On my 13.12 mile run today I came up with a new theory.
The Half Marathon should be renamed.
13.1 miles should not be half of anything.
It's crazytown.
I say this after talking to my step sister who ran 20, TWENTY, miles today.
That's real crazytown!
Insane crazytown.
No offense Buffy :)
I'm actually a little bit jealous.
I don't know if any full marathons are in my future. I actually really, really, really doubt it, but never say never, right?!
Regardless of the name of the distance. I actually did something today that I kinda always hoped one day I may do but never really thought I was capable enough to do it.
I ran 9 miles Monday and wasn't able to run all week because of our schedules and having Major pretty much alone all week. So, needless to say I was nervous going into this morning.
The first 2 miles were kinda....weird. I felt weird, like I hadn't run in 4 days. I hit a decent stride around mile 3 though and kept it til mile 10. I got rained on from mile 8 to 10 which was kinda awesome. It felt really nice. Mile 11 began to suck, 11.5 reeeeaaaalllllyyyy sucked. I wanted to be done. My back and knees were hurting. Mile 12, well, I was just ready to be done. I kept telling myself "one more mile, 3/4 of a mile, .5 of a mile. OMG there's your mailbox, .25 of a mile. Shut the front door sister, you DID IT!!!!!!"
I ran every.single. step too which I am proud of and my time, although not super fast, was consistent and I finished in under 2 and a half hours. That's kinda been the goal the whole time. The weeks are closing in on me, but I have to say, I am feeling much more confident now that I know I can do it.
All of my long runs that are left will be "half" marathons plus 1.
13.5 on Friday : )
14 the following 2 weeks
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Parenting Transparency
Being a parent is hard, hard work. Raising kids that are good people, honest, loyal, faithful and God-fearing is like the most insane job ever. The responsibility to raise a baby human into a grown up is just mind boggling to me somedays. I say this knowing we are in the easy years, we have so many hard pre-teen, teenage, and young adult things that will come up that it makes my stomach hurt.
Before we were parents people would say, "oh, you just wait, it's the hardest but most rewarding thing you will ever do" or "you have no idea". Those things are so true. There is no preparation for parenthood.
You can't plan your child's personality, how they will react to things, whether or not they will be leaders or followers, strong willed or not, you can't prepare for the friends they will have, the choices they will make, the school they will want to attend or the career they will want to have. All we can do as parents is set a foundation, be a good example and guide the way. In our home, we are trying so hard to make that foundation one made of love, peace, respect, honor, grace and forgiveness. We are constantly reminding ourselves to remember patience, kindness and show each other the love of Jesus.
We have been abundantly blessed with a healthy, thriving, smart, funny, stubborn, strong-willed, leader of a child. Our lives are more happy and more full than we ever knew possible. Our challenge with him is that he is full throttle, all the time. I pray every single day that we are doing the right and best things for him. I pray for consistency, for grace, for patience, for forgiveness, for wisdom and for all the love that he needs from me. I beg God to show me what to do many days. I feel so ill-equipped to carry the responsibility of raising Major. When I think about that though, I think about our story, I think about how God is the ultimate match maker and I think about how Major was MADE for us. That overwhelming feeling fades a little and I am back to praying for the tools I need to turn all the challenges into things that will mold him and make him into the best version he can be.
Our current challenges are keeping our hands to ourself, not hitting friends, not being bossy....4 year old preschool boy stuff. When he's 16 and leaving the house in his car, I'm gonna wish more than anything that I could go back to happy face and frown face reports. I know this. Still, seeing him try and not succeed or forget or just be "major" is hard on a mamas heart. Being consistent in discipline and watching him miss out on things is super hard. I know its all for the good, but its still hard.
Tomorrow is a fresh new day with fresh new challenges. It's just up to us how we respond to and move forward from those things. Here's to tomorrow little dude. Let's make it fun!
Before we were parents people would say, "oh, you just wait, it's the hardest but most rewarding thing you will ever do" or "you have no idea". Those things are so true. There is no preparation for parenthood.
You can't plan your child's personality, how they will react to things, whether or not they will be leaders or followers, strong willed or not, you can't prepare for the friends they will have, the choices they will make, the school they will want to attend or the career they will want to have. All we can do as parents is set a foundation, be a good example and guide the way. In our home, we are trying so hard to make that foundation one made of love, peace, respect, honor, grace and forgiveness. We are constantly reminding ourselves to remember patience, kindness and show each other the love of Jesus.
