find each others light

I ran 11 miles with Ashley 1:45:15 AP 9:34. Last mile was my fastest at 9:08.

1 mile alone (after sitting in the car for a while) 10:10 AP 10:11

Had to make it 30 for the week.

The weather was so weird at 6:10am. There was a yucky looking brown cloud covering out west. It almost looked like smoke from a fire. There were also creepy looking clouds coming up over the east mountains. I was so grateful for the cloud cover though because it would have been a much hotter run without them. We started at the park and ride at bottom of Little Cottonwood and ran to Draper. It an eventful, memorable run and I can't write about it all here:) It was a fun 11 miler! I've only ever run dimple dell to draper as part of a marathon training run. I'm usually at 18-20 miles in that area so it was nice.

Good job Ashley! You rock!

 Plank X3 @ 2:00, 1:30 and 1:00

49:18 AP 9:52

Hills this morning. Ran both parks. TUT (total uphill time) 7 minutes

I was gonna do more but decided to take a nap when Josie did.

1:19:36 AP 9:57

It took me a while to get warmed up. Like the first 4 miles. I feel better running down hill so the second half of the run was better. It was quite windy in spots. It was cooler than yesterday. But now (7pm) it's freezing!  Holy temp drop!

I needed to do yoga but didn't have time. I helped at the first grade field day for almost 2 hours and I'm wiped out!!! Obstacles courses, bowling, big, huge parachute thingy, two-legged races. I took Josie and she loved all of it.

I was supposed to cross train today. It was too cold to swim in the morning. I ended up cleaning the house ALL DAY. Moved a heavy piece of furniture up the stairs that worked my core:). It was the last day of school for 2 of my kids. The older two were home all day so we cleaned out their room for a garage sale.

I ate good all day and then gave in to In and Out. End of school dinner night out for the kids.

58:15 AP 9:41

Nice and cool this morning!!! This weather is crazy. I prefer the cool.

I needed to do yoga but painted addresses on curbs from 10am-4pm!!! I'm so tired and hot!

Guess I'm running 12 alone tomorrow cause Ash can't do tomorrow morn and I can't do Saturday morn. Have to be at Brighton High School for a garage sale/car wash from 6am-12 noon. Spending a lot of time fundraising for my 15 yr old this week.

I ran 8.4 up and down Little Cottonwood Trail at 6am with Betsy. This run beat the crap out of me and I was barely able to run 4 at home. It was so pretty and Betsy told me all about her 50 miler in Idaho last weekend. It was inspiring story about how she wanted to quit but didn't and she ended up helping people who were struggling along the way. People who had passed her early on. She's an AMAZING trail runner. We went all the way to a campground, Tanner Flats I think. We were close to the river the entire run and it was so beautiful. It got pretty cold toward the top. Coming down I started to feel pretty beat up. It was way harder on my body then going up. I wasn't wearing trail shoes shoes. Betsy had trail shoes and gators and even fingerless gloves for grabbing trees or falling:) No one fell thank goodness. I couldn't believe the way she FLEW down the mountain. That takes practice and skill. She was like a bunny hopping threw the forest. I kept looking up to see her blond pony tail swishing up ahead. Anyway, a super tough, but gorgeous run! Then a dreadful 3.6 at home in the hot sun:(

Looking forward to a 6am garage sale/car wash at Brighton High tomorrow for cheer fundraiser. NOT!:) We'll see...it might be fun. I should be encouraging you all to come and buy and get your car washed tomorrow! go Bengals!!! woo hoo!

Swim- 50 minutes. Felt SO good! I'm sore after that trail run yesterday. esp quads! Love, love, love to swim. I alternated between freestyle and breaststroke.

6am-1pm I was at a car wash/garage sale at Brighton for cheer fundraiser. It was super dang fun!

Came home and took a nap cause I got like 4 hrs of sleep last night. Stayed up watching A Beautiful Mind. Love that movie.

57:11 AP 9:32

Guess I'll be getting up at 5:15am this summer. what???!!! Jane has to be at cheer at 5:40am. I'm just super happy she has a part time job at the pool and hope she can keep it all summer. I need to just do speed work (twice a week) on the track at the school after dropping her off. I've never done that before. I'm nervous and I'm not sure what to do.

Nice run this morning. Drove home after dropping Jane and ran around here. I should probably find some routes over by Brighton some days of the week. It was on the cool side but I love that. 8:50 was my fastest mile. It took a while to warm up. My quads are still sore from Sat.

