Mondays with Mr. Miles #11

I got a nifty new camera for Christmas and so I have been "playing" with it somewhat. Kali, my talented little photographer, has been trying to teach me a little bit of stuff here and there.  You really should go check out her cute new website.  So anyway, I went over to play with little Miles one day not too long after Christmas and was so surprised that he would actually sit still on my lap long enough to get a photo. Trust me though, it didn't last long.  This was the only photo of a bunch that actually turned out.

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"A grandchild is a gift from above ... one to cherish and to love."

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"A grandchild fills a space in your heart that you never knew was empty."

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"Grandparents and grandchildren are God's gift to each other."

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"You Put the Grand in Grandma."

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"Whenever I see you I have an uncontrollable urge to fling open my arms, excitedly shout your name and scoop you up."

My Blog Book is Here!!

It came! It came! And I'm so pleased! A couple weeks ago I got online and started researching a few different websites to create a book from my blog. After a couple recommendations I went with the Blurb company and created this.  It ended up being 89 pages in length.  Silly me if I would have paid more attention to the pricing I could have gotten 120 pages printed in my book for the same price. You better believe when I make my book for 2009 I will pay closer attention. 

Why Someone Said "Go to Hale"

Hale Freezes Over-10K.  Initially when I found out about this race I was all eager to sign up and do it.  Then I just sort of fizzled.  I bought 3 season tickets to the Hale Theater at Christmastime and part of the sign up price for this race included 4 tickets to see a play.  Well, I didn't need more tickets and I was also a little nervous about our unpredictable Utah weather and the possibility of it snowing and not wanting to face that. I thought I would just see how the morning looked and then decide.  Well, I sort of overslept and then I dilly-dallied around the house and didn't get out of here until about 9:40 am.  By the time I finally got out the door and ran to the Hale Theater the race had already started and all of the runners were gone.  I was too late to sign up even if I wanted to.  I decided to just go ahead and keep running anyway.  I had already clocked almost 2 and 1/2 miles so I just continued running.  Further on down the road I heard one of the volunteers who was directing people in which way to go shouted out "Go to Hale".  I thought that was kind of funny and it actually made me laugh out loud. I then headed off into another direction and finished my own course (10K), heading to the local grocery store for a bathroom break and water.  I headed on up to my neighborhood and was feeling pretty good.  I continued to run up and down different streets in my part of  town and then eventually headed for home.  My total mileage ended up being 11 miles running and 1/2 mile walking. It was truly a gorgeous winter morning for an exhilarating run.

I've had my nose in a running book of some sort ever since I started this running journey a little over a year ago.  Well, one thing that I've read multiple times is the importance of an ice bath for quick muscle recovery after a long run.  Well, today I decided to try it.  I nearly froze my patootie off sitting in that bathtub for 20 minutes in ice cold water and ice cubes!!! Aye, yi, yi!!!  Now I will just have to wait and see if it actually helped.  I know it took me a good hour to finally warm up and that was even after a hot shower!

(not my bathtub but you get the idea)

I'm looking forward to my next race in two weeks.  I will be running a half marathon at the Utah Olympic Oval.  It's the same place I ran the New Year's Revolution Run in December.  I would be so happy if anybody wants to join me.  Sometimes this running life can be a bit lonely.

My Rainy St. George Half Marathon and Weekend

Friday evening I had to teach piano until 5:00 pm and then when Mark and Cooper walked in the door at 5:05 pm, home from work, we headed out of town.  I had them pack their luggage the night before and I had all the food and luggage and other goods loaded in the car and ready to go earlier in the day.  I put a Costco pizza in the oven at 4:30 pm and we threw it back in the box and headed out the door.  We munched on that as we traveled down the freeway.  Our first stop was at the cute, little, red barn in Santaquin for some super delicious ice cream.  That's pretty much been a tradition of ours for a few years now.  Mark drove the whole way and Cooper sat up front and kept him company.  I sat in the back with my headlamp, since it was rapidly getting dark and read one of Dean Karnazes books.  I'm totally loving this one right now.

