Words cannot descibe how proud I am

For 21 years the most amazing man I know has served for our country.

In 1989 he entered the United States Marine Corps



In 1997 he was honorably discharged and enlisted in the US Army

In 2005 he was a Military Science Instructor for Boise State University where we met :)

I only got to share the last 6 years of his military career with him. In those 6 years we faced many times apart for training and one deployement.  I wouldn't change that time for anything in the world. Even if we couldn't spend every day together or even talk to each other each day, or eat dinner together every night, or fall asleep in the same bed or even in the same time zone. Those 6 years were some of the toughest but also the best years were I met some amazing people and developed a new respect for military life and know how strong you military wives are out there.

I still remember the day he deployed. I was stuck to his side from the minute we woke up to the minute he had to leave. I am always a cryer. But that day I held back all the tears. I knew I had to be strong for him, for us. And I tried to do this during the deployment too. He already had enough stresses out there. He had to be the strong one out there for his Soldiers, I could be the strong one at home for us.

This is one of the photos from his deployment last year.

I think we are still getting used to the idea of taking our time in life and not rushing to get in vacations or finish to do lists for fear that he may deploy or have to leave for trainings and schools.

Words cannot say how proud I am of him and his accomplishments. I am happy to be able to share that with him. This past weekend when we had his retirement ceremony was definatley more emotional than I had thought. We all shared some tears before and during the ceremony.



Getting ready to head out. I heart him

Gene and our best friend Darren who presided over the ceremony for us



His brother gave a very emotional speech and toast

Presenting him his award from the President of the United States

Presenting him with his flag

I just presented him with his award

His awards and flag

Men in uniform... do I really need to say any more?

I love my 1SG



I know it's difficult to hang up the uniform after 21 plus years, but I'm happy I get to be there every day with you. I'm excited to start this new chapter together.

I'm cheating on the pavement with my treadmill

So Sunday I was supposed to run 20 miles. But this weekend was my loves retirement ceremony so we had family here. They left early Sunday but I spend the day just relaxing. It was a busy and emotional weekend and I needed a rest day! I figured I would run it on Monday but I slept in so my opportunity passed me :(
So today it just HAD to get done. Only way that was going to happen was if I ran it on my treadmill so that's what I did!

20 miles in 3 hrs 11 min. My son was funny and asked if I was going to run a marathon on the treadmill :)



First few miles were the toughest mentally. As soon as I got over that I actually got into a groove and was feeling really good! I was hydrating like normal. Around mile 15 my legs/hips were fatigued. At mile 18 my feet were really hurting and I just wanted to be done already. I feel like I felt more pain running on the mill than I would running outside. Maybe it's cause when I run outside I 'escape' and don't focus on the pain but on the treadmill it's all I could think about I couldn't get it out of my head. I also think I didn't hydrate enough. I started feeling really low on energy and even nauseous at the end. I think it might be cause sweat a lot more on the treadmill than I do when I run outside so I should have took that into account and hydrated more.

Overall I felt good (besides wanting to chop my feet off at the end) This is my last 20 miler and I have one more double digit run before my marathon on May 14th! I probably should make a post on my goals for the marathon but honestly I don't know what they are yet :/

Well anyway I'll leave you a picture of my runners tan. My legs needed a break from the sun so it was a good thing I ran on the treadmill :)

Here's the full pic. Can you see the tan lines? At least most people didn't notice it till someone would say something then they would laugh haha. Oh well I wear those tan lines proud! 
Check back tomorrow for a post on the retirement ceremony :)

My little man

At 11:54 pm you will officially be 10 years old.

You are special and changed my life the minute you came into this world

I couldn't imagine my life without your smile

A day never goes by when you don't make me laugh with your great personality and sense of humor.

I will support you in whatever you want to be when you grow up even if it is still Spiderman and Superman. Maybe you will be Superspiderman.

You give my life so much more meaning and purpose

Even when you become a teenager and will probably want nothing to do with your boring mom, I will still be there asking you all the boring question of how your day went or the embarrassing ones of which girls like you.

I will still be the loudest cheerleader at all your sports games.

Or if you are a WWE wrestler, I will yell out your wrestler name you already chose "Baby Iz"

No matter how old you are, where you are living or what you are doing, you will always be my baby boy.

My date with the treadmill was a success

First I want to say good luck to all you running the Boston Marathon this morning!! I'm so excited to read the race reports! What an amazing experience it must be.

I did it!I  Ran further than 6 miles on the treadmill. In fact I ran more than a half marathon on the mill. I ran 13.5 miles in 2:06. I'm a happy girl, a happy runner girl!

Before I show you my pic for proof, it only says 12 miles. At mile 1.5 I hit the program button instead of the fan button and it erased all my data. I just had to see a 12 on the screen so I ran the extra bit so I could :)

This was my view...

First 5 miles were with no music. Then I turned on Pandora to "today's hip hop and pop hits".

