Goodbye sweet girl...

Sad times in our household - we have lost our sweet dog Roxy.  A few months back at the vet we found she had an in-operable stomach tumor and we knew this time would come eventually.  On Friday it was clear that the time was here.  We are heartbroken and sad, but eternally grateful for the 11+ years of love and companionship we had with her.  Rest in peace my sweet girl.

Friday five...

I haven't done a Friday post in FOREVER!  Here's my five for Friday...

1)  These workouts:

I was doing these very regularly right up until I went on vacation - then between vacay and Ragnar relay, I have kind of fallen off the wagon for the last two weeks.  I'm on the 3rd month, workouts 9 and 10.  They are definitely tough, and I'm liking them! This week I'm trying to get back in the swing of things and I'll do a post on what each workout consists as I did here and here for workouts 1-4.

2)  Yesterday my 5 year old daughter's friend asked me if I was my daughter's mommy, to which I replied yes...and to which she replied, "oh, I thought you were her grandma...because you look old".  Thanks sweetie...no more play dates for you!  Then to rub salt in the wound later that day, my son told me that my stomach is kind of round and it looked like I "could be a little bit pregnant".  So there ya go, apparently I look like a little bit pregnant Grandma.  Just in case I was starting to get a big head, these guys will keep my ego firmly in check.

3)  On Tuesday I got to spend time with one of my favorite people, my nephew Orion who is visiting from New York.

Isn't my nephew handsome? And tall?

He just got back from an Outward Bound adventure, and wants to stay in shape, so I showed him a nice running path by his mom's house.  We met up on Tuesday morning (8am...super early for a 16 year old, super late for me!) and ran an out and back.  My Garmin died, so I did what I thought would be a little over 3 miles - but turned out to be 4.5.  Woops!  He did great though and I had a great time running and spending some time with him.  I love sharing running with others and it's even better to share it with someone I love so much!

4)  So far with my foot recovery the longest I've run is 10 miles but this weekend I'll be pushing to 11.  My new target is 13.1 - need to start looking into half marathons again!  Woot!  My foot feels really good even after pushing it at the Ragnar relay this weekend (recap of that still in the works), so I'm really pleased with how it's all going.

5)  The Olympics are starting!  What are your favorite events?  Last year I really got into the swimming - mostly because of Michael Phelps and his 8 golds - but this year I might have a new interest...

hello there Mr. Lochte  ( source )

I really don't care if he even medals...I'll definitely be watching! :)

Speaking of the swim team, and saw this and it just made me giggle.  The US Olympic Swim team made a video lip synching the song "Call me Maybe".  It's fun to see these serious athletes goofing off and showing their personalities.


Hope you all have a great weekend!  Head over to Fitness, Health and Happiness for Fitness Friday!

Ragnar Relay NW passage done!

I'll be writing up a longer post to talk about my AWESOME Ragnar Race experience - but it will take some time to get it into words and all the pictures together.  I had a great time, ran with great people, and overall I'm pretty happy with how it all went.  Until then, I'll leave you with this image of Michelle and I at the finish line:

Good times!

Ragnar nerves!

Today (in about an hour actually) I'm heading out to Seattle to run my first race in almost a year!

The Ragnar Relay NW passage.   I'm very excited, but I'm also a little nervous.  Over the last few years I've ran some of my strongest relays to date, but I was also in the middle of marathon training for most of them, and this year after having been injured for most of the past year, well...let's just say I am no where near in the same shape as I was.  I'm confident that I can finish the race.  I wasn't given difficult legs, so that will help.  I just hope that I feel strong and can push my pace a little bit.  I'd like to average in the low 8's - but I'll be happy with averaging 8:30's per mile - which my training suggests I can do.  You just never know what race day will bring though - I might average 10's!  Most importantly, my goal is just to have fun.  I know a handful of the people I'm running with, and they are awesome.  It sounds like we have a nice place to stay in Anacortes which should be beautiful as well.    It will be a great time for sure.

So, wish me luck and hopefully I'll be posting an epic tale of speedy running on Monday!  At any rate, I am just super grateful to be able to run again.  Just 3 months ago my podiatrist told me that if my foot didn't improve dramatically he was going to put me in a boot for a month and then we would have to start completely over with rehab.  So to be in this position now is definitely a blessing and I'm thankful that things have progressed as well as they have.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

High desert vacation and a little running...

Last week the family and I went over to Central Oregon for a little family R&R.  With such a scheduled life, it was great to get away and have absolutely NO schedule.  We did what we wanted when we wanted and, ahhh I loved it!  I managed to get 3 runs in last week - one the morning before I left and then two spectacular runs while I was there.