I'm thinking someday I want to run a marathon and so I'm reading books about them to hopefully work up the courage to maybe go forward with this thinking and actually do it.

We got to St. George pretty late and got to our Hotel, which my daughter Kali, her hubby Wade and little Miles had already checked into earlier.  We shared the family suite at the Coral Hills, Best Western.  I just got to say right now how awesome of a place that is to stay.  Totally love that Hotel and will stay here every time we come to St. George.  We hung out and played with my cute grandson, watched t.v. and then headed to bed.

Saturday Morning I got up at 6:45 a.m. and looked out the window to find RAIN.....Nooooo!!! I was so looking forward to a beautiful run in the lovely countryside of St. George.  Well, I just decided to make the best of it, tried to keep a positive attitude, and got ready. I had a light breakfast of banana, peanut butter and toast and headed off to the race. 

Wade and Kali

Me and Kali ready for racing!

Getting onto the street where the starting line was located was an absolute nightmare so Mark dropped Me and Kali off at a stoplight and we started bookin' it down the road so we could get there in time.  Good thing too because right as we got there Kali's 5K was getting lined up and ready to go.  I wouldn't get to see her until I finished my race.  Mark waited in the rain and got to see her coming in.  I'm so proud of her and the training she's doing in preparation for her first half marathon this Summer.  This was her first 5K and she ran the whole way in 30 minutes.  Way to go Kali!!

 

Ten minutes after the 5K race left it was time for the half marathoners to get lined up.  It was a very chilly morning and I'm so glad I packed a jacket.  I decided to wear it as I ran because I figured I could just tie it around my waist later if I needed to.  I was also grateful for the long sleeve tech shirt that the race organizers gave us.  I'm really digging this long sleeved shirt.

The race started out with a pretty light sprinkle but continued on raining for the whole time.  It really wasn't too bad and I actually had to take my jacket off because I was getting a little warm.  About the last half hour of my run though it really started coming down and I was getting drenched. At this point I was really wishing for a rain poncho or big trash bag like I saw many people wearing.

 

This St. George Half Marathon course was very beautiful despite the rain.  I loved how it wound us through beautiful neighborhoods, along the Virgin River, and down a paved biking and running path.  I will say though that it was a little more challenging than I had anticipated.  The race organizers said there were a couple of hills in the beginning but the rest of the course was relatively flat.  Ummmm......I really question their definition of relatively flat.  This course had so many hills, but of course going up means eventually coming back down  so that part was fun to me.  The rain also made for some wet feet.  With about 4 or 5 miles left to run I could feel some tender spots forming on my feet and tried to ignore them.  I'm thinking it's time for new shoes again.

I had no expectations for myself with this race.  I hadn't followed any specific training plan for this half but I had just run the New Year's Revolution run of 18 miles three weeks ago and I had continued putting in about 15 miles a week up to this point, so I wasn't sure what this body would do.  My first half marathon last June was 2:38:02.  My second half marathon was in August and was a nice downhill course and that was accomplished in 2:16:02.  So this third half marathon I was pretty pleased to finish in 2:22:37, especially since it was so hilly.  

Crossing the finish line and happy to be done! 2:22:37

I do love me some after race treats, and were they ever good ones too! Oranges, bananas, little mini macaroon sugar cookies, golden spoon ice cream, and chocolate milk.  At least my hubby could have told me to smile while I was shoveling in the goods!

Since we were getting soaked to the bone and we were seriously freezing we didn't hang around to watch the awards ceremony.  I also somehow missed getting my finisher's medal.  Lame-O.  I never saw anybody handing them out.  We headed back to the hotel and rested and napped.  Later that night we went on the town to play.  Kali found a place that has indoor mini golf with black lights.  Pretty awesome!

 Yes that's me with the bleached blond looking hairdo.  I was the official score keeper.

Don't you love it when your grown kids can still rough house and have a good time together?

I'm not sure who has the upper hand but Cooper usually comes away undefeated in these tangos.

 Yeah, pretty sure Cooper won this battle!!

 

Wade and Miles stayed out of the rough housing and played train games on the computer.  That is Miles new favorite thing.  And puzzles.  He's a whiz at them.