We have been abundantly blessed with a healthy, thriving, smart, funny, stubborn, strong-willed, leader of a child. Our lives are more happy and more full than we ever knew possible. Our challenge with him is that he is full throttle, all the time. I pray every single day that we are doing the right and best things for him. I pray for consistency, for grace, for patience, for forgiveness, for wisdom and for all the love that he needs from me. I beg God to show me what to do many days. I feel so ill-equipped to carry the responsibility of raising Major. When I think about that though, I think about our story, I think about how God is the ultimate match maker and I think about how Major was MADE for us. That overwhelming feeling fades a little and I am back to praying for the tools I need to turn all the challenges into things that will mold him and make him into the best version he can be.
Our current challenges are keeping our hands to ourself, not hitting friends, not being bossy....4 year old preschool boy stuff. When he's 16 and leaving the house in his car, I'm gonna wish more than anything that I could go back to happy face and frown face reports. I know this. Still, seeing him try and not succeed or forget or just be "major" is hard on a mamas heart. Being consistent in discipline and watching him miss out on things is super hard. I know its all for the good, but its still hard.
Tomorrow is a fresh new day with fresh new challenges. It's just up to us how we respond to and move forward from those things. Here's to tomorrow little dude. Let's make it fun!
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Running Behind
I'm so behind on blogging about running it's ridiculous. I don't even remember where I left off, what week or any of that.
Here's the run down on running the past few weeks :)
Training has definitely changed for me since summer ended. I don't have near as much time as I did this summer and have been running mostly 3 days a week. Sometimes I get lucky and get the 4th day but Ive had several weeks of just 3 runs. I try to keep on schedule, but unlike the beginning of training I kind of just run what I think I need to run during the week and make sure to do the long runs on the weekends-unfortunately it's not always the same day.
Two weeks ago, my long run was 12 miles. Ok, let me just back it up and say this. I made my training schedule from a combination of training schedules that I liked and just tweaked them to work for me. I had back to back weeks of running 12 miles. Josh was out of town the first week, so my sweet friend Cassie agreed to watch Major for me. Long story short. I didn't do it. I ran 6. It seems weird to say 6 miles was a disappointing run but it was. I could spell out a list of excuses but the bottom line was I didn't do it. I was disappointed but gave myself some grace. I knew the following week (which was this past Friday) that I had to get it done.
So Friday comes and I did it. It took me 2 hours and 3 minutes which was decent I think. I felt like run over dog crap when I got back home though. I am kinda stupid because I run without water or anything. I just run. Well at mile 10, I reeeeeaaaaaallllllyyyyyy needed some water. I stopped at the market at the edge of town and asked for some water and they were too sweet and gave it to me (Josh went back and paid later). Note to self, run with water or run back home mid way and get water.
So when I got home, I drank a bathtub full of water and laid down in the floor. I really didn't feel good. My toes were hurting, my legs were hurting, my back was hurting. Basically everything from my bellybutton down was in pain. Luckily this lasted only a few hours then I felt totally fine. It still blows my mind that I am running those distances. I mean 10 weeks ago, I dreamed of running a half. I wanted to be that girl. I wanted to mark that off of my list of things to do and here I am in the thick of it, doing it and accomplishing it.
It's not easy, it's really hard somedays. Some runs totally suck and some runs are awesome. My comfortable runs are 6 miles or less and I generally hit a wall around mile 9. Josh told me this once; "the more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle". I like that and when it gets hard, I say that over and over and over. I'm gonna have him write that down for me so I can have it on race day.
Another perk to just sucking it up and running through, especially the hard days are days like today. I got to go shopping today because Ive lost a few pounds. I bought size 2's and xs shirts. HOLLA! I haven't been those sizes since high school. I'm not looking especially forward to my 9 mile run in the morning but thinking about those jeans and how nice that felt to buy a smaller size will be going through my head the whole time!
So this week looks like this: 9 miles tomorrow then I will have 2 evening runs (Wednesday and Thursday) bc of Josh's work schedule this week. That sucks but those will probably be 4 or 5 miles each. Then Saturday will be 13 miles!!!!! Holy Bananas! 13 miles! YIKES! I'm gonna do it and hopefully not feel like I'm gonna die at the end. Hopefully.
