SLO in Arkansas: August 2010

Monday, August 30, 2010

Run Tyson Run!

Here are the pictures from Tyson's first official kids race. He was so super cute waiting at the starting line!

And they are off!! Tyson really wasn't sure what was going on, and he was the youngest kid running in the group.

Daddy helping Tyson run it on home. The big kids finished way before him but he was a trooper and kept trucking all the way to the finish line:) Actually he got behind quite a bit because he stopped to give the guy a high five who was waiting for them at the halfway point!! He lost a little time there:)

Almost finished!! He did so good and I was so proud of my little guy. He loved it and I am so glad he thinks running is fun. Hope he keeps the enthusiasm for it up over the years.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Mud Puddles

Little

Boys

Love

Mud!!

Saturday, August 21, 2010

More Racing

I ran my second race this morning and it was awesome!! It was my first 5k since the last race I ran was a random 4 mile one. My original goal was to break 30 minutes. I have run it in 30:05 during practice, so I figured that was a good starting point. I secretly set a goal of 29 minutes this past week since I figured the hype of the race would pick up my pace a little. Needless to say I was super pleased to cross the line at 27:45!!! That was my official time anyway. I thought I crossed the line a second or two ahead of that but it was still a great time for me. When I finished the first mile in 8:54 I knew I was in for a great run. Especially since that first mile had a huge hill that was over half a mile long!

I train outside in the heat and the course we usually run has a few hills on it, so I think that really helps me out during the races. I know a lot of people run super early in the morning or inside with no hills. I am constantly blown away by how evenly matched Amy and I are in our running. I know we train together, but we race so similarly it is crazy!! She beat me by one second at the first race and I beat her by 2 seconds this race. I guess we will be fighting each other to place in the top 3 all year!!

I finished 5th again in my age group. The top 3 get trophies, and that is what I am aiming for! There are usually around 18-20 women that run in my age group, so I feel good about being pretty close to the top. That darn competitive nature of mine wants to win though!!! There are some fast women out there that definitely give me a run for my money:)

My biggest fans!! I love how supportive Silas is and the boys love watching the race. They had a kids race following the adults this morning so Tyson got to run his first "race." It was adorable. I will save those pictures for another post though:)

Monday, August 16, 2010

Hot Hot Hot

My goodness it is hot! I love sunshine and we have had plenty of it for sure the past few weeks. Many days over 100 plus the lovely high humidity to add 10 or 15 degrees to the heat index. It hasn't slowed down my running though, thank goodness. We are slowing wrapping up summer here and looking forward to Fall and all the fun and changes it brings.

It is so hot Jace has to swim in the kitchen sink instead of outside!! Just kidding:) He actually just gets so filthy and disgusting during meals that Silas has started dumping him in the sink after dinner to hose him off. Jace loves it and splashes away. I am thankful for an extra deep sink to accommodate my big boy:) Can you believe he will be a year old next week??!! We are getting ready for some partying around our house.

Tyson smiling at the camera, or in its general direction!! A rare shot indeed. He is way too active and energetic to be cooped up inside all day, but the heat keeps us in more than I would like. We improvise by using the house and furniture as an indoor jungle gym which both boys love:) They have started doing a lot more rough-housing together and I can only imagine the wrestling fights that are in my future with these two!

The boys actually sitting and sharing a snack. It was too cute to pass up getting a picture of. They are so sweet and love each other so much. I enjoy watching their relationship change and grow as they get older.

