SLO in Arkansas: November 2011

Monday, November 28, 2011

Boys of Fall

I found some pictures I took of the boys a few weeks back on my camera so I thought I would post them:) They have so much fun playing in the leaves in our yard. They happened to be dressed nice for church so I grabbed the camera when we got home while they had some fun playing around.

It is funny to post these now, as we are currently having a snow storm outside! I can't believe they were outside in shorts and t-shirts 2 days ago and now there is about 2 inches of snow everywhere. This weather is crazy!

We had some professional family pictures taken last week, and now I have the task of picking out which ones we want to order. I think the boys wore these same outfits since the colors showed up so well. They are the first family photos we have had made since Jace was born, so we were a little overdue:)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week as well. I will be posting those pictures soon so check back!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Woo Pig Sooie!

Silas and I were so excited to attend our very first Arkansas Razorback game this weekend! My running partner had extra tickets and invited us to go, and we were so thrilled that some dear friends were able to keep our kiddos all day and allow us to have a fun filled day of football, eating and shopping in Little Rock!

It was our first time to the War Memorial stadium, and it was a sold out crowd. The fans were awesome, and we had such a good time calling the Hogs!

It was a little warmer than we expected, but the weather was great (no rain or sun!) and we had a great time.

Silas took all these pictures from his phone, so sorry if the quality isn't the best! It was a great game, we beat the Mississippi State Bulldogs 44-17 and put Arkansas into 3rd place overall in the standings. I think that is the best ranking we have ever been! I love some SEC football:) Silas and I were so thankful for some time together and with friends. We have been so busy working lately and it was a great break to go and have some football fun!! Woo Pig Sooie! Razorbacks!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Fight For It

I have been blessed with a fairly easy training cycle this go-round, which I am very thankful for. My long runs have been nice at a steady but pretty easy conversational pace and the hours fly by while my training partner and I talk the miles away. We have had lots of sunshine and mild temps. So naturally I have been a little worried! I have been feeling like I needed a "tough run," you know, one you have to fight for. One where it is less than ideal conditions, so that you have to push your body to perform, and work on your mental toughness to overcome the physical conditions. Well I got more than I bargained for today, and I loved it!!

I had 16 miles planned for my last long run today, and two friends lined up to split the distance with. One was meeting me for the first 10 miles, and another for the last 6. It was going to be great. But then the 6 mile friend had to cancel, and right when I was going to bed I got the call that the 10 mile friend was sick and wouldn't make it either. Bummer! I do not run in the dark by myself, so this now solo run would have to be pushed back later in the morning once the sun was up. I was frustrated but knew this would be a good mental training run. Then comes the weather. 46 degrees and sustained 17-20 MPH winds!! Yikes. Definitely not ideal. Bring on the mental toughness!

I started off trying to run slow but I naturally fall into a 9:30 mile pace when I'm on my own. I thought I would aim for a 10 minute pace overall as I figured the wind would slow me down considerably later on. Well I put in my ipod and took off, cranking out the miles. My first 3 miles were my slowest as I warmed up, and then I settled into a good groove and just kept going. I kept my average pace between 9:30 and 9:35 the entire run, which included my stops for water. I finished the run strong at an even 9:30 overall pace for 16 miles, and my last mile was the fastest at a 9:01! I never ran slower than a 9:44 mile the whole run. Needless to say this has been one of my hardest and best runs to date. I haven't pushed myself too hard on my long runs, but wanted to see what I could do before I taper down the next few weeks and give my legs a rest before the marathon. I was pleased overall, physically I did well, especially in the conditions, but more than anything, this was a mental run. I got my head in the right place and got it done even though I had to fight for it. I can't believe I've got nothing but short runs left now:) And I am really hoping marathon race day is a nice pretty day to run:)

Friday, November 11, 2011

Striving for Excellence

I read a great line on another runner's blog this week. It said

You would rather epically fail trying for excellence than fully succeed at mediocrity.

Wow:) I love that. The problem with me, is that it doesn't apply! I am such a safe person. Not a risk taker at all. I would rather set my goals low and succeed than fail. I don't like failure. And I am trying to change all that in myself. I need to epically fail trying for excellence! Or epically succeed trying for excellence would be even better! I know that I succeed at most things I do, and I think I sell myself short by not pushing myself harder at times. I play it safe and realistic. So for this marathon I will set several goals. A safe goal, a target goal, and an epically awesome goal!

