Summer Update
Sometimes I can't believe how fast time flies when you are busy. I just realized that I haven't put anything on here and figured I would at least put something for the one or two people that will ever read this.
Life has been crazy lately. Work is nuts (in a good, busy way), there is so much going on around home (I'll explain later) and just trying to keep moving with my runs.
First of all, my little, baby soon to be 5 year old will be starting Pre-K in just a couple short weeks. I can't believe how grown up she is. Not that she has grown necessarily as Mini Me has passed her up in weight, but intellectually she is starting to become an adult. She asks a lot of adult questions, is recognizing her letters & numbers quickly, can write words without asking how to write the letter and loves to draw. It is going to be interesting how pre-k goes. We have struggled so much for probably the last year trying to decide if we send her to Kindergarten or do we send her to Pre-K as her b-day is 4 days from the cut-off. Due to her emotional state and her size we decided that Pre-k was going to be the best option. I have talked to many people that have made the same decision and they said that they have never regretted it. We'll see.
Mini Me has sprouted up lately. She is getting so big and really thinning out. She is definitely showing that she is going to be daddy's little athlete. Don't get me wrong, I will NEVER push my kids into sports if they don't want to. I understand the benefits of exercise, but won't push competitive athletics. I was never good at any sport and felt a huge disappointment every year when I got to play a total of 5 minutes between all 4 sports that I went out for. I want my kids to know what disappointment feels like but nothing like what I went through. Mini Me has started to show more of an interest in sports. She is also becoming quite the bully. We had our first experience with hair cutting last night. She cut off several chunks out of her sisters ponytail .NOT VERY HAPPY I must say. My rationale, at least she didn't stab her sister with the scissors :)
My dad had what we'll call a medical wake up call a couple of weeks ago. He's fine. Had a small procedure done and is recovering very nicely. Although it was pretty minor compared to what it could have been, it was incredibly frightening. Bad thoughts and "what if" questions were constantly running through my head. It was a rough week.
We have been camping a lot finally this year, but I think that we have officially decided that we need a camper. All of the hauling stuff, not having a vehicle big enough to carry everything and the set up/tear down is exhausting. I think come winter time we may end up searching a little more. Prices tend to come down in the winter and stay up all summer so that may be the perfect opportunity.
Running has been going actually very well this year. Speed has picked up. Legs are getting really strong, but still dealing with this knee pain. NO, it's not because I run barefoot or run long distance. The stinking treadmill came up to fight me one day and it won. I have been trying to keep a fairly good base mileage up with 15-20 miles on Mondays, Tuesday rest, Wednesday hills, Thursday tempo, Friday varying, rest on Sat & Sun. It has seemed to work pretty well. Paces are definitely picking up.
We did some short speed work yesterday which to be honest I have never done. It was absolutely gorgeous out so we had to take advantage. Whenever anyone wants to go do speed stuff I always duck out and do my own thing. I am not a racer. I am a runner. I like to run far, not fast. But, I got guilted into going and I am actually quite happy that I did. We went down to a place downtown that has a little road that is approximately an 800 yard loop. The plan was to do 200 fast/200 slow/200 fast/200 slow, 400 fast/400 slow, 800 fast/800 slow and back down. It is a 1.3 mile run to get down there and 1.3 back. The rest of the time would be spent working on speed. It was pretty awesome going with the lady that I go with. She has really helped me to improve as a runner. She pushes me HARD but she claims that I am the one driving the pace. Once we started doing the speed we really did keep a great pace average. Averaging between a 6:15-6:20/mile pace. I really think that the very last 200 was the worst part of the whole thing because I was GASSED. Overall though it was a pretty good first time.
No races scheduled so far in the future. Thought about doing the Quad Cities marathon, but just don't know if I can commit to running another road marathon. Not that they are a bad thing, I have just found a love for the trails (too bad in IA we don't have very many). Running on the roads just gets really boring because the terrain never changes. Sure you're going to have hills, heat, stop lights, smokers, traffic, bottles flying at your head, people yelling at you, and stuff like that to contend with, but there is nothing like difficulties of the trails. Rocks, roots, mud, bugs, etc. Ugh, why did I forgot me stuff today :(
That's about it from the land of the Messenjah
Stay strong, Run Long
Tha Messenjah
Life has been crazy lately. Work is nuts (in a good, busy way), there is so much going on around home (I'll explain later) and just trying to keep moving with my runs.