Everything else is good on the home front. I am super excited for fall and all it entails. Here is an overview of what we have on the horizon for the next few months.
1) Tyson and Jace both attending Mother's Day Out on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week.
2) Me working a lot more once they go back to school. I hope to work the days they are in school and then Mon-Thurs afternoons as well. I am splitting my time between the church counseling center and going to visit kids in their homes. I will continue to do adoption home studies on the side as they come up.
3) Silas is getting super involved at church. He is now singing on the praise team several weeks each month. He is also helping out with the men's ministry and may be doing some fun drama for the kids on Wed nights. He is serving on a Tres Dias weekend in October as well.
4) I have big plans for my running for the fall, with a list of races I would like to enter over the next few months. I hope to run at least one or two a month if it all works out. My next one is a 5k this weekend on Saturday morning. I am excited!!! I am also going to take the plunge into the world of cycling with hopes of competing in my first sprint triathlon next year. Wow!! I am pumped about this and overwhelmed too. There is so much to do and learn to be able to compete in three events. Silas is an awesome and supportive husband and coach:) He is really encouraging to me in all of this, and I am so thankful for him. So I am getting a new road bike soon (they are being shipped in September) and gearing up to start doing some serious cross training this fall. I am continually thankful for my friend Amy who I run with. I am so thankful we moved into this house and she lives right down the street where we can walk out of our door and run together. It has really changed my life over the past year and I am really excited to see what else we can accomplish together!
5) FOOTBALL season!!! enough said:)

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Missing Pictures

No clue why the pictures didn't post last time, but hopefully this works! I think this is the correct order they were supposed to be in.

Monday, August 09, 2010

Facts From the Fitness Front

I ran my first road race this weekend and it was awesome!! I started walking back in cold February with my friend Amy, and we have progressed from there. We are currently running routes from 2-4 miles about 4 times per week. We actually ran our longest distance last Saturday and made it 5 miles! I know I used to run a lot for soccer, but going out and running straight distance is so much different than playing a sport!! Plus, I haven't played a soccer game in almost 10 years!! And have had two kids along the way:)

Here are my running girls!! Amy in the middle lives a few houses down in my neighborhood which has made it super easy to walk outside and get our workouts in after we get kids in the bed. I am so thankful we moved where we did!! Stephanie on the right also lives close and she is great at pushing me to run farther and get into more adventuresome sports.....but more on that later! This was our cute picture before the race. We ran one called Hot Summer Nights, which happens to be a very tough 4 mile race in the dead heat of the Arkansas summer. The race started at 6:30 pm in the scorching heat. Lucky for us, we had an awful heat wave come through all week which happened to break late Thursday and into Friday. It was warming back up by race time, but it was only 93 rather than 104 like we had been practicing in all week! We are back under an excessive heat warning again today to start off the week, so I am so thankful for that wonderful little "cold" front for the actual race!

Anyway, here I am cruising to the finish line. (look dad, I even passed a man!!, and no , he is not crippled!!) We ran about 3.7 miles through town and neighborhoods, and then had to turn off-road and finish the last .3 mile through a huge field. It was awful! The grass was thick and soft and the ground was super lumpy and uneven, so it was much slower going than running on the road. I am a freak of nature and no matter how tired I am at the end, I can always sprint to the finish line, which I did. I came in one second behind Amy and finished with a time of 39:03. I averaged a 9:46 mile throughout the race which wasn't bad. I usually run about a 10 minute mile in practice, so I was glad to pick it up for the race. I hit the first mile at 9:01, but there were two killer hills in miles two and three which slowed me down quite a bit. I did manage to run every step of the way, which was one of my goals. The second goal was to cross the finish line, and not in an ambulance!!! So I was two for two on my goals!!! I run in the 30-34 year old age group, and finished 5th out of 21. I was 94th overall (men and women) out of 218 runners, so at least I was in the top half.

A picture of me and my boys after I finished the race. Tyson was so excited to see me run, since he knows I "go running," but doesn't really know what that means!! It was so precious to see him jumping up and down on the side of the road waving when I ran by. I am so thankful to have such a supportive family as I work hard at this new part of my life. So here are the stats. Since I started walking in February I have lost 29.2 pounds! I am currently 20 pounds lighter than the day I got pregnant with Tyson!!! I am about 12 pounds less than when I got pregnant with Jace. I am wearing clothes I haven't fit into since the first year or so after we got married, which was over 8 years ago, and two kids!! Needless to say I am pretty happy with the results, and hoping to keep it up. I don't really care how much I lose at this point, just wanting to get in better shape and start placing in some races. I really enjoyed the race and have a long list of events I am hoping to participate in between now and the end of the year:)

SLO in Arkansas