I have to say that running on the treadmill is definitely a mental game. I felt the usual fatigue I would when I run double digits, but as for running on the treadmill itself, it wasn't as boring or as tough as I thought it would be. I of course had a few pep talks with myself before hand to make sure I was mentally prepared.
I left the incline between 1 and 2 and messed with the speed a few times. I mostly had it between 9:05 and 9:31 for most of the run but when I needed a boost or if there was a good song on that made me want to dance I would turn the speed up between 8:49 and 8:27. This really made the run go by quicker. My treadmill reset at 99:59 minutes, which figures since the clock can't hit 100.

Dare I say I actually enjoyed running on the treadmill? It was so convenient to be at home, not have to carry anything with me, having the bathroom available whenever I needed to use it (once) and I didn't have to wake up early. I don't know when I'll do another double digit run on the treadmill, but it's nice to know I broke down that mental block and I can :)

Here's my attempt at Amanda's from 5 Miles Past Empty signature pose (check it out here). She's having an awesome Allied Medal Display Giveaway and you get extra entries for sending her pics of her pose. Check out the link to her blog to enter!

 

Now this just looks like i'm taking a crap. Noticed I closed the garage door so those walking by couldn't see me during my self photo shoot

I don't want to say how many photos I took trying to get her pose down. I'm throwing this picture in just cause I'm not making a face in it.

And here's a picture of my son the day after his sleepover...

There wasn't much sleeping going on during the sleepover so he passed out on the couch after they all left. Today is his actual 10th birthday. He's excited and doing dances cause he's in the double digits, i'm crying cause my baby boy is so big :'( We are going to dinner to a place of his choice.
I'll be making a post later just on him which will include some baby pics :)

3 Things Thursday

Uno: Monday is my son's 10th birthday. So we are celebrating by having a sleepover party tomorrow. About five 9/10 year old boys running around the house wrestling, playing with nerf guns and video games. I'm am going to have them play minute to win it games so that should be fun!
Funny story - I took him to watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid and there's a part where the mom dances and embarrasses the kid on there, well my son told me I better not ever dance like that in front his friends. I asked him why and he said he would be embarrassed. So I posted this on Facebook and my lovely friends all said I need to dance when all his friends are over :) hahahaha *insert evil laugh*

Dos: Do you follow Emz's blog? If not YOU SHOULD. She is freaking AMAZING! Not just cause she can run 50 miles on a treadmill 5 days before the Boston Marathon, or because she loves heels, or because she is going to run for 24 hours on a treadmill, but she is amazing because she runs for a reason. Check out her blog links and follow her on Dailymile to learn more about her 24 hour treadmill run to support Sojourner Center and Victims of Domestic Violence
http://royalpitatoias.blogspot.com/
http://www.runemz.com/
http://www.dailymile.com/people/RunEmz

Tres: So my long run on Sunday is 12 miles. I'm kinda thinking about running it on the mill. One cause Emz is freaking inspirational and if she can run 50 miles I can run try to run 12 and two I don't want to have to think about where I'm running and planning out a route or worry about if the normal route I run is partially flooded. We rearranged the treadmill in the garage so that it now faces the garage door so I can open it up and feel the fresh air and people/car watch. I would also save the 20-30 minutes round trip of driving to a location to run so that means I can sleep in a little longer :) that's always a major plus. BUT the most I have ever run on the mill is 6 miles so it would take a bit more mental effort. Running outside is a lot easier for me than running on the treadmill. So I'm trying to think about it as running 6 miles twice so it doesn't seem as long.

And because I love to look at pics of my little man here's some more :)

Playing with his friends at his birthday party last year

He was excited to see the Storm Troopers at the fair last year

Mommy kisses! :)



20 miles can be better than 13

Today was my 20 mile run which went a lot better than last weeks 13 miler!
I was fueled properly, no flirtini's on the menu this week :)

I was looking forward to running to burn off the 2 big slices of bread I had for dinner last night. Gene made some bread called Pan de los Muertos (Bread of the Dead) that was amazing! It's a dessert bread and he made his own glaze for the crust and put some powdered sugar on it... it was to die for, literally!

Before the run I had a bagel thin with some peanut butter on it.
During the run I decided to go with Power Bar Energy Blast chews. My stomach has been getting upset with gels lately. This worked out perfectly and I had no tummy issues.

The trail I ran on was flooded on parts which I knew it was going to be but I figured I'd just follow the detours and it would give me a semi new route without having to think too much into it.


Took this picture a while a go but this is one of the areas that was blocked off due to flooding

I ran the first 11 miles without music. It was early when I started so not many people where on the trail on the way out so it was nice and quite with just my thoughts, the river and the birds to listen too.
My legs started feeling fatigued around mile 16 after I walked to drink some water and take some chews. I practice walking for a few seconds while I fueled cause it's most likely what i'll do in the race itself, I always spill water on myself when I try to drink and run, even if I pinch the cup :)
My feet were tired from being on them and my ankles ached a little. One would ache then stop and the other would ache, I told myself they were taking turns. At mile 19.2 I had to pass by my car. For a second I wanted to stop and just jump in my car and go home, but I ran a little harder to finish strong cause there was no way I was quiting with less than a mile left. This is why I usually run out and backs cause I hate to pass my car but with the detours it through me off a little. It felt good to be done with my run at 10:40 am when other runners were just starting theirs!
Finished 20 miles in 3:09  9:26 pace (this included the walking breaks while I fueled)

Total mileage for the weekend was 25 miles. (ran 5 on Sat). This put me at 42 miles for the week.