First of all, my little, baby soon to be 5 year old will be starting Pre-K in just a couple short weeks. I can't believe how grown up she is. Not that she has grown necessarily as Mini Me has passed her up in weight, but intellectually she is starting to become an adult. She asks a lot of adult questions, is recognizing her letters & numbers quickly, can write words without asking how to write the letter and loves to draw. It is going to be interesting how pre-k goes. We have struggled so much for probably the last year trying to decide if we send her to Kindergarten or do we send her to Pre-K as her b-day is 4 days from the cut-off. Due to her emotional state and her size we decided that Pre-k was going to be the best option. I have talked to many people that have made the same decision and they said that they have never regretted it. We'll see.
Mini Me has sprouted up lately. She is getting so big and really thinning out. She is definitely showing that she is going to be daddy's little athlete. Don't get me wrong, I will NEVER push my kids into sports if they don't want to. I understand the benefits of exercise, but won't push competitive athletics. I was never good at any sport and felt a huge disappointment every year when I got to play a total of 5 minutes between all 4 sports that I went out for. I want my kids to know what disappointment feels like but nothing like what I went through. Mini Me has started to show more of an interest in sports. She is also becoming quite the bully. We had our first experience with hair cutting last night. She cut off several chunks out of her sisters ponytail .NOT VERY HAPPY I must say. My rationale, at least she didn't stab her sister with the scissors :)
My dad had what we'll call a medical wake up call a couple of weeks ago. He's fine. Had a small procedure done and is recovering very nicely. Although it was pretty minor compared to what it could have been, it was incredibly frightening. Bad thoughts and "what if" questions were constantly running through my head. It was a rough week.
We have been camping a lot finally this year, but I think that we have officially decided that we need a camper. All of the hauling stuff, not having a vehicle big enough to carry everything and the set up/tear down is exhausting. I think come winter time we may end up searching a little more. Prices tend to come down in the winter and stay up all summer so that may be the perfect opportunity.
Running has been going actually very well this year. Speed has picked up. Legs are getting really strong, but still dealing with this knee pain. NO, it's not because I run barefoot or run long distance. The stinking treadmill came up to fight me one day and it won. I have been trying to keep a fairly good base mileage up with 15-20 miles on Mondays, Tuesday rest, Wednesday hills, Thursday tempo, Friday varying, rest on Sat & Sun. It has seemed to work pretty well. Paces are definitely picking up.
We did some short speed work yesterday which to be honest I have never done. It was absolutely gorgeous out so we had to take advantage. Whenever anyone wants to go do speed stuff I always duck out and do my own thing. I am not a racer. I am a runner. I like to run far, not fast. But, I got guilted into going and I am actually quite happy that I did. We went down to a place downtown that has a little road that is approximately an 800 yard loop. The plan was to do 200 fast/200 slow/200 fast/200 slow, 400 fast/400 slow, 800 fast/800 slow and back down. It is a 1.3 mile run to get down there and 1.3 back. The rest of the time would be spent working on speed. It was pretty awesome going with the lady that I go with. She has really helped me to improve as a runner. She pushes me HARD but she claims that I am the one driving the pace. Once we started doing the speed we really did keep a great pace average. Averaging between a 6:15-6:20/mile pace. I really think that the very last 200 was the worst part of the whole thing because I was GASSED. Overall though it was a pretty good first time.
No races scheduled so far in the future. Thought about doing the Quad Cities marathon, but just don't know if I can commit to running another road marathon. Not that they are a bad thing, I have just found a love for the trails (too bad in IA we don't have very many). Running on the roads just gets really boring because the terrain never changes. Sure you're going to have hills, heat, stop lights, smokers, traffic, bottles flying at your head, people yelling at you, and stuff like that to contend with, but there is nothing like difficulties of the trails. Rocks, roots, mud, bugs, etc. Ugh, why did I forgot me stuff today :(
That's about it from the land of the Messenjah
Stay strong, Run Long
Tha Messenjah
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