Race Report #5 - This might have happened a couple weeks ago - whoops

Well, I know I slacked off in April. I didn't end up running any 5k's. I decided to schedule my May 5k pretty early so I didn't slack off again. I decided on the 2nd Annual Emmanuel Christian Church 5k Fun Run/Walk. It was an awesome run for me! I had a PR with 39 minutes! I always seem to go slower on race days than runs around the neighborhood. Maybe it's stage fright?

The route was partial road and partial trail in a park. The clouds rolled in right before the run which gave everyone a little shade and I had two friends running "with" me. By run with me, I mean we started together and then celebrated together after the race. In between, I just lagged behind them.

The most exciting thing was we all placed in our age groups and came home with trophies! Julia got first in our age group, I got 2nd in our age group, and the other Julia got 3rd in her age group! It was a success!

I am soo excited to have gotten my first real bling at a race! Hopefully my next race will be in a few weeks on a runway in Alice, TX! Sooo excited!

P.S. Come back tomorrow for a sneak peak on my newest finished sewing project!

How Many Times Can I Go on Hiatus and Come Back (sitcoms do it all the time)?

Well, it has been many, many, many, many, and many more days since I have posted. I'd like to blame my inactivity on work, but that is only part of it. The fact is that my life got busy and between my new job and all my old commitments, I got a little overwhelmed and climbed into a hole that was filled with instant netflix and lots of books. After almost finishing MI-5 (I'm saving a few episodes because I don't want it to end), constantly adding books to my goodreads account (check out my sidebar to see what I'm reading), and forgetting to ever work out, I have crawled out of my hole and reemerged into civilization. I am so sorry for my absence to those who have missed me. I'm back for good this time (until my next accidental hiatus).

Here is a quick run down of what I have and have not been doing:

#1 - We went an awesome air show hosted at our base. Our favorite event of the day was the Fat Albert demonstration.

Part of a short field take off

#2 - I did not run at all because I was so tired from work. However, I am back on the work out wagon and have my next 5k scheduled for this coming Saturday.

#3 - One of the horses shut me in the feed room last week.

The guilty party who will remain nameless

#4 - I registered for Pi Beta Phi convention!!!!!! So excited!!!!

#5 - I slacked on my siesta verses, but have caught myself back up: since my last entry here are my verses:
*3/1 (I'm not sure if I posted this one): But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.
Micah 7:7
*3/15: And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. 
Hebrews 12: 1b & 2a
*4/1: Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58
*4/15: Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
Isaiah 30:18
*5/1: Rely on the Lord! Be strong and confident! Rely on the Lord!
Psalm 27:14
To check out Beth Moore's awesome blog, including the Siesta verses, go here. I have been using her verses as my own because they are awesome!! I have to say that my own Siesta verse partner has been doing much better than me, so props to my awesome Mom!!


#6 - I drank lots of coffee (wait, I always do this).


#7 - My exercise buddy Allie did the most amazing thing ever, which is to run her first half marathon! I think this is sooo cool. I'm so proud of her and her friend Cortney and I wish I could have been in Cincinnati to cheer them on! To read all about the Flying Pig Half Marathon that Allie did, go here.

#8 - Mack got shaved for the summer heat. This was semi traumatic for him. He hopes we'll go somewhere  cold next so he never has to get shaved again. Check out his before and after pics:

Last day of shag!

He's so pouty since the haircut. If he was standing, you'd see no belly or butt feathering and way less hair everywhere else. The goose was his toy for being good at the groomer. He picked it at Petsmart.

#9 - I cooked some. Be on the look out for recipes. For example, go here to check out my newest clam recipe. I have never cooked clams before, so this was a new experience.

Delicious!

#10 - I made sweet wall decorations for my soon to be nephew.

I only took a pic on my phone. Sorry it's fuzzy!

#11 - I made a giant wall countdown chain to countdown the days till pilot training is over. Here is what it looked like when I made it and what it looks like tonight. Tonight it is at 66 days left!

Sooo many links!

There's not many left - Oh my!

All in all, life has been crazy but good. Hopefully I'll be back in another day or so to share lots of pictures, fun times, and food. I also hope to be sharing how much I've been working out. haha!

