Back to work+two sick kiddos+marathon training in new awesome socks= falling behind

Ugh… I am back to work and while that thrills me that means falling back into a routine and getting my school and real kiddos back into routine.  In the beginning of the week Ella was sick and at the end Brady was sick… some times with little ones, you just can’t catch a break…. the only silver lining is that I am FINALLY feeling better.

Last Sunday was the best run in a long time.  My coach wanted our splits to be no faster than 8:15 but the sun was shining and I felt amazing…… however, when the sun went down I turned into a frozen pumpkin…. but my coach was till happy and therefore I won’t complain… ok, maybe a little.

My view on Sunday’s Run

somehow I’m still smiling…. somehow.

As you know I live in upstate NY and lets be honest, it has not been warm in these parts since like August…lol…. ok… October.  Anyways, I’m miserable if my hands or feet are cold when I’m running.  I solved the hand issue with my Manzalla mittens, but my feet were still freezing.  The half marathon coach in our running group works at Fleet Feet and she suggested these amazing socks…Feetures! I’m literally OBSESSED!!!! Check them out.. they are not cheap but they are amazing!

When I got home, I took my snowy shoes off at the door and this little munchkin decided to do this…

“I run like mommy?” Hell yes!

I got a few great runs in this week and today as I was dreading yet another hill workout in on the treadmill, I got a bit of inspiration from a friend….

As I was getting on the treadmill a friend that I went to grad school came up to me and told me how much my fb posts inspires her and how she has lost over 100lbs running! How much running has changed her life and how great she feels! She looks amazing and honestly her genuine words inspired me to keep moving through my workout tonight even though I wanted to desperately give up… the quote above is so fitting… I love what I do. I love to run! I love to blog and if I inspire people along the way than that is awesome.  As I sit here tonight and write this final paragraph I feel so inspired! Her words touched my heart so much that it makes me want to work harder to be better… a better runner, a better blogger, a better person.  I guess you never know the impact of a moment until it’s over…. but let me tell you… today’s moment changed me… Thank you Kerrie!

Have you ever had a moment that changed you?!

What Up Wednesday!

As you know my race got cancelled this week and I’m still pretty upset about it.  I know I wasn’t very vocal about my goals for this race but I had hopes of hitting 1:30.  Yes, I’m still chasing that goal, but I’m definitely not going to give up.  I’m just going to have to find another race and keep after the prize.  I guess Nicole and I will have to wait until Boston to link up:(

Yesterday, I did a 9 mile tempo and rocked it.  I actually had one of the girls who works at the gym stop me and tell me how amazing and effortless I looked… I soooo needed that and I’m starting to gain back my confidence that I soooo much need.

Remember my treadmill at my gym shuts down after an hour so I stop it when I am mentally ready instead of it stopping me when I’m in the zone.  This didn’t hurt at all, as a matter of fact… it felt awesome:)

My little angel had to be picked up from day care yesterday because she was running a fever….AGAIN! So we came home and enjoyed some Farm Heroes and cuddles… ok ok I played Farm Hero and she napped…

Look what I found at Target!!!!

TimTams are literally one of my favorite cookies ever! I was introduced to them when I was living in London.  A few years later I found them on the shelves in one of our stores never to be seen again until this week! They are pure deliciousness. I can’t even described how amazing they are… but lets just say, I keep them hidden in the kitchen an I do not share.  I’m sorry, I can’t, don’t hate me.  Thank you Target and if you run into these bad boys anywhere… BUY them!

What up on your Wednesday?

What is your favorite packaged cookie?

Sick again and The Race that Never Happened….

I know I have been MIA but I’m still sick… I’m hopeful that I’m on the mend however I thought this before and I was so sick last week that I lost my voice…lol.  So lets just hope that things are looking up for me.  But like most of the northeast we have been pounded with snow and frigid temps so my training that I did squeeze in was spent with my boyfriend the treadmill. However, over the last week I have managed to do a hill workout (on the treadmill) and a few longer NOT long runs.  I am by no means feeling like my old self but after yesterday’s run I’m feeling much better….

