge deal...but its a real bummer when you first expect to do poorly...then think you actually did really good...only to find out that you actually did even worse! lol

Don't I look thrilled? I'm actually smiling but doesn't that suit look like a karate uniform gone horribly wrong? lol

All of the red was a little overwhelming, but it was so cool to see so many people dressed the same.

I was too slow to get a good picture but if you look into the far distance you can see that the street area is nothing but red.

I had to make sure I got some shots of me dressed as Santa for my kids. They didn't come because they would've gotten cold waiting around for me...and I'm pretty sure it was more because my husband didn't want to try and watch all three of them amongst the crowd.

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My cousin had her baby shower a few weeks ago and we have been pretty tight on cash so I couldn't do my 'usual' baby shower gift which is a laundry basket FULL of baby essentials...diapers, wipes, soap, lotion, powder, gas drops, baby Q-Tips, etc. I did buy a few essentials...but I decided to try my hand at crocheting an owl hat. I've seen pictures of newborn babies wearing only an owl hat and thought they were just adorable. My cousin loved it and after posting a picture of the hat on my facebook page along with an adult size owl hat I made for my husband (at HIS request) I started getting people asking me if I would make them one and they would PAY me!!! So I've gotten a couple orders and have been crocheting my little fingers off! I had been planning to open my own etsy shop next fall but I'm ok with making a little extra money now!

Owl Hat Pattern Created by Sarah Zimmerman

Newborn owl hat...first attempt ever. :)

 

 

Adult size hat I made my husband.

Adult hat pattern can be found here.

Here's two of the ordered hats I just made.

Newborn size

Adult size

I haven't run size Saturday...I NEED to! Just trying to figure out how I can trudge through another run on the treadmill! Any suggestions?

World Run Day

Written: 11/24/12

*I've been sick for the past few weeks with a horrible sinus infection. If nasal secretions were valuable I'd be a BILLIONAIRE!!! I finally went to the doctors this past Monday...not because I was sick though. I had an appointment set up for my monthly weight check...which didn't go well. : ( He put me on antibiotics and an antihistamine and I'm hoping that I am finally feeling better.
I'm one day shy of not having run in two complete weeks!!! When you can't breath out of your nose and it feels like your head is about to pop you can't really run. Plus my husband was gone for an entire week for hunting so I used whatever energy I could muster to keep the kids alive on my own. *Single Moms out there...you ROCK!!! I have no idea how you do it!!!*

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I FINALLY ran on Tuesday night. I used my treadmill for the first time and I completely understand why Katie at Runs for Cookies calls it a "dreadmill"!!! I only ran a mile and I was SLOW!!! Of course I have no idea if the treadmill is at all accurate on its distance or speed...which is irritating...so I might not have been that much slower than normal. I'm going to have to figure out something to 'do' while running on the treadmill because staring at my basement wall is just not going to cut it!!! I'm so angry with myself for not having run in two weeks because I felt like I was going to die after just one mile!!!

I have a 5k race coming up this Saturday and I'm dreading my pace and time! I'm going to try not to worry about it because its a fun run. The registration fee includes a five piece Santa suit and everyone runs in them. A couple of my friends are doing it at well so I should be able to just have fun and not try to be competitive with myself. I'll be sure to get a picture of me in the Santa suit to share with you.

Way back when I last posted I had promised to show you a picture of the pumpkins I carved after David had carved his. Well, he never carved his so I'll share a picture of the pumpkins I carved. The two in the middle are my sons pumpkins. They drew the faces they wanted on the pumpkin and then I just carved it out. I did scale Jacob's up because he had drawn a tiny face in the middle of that huge pumpkin.

Left to Right: My pumpkin, Jacob's, Nathan's, and Isabel's.

The day before Halloween the boys had their friend Brooklynn over to make this Halloween cookie scene that Nathan saw in the Schwan's Food Service holiday catalog. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Total sugar coma waiting to happen!

On Sunday November 11th I participated in World Run Day by running a 5k distance at a trail near my house with a few friends. I realized just how slow of a runner I am! My friends, J and T (super sweet married couple), ran along with me. T has been suffering from an injury that has caused him to not be able to run for quite some time and J got a super bad side cramp shortly after we started running. Even injured it still seemed like they were struggling to go as slow as me. J was even WALKING alongside me at one point while I was RUNNING! Once I get back into a regular running routine I'm really going to have to work on speeding it up a little.

I've got some pretty famous friends, right? lol I asked my J to tell me her favorite male and female celebrities and this is who she told me. : D haha

As you can see I haven't been up to much the past few weeks. Hopefully I'll have more health and fitness related things going on soon to write about. I'll try not to wait so long to post again and I'm going to try and catch up on all of my favorite blogs that I have been neglecting as well.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Running Update

*I started writing this post on Sunday*

I'm thinking I'm going to just plan on only posting once a week from now on. That seems to be about how long I'm going in between posts anyways. Then any additional posts will be surprising extras!