Race Report #4

Despite the beautiful scenery, this was not a beautiful race! Last week, I started a new running plan that has  me doing more short runs with one long run a week. So, I was counting on this week's runs to get my body back to about the 5k distance. I was on track as of Monday, but Tuesday was really busy and I got a job lead. I followed up that evening and was employed Wednesday morning. Since we're just in Corpus for a little bit, I've been looking at part time work. My new job is working at a horse boarding stable. It's so great being around the horses. I took riding lessons as a kid and have always loved horses. Being able to work out at the barn is the best thing ever! The only drawback to my new job is that I am not used to the level of physical work required for this job. Basically, I come home from work in the early AM super exhausted and conserve my energy to head back to work in the afternoon. One day this week, I got in a short run around lunch time, but I was so tired from work, I thought I might collapse on the sidewalk. So, after this long and hard week, my 5k on Saturday was not looking pretty.

The race was the Whooping Crane Strut in Rockport, TX. The run went on a path along the beach through a nature preserve. I really enjoyed all the birds flying around and the breeze when I wasn't desperately hoping/looking for the turn around. I ended up doing this run in 39:45 and powered through the last half mile. I think I was practically flying so I could cross the finish line and be done. Probably, the only additional hickup was forgetting my long sleeve running shirt at home. I was really cold at the beginning of the race, so I kept my sweater on, but ended up taking it off while running and repinning my number during the end of the first mile.  Whoops.

Overall, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I can definitely do better. I'll leave you with a couple pics and then I'm off to see the horses!

Starting out

Pressing on!

Run for the Bling of It Race Update #3 - Just a week late...

Last Saturday, I woke up super early and headed out to the Cupid's Chase 5k. Down here in Corpus it was relatively cold. The starting point for this 5k was the Brewster Street Ice House (a bar by the baseball stadium). I expected a pretty big crowd since the Cupid's Chase is a nation wide run done in multiple cities.  My guess is the unexpected cold front kept people at home. When I picked up my number and chip there were many preregistration bags left unclaimed.

I wasn't expecting any miracle times for this race. The past two week had been spent letting my heels get better after finding myself dealing with severe heal pain. I did some research and came up with the possibility I had plantar fasciitis. For you non runners, this basically means that due to how I run and worn out shoes that the tissue on the bottom of my foot had started to have micro tears and then running on the tears irritated it and they became inflamed. Everything I read on it said to rest my feet and get some good padding for my heels. Two weeks of rest and a new pair of shoes later, things seem to be much better.

I ended up running the 5k in 37:40. This is better than my time in the sand at the Surf-n-Turf, but way longer than my practice runs were taking prior to two weeks of rest. I'm back running this week, but am having a really hard time getting my speed back up.  I did come in 2nd in my age group, which was pretty exciting!

The bling was pretty skimpy for this run. They didn't even have shirts because the bad weather delayed them in Dallas. Boo! They said they'd call when they came in, but a week of good weather later there has been no call...

It's a pretty industrial area

I think the question is what haven't I done since I last blogged...

Despite all my efforts to regularly update this blog it seems I once again to a spill off the wagon...whoops.

So, I thought I'd give a giant summary of what I've been up to:

#1: Craftiness...

I've been trying to be crafty, so I made this year's Christmas newsletter cards and decided that Valentine's cards were way more fun than Christamas. So some of my dear friends got handmade Valentine's from Will and I. Another crafty project I tried out was inspired by one Lisa Leonard's blogs. It's an easy decorative project. She did hers as a small Valentine's project, but mine is giant C-130 wall art! To see Lisa's project, go here. Check out mine:

It's sideways here, so it hangs with  the plane going up. It's a C-130 in a heart. If you look closely, you can see it's 4 propellors!

#2 Running...

I am back to running. My feet are healed up and I am back on the road. After 1 week of no running and another week of light running and long walks, I'm excited to get back to my running routine this week!

#3 New Shoes...

I deduced that my running shoes were old and contributing to my sore heels, so the hubby and I checked our accounts and it was decided I could purchase new shoes. I went over to Fleet Feet here in Corpus where their awesome staff had me run around the store like a crazy till we found the right shoes. I ended up with Saucony Omni Progrid 9's. They are awesome!!! They keep my heel gripped nice and tight and have great padding.

Beautiful new shoes...

