Back to School

First I have to start off how fast the summer went. Bryttany and Kent had summer camp, I ran the 1/2 marathon, Aubrey played with her little cousin Tessa and we all went to Colorado. We have been home for two weeks and bam, school starts. Every year I have a different emotion it seems with back to school. Sometimes I am happy(I know; most horrible mom in the world) sometimes I am sad, sometimes I am neither and there has been the all of above too!

So this is the emotion I have this year, I don't know. Does that count as an emotion? My youngest child is 5th grade, and she still likes me. She will still sit on the couch and watch TV. She still likes to play games and values what I say to her. She looks forward to our family nights but she also likes to play with her friends, a lot. There is still a good balance of family and friends. And get this, she still lets me kiss her in public, GASP! I know, it is almost impossible to believe. Thank goodness I still have her to remind me of why I had children and why God didn't make me a lion, they eat their young ya know!

How many of you have teenagers or at least children in Jr High? I now feel your pain. One day my oldest daughter woke up and she was replaced by this thing I do not recognize. She has to shower, wears make-up, spends more time on her hair than I do, wears my shoes(without asking I might add) tolerates me and her dad. All I know is friends with older girls, could have given me a little warning? It is not that Bryttany is a bad kid, she isn't. She gets straight A's, is in student council, plays softball, helps me cook dinner, is responsible. You get the picture. I know I have nothing to complain about and plenty to be thankful for. But all I know is everyday a little more and more of my daughter whose biggest concern was cuddle time and being a good big sister is being replaced by a young woman who has the whole world to go out and explore and it isn't going to be our hands that she turns around to grasp, but I do know it will be our arms she will always come running to when she wants to come home.

Home Sweet Home

Where do you even begin about a vacation that you didn't really look forward to but once there, you didn't want to leave? That is how it is with Colorado and me, it is a love hate relationship. I can't tell you the last time I went home and smelled the air and said "This is Home". I know we will never move back, if no other reason, the girls are getting too old and I can't aka them from their friends. Truly Arizona is the only home they have ever known. They don't know snow on Christmas, winter coats on Halloween and snow days. They do know Cactus with Christmas lights, sitting in the neighbors driveway on Halloween and heat advisory days at school. I think I was more nostalgic this time because I am getting old. Yep turning 35 will do that to you, maybe it is a mini mid life crisis. I am turning 35, my oldest will be in Jr High and I found a bunch of grey hairs this year, GASP! Time has changed my view on things and time has given me the chance to regret some of the choices I made.

I went out one night with a couple of friends from high school and had a blast. I have seen Kat a couple of times since graduation but not many. She was the bestest friend a girl could have in high school. She knows far too many of my secrets and could have my go into hiding if she ever shares any of them, but that's OK, I think I have a few on her too! And Tommy, where do you even begin? He is a charmer who hasn't changed a bit since high school, well maybe a little. It is nice to see a guy who actually still loves his wife these days. If every man could look at their wife the way Tom looked at his, there would be a lot more happy wives out there, for sure. These are the relationships I realize how much I have missed. Call it selfishness or laziness or maybe a little of both, but these are the people that make me realize how important those people from your past still are or might be. Everybody grows up and moves on, but do we always have to?

I saw my nieces and nephews this trip too. I love them all so much. My brothers daughter is right in the middle of Brytt and Aubrey and if you put the three of them side by side, you can tell they are related. Which is totally crazy because I think my girls look just like Kent. And my nephew Sam, oh he is a pistol, but he is the cutest pistol ever. My sisters daughter is 14 and I love the attitude that teenagers get. It is nice to see that all of them get it and it isn't just a Webster trait. Brytt and Savannah would both just sit with their cell phones, not talking to anyone over 15 and not wanting to do anything with anyone under 12, hilarious. And then there is Hollywood aka Alex. Poor kid we made fun of his hair and gave him the nick name of Hollywood and it stuck, I hope he will forgive us all someday.