Then it was time for dinner and we headed to a Mexican restaurant and enjoyed a delicious meal.  We came back to the hotel and relaxed and went to bed.  Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast and checked out of the hotel, after I chased Miles around the pool.  He was having a blast sticking his hands in the hot tub and playing with the foamy bubbles.  He also would scream and squeal every time someone would jump in the pool and splash all over. Then before heading home we headed over to visit some friends in Santa Clara before they had to go to church.  On our way out of town we grabbed lunch at Subway's and Wendy's.  The ride home was pretty uneventful.  The roads were clear and dry even though it had snowed up North while we were down South.  Once again my dear hubby drove all the way and I enjoyed some more reading in the back seat, and some lovely, much needed zzzzzzz's.  This was a fun trip but much too short and not warm enough. 

27th Anniversary, St, George Half Marathon and A Blog Book

Yesterday me and my hubby celebrated our 27th anniversary.  We had a swell day.  He took the day off of work and went to the dentist to get a cavity filled while I went on a run/walk with my buddy Laurie.  Then we headed off to the temple to fill our spiritual souls. Later that night we had a couple errands to run and then Mark said he wanted to take a little trip down memory lane and it wouldn't cost much.  As soon as he said that I figured out what we were doing.  You see, back in the 80's when Ms. Pac Man was the rage and him and I would go on dates together, somehow we always ended up playing that silly game at some point during the date.  We would put 2 quarters in the machine and play for EVER.  So he had called around town and found a place that actually had a Ms. Pac Man machine and we went and played that silly machine again 27 years later.  I have to say I still got the moves and can put up a pretty mean high score on that game.  After an hour or so at the arcade we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and enjoyed the food, as always.  That restaurant sure knows how to do ribs!  I have a cute husband and really enjoyed our day together.

This Saturday I'm running the St. George Half Marathon and looking forward to heading South for hopefully some warmer weather. Kali and Wade are going with us as well and she will be running the 5K.  She just started running and signed up for the Utah Valley Half Marathon in June and she thought it would be fun to run the 5K in St George.  I'm not sure if we will get to run together or not but I'm just super thrilled she has started her own training and will be running.  Someday, somehow I will get me a running companion.  

I have been working around the clock on a super cool project!  Lately I've been just a teensy bit worried about my blog getting lost in blogosphere and I would be so devastated if it got erased or deleted.  Especially all of my thoughts and posts about when Porter passed away.  So I decided it's time to do something about that.  A couple of  friends have actually had their blogs put into a book and I've seen and held one of them and was so amazed at the outcome.  I researched a few different websites and decided to use blurb.  I liked the option of making a book that's 12 x12 and having the option of  upgrading to a premium paper.  The blurb people actually sent me a code so I could get 25% off my final project if completed by the end of January.  Well, I'm happy to say after a few nights of heading to bed at 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. my book is done!! It's ordered and should arrive in about 10 days. I'm so excited to see it in print.  Now the only problem is that I have 3 more years of blog books to do.  I only created the blog book for 2008.  So I guess you could say I'm not really done yet.  But I will do it a little at a time and get er done.

Iron Man Challenge-DONE! and The Olympic Marathon Trials

I headed out the door this morning for a 2 mile run to finish up with a final 26 1/2 miles for the running portion of the challenge and then came home and got my swimming suit and shorts on and headed to the local rec. center.  I hopped on the bike and finished up 15 miles to complete the 112 miles of the biking portion and then headed to the pool.   There was a big swim meet going on and so the lanes were changed.  Instead of getting to swim 50 meter laps I could only swim in the lanes they had set up for 20 meter laps.  My brain couldn't do the math right away so I just got in and swam my little heart out for almost an hour.  I ended up doing 80 laps which equals 1600 meters.  I figured I would do the math when I got home.  I made sure to do extra laps so that I wouldn't fall short of meeting my goal.  I ended up actually going a little further than the required 2.4 miles.  This challenge given to me by a fellow blogger friend what set up to be done in a 2 week span and I am happy to report I've completed it in 9 days.  I just may have to try this challenge again someday.    

