Photo Friday

I have not been able to post as much as I would like to lately, but it's not because I don't have anything to say!  Believe me, I have plenty to share!  God is doing great things in my life and in my family and I'm excited about some changes that are happening.
For now though because of time constraints I wanted to share with you some of the pics from Little Prince and Littlest Prince's birthday party last weekend.
It was a blast and we are blessed to have such loving friends and family!

Littlest Prince would NOT look at the camera!!

But he will play the guitar for the crowd. LOL

 

Middle Prince(MP)

Seriously I just love how my legs look in this pic...;)

 

and then it was time for a nap.

Hope you are all have a wonderful weekend and get in some great runs! 

This week the weather has been perfect for running! I love it!

Grace and peace,

10k Race Recap

I'm pretty sure 10k's are not my thing. On Saturday I ran the Jesse Owens Memorial 10k.  My first 10k. My goal time was 50:00.  My actual time 56:16.  Some how I actually placed 3rd in my age group.  The only thing I can figure is that every one else had as bad of a run as I did.
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The race was set to start at  8am and by 7:30am it was already 80 degrees with 90% humidity.  You could see the humidity in the air it was so thick.  I was a little jealous that most of the guys could run without shirts. I wore my black running skirt from Skirt Sports and a pink Nike tank and was sweating before I even started running.
 At 7:45 I did a .5 mile warm up, made a quick potty break and headed to the start line.
I started off strong and logged 8:10 for the first mile, 8:29 for the second mile, at mile 3 I started to feel a little yucky....that's the only word I can use to describe it.  The course was in full sun, my energy started to wane, and my legs started to get heavy.  Mile 3 was 8:47. That is when it turned into a full on mental battle.  I have never wanted to quit a race so bad. Actually, I didn't just want to quit, I wanted to lay down in the fetal position on the side of the road. Mile 4 was 9:10.  Thankfully, my friend Kelly passed me as she passed me I told her that I felt like I had hit a wall. She stayed about 20 paces in front of me for the next two miles and kept checking in with me and encouraging me. Mile 5 was a painful 9:48. A few times I got cold chills and felt like I could pass out if I pushed any harder.  I kept telling myself to suck it up and to quit being such a baby. After all I've run half marathons! I'm a runner for goodness sake!  I do 6 mile runs for fun!
It makes me laugh now to think about it.  I was so frustrated while I was running and the more frustrated I got the worse I ran.  At one point I thought about throwing my Garmin into the woods, like it was Garmin's fault I was sucking so bad.  I think I had a case of Runner's Road Rage. LOL!
Anyway, mile 6 was 9:28. Walking to the finished seemed like a good idea until I saw Jon.  Jon is Kelly's husband and also an Ultra-marathon runner. He finished this same 10k in 36 minutes! At mile marker 6 Jon met me and ran with me to the finish line.  The last .2 was on a high school track. Right before we hit the track Jon said "When you get to the track you turn into a sprinter."   I think I muttered something like "ummhmmff"  It took me 2:26 mins to run .27miles.....not exactly sprinting.
I have never been so happy to cross a finish line so I could stop running.
I guess I thought it would be an easy race.  That was my mistake.  I train for 5ks and I train for half marathons, but I have never trained for a 10k.  I've never learned to pace for a 10k.  In a half marathon by mile 6 I'm getting into my groove, I was never able to get into a groove at this race. 
I can't say that I will never run a 10k again, but if I do, I will be trained up.
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Tomorrow I will again be running a 10k. This one is bound to be more fun....The Rock Your Socks 10k is a virtual 10k or Half Marathon hosted by Racing with Babes.  

This Saturday is the P.C.R.A. 5k.  It is also the No Boundaries 5k graduation run!! YaY!! I'm so proud of all the runners, it is amazing to see how far they have all come.  All 55 runners can finish a 5k in under an hour which is amazing considering it took some of them an hour to finish 2 miles when we started.  I will be running with the group to help them cross the finish line and then I will be running the 1 mile fun run with my boys.

Saturday is also my birthday! I love Birthdays! I will be 32 years wise! Hubby has to work so I will spend the day with my boys and then my girls are taking me to dinner. 

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend! 

Grace and peace,

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Three Things Thursday

First of all, I have been absolutely slacking on my blogging! I don't know if it's spring fever or what.  And if you can't tell by my mileage report...I've been slacking on my running too.  Here is what I have been doing.

1. I had a fantastic girl's trip to Orange Beach.  Though it was only 3 days it was just enough to leave me feeling rested and recharged.  The first day there I had a hard time entering "vacation mode", especially, vacation eating.  The girls thought it was hilarious that I brought a protein bar on vacation...I have been doing pretty good lately about eating and it is always so difficult for me to get back to healthy eating after a vacation food bender.

