Mother, Run, Hike

Books, books, books! I'm falling behind on books, I need to order a huge stack of stuff and lose myself in books until the spring.... Only If marathon training was not getting in the way of this! Last Week I finished A Short Story of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (10)- this was a very interesting book! It reminded me of A Brief History of Time, except I didn't have to go back and re read some things three times to have a moderate understanding of it. One of the things that struck me the most about the book is when he talks about the incredibly lucky chances of being oneself.... counting how many thousands of sperm were fighting to get to the egg, each with different information, but mine was the one who won that race (#WBW to the very first race I won?!) and became who I am. Other things that struck me about it * Humans tend to make animals extinct any place they inhabit * Bacteria has lived in this planet longer than humans * A lot of sc...

This past weekend it was my sister's Birthday, and as we were eating our way through the weekend, I was thinking that whenever I go to my parents, I eat a lot more than normal and this weekend with a long run finished, and my sister's birthday, we used it as an excuse to eat even more! So I thought, we are always doing work out recaps, and this week I will also be doing a weekend food recap on everything eaten this weekend... only because I love food! Friday Lent Fridays are hard! It is only on lent that I remember how much meat I eat for lunch and dinner! We went to Sofia's for breakfast. Eggs, toast, home fries, 1 pancake and coffee. Pre run sips- Macchiato at Cornerstone. I was still Mid run snack - Hot chocolate and two bites of brownie- I was very cold, and very hungry. So went in and got a small hot chocolate and a brownie at mile 10. It didn't feel possible to keep running without this. Post Run meal- two more bites of brownie, few more sips of...

I found this Link up Post about Race Tshirts, on Marcia's Healthy Slice and it got me interested in writing about my shirts. I'm going to make a full confession, right here and right now... I don't wear all of my race shirts. I have asked myself why I don't, and have come to the conclusions that 1. I don't like wearing clothes that don't make me feel good, 2. I don't like to humble brag and 3. I don't like the colors of the shirts. The good My Ninja 10K Shirt- This shirt is a solid red, and because it's from US Road Runners, it doesn't have all the advertisements in the back of the shirt. It's a plain picture of ninja in the front. I believe this is a boy's cut shirt, but I like the fit and fabric, or I like it enough to have worn it twice. The Yellow In 2015 I was super excited about signing up for a 10K, and I remembering swearing that I would wear my Hershey 10K shirt ALL THE TIME! That was until I picked it up, discovered...

Oh my dear legs! Thank you for carrying me 17 miles! I don't say it enough, but here, let's have some oatmeal to celebrate! Last week was really crazy busy and crazy cold! School closings and sub zero temperatures were all over this week, but spring is getting closer! I can feel it! Monday February 15 President's day- School was closed, My love nugget and I went to my mom's to celebrate my niece's birthday. Rest day. Tuesday, February 16 - School was closed because of snow and ice. Love nugget and I enjoyed some rest in the morning. He even helped me answer some work emails. Love Nugget answering emails to the State Offices... "Mom, how do you spell "Bring me Donuts?" Make shift Home office 1 hour of zumba with Susan 2.5 miles on the treadmill Wednesday, February 17 1 hour zumba with Denise 1 hour Yoga with Denise* * I was scheduled to run 4 miles intervals, but I was tired, and have had a nagging pain in my right leg, poss...

Hello freezing rain week! I have become a lot more confused with our new training schedule, and snow and ice are not helping! I've lived in Pennsylvania for almost 20 years, and while I was in College I would walk to and from class, in the rain, snow, wind, sub zero temperatures, I would layer up, as in leggings, pants and three sweaters and a jacket. I don't like complaining about the weather, but this is the first year that I have to be outside for long runs and it's hard to find motivation to go run when the couch has a blanket, there is hot coffee in my cup and outside is windy and the windchill is -5 degrees. It's hard to find enough layers for comfortably running in the cold. Monday, February 8th Zumba with Susan 3 miles on treadmill Tuesday, February 9th Rest Wednesday February 10th Rest School had a two hour delay for Love Nugget and we had the chance to sleep in and catch up on some unnecessary TV. Thursday, February 11th 5 mile run with F...