This week was CRAZY and I again did NOT run!!! Sunday was the first day that I ran since the previous SUNDAY!!! RIDICULOUS!!! I really didn't even want to go...and I mean SERIOUSLY didn't want to go! However, I knew that part of that was simply because it had been 7 days since I ran last. The longer I go without running the more I don't want to go out for that next run, but I made myself go. I didn't plan on doing the 2.75 miles that I had "scheduled" though. I didn't want to have a horribly crappy run like I did the last few times because of having so many "rest" days in between....but of course my husband had to chime in that I should go for the full 2.75 miles. Ugh...why can he never just agree with me??? I'm not sure if he's intuitive enough when it comes to my thought process to know that I will do one of two things when he tells me what he thinks I should do. 1) I'll do the complete opposite of what he suggests or just completely ignore his advice; or 2) I'll do exactly what he suggests because I figure he doesn't think I'll actually listen to him so I want to prove that I can do it! Today I opted to listen to him and prove to him (and myself) that I could do it. I kept my pace slower than normal (or so I thought) and surprisingly I didn't feel like I was going to die afterwards! I was REALLY tired at the end...but it didn't take forever to recover like has been happening after my most recent past runs. Shockingly...I was even a little bit FASTER than my previous couple runs!!!

Since I wasn't planning on doing the whole 2.75 miles I didn't use my C25K workout I have programmed into my Garmin so I have splits for every mile instead of just one for the entire 2.75.

Here are the splits from my last couple runs...as promised. Be sure to just look at the average pace from Lap 2 in each of these splits to compare to the 14:13 time I had yesterday...it was the first time that I didn't have a warm-up walk before hand. I did walk a little ways as a cool down (because I had to get back to my house) but I just decided not to count that.

Sunday, October 28th

Friday, October 26th

Sunday, October 21st

Long over due!

As promised I am here with a new post! : ) *A long post!*

Life has been hectic and overwhelming the past several weeks. I went back and read my last few posts and it seemed to be a trend. I think its worse because of all of the holidays coming up. Just pray for me that I am able to get out of this funk and soldier on! : ) I'm sure I will...but praying never hurts!

I have actually been back on the healthy eating wagon over the past week or so and lost 3 pounds!!! I am now 3 pounds away from hitting 40 pounds lost!!! That's the number that I REALLY need to make it past! I lost 40 pounds the last time I tried to change my lifestyle and after hitting that 40 pounds everything fell apart and I gained it all back plus 10!!! I'm determined that this time will be different. Even though it may not happen on the timetable that I have set for myself. As long as I keep moving in the right direction on the scale I know I'm doing something right.

The shorter days are really killing my running schedule. Since my last post about the Great Pumpkin 5k I have only run three times!!! I thought maybe I should just switch to morning runs...but my husband leaves for work long before the sun rises so my only option as of late has been to try and go as soon as or shortly after he gets home from work. The problem with that is that I'm usually trying to finish dinner at that time and as a result either am not able to leave soon enough or completely forget about going. (More about my horrible memory later) I've also been pretty busy and that has caused me to not be able to go either. Now, I know that this can all be solved by implementing some new things. I could start dinner earlier or make meals in the crock pot on running days, set a reminder on my phone so I don't forget in the chaos that usually occurs around the time my husband gets home from work, and ask my Mother-in-law if she could come sit with the kids for an hour so I can run during the day. Its just a point of getting those things implemented...which I plan to do. Sounds easy, right? Your probably asking yourself why I don't just do it? Am I lazy? Am I a procrastinator? yes I agree...these things sound easy to change...but these are not the only things that I am currently trying to "implement" into my life to make it better, easier...in some cases necessarily harder. Any woman who isn't Martha Stewart...especially mothers...should be able to comprehend what I'm getting at here. I think what everything REALLY, TRULY boils down too is that I am feeling completely...totally overwhelmed lately...with EVERY aspect of my life. That goes for my personal relationships as well. Sometimes I seriously just wonder WHAT THE F people are thinking??? Of course maybe its just me...and I should be asking myself WHAT THE F I'm thinking or expecting!!!