#3 Ran a 5k

I'll have more about this later, but I ran the Cupid's Chase on Saturday. It was pretty brutal after not doing a long run for two weeks. I didn't die, I didn't stop, and I did finish, so I'm going to say that it was a success...

#4 Valentine's Day

My dear hubby is back in pilot training, so week day celebrations don't happen for us. We had a great night in on Saturday instead. We bought some delicious sushi to take home from the HEB (WM picked out our rolls). We watched an episode of Bones (our favorite). We drank champagne. We made each other desserts. WM made me sopapillas!

Valentine's flowers from WM

#5 Baked Alaska

My friend Claire over at her blog Spare Thyme posted a Baked Alaska recipe back around Christmas. I found it inspiring and decided to make a Valentine's Baked Alaska for WM. I used her recipe. The only change was my ice cream flavor. I went with a swirled variety that had raspberry, white chocolate, and chunks of dark chocolate. It had an appropriate red tint for Valentine's Day. For the recipe, check out Claire's blog here.

Top View. My meringue got a little toasty, but still tasted good.

Yum!

#6 Decorating Cakes...

I am taking a cake decorating class. Last week we learned about making stars and star clusters with one of the frosting tips. We practiced on cookies we brought to class. Here is one of mine.

They will get better!

#7 Read about a Million Books...

Maybe not that many, but a lot. The local librarians think I'm weird when I carry out my stack of about 14 or 15 books at least once a week. One of the stand outs this week was "Miss Harper Can Do It" by Jane Berentson. It was a quirky and sweet novel. As a military spouse I was a little sad at the end, but still really enjoyed it.

#8 Helped Mack with His Weight Loss Goals...

Mack is doing great on his smaller amount of food diet and getting even more exercise. I am happy to say most of his pudge is gone and he seems to be a much happier dog. I think my friend Julia getting a puppy named Shadow that comes to play might be part of it too!

#9 Siesta Scripture!

I'm part of a group memorizing two scriptures a month. You choose one on 1st and one on the 15th. For more info, go to Beth Moore's blog here. I think it's great and I'm so excited to share my verse for today. 

"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me."

2 Corinthians 12:9

This verse is a great reminder that our weaknesses are okay. We don't have to be perfect, we just have to know when to ask God for a little help. So, this verse will help me to remember that when I feel like I can't quite do it all and feel like I'm lacking that it just gives God a chance to help me out! I also love the imagery in the NIV translation of God's power resting on me. It is very comforting me. I imagine that God's power is like a foggy hug resting on me.

#10 Drank lots of coffee

I drank coffee with my husband, with my friends, with my dog, and by myself. I'm a good Colorado girl at heart, what do you expect ;)

I think that's my life since the last update. Hopefully my race update will be up tomorrow for all you running folk!

Till next time!

Run For the Bling of It - Race #2

Today was my 2nd Run for the Bling of It race! I was really nervous about the Surf-n-Turk 5k because of all the running on the sand. Every time I practice ran on the sand it completely wrecked my time. I went today hoping all my practice would pay off, but ended up with a lot higher of a time than I would have gotten on straight pavement. Oh well. It was a great day for a run and I got to run along the beautiful Gulf Coast on North Padre Island.

My total time for today's 5k was 39:29. Definitely slow, but not horrible either. I don't really track my speed per mile, but I would bet my first mile was the fastest because it was mostly on the pavement. Since I don't have a Corpus Christi running buddy yet, my awesome hubby comes out and watches and takes pictures of me! So great to have a built in photographer. I keep trying to get him to run with me, but running just isn't his thing.

All the race money today went to the Padre Island Baptist Church's mission fund, so that was awesome. I love knowing my entry money is going to a good cause. Plus, the mission committee made pancakes this morning and just asked for a donation if you ate some. I treated myself to one pancake post run. It was delicious.

With this run being so much bigger, they had door prizes afterward which was awesome. I was hoping for the gift card to the running store, but ended up getting a gift card for a month of free JAZZERCISE. First off, to any jazzercise fans that read this blog, I'm sorry, but I didn't know anyone actually did jazzercise anymore. So, I'll probably eventually use it just because it's free, but I keep having images of Richard Simmons in my mind....

Pre Race jitters!

Coming out of the starting shoot

Heading off for the one strip of pavement

Pavement between the beach grass

Passing more people!

Just crossed the finish line!