I zoomed home quickly so I could watch the Olympic marathon trials being held in Houston today.  What an inspiration to watch top notch athletes running their little legs and hearts out. These men ran a marathon today in 2 hours 9 minutes and some seconds and the women ran it in 2 hours 25 minutes and some seconds.  Holy cow!  I'm happy with a half marathon at that pace. I sat glued to the t.v. in awe, totally amazed at what these people can push their bodies to do.  The top 3 men and 3 women will go on this Summer to compete in the Olympics in London.  In the past I've been a very casual Olympic watcher, but since taking up running last year you can definitely bet I will be having myself some Olympic watching enjoyment time.   

Iron Man Progress

With the first week of the iron man challenge completed I have a few thoughts about it...

*SWIMMING IS HARD! Out of the three events, this one is kicking my trash. I'm still trying to get my breathing worked out so that I don't have to stop half way through every single lap.  There's a couple girls in my young women's group at church that swim every single day before school and they know their stuff.  So I had to pick their brains and have them teach me how to not look like a flailing lunatic in the water.  I have only been able to swim 38 of the required 80 (ish) laps.  I'll get it done though.  I still have one more week. 

*I LOVE BIKING-I have actually grown quite fond of biking-more than I thought I would.  I love being able to get caught up on my newspaper reading and have been enjoying reading a few more running books and even started reading "The Help" I got from a friend for Christmas.  I've completed 71 miles of 112 so far.

  

*I have no new thoughts about running.  I still pound the pavement and try to get in a few miles each day.  'Slow and steady wins the race' is kind of my mantra right now.  I've already determined long ago that I was not a fast runner, nor will I ever be.  I won't be winning any races, only just finishing them, which is just perfect for me right now.  I have read a lot about speed work, and tempo runs, and I just can't make myself do it.  I feel grateful to just be able to run at my age with just starting a year ago.  Maybe down the road my thinking might change, but for now I'm content with where I'm at.  I've completed 18.5 miles of 26.2.

This challenge for me officially ends in one week on Thursday January 19th.  I'm hoping to be able to complete everything by Saturday.  We'll see how much I can get done in the next three days.

IronMan Challenge-2 weeks

My blogging/facebook friend Loralee did an iron man challenge before Christmas and enjoyed it enough that she's doing it again right now.  She invited any of her blogging friends to join her, and who am I to turn down a challenge?  The challenge is to bike for 112 miles, swim for 2.4 miles and run for 26.2.  But not in one day.  That would be pure insanity.  I know there are people out there that do that and I highly applaud them.  Honestly I don't know how it would even be possible for me since it would take me over 5 hours to do just one of these events.  So anyway, she's giving us 2 weeks to complete the challenge and so here I go.  I started yesterday and will keep a running tally on my side bar of my progress. 

*yesterdays workout-biked 15 miles and swam 6 laps in the 50 meter pool

*today's workout-biked 16 miles, swam 14 laps, ran 1 mile.  I also walked 4 miles with my good friend Laurie.  

I will say that getting in a swimsuit and doing the swimming part of this challenge really intimidated me but I just covered myself really well and thought "who cares"?  I forgot goggles the first day which was definitely challenging so today's swim was better with goggles.  It's so cool to be able to open my eyes under water and see the long, blue tiled stripes on the pool floor and the depth of the pool and the lights on the side walls.  I really haven't been in a pool for many years and so this felt like a brand new adventure.

Target date to complete this challenge is January 19th, 2012
Any other blogging friends want to take on the challenge?  Let me know if you do and I'll cheer you on.

My New Year's Revolution Run-Dec 31st, 2011

Who would have even thought that running round and round a track for 4 hours could be a fun adventure? I'm here to tell you I had a blast! I didn't even have any running buddies with me but I still was able to have a great time. I can't even pinpoint the reason for the great pleasure either, which is still strange to me, but I'll give a rundown of how my day played out and see if I can figure out why the extreme euphoric feelings I was having.