JW Upper body weights and abs workout. 30 min

1:09:49 AP 9:59

Cheer is earlier so now I wake at 5am cause Jane needs me to wake her up. Do most parents have to wake their teenagers? She sleeps through her alarm that's blaring!!! I ran at 6am. I did the backwards buffalo run. From here, down past Ashley's and up the road next to alta canyon road. Up past buffalo and over to Albion and up to water tower. Lots of hills. Then down to home. Always pick it up on the last 2-3 miles. Beautiful morning. Beautiful sunrise. Pink clouds. They were gone by the time I got out but saw them from my car.

BK Power Yoga-50 minutes

Jillian's Banish Fat/Boost Metabolism-50 minutes. Sweat, sweat, sweat! 

Right now I'm drinking a spinach protein shake from "Fit to fat to fit" and it's disgusting!!! 

46:22 AP 9:17

Progression run. 9:46, 9:41, 9:29 8:54, 8:32. Flat, up, down and flat. I saw Lysa toward the end of my run. SO great to see her out! Hope her back feels okay.

Beautiful morning! So grateful to be out running in those great temps!

Upper body and ab workout 30 minutes

2:14:15 AP 10:15 

I haven't run 13.1 since SGM.

Left at 6am with Ashley. Her schedule said to run 5 but she ran 13 with me! How nice! It was quite a hilly run. We even ran up Sterling hill toward the end of the run which we don't usually do. She's worried she won't finish her half in 2 hrs after today's run but I reminded her how many hills we ran, and big one's! I told her we shouldn't have a problem coming down the canyon but we're worried about her knee cause it hurts when she runs downhill. Hopefully she'll be fine next week. We're going in with confidence after doing 13 this morning. My run last week was WEAK so I feel good after today.

Excited for next week! Excited to get away for a night next Friday and eat at Pizzeria 712 and stay in a hotel and be without kids for several hours AND run a new half with my sister! My husband's been at scout camp since Wed. so I'm DONE! I need a break!!!

50:12 AP 10:03

It was 70 degrees at 5:25am! Hot! I left around 6 to go run. Ran both parks and did about 8 minutes of hill time. Once up Sterling, 4 times up hill at Flat Iron and up Piper.

30 minutes upper body and ab workout.

 I forgot to write about the dog that followed us on our Sat. run. We were in the driveway getting ready to start and this dog that looked part husky (light blue eyes) and part german shepherd came toward us, no leash, no owner. I was a little nervous. He followed us for about 4 miles before he disappeared. He would approach other runners/walkers and I'd yell, "that's not our dog!" Weird.

1:17:03 AP 9:38

Jeff and I ran together this morning. I don't think we've run together since St. George. I checked the temp at 5:45am and it was 61 degrees. I thought. But I checked again at 10:30 and it was 61 degrees? I don't know. It was nice and cool and lovely! I ran faster with him cause we push each other. He tried to beat me up East dell (big hill)  but did not. I went in to this run thinking he better keep up with me cause he hasn't been running, so if he ever tried to get ahead it ticked (cleaner word) me off. Competitive nature. SO we had a great run and great conversation and then the last mile or so I picked it up. He stayed with me and then on a gradual downhill he passed me and I couldn't catch him so I went a different way then he did to finish. I know, I'm pathetic. But my last mile was 8:27 so...I was happy! Thanks for pushing me Jeff! Later on I was miffed he sped up and he said "Well YOU sped up and I had to keep up with you." As he passed me that one time I said "Don't hurt yourself!" Later again... after breakfast he was limping off to work. Dork. But I love you! I should add...I'm a little sore from this mornings run as well.

BK Power Yoga-49 minutes

49:09 AP 9:50

Ran alone with music. 3 slow, 2 fast. Started with a sore left foot and lower left leg area. That went away during the run and ended with the right hamstring feeling tight. Funny.

Love running early. Love running outside. Love running.

Upper body and ab workout- 30 minutes

My garmin says13.23 in 1:57:39 AP 8:53.

This is my 4th half marathon. I PR'd today by a minute plus a little! I didn't even realize it till I was driving home and checked my last half time (on my sister's i phone) cause I didn't remember what it was. So I'm happy!!!

Ashley and I drove down to AF to get our packets and then went to dinner at Pizzeria 712 in Orem! Scrump! We then stopped at The Chocolate which is almost right next door. We took our leftover food and too many desserts to my other sister's in Traverse mountain. She was supposed to run this with us but got injured. She did jump in at mile 9 and run to the finish. Way to go Amber!!!

Ash and I stayed at a hotel at Thanksgiving point. I didn't get much sleep. It was so fun to have a night out though and sleep in a hotel. I never do that. Anyway, not much sleep and at 2am Ashley was cracking her knuckles in her sleep. Think she was nervous?

 We got to the buses at 4:30am and rode up on a luxury bus. I've always been stuck on a school bus. It was nice. I wasn't feeling well and didn't talk much. That's pretty much how it went the entire race. I was having female issues and ate too much the night before. Bad.