The scenery is just amazing.  Central Oregon is known at the "high desert" with lots of sage brush and juniper trees.  We were staying at my parent's cabin which is down in a canyon by the Deschutes river.  Both days that I ran (I did a 6 mile tempo run and a 10 mile long run while I was there) I left really early to avoid the heat of the day.   The climb out of the canyon is pretty brutal, but the view is gorgeous when you get up to the main road:

And then you get amazing views of the Cascade range:


Mt. Jefferson



The 3 Sisters

 These pictures really don't do the scenery justice because I took them with my phone and they don't capture the beauty of the mountains at all.  

I also had lots of company while I was out there...


hello there Mr. Deer!

There were deer, jack rabbits (which were way too fast to snap a pic of with my phone) and lizards every where.  It was very cool and a welcome change from my suburban neighborhood loop.

We also went for a hike at Smith Rock with the kids - my husband and I have hiked here many times, but the kids haven't explored here much.

It was really beautiful, but also very HOT!  We started off the hike all smiles:

My son was a trooper and he even had his dad do some trail running with him.

My daughter, however, was not as much a fan of the hike (mostly I think it was the heat) and she made sure to take a load off as soon as we were finished:

But we weren't GO GO GO the whole week - in fact, here's where we spent most of our days:

Most of our break was spent relaxing and playing in the pool.  We also met up with some amazing friends who live in Bend and enjoyed some great meals.  Very fun and I think just what we all needed.  Now we're back to reality, but I am still feeling the lingering effects of such a fun week.  I feel a little less concerned about keeping my schedule (or even having one at all if I can manage it) and a little more "go with the flow".  I definitely needed last week to take a step back and refocus on the important things.

Hope you're all having a great week!

Monumental events and Fathers Day

So we've had two monumental events here in the last few days.  First (and I suppose most importanty) we celebrated this:

My extremely excited graduate!

My daughter has graduated from preschool and will be moving on to Kindergarten in the fall.  She was so excited and the ceremony was so cute.  I will miss her preschool a lot - she's really grown in the last year and I'm very proud of her - but I also have a selfish reason for being excited for her graduation...because it means that next year she will be going to THE SAME SCHOOL AS HER BROTHER.  Do you hear me people?  No more running around to two different places every day!  This is such an exciting prospect!  I can't wait.  Also, isn't she the cutest graduate ever?

The other monumental event I have to post is that I ran long this weekend and my mileage was...

TEN miles!  Yeah, double digits baby!  I felt great and my foot is really doing well.  I think I needed to get to double digits to feel like I was really going to make it back to running consistantly.  I still feel slower than I want to be but I also felt very strong during the run.  I'm just so happy with my progress. 

This injury has been such a tough thing, and I don't think I necessarily handled it all that well much of the time.  I was very motivated to cross train and maintain my fitness initially, but then as the injury dragged on I went into a bit of a depression because I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere with it.  I basically gave up for a while.  But now I'm seeing the light on the other side of it, and I am just so extremely grateful and excited that I am truly making progress. 

And finally, I have to give some love to the two awesome Dad's in my life...

First my father, who I love so deeply and dearly.  He's just such a good man and I admire him in so many ways.  Here's a pic of him with my little graduate at her post-graduation lunch:

and of course, love to this guy:

Great dad, partner and person - my kids and I are straight up lucky.

Happy Father's day to all the Dads out there!

A little running and some funny motivation...

This morning I ran my longest post injury run to date - 9 miles!  Woot! 


Nine miles - yeah baby!

I ran a route that I wrote about here - basically it's leg 7 of Hood To Coast run in reverse - out 4.5 miles and back.  It's a difficult route with continual rolling hills, but it goes through beautiful countryside and it was perfect running weather this morning so I can't complain.

This is about 1.5 miles into the run - meaning that hill in the
background would have to be climbed at the end...ugh!

 I had my awesome running buddy Michelle with me. 

Unfortunately she is a little bit injured (fingers crossed she will be back running soon) but she was so awesome to ride her bike with me while I ran (at 5am no less).  I'm so lucky to have such an amazing running partner.

Anyway, the run felt great and I'm progressing well.  My foot still needs pampering, but it recovers well.  I definitely need to do some speedwork - I'm super slow compared to where I was at previously.  But obviously that's to be expected and I'll take it -  I'm just so happy to be running again!  In a few weeks I should be DOUBLE digits!  Woo hoo!

 Now for a little funny - here's some "motivation" my friend Ed sent me the other day.  Ryan Gosling really wants to help me run...

Finally a man who understands how interesting my running is!

 

You better make it 4am Ryan, I'm usually running by 5....

Hee!  I've seen these on the internet with various themes, but these runner focused ones are hilarious. Check out this site for a few more - so funny!

I hope you all are having a fantastic weekend!