*Arose at 6:00 am and drove to Kearns where the Utah Olympic Oval is located

*Got checked in by 7:30 am and got my t-shirt, bib, goody bag and ankle band to count the laps.

*Race started only 4 minutes late at 8:04 am.

*At the starting line hearing final instructions which mainly consisted of enjoying the oval by walking, running, meandering around, resting, watching the speed skaters, using the restrooms, enjoying the snack table, but most important instruction was to just HAVE FUN!

*About half way through my run a kindly, elderly gentleman was sitting at some tables where my stuff was at.  He was resting and also taking pictures of his wife as she went around the track and so I asked him if he would take a few photos for me.  Obviously these two are posed or I would have crashed into the little cute man. He wanted the olympic flags in the background of my photos so I said "great!"

*I thought he was done taking photos and I thanked him.  As I continued on and made another lap around  there he was standing up with my camera still in his hands taking an action shot-so I smiled and made a cheering sign.

*Um......next lap around......cute little old man still taking photos.....and I was starting to feel awkward.......but still smiled.

*Ok.....cute little man, enough is enough of the photo taking......much appreciation!

Items consumed during the 4 hour race:

*2 peppermint lifesavers

*3 pretzels

*4 orange slices

*2 banana chunks

*dixie cup size trail mix

*1 mini milky way dark bite size

*1 mini butterfinger bite size

*Zip Fizz electrolyte drink-43 oz.

*water

*Gatorade

*1 GU packet

*4 pieces peppermint Extra gum-1 new piece every hour (I have to chew gum while I run)

Music listened to while running:

John Mayer the whole way!!-Thanks John for a beautiful run.

Items used:

*3 ibuprofin

*9+ kleenex- many boxes used up by the runners-not just me. Supposedly it's 65 degrees in the oval but it felt way colder than that to me. My nose felt like a dripping faucet.

*A change of shoes in the third hour-felt refreshing for my feet.

*A convenient bathroom located on every lap if so desired.  I only had to use it 4 times.

People I passed:

*34 on one lap

*32 on another lap

*Didn't have the courage to count how many people passed me-it was oodles though, trust me.

Laps Accomplished:

*1 lap to warm up-not counted by race people

*1 lap to cool down-not counted by race people

*68 laps 

*Total-70 laps for a grand total of over 18 miles-total time 4:01:35

*17th place out of 160 females for laps accomplished

*49th place of 264 runners

*The top female winner accomplished 99 laps-Amazing!

*The top male winner accomplished 119 laps-Incredible!

Prizes won:

*Awesome pair of running sunglasses-have been wanting some since last Summer so this was worth the whole day right there alone to win those.

*Muscle Milk

*Finisher's Medal-Dog Tag

*Chia Seed Powder drink mix gunk-not sure what to think of this stuff till I try it.

*After the race was over and most people cleared out I checked the photos that the little cute man had taken and noticed they were mostly blurry.  I attempted a couple photos of my own-still a tiny blurry.  Oh well!

*Happy it's over and can't wait to do this race again next year.  I would love to take some buddies with me though, which would only add to the extreme fun.

 

Feeling very achy on the car ride home and enjoying my cool new running sunglasses.

Brand New Year- Running Goals for 2012

With 2011 gone and having learned and experienced a few things with my new found interest (not love yet) with running, it's time to make some goals for 2012.  Last year I didn't have any goals other than to see if I could run at all and then to try a half marathon that my daughter challenged me to do.   So I want to set some challenging yet reachable goals for me to stretch and grow this year thus hopefully leading me to participate in a full marathon some day.

(maybe a goal for 2013)

Goal #1-Log more mileage in 2012 than last years 551 miles.  I'm shooting for 720 miles, which calculates to 60 miles a month, 15 miles a week. (yikes) I will post my monthly totals on the sidebar.

Goal #2-Enter and participate in at least 1 race every month from January to December.  This can be anything from a 5K to a half marathon. I already have a few in mind for the first three months.

That's it for now, which is plenty for this heart and body to work on.

Here we go 2012!! 

Picture from New Year's Revolution Run which I'll be posting about soon.