FINALLY starting to hit “Tantra Times”

I have been talking with my girl Nicole over at thegirlwhoraneverywhere and had decided to FINALLY meet up and run a race together.  Apparently, mother nature has other plans and our race was canceled…. I’m sooo disappointed.  It’s hard to stay motivated when temps dip so low and the snow never seems to stop, so this was a fun way to keep moving.  It’s also hard when you have put in so much work for it just to not happen.  I’m not going to lie my training was spotty, but I know Nicole not only put her heart into this cycle but was ready to pop some serious times.  I’ve said it before and Ill say it again… sometimes stars don’t align and sometimes the perfect race doesn’t doesn’t happen, but it’s upsetting when you don’t even have the opportunity to race.

There will be other races and lucky for me I have plenty of time to really get ready for Boston…. Happy Tuesday (kinda)!

Have you ever had a race cancelled so close to the run date?

How have you all been!?

Feeling like myself again… well kind of

Last week was kind of weird for me because while my mind wanted to go running my body was screaming “hell no!”.  I would basically come home, eat dinner and fall asleep in my chair… total opposite of normal life because I typically have trouble falling asleep….So I listened and Sunday morning, even though it was bitter cold and we got quite a bit of snow, I decided to make the trek to my running group because if I didn’t…. I would have never started running again.

It was soooo cold! I literally took 3 showers to warm up from this….

My coach believes in the long SLOW run which, those of you who know me, know that is not how I run.  But that is exactly what I needed. Not to mention the wicked slushy and snow covered streets also put a ca-bosh on that as well. I ran the first 12 conservatively and when my coach stopped to use the bathroom I took off for the last two.  I’m not going to lie I’m sore today, but I’m SOOOO happy I ran yesterday.  Half of the battle really is getting out the door and the other half for me is mental.  I’m miserable when I’m cold so I running outside on days like this is a success all in itself.

yep that’s a giant snow bank behind me…. and we got more snow in the last 24 hours….

not a PR by any means, but I got it in!

After my run, I went home and snuggled with my sick girl:( We continue to pass whatever it is we have back and forth.  I hope by Boston I will be able to breath out of both nostrils!

love her

and in case you were wondering….this was the countdown as of yesterday!

It’s so close yet so far and I’m kind of happy about that because this girl has a lot of work!

How was your weekend?

The Beauty of Boston

I was hoping I’d feel better after my rest day and tell you about my amazing gym run, however that is not the case.  However, as I sit here in front of my laptop the words are just flowing… and what I want to talk about today is my love for Boston.  Not the city (which is also amazing) but the race.

I’ve been a runner since forever.  It’s really all I know. For those of you that have been following me, you know I began as a sprinter and the idea of a marathon seemed like “something I wanted to do SOMEDAY”.  As I matured as a runner, so did my love of distance running.  It was in college when my real dream of doing NYC and Boston started to really form, but even then it was a pipe dream. I had no idea the amount of training and pain that was ahead of me. I always knew I wanted to be a marathoner but I honestly never thought I had it in me but after listening to and reading about others journey’s I decided that I was certainly going to die trying….

I feel lucky in saying that my journey to Boston was shorter than most.  People try their entire lives and never qualify.  So, that fact that I am sitting here saying that I ran a marathon in Buffalo last May just to get one under my belt for my fall marathon (that coincidently never happened), and qualified by total accident…. is genuinely a dream come true.  I don’t know if it really has hit me yet, and to be blantantly honest, I don’t know if it will until I’m standing at the starting line on April 20th.

I’ve read hundreds of articles, watched hundreds of videos, every one ends in the same… in tears.  Every story is beautiful (good or bad), the time that people put into training and their hopes and dreams of the perfect race, the emotion of pictures, and the moments they stepped over the finish line… pure beauty.  It could be just an average person like you or me or the story of Shalene Flanagan, both journeys are beautiful in there own right.

Beautiful… just beautiful….

Keep your eye on the prize….

This picture is more powerful to me than her leading the pack… because this shows that she is just like me and that gives me hope of one day running a sub 3 hour marathon…..some day

Tonight I sat with Elle and watched random videos of people running heart break hill…. there was soooo much beauty to this moment.  First, sharing these moments with my daughter.  I love showing her the beauty in strength and power, and that strong really is the knew skinny.  I loved hearing the beauty in the crowds cheering on complete strangers and the love from the complete strangers embracing the love of strangers.  I loved knowing that in a few short months I will become one of those runners looking to the crowd  of strangers for love and support to get me up heart break hill, and finally my favorite part of that moment I shared with my daughter was when she said, “mommy, I run like you?”…. Beautiful.