:)
Here's the run down on running the past few weeks :)
Training has definitely changed for me since summer ended. I don't have near as much time as I did this summer and have been running mostly 3 days a week. Sometimes I get lucky and get the 4th day but Ive had several weeks of just 3 runs. I try to keep on schedule, but unlike the beginning of training I kind of just run what I think I need to run during the week and make sure to do the long runs on the weekends-unfortunately it's not always the same day.
Two weeks ago, my long run was 12 miles. Ok, let me just back it up and say this. I made my training schedule from a combination of training schedules that I liked and just tweaked them to work for me. I had back to back weeks of running 12 miles. Josh was out of town the first week, so my sweet friend Cassie agreed to watch Major for me. Long story short. I didn't do it. I ran 6. It seems weird to say 6 miles was a disappointing run but it was. I could spell out a list of excuses but the bottom line was I didn't do it. I was disappointed but gave myself some grace. I knew the following week (which was this past Friday) that I had to get it done.
So Friday comes and I did it. It took me 2 hours and 3 minutes which was decent I think. I felt like run over dog crap when I got back home though. I am kinda stupid because I run without water or anything. I just run. Well at mile 10, I reeeeeaaaaaallllllyyyyyy needed some water. I stopped at the market at the edge of town and asked for some water and they were too sweet and gave it to me (Josh went back and paid later). Note to self, run with water or run back home mid way and get water.
So when I got home, I drank a bathtub full of water and laid down in the floor. I really didn't feel good. My toes were hurting, my legs were hurting, my back was hurting. Basically everything from my bellybutton down was in pain. Luckily this lasted only a few hours then I felt totally fine. It still blows my mind that I am running those distances. I mean 10 weeks ago, I dreamed of running a half. I wanted to be that girl. I wanted to mark that off of my list of things to do and here I am in the thick of it, doing it and accomplishing it.
It's not easy, it's really hard somedays. Some runs totally suck and some runs are awesome. My comfortable runs are 6 miles or less and I generally hit a wall around mile 9. Josh told me this once; "the more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle". I like that and when it gets hard, I say that over and over and over. I'm gonna have him write that down for me so I can have it on race day.
Another perk to just sucking it up and running through, especially the hard days are days like today. I got to go shopping today because Ive lost a few pounds. I bought size 2's and xs shirts. HOLLA! I haven't been those sizes since high school. I'm not looking especially forward to my 9 mile run in the morning but thinking about those jeans and how nice that felt to buy a smaller size will be going through my head the whole time!
So this week looks like this: 9 miles tomorrow then I will have 2 evening runs (Wednesday and Thursday) bc of Josh's work schedule this week. That sucks but those will probably be 4 or 5 miles each. Then Saturday will be 13 miles!!!!! Holy Bananas! 13 miles! YIKES! I'm gonna do it and hopefully not feel like I'm gonna die at the end. Hopefully.
:)
Ski Day
Not that anyone really cares, but I am behind again.
Shocker.
So much is going on, time is just a flying by.
I did want to blog this event though because, well, I think it's awesome and I want to remember it.
Josh and I took Major to Bass Pro a few weeks ago. Every time we are there, Major asks for skis but Josh and I had pretty much decided to wait another year or so to get them because we didn't feel like he was quite ready to listen or learn how. We agreed that he was probably strong enough but we honestly didn't think he'd listen long enough to learn how to do it.
Well, Daddy hadn't seen Major-man in a few days so when we were there, Major asked again to get the skis and Daddy-O said yes. We were going to the lake the following weekend so we just decided to get them and if he did it awesome, if not, then we had them for the following year.
We went home and took off the blade thingies in the bottom and pulled him all red-neck style through the yard so that he could get the feeling of being pulled. It definitely is different than being in the water, but that pull on your shoulders and arms is the same and we wanted him to have that feeling. He did great, had fun and listened. YES!
Next came the lake...Josh and I both agreed that pulling him behind the jet ski would be easier for him to learn. I mean, let's remember, he's 4! He's tough and strong, but we knew he would have more success behind the jet ski.
We get him in the water and bless his heart. He is so nervous. He starts whining and saying he changed his mind...blah blah blah...but we were in the water with him and were reassuring him that he would do awesome. Josh was stabilizing the front of the skis, just so he'd know how far to have them out of the water and I had the back of the skis in the water and between my knees. I was holding his waist with my hands and bless him, he was shaking so much.