Then, my crackberry died and I had forgotten the charger.  That was probably the best thing that could have happened to me.  No work e-mails, no phone calls(unless I wanted to make a call), no facebook, or blogging(sorry;)).  By day two, I was in FULL vacation mode!  Oh the weather was perfect! We painted our nails, ate good seafood, played cards, layed out,caught crabs.....HA! Yes I said we caught crabs....these white crabs called "ghost crabs" come out at night and you get a flashlight and follow their tracks until you see two little eyes poking up from the sand. Then you just scoop them up into a bucket! It was so fun! I can't wait to take my boys there this summer and teach them how to catch crabs(that just sounds funny to me!).  Here are some pics from the trip:

 

 Elaine,Ragan,Me, and Denisse

 

 I spotted Mr. Crabs...no one else would get close enough to catch him!!

 

Mr. Crabs

 Getting ready to eat some really good food! Check out the mugs of pop we drank!! Geez!

If you haven't taken a "girls only" trip, I highly recommend it! I really believe it is so important to have positive female friends in your life to encourage you, pray with you, and build you up.  I'm so thankful God placed these strong, Godly women in my life!

2. This Saturday I will be running my first 10k.  The Jesse Owens Memorial 10K. I was sure I had run a 10k already but after looking back over my race records I realized some how, I never have.  So, I'm a little apprehensive about it.  If you have been reading my blog for any length of time you know I'm competitive. Not only with others, but with myself....I LOVE to PR and a PR for Saturday is just a given.  I also love to place in age group....not so sure that will happen.  There are a lot of fast women around here!  The goal I set for myself is 50:00.  It should be attainable. Two of my friends are going to run too.  It excites me to finally have friends that run! 

3. Sunday at 2pm we are celebrating the Birthdays of Little Prince who turned 9 and Littlest Prince who turned 2.  I have had to reschedule this party twice because of rain.  We are having a baseball themed party and the weather man is predicting a beautiful day Sunday.  It will be perfect for a BBQ and a game of baseball!!  I always go way overboard on Birthday parties so I have tried to scale it back this time. Just your normal run of the mill BBQ.....Yah right!!! Here is a pic of the cake that I'm having made:

How cute is that?!!

Okay, it might be a little over the top, but it is for two kids....

Thank God I'm running a 10k the day before the party because one layer of that cake is red velvet and the other two are chocolate fudge...yummmm.

If you're new to my blog, welcome!  If you're not new, thanks for stopping by!

I love to read your comments and feedback!

Grace and peace,

Three Things Thursday

As you are reading this I am on my way to the beach with my girls!! (love that I can schedule a post)

I have a hard time getting into vacation mode, so hopefully I am also relaxing.;)

1. While getting ready for the beach the last couple weeks I was reminded of one of my goals for 2010 and I quote: "I will incorporate weight lifting into my workouts no less than 2 times a week"....FAIL.

I was reminded of this goal while I was standing in a fitting room, under fluorescent lights, in front of a fun house mirror....wearing a bathing suit...w.o.w.  Might be time to recommit to that goal.

 

2. I ♥ to run. I know, big surprise.  I'm so excited that the ladies in my subdivision(about 30 houses) seem to have caught the running bug. There are 3 ladies that just started running within the last few months and a few more that are wanting to start running.  There are 6 of us that will be running in the P.C.R.A. 5k on May 22nd! I feel like a recruiter!  It is so great to see women take control of their health and their sanity!  I know this may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but I'm came from Chicago to Alabama and in Chicago, it's nothing to see someone running or riding a bike, down here, not so much.  It is getting better though and that excites me.

3. I'm really hoping that this time at the beach will give me a chance to refresh and recharge.  Our schedules are so busy that sometimes I feel like I'm on auto-pilot.  I'll miss the little prince's though.  Hubby is in Texas for work, so Grandma will be coming to stay until I get back.  The boys are excited because that means they will be eating some great food!! 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!  Can't wait to share some beach pics with you when I get back!

If you're new to my blog, welcome!  If you're not new, thanks for stopping by!  I love to read your comments and feedback!

Grace and peace,

Sometimes I clean up well...

Last weekend I went to a garden party at a country club.  I know....I'm so fancy. LOL!  It was actually hosted by my church and was in honor of mothers.  My step-daughter Jayden and her mother came too and we had a wonderful time.  It was fun to get all dressed up and act all proper for a while!!

Here is a picture of me and my girls

 I love wearing hats! We all decided we would wear our hats to church on Mother's day too.

BTW, 4 out of 6 in this picture are now runners!!  I'm sucking them in!!!

Hope you are all having a great week!

If you're new to my blog, welcome!  If you're not new, thanks for stopping by!  I love reading your comments and feedback!


Grace and peace,

Running a faster 5k

 With no major races coming up in the next couple months(or none that I have signed up for yet), I am setting my sights on running a sub 23 min 5k.  My best 5k time right now is 24.44.
The great thing about the area I live in is that I can find a 5k almost any weekend of the year. 

I know that I need to add speed work to my training, what I'm not sure about is what is the most effective speed work.  Fartlek(such a great word), Intervals, or tempo runs...or all three?  There is a plethora of information out there but I would like to hear from you, my fellow runners what has worked the best for you.   I know there are some of you out there who have superhuman 5K times.  What did you do to run a faster 5K?

If you're new to my blog, welcome! If you're not new, thanks for stopping by!  I love reading your comments and feedback!

Grace and peace,