There are millions of pictures of people running the Boston Marathon and almost every single one brings tears to my eyes.  I understand the beauty of that moment and I hope that one day someone can look at my pictures from the Boston Marathon and feel inspired the way I do…

Some days I just need a little inspiration….

I think this was EXACTLY what I needed…

Do you have a Holy Grail race?

Do pics from races bring a tear to your eye or inspire you?

Happy Snow Day & My Not So Great Long Run

Let me back up to yesterday’s run…the schedule called for 14 miles and while I’m just coming back from being ill I totally thought I had this run in the bag because my coach had me set at a very slow pace.  In my crazy head I was going to fly through the work out and be able to tell my coach how amazing my run was, in reality I struggled to get through 10 miles of pure hell.  I have no excuses and all I can say is I’m soooo disappointed that I couldn’t push myself to get through it. I was only 4 miles, but the struggle between miles 7 to 10 made me know that the other 4 were just NOT going to happen.

I don’t even have a post work out selfie because I was THAT depressed about my workout. After my workout there was lots of snuggling with miss ella because I passed what I had on to her and wallowing in my pathetic “long” run….but luckily I have an awesome coach who builds me up…

best coach ever

So I was able to shake it off and go enjoy my friends awesome super bowl party with this guy

we didn’t watch much of the game but we had a hell of a time….

And the weather guys finally got one right! This is what I woke up to this AM… so you know what that means… snow day with my loves and lots of free mini workouts of shoveling… yes I love shoveling…

My backyard at 7am

Happy Monday and yes I really mean it!

What it like right now where you live?

Have you ever had a long run go wrong?

The Guy Who Says “Hello” to Everyone and My First Day Back

I’d been hoping all week that I was going to be rested and ready to return and unfortunately, it wasn’t to this AM when I started feeling “better”. It was -2 today and felt like -12, so you know what that means…. I’d be spending today’s run with my BF the treadmill and honestly after not running for almost a full week, I was totally ok with that.

My plan was to hit up Target for some groceries and then hop over to the gym because they are literally across the highway from one another. So I pulled myself together and headed to Target to get some groceries.  As soon as I walk in I hear this guy behind me saying hello to everyone.  At first I thought he worked there, but he wasn’t in the Target-Khaki and Red. But I heard him saying “hello” to literally everyone he saw, he even would go out of his way to say hello to some people.  I was totally weirded out by the situation.  I was like, “wtf is happening? what is he doing?” So I made sure to stay many paces behind him because I didn’t know his next move and I wanted to be on the safe side.  One customer asked a worker about him and they said ” oh he is fine, he comes in about once a week and says hello to everyone”.  I could see that I was not alone in being weirded out. I let him disappear from sight and finished my shopping.  I headed over to my gym, got ready and hopped on my treadmill.  I was super siked to finally get something in… when I seen him stopping by machines and those lifting weights to say “hello”.  My anxiety shot through the roof, because I thought I had successfully dodged a bullet.  There was no hiding in bedding or in the toy isle, it was going to happen, he had already spotted me…and I was going to have to say hello back.  And about 1.5 miles in he forced me to make eye contact and said hello. I’m not a horrible person so of course I said hello back but it just really through me off. And like Target people were kind of wierded out by him.  He’s not aggressive and I guess he really is just a nice, happy person. My coach told me to do 4-6 miles and not to go any faster that 8 minute pace and I was more than happy to oblige because after not running all week 4 miles felt.like.hell.  But it’s done and it’s a step in the right direction…. I hope.

First Day Back!

On my drive home, I got to thinking about what my problem was with this poor guy?! He was doing nothing wrong, just being friendly and the world (including myself) was completely freaked out by him.  Has our society really come to this?! Where saying hello makes you a “weirdo”?! As I write this, I feel like a horrible person.  Maybe we could all learn something from the guy who wears rose colored glasses and says hello to everyone they meet.  Maybe the world would be a better place if we were all willing to simply say hello… I think that maybe somewhere in the middle is good…. I kind of hope I run into him again, I know that next time I definitely won’t run and hide in the doll isle and maybe, just maybe I will say hello first.

I guess there is something to be said about rose colored glasses

Sunday is long run day and Super Bowl Sunday….What are you doing for the Super Bowl?!

How do you come back and recover from the flu?