Greg Wrubell was mcing at the top . His voice put us right at ease:) I saw the group of pacers shortly before race time and recognized some from the blog. I talked to Kelli and wished I had trained to run a 1:45 half. I saw Kim and introduced myself. She is beautiful in person. She was pacing 2:10 and her husband 2:00. 

So, I was hoping Ashley's knee would be fine on the downhill. I told her we needed to take advantage of the canyon and we did! I was feeling crappy and I was annoyed being surrounded by runners in the beginning. I broke out and Ashley caught up. I told her I wasn't feeling well so wouldn't be talking much. We put our music in. At mile 3 I felt a major blister forming on big right toe. I had side ache, stomach cramping issues from mile 3-6 appr. I hadn't eaten yet and didn't take ibuprofen before the race, probably should have. I had shot bloks and drink at mile  6 and pulled out ahead of Ash for the rest of the race. I had a bright orange shirt on and ended up being her guiding light to a sub 2 hr half. She surpassed her goal! My mantra in this race from the beginning was "The faster you run, the sooner you'll be done." Cause I felt so crappy. I tried to enjoy it but it's hard when you have sickness issues. So I just RAN. The cramping went away as I concentrated on my breathing.

At mile 9 my sister Amber jumped in. I kept running and she asked about Ashley and I said she was behind and I kept running. I couldn't stop. 

At mile 10 as I turned left to go up a little hill, I got a pounding headache!!! Really??? Again with the mantra. I just ran as fast as I could the last 3 miles. It was getting hot, it was so hard to keep running but I just wanted to get to that finish line to see my family and be done! They were all there in the chute sticking out their hands for me to slap. I got my medal and REALLY needed water which was like a half mile away for some reason. I finally found it and brought some back to Ash and Amber. Ash was only a minute behind me. She did awesome!

Beautiful course. I loved the canyon and it was fun running through the gold course.

 Happy about the PR.

6 slow HOT miles at 6am. Ran up to La Caille and back. 75 degrees and now it's 79 at 7:38am? What's up with that?

Quads are tender. Headache started as soon as I started running. Headwind too. Awesome.

I forgot to say that Sat. the air was fine. People were worried about the fire/air quality. I never smelled smoke that morning and there was no wind. Up at home later it was totally windy. Weird.

Plank x3 for 2min, 1:30 and 1min

Taking Liz to get her first cast today. Botox has been working in her leg for the past 10 days. Hopefully this works. Sucks for her to be in a cast for the next 3 weeks though:(

1:21:49 AP 10:14

I was asleep during most of this run cause I had 4 hours of sleep. I went to the KEANE concert last night and it was awesome!!! They sound amazing live and I even got an autograph from Tim Rice-Oxley (keyboard)! He signed my shirt:) I took my 15 yr old (first concert) and he signed her shirt and ticket stub. They were Keane shirts we bought at the concert. Amazing night!

BK Power Yoga 1- 50 minutes

51:36 AP 10:19

It was pretty hot and smoky this morning. I think I smelled smoke the entire run. The last I had to stop and walk a little because the bottom of my left foot was burn'in up. Time to get new wheels.

Upper body and ab workout-30 minutes

BK Power Yoga 1-50 minutes

Bought new shoes. Glycerin 10's and they're really cute!

2:47:13 AP 10:27

I think you're not supposed to do a long run in new shoes but I did and I'm so glad!!! I left at 5:30am to run a mile while waiting for Jeff. Ran a few with him but left cause he was running WAY too slow, on purpose. He was running 8 and had to get back to go to Youth Conference with Jane and Lizzie. I just didn't really want to run 16 all alone but...I did pretty much. So a few miles with him sort of. I decided to just run out and back cause I needed to get home ASAP. I ran up toward little Cottonwood basically and back home. Started our regular 8 but went up and around by the water tank and then turned up off Eastdell toward the park and dimple dell trail. Up past the trail and up past Granite Elem then turned around and came back and turned left past that old white church and up to 94th. Turned around and retraced my steps. It helped to have some new music (new Keane album, still can't get over that concert) and of course I had plenty to drink. AND most importantly new glorious shoes that helped me make it through this run. I was worried about my foot because it hurt to walk on it still this morning. I had to walk on  Thurs. during my last mile because of it. I strained it at the pool yesterday running to save Josie from drowning. So I was worried. During the mile WU it was sore but it just got better throughout the run. I guess I just needed new shoes. These glycerins are so much CUTER than my others. And I've never worn a shoe with pink accents. So exciting!!! And the main color is dark gray so they won't look as dirty!!! I'm so excited!!!!