I tried to stretch and foam roll when I got home but it's hard when this little guy wants all the attention

Pay attention to me!

 

He decided just to lay on my face while I stretched to get my attention :)



I leave you with some pics of my boys planting our first garden this weekend :)



Digging the whole to plant the strawberries

My boys planting in our first garden!



Dash decided he needed a little break



Eat, Drink and Run

That title pretty much sums up what I did since Thursday when I dropped off my son at his grandma's house...

On Friday the weather was beautiful with a high in the low 70's. So after working on the garage and doing some yard work we went for a drive over in the north end of Boise and decided to have lunch at a place called 13th Street Pub & Grill. We sat outside while we enjoyed our food and drinks. I had a club sandwich and a glass of white sparking wine called the Sofia Coppola.


My love enjoying the sun and a beer. You can check out his take on the Pub at http://beerrunandpubcrawl.blogspot.com/2011/04/13th-street-pub-grill.html

While we were sitting there I noticed a woman wearing a Dirty Dash race shirt. I asked her if she ran it last year, she said yes and she loved it and had a ton of fun. It's on August 27th here in Boise and I had been thinking about running it but after she said there is a huge slip-n-slide down a hill I of course have to do it now! Who doesn't want to go down a slip-n-slide, run thru some obstacles and get all muddy!
I also asked her if she has ran the Idaho Potato Marathon. She has ran it 5 times but can't run it this year cause they are taking a trip to do some trail running. She recommends it but the only bad thing is it gets pretty warm. She said her friend tucked some sponges in her shirt to put water on at every water stop and would squish over her head when she needed to be cooled down. But besides that the course is nice. She gave me some idea's on new running routes so I may use one for my long run this weekend. She said her and her girlfriends take a running trip every year and this year they are going to try to go to NYC. How fun!
After lunch we walked across the street to a little antique shop. I always go straight to the jewelry for some reason. I love to to look at the vintage jewelry. I did see a cute little piece that was pearls with two yellow butterflies at each end. I thought it was a bracelet at first but it was actually something you clip on to the front of your cardigan. I probably would have bought it and made it into a bracelet but their jewelery was too over priced so I didn't.

On Saturday we decided to have lunch at a place called The Crescent No Lawyers Bar & Grill (you can read their website HERE if you want to know the back story of No Lawyers). Our friend Adam met us there and he introduced me to a drink called Flirtini, champagne and pineapple juice, which was pretty yummy.


Me, Gene & Adam

On Sunday was my 13 mile long run. I was pretty unmotivated to get out the door. It's easier for me to wake up early and go run so I can come home and relax with my boys but since my son wasn't home I had no time restrictions. So I sat around being lazy the majority of the morning/afternoon. About 3pm I decided I better get out there cause I still had to go pick up my son. I knew I wasn't feeling it since the minute I got out there but I thought I would feel better once I warmed up. The sun was out so I got warm pretty quick and took off my arm warmers. I have a tan line on my calves from usually wearing my capris during runs, I wanted to tan the rest of my legs so I wore a skirt and compression socks. I took the run easy with no time or pace in mind just wanted to go by how my body felt. I have been having some pain on the inner part of my tibia. I don't think it is running related though cause I felt no pain after my 18 mile run last week. I think I started to feel a little tenderness on Wed when I ran on the TM so that's when I noticed it. It's tender to the touch but not swollen. I'm not sure what happened, it almost feels like I got hit really hard there and I have a bruise on it (but there is no visible bruise). After about half a mile in I couldn't feel it (today it feels fine so I must have hit it on something and just can't remember). Anyway I just wasn't into the rest of the run. I could tell I hadn't fueled properly cause I was out of energy pretty early on and had to take some energy chews. (I'm sure the flirtini's I had the day before had nothing to do with not fueling right :) I was able to keep a good pace over a 9 min mile the entire run but I progressively got slower the last few miles. I finished with 13.1 miles in 2:03 (9:24 pace). I was glad to be done with the run!
I headed home to eat and then went to pick up my son. Even though it's nice to spend some alone time with my love and be able to go on a few lunch dates together, we both miss little man. The house is too quite without him. This morning he asked me why I was so tanned haha. I thought it was cute he noticed.

Even though I didn't have a good run yesterday I'm not going to let that affect me this week. Not every run has to be butterflies and rainbows. If it was everyone would be running right? This week I'm going to prep myself mentally and physically for my long run. The big 26.2 is only 6 weeks away!

How do you prep yourself for your double digit runs?

How do you bounce back from a run that wasn't so good?