My Five favorite things this week Foods Fastnacht Tuesday - I wanted to have 3 of them, but only had 1.5. Our Super Breaking Bad Tapas spread (Super because we skipped the Super Bowl and Watched BB instead) Running I love my new running tights ! They are keeping me warm during this cold temperatures.   2. I am enjoying my trail running shoes , for making running in the snow more bearable. (pictured above) 3. My son recently asked when he could do another race , that is one of my absolute favorite things EVER! 4. Fleet Feet Mechanicsburg Thursday running group - Whenever I go to the meet up, I end up surpassing my own expectations... either my speed, the distance I'm doing that day, or the conditions. Last night I pushed myself to go, knowing that it was cold, there was snow in the ground. I ended up running 5 miles, 2 of those in shoe deep snow, it was AWESOME! 5. I love my Buff ! Light, yet it covers up my face and nose while on this windy r...

Earlier I realized that Valentine's day is this weekend, and while others are hopefully asking their significant others what they want to do for the Holiday (instead of guessing), my fiancé/running partner and I are trying to balance a long run in frigid weather (it's going to be in the low 10s), and a fulfilling pre-long run Valentines day meal, with no alcohol.  But looking back, I started thinking, what has the most romantic running gestures** that Roger has done for me? and I came up with a few.   **Side note: I don't like "normal" romantic gestures, such as red roses, chocolates, teddy bears or romantic dinners. I'm weird, I know. I don't care. When He told me that I had excellent running form - I have been running for about 2.5 years, and hated gym all through school, Roger telling me that I had excellent running form made me want to jump on him and kiss him... I didn't, I was sweaty and very stinky. Enjoying ice cream after a grueli...

I like to order a ton of books from the library, and because some have holds, they take time arriving, and I have a steady flow of audiobooks coming my way, and rarely am I without a book for longer than 1 week. Well! The blizzard threw a wrench on the flow of books coming my way. Two books were sent back, and I didn't have time to pick them up. I would have thought that since the Library was closed for two days, they would have given an extra day to pick up books.... And I've had to stretch out a couple of books and re order others, still slow week in books! ok, enough with whining! Still Alice- by Lisa Genova (8) I started this book in 2010 for a book club, but didn't finish it. It stayed in my mind, so I made the request for it and waited 2 months for it. The story was uncomplicated, and written beautifully. The author makes the experience of having Early onset Alzheimer's very real, and I felt myself feeling the pain and frustration of the main character a...

There is many foods that I wait a year to have... Pozole for Christmas, Tamales for New Years, Pit beef sandwich for Apple Festival in October, Cider Donuts for Corn Maze day also In October. But my favorite is Fastnachs for Fat Tuesday! What is a Fastnacht? If you don't live in Central Pennsylvania, you might have never heard of them. Well, imagine this... The tastiest, freshest donut you have had, covered in the sugar of your preference... powder, granulated, cinnamon, glaze. Ok, you can find the official definition here . I went to zumba yesterday, and when I didn't feel like running, I reminded myself that I would be eating 3 fastnachts today.     Is there any food that you only enjoy once a year? Any traditional food for Fat Tuesday? Do you observe Lent?

My legs are in pain right now and I want to go home and keep sleeping.... but adulting is getting on the way... you know, with having to be at work. So, last week we decided to change up the training days cycle, to adjust for longer runs. It's all complicated because of my custody schedule, and I will not bore anybody with those details, but our training week will now be a Monday to Sunday week. So Training Week #4 will now have also included the Ice Fest 5K, and 12.5 miles of running. We had warm temperatures on Sunday and Monday, and this melted a lot of snow from our running trails. Monday 2.01.16  - Rest. After those exhausting 3 miles the day before! Tuesday 2.02.16 - A little bit of everything 30 minutes of weights with Roger. Let me say that, I do the exercises he gives me, but I don't know what they are called. I only know they worked because everything is sore the next three days. 1 hour of Zumba with Susan 3 mile tempo run on the treadmill- I was ...