I have always been a giving person. I'm not trying to toot my own horn...I have always gotten joy out of seeing other people happy. The selfish part of that is that I like to know that people are happy because of something that I did for them or said to them. Its not my main motivation for doing it, but its definitely a perk. I had never expected anything in return, the joy and happiness they felt was enough for me...but over the years I have noticed that it has become an expectation of me...that I will give of myself...my time, my money, my attention, my advice...without ever expecting anything in return. In some cases, not even a thank you. While this never bothered me before, it has become more and more bothersome to me over the last few years. Maybe since I've had kids? Since I've had kids my time, attention, and money are more precious. The time that I spend on others is time not spent on my kids. This is just a suggestion as to why it may bother me now. I really have no idea why it has become an issue recently. Am I being selfish to want to be treated the same way I treat others...to be put on the same level as I put them? I feel like I should just mention that I am not talking about one specific person here...I have gotten this from many people. Wow, I've really gone off on an unexpected tangent here. I guess Leigh and Lynn were right about needing to talk about what I'm struggling with.

Another issue I have...which really is MY OWN character flaw...is liking to have things go my way. When they don't, I get upset...sometimes REALLY upset! When I've put time and energy into something and it seems like no one else cares or has the same level of commitment to it I get very upset. I really need to work on understanding that people aren't always going to want to do the things that I want to do or they just may not put the same importance on something that I do and its ok. Although I would argue that if you don't feel that its of much importance to you, then don't agree to do it in the first place!

Ok...enough of my venting...jeez!

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Back to happier, if not relevant information. I really thought I had mentioned crocheting a wig for Isabel so that she could be a Cabbage Patch Kid for Halloween, but I can't find it...so maybe I just planned to post about it but never did? Anyways...I crocheted a wig for Isabel so that she could be a Cabbage Patch Kid for Halloween. : ) A friend of mine from high school who is AWESOME at crocheting and even has her own Etsy shop was nice enough to give me the pattern so I could make one for my daughter. In hindsight...I should have picked another color because everyone thinks she's Raggedy Anne...but either way...she looks adorable. The hat/wig turned out really good! I may even try selling them next year for Halloween! (My friend gave me permission to sell my creations from her pattern....thanks Jen!)

Before it was "finished" with bows on the ponytails.

I love that being a Cabbage Patch Kid means that her "costume" is the hat/wig and any of her normal clothes. :)

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David and I got new cell phones...and although I would have MUCH rather gotten the new Samsung Galaxy S III we ended up getting the iPhone 4. They were "free" with a 2-year contract. We had "basic" phones before so we are new to the smart phone revolution. I really love being able to go online whenever and practically where ever I want or need to! The apps are cool too. I have the Blogger app but haven't really used it obviously since I haven't been posting, but also because the app won't let you turn the phone sideways for the "full" keyboard. I wish it had a better camera...but its the same mega pixels as our digital camera so I'm happy with that.

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We carved pumpkins with the kids the other night...correction...I carved pumpkins the other night. Actually Jacob helped clean out his pumpkin...Nathan wouldn't touch the guts...and then they drew the faces they wanted on their pumpkins and I carved them. David decided not to carve his pumpkin that night so all four pumpkins are pretty. I'll share a picture once if he carves his and let you pick out which one he carved. ; )

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I'll write about my last few runs in my next post since this one is long enough already. I hope everyone enjoys their Monday as much as one can enjoy a Monday. I'll be taking Jacob to school, getting my blood drawn, and running some other errands. Not very fun...but I'll try to make the best of it. : )

Vegging Out

I'm so sorry. I can't believe that its been twenty days since my last post!!! I will post SOON. I promise...I guess life just gets in the way sometimes as well as lack of motivation on...pretty much all fronts. I haven't even been reading any other blogs...my blog reader if FULL of posts that have gone unread. I always come and look to see if my interest will be sparked, to both read some blogs and write on my own...but I just haven't been feeling it. I've been wanting to spend my free time vegging out instead of doing some of my other hobbies. I hope that changes soon...I hate feeling so blah.

Great Pumpkin 5k Race Report

I'm really upset with myself for how long it has been since I posted last! I don't want to be one of those bloggers who posts come few and far between. It has just been a rough couple of weeks both physically and emotionally and I've come to realize that I definitely do NOT have it all figured out regarding living a healthier lifestyle. I seem to crumble when things start becoming too difficult. I understand that being physically sick is not something that I can necessarily control and that I will sometimes have to miss my workouts because of it. However, what I wasn't prepared for was how feeling crappy physically was going to effect me emotionally...which in turn has effected my eating habits (among other personal things that I don't care to share on this public blog...no offense). What I hate most is what a vicious cycle it is!!! If I am feeling down, whether it be physically or emotionally or both, I tend to eat foods that lift my mood (or if I'm really physically sick any food that sounds 'good') and are almost always 'junk' food or just too large of a serving. Then afterward I feel down again for being weak and allowing myself to eat too much of the wrong foods...which then just starts the cycle over again.