Little Bit of Stress

I am a bit stressed out and getting more so by the day. I am writing this from my NyQuil induced coma so excuse me if it makes no sense! We were all sick with a nasty stomach virus last week, and I think the weird weather on my long run combined with a weakened immune system has left me with a cold I can't seem to shake this week. Not feeling bad enough to be "sick," but run down enough to have missed several of my runs this week. Enter stress. Now I not only feel physically run down, but I am mentally stressing more each day that I haven't run. It is actually making me panic a bit. I know I need to rest, and believe me, I have been, but my brain is still very anxious about missing some important runs and it being so close to my marathon. I sure am hoping I feel better soon and get my strength back. I am just wiped out this week. My dad was here on Monday and Tuesday, and I worked all week, and the weather has been crazy and windy and gotten cold, so I know all that combined with being sick last week has just worn me out. I am going to bed super early tonight and hope to feel rested enough to tackle my 16 miles at 5am:)

Sunday, November 06, 2011

26 Days

Yep, I am running marathon #2 in 26 days! Whoo Hoo. I watched the New York Marathon on TV this afternoon, which was very inspiring. I am definitely adding it to my bucket list of future marathons:) I knew 2 girls running it today and it was fun to track them as they ran. They both did great! Anyway, I am in the final few weeks leading to the race and on the downhill slide. I ran my second 20 mile run on Saturday. It was no fun! The weather was cool (46 degrees) but very humid and thick air (90%) which made it feel cold and clammy. It was the kind of weather that is hard to dress for. We started out around 5:30 am and pounded the pavement for the next 3:27 minutes. We took it nice and easy with an average pace of 10:23 for the run. With that being said, I am having a very hard time trying to determine what kind of finish time goal to set for this race. I know what I can do for 20 miles, but I really faded in Little Rock from miles 17 to 26, so I am not sure what kind of race pace I need to aim for. I want to be realistic, but push myself too! Right now I am thinking 4:15-4:25 is a good time to aim for, so we shall see. I plan to run 16 miles this weekend and then its really downhill from there!

Yesterday's run was one that made me ask myself...now why in the world did you sign up for this marathon?!! It really wasn't that bad, but I was ready for it to be over by mile 12!!! Thankfully it went by fast as usual since Liz and I talked the whole way. Thank goodness for good running partners who can distract you:) I don't think I drank nearly enough water either, which I need to do better at. Luckily I had remembered to drink lots of water the few days before, which helped keep me hydrated.

I think the best part of yesterday's run is how good I feel today! My feet have been killing me from all the pounding, but they feel really good today for some reason. My quads are a tiny bit sore, but barely noticeable. I definitely don't feel like I ran 20 miles! I am happy my body is tolerating the training well and recovering quickly. Life moves too fast these days for me to have to slow down any! I am pretty sure I have my race day outfit picked out (I just bought the shirt on Friday so I could test it out on my long run). I just bought a new pair of shoes too. I ran 3 miles in them on Wednesday last week and then broke them in good on the 20 miler:) I am working on my play list on my ipod too. I would like to say that I am trying to clean up my diet, but this Halloween candy in the house is killing me!!! It needs to GO AWAY! Silas and I both are working to cut back on the carbonated drinks so I haven't done too bad there. I have lost 10 pounds so far during this marathon training cycle. That is what I expected pretty much. Hopefully I don't gain too much back with the candy and cutting back on miles these next few weeks! I can't even begin to imagine the damage Thanksgiving is going to do to me, especially since my race is only a week after that! Any prayers for self control would be appreciated:)

I have love love loved this training cycle and hands down feel that fall marathon training beats spring training any day! We have had the best running weather and I am so thankful:) I feel much better about my training this time around and just hope to run a more consistent race and take 15 to 20 minutes off my time. I can do this!!!

Friday, November 04, 2011

Halloween 2011

Halloween 2011, aka Puke Fest! We had a fun weekend full of activities, but unfortunately ended up with Jace throwing up all throughout trick-or-treating and then Silas and I coming down with a stomach bug as well. Needless to say, it has been a very long week and we are playing catch up on all we missed while we were sick. The kids had a great time though, which was the important thing!

SLO in Arkansas