The beach where we ran - way down you can kind of see a pink buidling, we went all the way down there, turned around and went past where I'm standing.

Beautiful beach on North Padre Island

My Bling - T-shirt, bag of coupons, and jazzercise coupon!

Now my feet are killing me!!! That much running on sand make me thankful for running on pavement. I'll be glad to get back to runs where every step does not have the momentum sucked out of it! Cupid's Chase in February, here I come!!!

Run For the Bling of It - Race #1

Well, today was the day of my first Run for the Bling of It race. For more information on Run for the Bling of It, go here. I participated in the Corpus Christi Roadrunner Running Club's January Fun Run. It ended up being a 4 mile run at West Guth Park in Corpus Christi.

When I work up today, I thought to myself as I looked outside, "I thought I live in Texas..." At the park, there was frost on the ground and trees and a major nip to the air. It was probably the coldest run I've done in awhile. I'm really hoping my beach 5k next Saturday is warmer!

This was the longest race I've done to date. The flier said it was 3-4 miles. I thought I'd get the option to run either distance, but I was wrong. So, I set a personal best for distance (I know it's not very far) and I'm willing to guess my time was a personal best also, so all in all a good run.
I did it in 39 minutes!!!!

The bling wasn't excessive since it was a running club run, but it was still pretty sweet!

New Kitchen, Same Old Cook

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted, but I'd like to remind everyone that I was busy moving over Christmas. With hub's training finished at our border town, we headed to Corpus Christi to get settled for the next few months of training. We unpacked furiously on the 23rd and 24th of December and managed to get some of our house set up before my family (parents and two brothers) arrived on Christmas Day to stay with us for 6 days. We had a great time seeing them and enjoying our new town with them. We ate out a lot (yum) and played a lot of cards (fun).

Now that they've headed home, it's time to start digging into our new town. One of the things I'm really working on for this year is being more consistent with my running. My current goal is to run at least 3 times a week. We'll see how that goes. Luckily enough, I have a great friend back in CO who has agreed to be my long distance work out buddy. She is awesome and I'm excited to have some to encourage and someone to encourage me. To read about her running and life, head to Alli's blog. She is a hilarious writer and a dedicated runner!

Also to encourage myself, I am going to jump on the 2011 Run for the Bling of It challenge. My college friend Cortney had a link to it on her blog. To see her running journey you can find her here. I am super excited. Here is the summary and how to get involved from the Run for the Bling of It blog:

Over the next 12 months, complete 12 races! This can be anything from a 5k to an ultra – or any combination of races. Ideally you would do one race a month, but there are no restrictions.

How to be involved:
• Send an email to runfortheblingofit@gmail.com and let me know you want in on the challenge. Include your name and a link to your blog.
• Follow the blog at www.runfortheblingofit.blogspot.com
• Post a race report after each race so that we can link it here on the blog, including a pic of your bling if you receive any. (If not a medal maybe a pic of the race shirt or anything else they give in your race swag.)
• Tell everyone else about the challenge!


My first race for the 12 months was the Shooting Star 5k last month and my next run is going to be the 3rd Annual Surf-nTurf Run on January 29th. So, here's to a great new year in a new place!!!

Mack is ringing in the New Year with not 1, but 2 toys in his mouth.

TWO GOALS MET!!! YES!!!!

This morning, I got up, put in my contacts, bundled up a bit in running clothes and got ready to complete my first 5k since starting my Couch to 5k program. I had bungled my running a little at the end, but decided to press on and run my 5k. Awhile back, I had set two goals for my 5k (click HERE to see that blog). The first goal was to run the whole thing without any walking breaks and the second goals was to finish in 45 minutes or less. I am happy to report that I did both those things. I actually finished in 39 minutes and 10 seconds!!! I am very happy with my first 5k since my running plan started. It's a great way to celebrate and a great push to keep running. I know I've talked to a lot of people about never feeling that "runner's high" but I think I almost did today. After I got to about 2.5 miles, I was ready to speed up and keep going. Plus, finishing felt really good. One of my good friends from back home commented that she felt really powerful after finishing her last 5k and I am happy to report that I can relate to that feeling!!

Thanks for all the encouragement along the way!

Starting Line 

Mack spectated b/c he likes to jump on runners he doesn't know. He just gets excited.