Goose Hunt

This is the sight that greeted me tonight when I got home from work.

Seth, who recently sold all of his goose decoys, went out with Jackson and Tucker after school and limited out on geese before dark. Not only did he not have decoys, he had two wild little boys along and no goose blind. He said that he just sat under an irrigator and waited for the geese to land.

Needless to say, he was pretty happy.

Running Log
The last few days of running have been kind of jacked up.

Saturday:
Miles: 4.57
Time: 42 min
Pace: 9:16
Plan: 11 miles with mid 5 at race pace

We had an unexpected house showing and had to rush home to clean up, so what should have been 11 miles ended up much, much shorter.

Sunday:
Miles: 11
Time: 1:53 Hours
Pace:10:20
Plan: Rest Day

This was the run that I was supposed to do on Saturday, so I went on Sunday to make up and made Monday my rest day instead since the rule of thumb is easy, hard, easy, hard for runs and Monday would have been an easy 3 miles anyway. I ended up going much slower than I had planned mostly because we stopped to put air in Seth's bike tire and then stopped twice to let Ruger point some ducks. 11 miles is still a far cry from 26.2, but I honestly felt as though I could run forever at that pace. My junior high self would have never believed it.

Monday:
Rest Day
Plan: 3 easy miles

Today:
Miles: 5.3
Time: 48 Min
Pace: 9:02
Plan: 5 easy miles

Supper's On The Table

There's nothing like coming home after a long day of work to this.

The boys loved it!

So did I!

Dinner aaaaand a drink? Yes, please!

Today: 

Miles: 4

Time: 37 minutes

Pace: 9:15 min/mile

Today's plan: 4 easy miles

It was so icy this morning that running was pretty difficult and I was grumpy until about halfway through. The roads and sidewalks looked much better this evening so not only will I be running during daylight hours, but also on clear streets and sidewalks - winning!

Slowest Tempo Evvvveeeeerrrr

After my warm up today, I was supposed to do three sets of running hard for 1 minute followed by a .5 mile recovery between each set and then a 1 mile cool down.

It was quite possibly the slowest tempo run ever. The saddest part was that I felt as though I was running really, really, fast when I was actually creeping along at a snail's pace. Running in the dark on pure ice does that to a person....

To make up for my slowness, I promptly went on Pinterest when I got home and found a few additional exercises.   

As for yesterday, there was no 5 miler in an attempt to make up for the missed one on Tuesday for me. Instead, I did some Tae Bo and a few other exercises. 

Yesterday:

20 Min. Tae Bo

2 sets of 8 Tricep dips

10 Push ups

1minute plank

Today:

Miles: 3.45

Time: 34 Minutes

Pace: 10:04 min/mile

Today's plan: 1 mile WU; T: 3x1/.5 mile recovery; 1 mile CD

What I did: 1 mile warm up, T: 3x1 with a .5 mile recovery after each (hey, if I'm not actually working on speed, at least I'm getting miles in); 1 mile cool down, and a Pinterest workout (see below).

Off Day

Today just felt like an off day. Nothing went right and I can't wait for it to be over. As my mom always says, "things will look better in the morning". Hopefully it works out that way because if not, I might go looney toons!

Miles: 0 
Today's Plan: 5 easy miles
What I did: It snowed last night and there was so much this morning that I didn't even attempt to run the 5 miles that my training plan called for. Tomorrow is supposed to be either a rest or cross train day so I'm trying to decide if I should do Tae Bo or run instead. The streets in town were really icy this evening and about 50% of the sidewalks were clear so I might just skip running in the dark tomorrow morning and stick with Tae Bo. At least it will be cardio.

Time to send the boys off to bed and hopefully regain some of my sanity!

Happy Birthday Old Man!

Sethy turned 30 today!

He's the best husband and daddy this girl could ask for.

He's pretty much the bomb.

Most of his birthdays have been pretty craptacular. Craptacular to the point of us declaring that we would never celebrate his birthday on his birthday after his 29th last year. There was the time I was in the hospital having preterm labor with Jackson, the year we didn't have enough money for a present for him, the year I had strep throat, etc, etc.

We did end up celebrating this year and were pleasantly surprised with how nice it was. Seth went to a friend's cabin on Friday, came back the next day and we went to dinner with friends, then to dinner with his family today. The only thing that didn't turn out was my attempt at making chocolate chip cookies for him, the easiest thing ever. I somehow managed to completely ruin them. But if that's the worst thing to happen, I would declare Seth's 30th birthday a success!

Yesterday

Miles: 10

Time: 1:34

Pace: 9:25 min/mile with a strong finish for the last 15 minutes (mile 9: 8:32 mile 10: 7:48)

Plan: 10 miles with a strong finish last 15 minutes

Ruger was acting a little tired toward the end of our 8 miler last week, so I was worried that he would tire out on this one, but he decided to break his usual good leash habits and pulled me the entire 10 miles. Even when I sped up in the last 15, he still ran out ahead of me and didn't want to stop when we were done. Of course, he was dead to the world as soon as we got home and slept like a log for the next 15 hours.

Today

Rest Day

Ruger tried to get me out for a run today, but when he realized it wasn't going to happen, he settled into a corner of the couch and happily slept the rest of the day away.

Super Boring Post

This is going to be a super boring post. Seriously, spare yourself and stop reading now.

Miles: 4
Time: 35 Minutes
8.43min/mile
Today's Plan: Easy 4 miles

That's all I have. I didn't push myself at all today so was pleasantly surprised with my pace. Especially, as I was happy to average under 10 min/mile only a year ago.
Now, back to snuggling my boys on the couch and watching Ninjago.

Negative Splits

Miles: 6
Time: 52 Minutes
Average Pace: 8:42 min/mile
Today's Plan: 6 miles with the last three miles progressively faster than the first three.
What I did:

Distance	Pace
1 mi	09:46 min/mi
2 mi	08:54 min/mi
3 mi	09:06 min/mi
4 mi	08:38 min/mi
5 mi	07:57 min/mi
6 mi	07:32 min/mi

Everyone was still sleeping when I got home and Ruger was more than happy to join them. He is a non-stop running machine until he gets in the house and then he's suddenly a limp noodle.

Both boys and Ruger end up sleeping with us by morning and, as you can see, they take up so much room that Seth and I end up hanging over the edge of the bed and battling them for some covers. But, they're just so sweet and cuddly at night, that I don't really mind. In no time at all, they probably won't want anything to do with nerdy old mom so I'm going to smother them as much as possible until then.