Feeling Down ~~ Eat Junk ~~ Feel Guilty ~~ Feel Down ~~ Eat Junk


So I am currently trying to get back on track with both my running and my eating habits. The exercising is going better than the food aspect. :/

Ok...on to the race report. : )

Luckily I started feeling better by Friday so I decided to still run in the Great Pumpkin 5k I signed up for a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I hadn't run since last Sunday! I was prepared to NOT PR this one. The race started at 9:15am and I had signed the boys up for the kids fun run that started at 10:15am so I just wanted to be done before then. I was convinced that I was going to do horribly. I made sure to wear my Under Armour ColdGear shirt and some gloves. Not only was it suppose to be cold...but it was also suppose to start raining right around the time the race was scheduled to start...WONDERFUL! *Dripping with sarcasm* I was still surprised by how cold it was when I got out of the car but I knew I'd warm up once the race started.

I was SUPER nervous before starting...so much so that I again forgot to start my Garmin!!! I had already gone about a quarter mile or so when I realized that I didn't start it AND I also forgot to stop it at the finish. I didn't realize that it was still running until we were in the car on the way home! So needless to say my splits are WAY off. So anyways, I wanted to stop running IMMEDIATELY! I was short of breath almost immediately...but I pushed through that initial feeling and trudged ahead. It started SLEETING shortly after the race started and I just prayed that I wouldn't get so wet that I got too cold.

I felt like I was going at a snails pace and it seemed like everyone was ahead of me. There weren't many people at this race and there was a LARGE group in front of me. I had a woman who kept leap frogging me for almost the entire race...much like what happened at my first 5k, the Huckleberry Hustle. She would run ahead of me a little ways and then start walking until I was a little ways ahead of her then she'd start running again. Around the 1.5 mile mark (seems to be a trend with me during a race) I hit a wall and had to walk. At that point my leap frog buddy deviated from her routine and walked alongside me and we chatted for a little bit. I'm pretty sure her goal was to finish ahead of me and she figured if I was taking a 'rest' then she might as well too. Once I started running again so did she and we continued with our leap frog game until we had about a mile left. At that point she took off ahead of me and never let me catch up. I was so tired by that point I really didn't think that I would be able to finish the race without having to take another walk break.

The final quarter mile took us around the local high school track and I HATED it. Not only because everyone could watch me as I shuffled at my snails pace to the finish, but because it brought back horrible memories of high school gym class. I HATED running and we were all suppose to run the mile. I was NEVER able to make it even one lap around the track before having to walk. Not to mention that I heard the man who was announcing the names of the finishers say "looks like we have the walkers coming in now" when I was about a tenth of a mile from entering the stadium to run around the track! That made be feel AWESOME...but for all my negative thoughts and how crappy the weather was I ended up with a new PR!!! : ) I finished in 43:12 which is 2:42 faster than my time in the Great Pizza Challenge! I was shocked...and of coarse I couldn't just be happy about that. I immediately wondered how much better my PR would have been had I not missed so much training lately.

The boys had to wear their winter coats for their Kids Fun Run. It was so cold and raining by then too. Nathan did pretty good...although he fell towards the end...flat on his face...so he was crying when I helped him to cross the finish line. My poor Tater! Jacob finished behind him. David ran along with him and I guess he was complaining that he couldn't do it most of the time...but at least he finished. I was worried he would just stop at some point on the track and refuse to go any further. *I don't know if I have mentioned it here before that Jacob wears a brace on his left foot and lower leg. He was born with an underdeveloped nerve so he cannot move his left foot. Not even to lift it up for walking, and as a result of the lack of nerves he also has no muscle mass in his left calf. So he has to wear a brace to keep his foot stable for walking.* They had fun and were super excited to get their t-shirts!

My next race will be the 5k that I am trying to set up for World Run Day. I've had a couple people express interest in doing it with me. Even if no one else shows up I still plan to do it...but it will be more fun to do it as a group. I'm hoping that I get enough people so that we can kind of treat it like an event...maybe even have some kind of prize for the first place finishers or something fun like that...we'll see. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm thinking I may try to go out to the place where I plan to have it and run it to make sure I figured out the distance right.

I have lots more to catch you up on but I don't want to have a super long post...and I apologize for not having any pictures. We were so late leaving for the race that David had to drop me off by the registration area and he didn't think to grab the camera because he was trying to get three kids out of the car and make sure he had them bundled up good.

Sick AGAIN!!!

I ran on Sunday and was planning to run on Tuesday but that didn't end up happening. I ended up having to take my baby girl to the ER at midnight (Monday/Tuesday) because she wouldn't stop throwing up. When I got home after 3am David was up and said that he had been throwing up since I left!!! He stayed home Tuesday so I didn't end up running and then I started getting sick yesterday and am just feeling worse today. The only plus side to having a stomach flu...I'm now down to 211 lbs.! : ) I'll update about my run and other things once I'm feeling better...and hopefully I won't be sick again for a LONG TIME!!! Ugh!