The first time he kinda got up, well, he didn't immediately fall, but he wasn't up up either. We had to tell him to stand up!!!! The second time, we lined him up again, got the skis stabilized and he fell again, but got more up than the first time. He said he wanted to take a little break and watch us ski then he'd try again later. We decided not to push him and said ok.
Josh skied first, then me. Major got to watch us both then he was ready for his turn. We did the same thing again. Josh and I in the water with him and him behind the jet ski. This time he wasn't scared or nervous, he was READY! He got up and skied about 100 yards!!! We were freaking out and I'm pretty sure Josh and I were both crying proud, happy tears! He let go this time then said he wanted to do it again. So he did, but, unlike the other times, we didn't help him. He got up all by himself and probably skied 300 or so yards.
This sounds crazy to say, but it was one of the happiest and most proud times for us as a family. I think it was so special because Major knew he was ready to do something that Josh and I didn't think he was ready for. He proved us wrong. :) Also, it was special because Josh and I got to teach him something together. Skiing is something we both love and enjoy and I feel really blessed that we were both in the water together showing him what to do. It was amazing. My heart was just bursting with happiness for him.
Here are some pics of our fun day:
I'll say it forever, a million times over I'm sure, but these moments, that day....just proud is the best way to describe it. It was a wonderful day for us as a family.
Shocker.
So much is going on, time is just a flying by.
I did want to blog this event though because, well, I think it's awesome and I want to remember it.
Josh and I took Major to Bass Pro a few weeks ago. Every time we are there, Major asks for skis but Josh and I had pretty much decided to wait another year or so to get them because we didn't feel like he was quite ready to listen or learn how. We agreed that he was probably strong enough but we honestly didn't think he'd listen long enough to learn how to do it.
Well, Daddy hadn't seen Major-man in a few days so when we were there, Major asked again to get the skis and Daddy-O said yes. We were going to the lake the following weekend so we just decided to get them and if he did it awesome, if not, then we had them for the following year.
We went home and took off the blade thingies in the bottom and pulled him all red-neck style through the yard so that he could get the feeling of being pulled. It definitely is different than being in the water, but that pull on your shoulders and arms is the same and we wanted him to have that feeling. He did great, had fun and listened. YES!
Next came the lake...Josh and I both agreed that pulling him behind the jet ski would be easier for him to learn. I mean, let's remember, he's 4! He's tough and strong, but we knew he would have more success behind the jet ski.
We get him in the water and bless his heart. He is so nervous. He starts whining and saying he changed his mind...blah blah blah...but we were in the water with him and were reassuring him that he would do awesome. Josh was stabilizing the front of the skis, just so he'd know how far to have them out of the water and I had the back of the skis in the water and between my knees. I was holding his waist with my hands and bless him, he was shaking so much.
The first time he kinda got up, well, he didn't immediately fall, but he wasn't up up either. We had to tell him to stand up!!!! The second time, we lined him up again, got the skis stabilized and he fell again, but got more up than the first time. He said he wanted to take a little break and watch us ski then he'd try again later. We decided not to push him and said ok.
Josh skied first, then me. Major got to watch us both then he was ready for his turn. We did the same thing again. Josh and I in the water with him and him behind the jet ski. This time he wasn't scared or nervous, he was READY! He got up and skied about 100 yards!!! We were freaking out and I'm pretty sure Josh and I were both crying proud, happy tears! He let go this time then said he wanted to do it again. So he did, but, unlike the other times, we didn't help him. He got up all by himself and probably skied 300 or so yards.
This sounds crazy to say, but it was one of the happiest and most proud times for us as a family. I think it was so special because Major knew he was ready to do something that Josh and I didn't think he was ready for. He proved us wrong. :) Also, it was special because Josh and I got to teach him something together. Skiing is something we both love and enjoy and I feel really blessed that we were both in the water together showing him what to do. It was amazing. My heart was just bursting with happiness for him.
Here are some pics of our fun day:
Nervous but listening and doing awesome
This was his first or second try, Im not really sure, he fell right after this.
Josh and I were screaming!!!! YAY!!!!!
Look at him! This was all on his own!
Ski Major Ski!!!
Just Major and Pappy. He was doing awesome and had figured out how to get up and drop when he was finished!
A little driving lesson after he learned to ski.
I'll say it forever, a million times over I'm sure, but these moments, that day....just proud is the best way to describe it. It was a wonderful day for us as a family.
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