I love my family, don't see them as often as I like but it is probably better that way. We are a bunch of misfits who are probably more alike then we would care to admit. We are competitive, cranky, clean freaks, smart, gamblers, always looking for a good time. We love our spouses and our kids and I think we would do just about anything for each other, although none of us would admit it. I guess you might want to add stubborn to that list too, and I guess you better put adrenaline junkies on that list too, and maybe a bunch of gadget geeks! Oh and I can't forget Bridge player, and no it isn't my mother who plays Bridge!

5 days and counting.....

I can't believe it is almost here. I have five days until I will be running the Rock N Roll San Diego 1/2 marathon. I am getting nervous, to put it mildly. But I am also oddly excited. There isn't much that I get excited about but this I am. I wonder if this means I have caught the running and racing bug? I hope not because then I would have to quit my beloved Bootcamp which I am not ready to give up. It has been hard this past week to not eat the sugar. Our family has celebrated two birthdays in the last 72 hours. For my childs birthday, she doesn't like me to bake her a cake, she likes the store brand. What store? Dairy Queen of course. Yep that is right, she loves the Dairy Queen Ice Cream cakes. A layer of vanilla and chocolate ice cream with cookie and fudge in the middle, frosted with lard and sugar, yummy and I have to admit, my favorite. I had a piece in my hands and Kent had to physically take it out of my hands. There was a death grip on it. I could just imagine the smell and the taste of the ice cream, so good. Kents cake on the other hand, a homemade pound cake with chocolate mocha buttercream frosting. Did you know there is actually a pound of butter in a pound cake? He was so sweetly informed that the cake goes to work with him tomorrow because I don't want it to hang around here. I warned the girls they might come home to a mom who is in a sugar induced coma. I keep saying give me my sugar when all this running is over, but truthfully then I probably wont want any!! All I have is 5 more days, 5 more days, 5 more days...

Countdown to San Diego Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon

It is finally almost here. When I first agreed to do this silly run, I had months to prepare and months to convince myself that I wasn't going to do it. Now just to put it out there, I can run, I have learned to love to run but I can't say I am a natural runner. I love the solitude of it. Running is perfect for someone who is more introverted than most of her family and friends. If I could do the 1/2 in quarter mile sprints however with a minute rest I would much rather do that.

I cant begin to tell you how much better I feel though because of the running and even though he wont admit it, I think Kent feels better too. There aren't many things that couples can do together, but I have learned to run with a partner and it is okay. But I will be running solo on race day.

This isn't my first organized run, but it is my first big one. I have run Pat's Run twice. One pre torn ACL and this past one in April. I love the excitement that is buzzing around on race day and the sense of community. At least with Pats Run we were packed in like sardines so you got to know your neighbor very well and we had a 1/2 hour delay because of walk up registrations.

So as of today we are officially at 12 days and counting down. My runs are tapering, I am tired and cranky, which I guess is normal? I don't feel like I am ready, but hey, if you don't have new obstacles and challenges in your life where are all of your opportunities to grow and change and hopefully be a better person on the other side?

I am addicted....

Well it has happened, I have become addicted. Not just to running but to my Skippy peanut butter. I had my long run of 10 miles, and I truly thought I was going to die. I have heard of this running wall, but have never actually felt it, until mile 10.... My legs could not go anymore and my mind could not go anymore. I have heard everyone say, it is a mental game and you have to push through it, but I was having a hard enough time walking the short distance to my house. I run 8 miles and I feel great! But there is something with that 10 mile mark that has me spooked. The best advice I have gotten so far to combat it is run 10 1/2 miles to show my body it can do it, so guess what 10 1/2 miles it will be this Sunday. Am I looking forward to it? Not yet but I am looking forward to 8, is that crazy or what? And everyday I have to have my scoop of Skippy. I say to myself it is a Tablespoon vs. the actual 1/4 cup that it is. Don't ever tell my trainer I eat peanut butter like it is going out of style, but hey, every girl has got to have her vice. I eat it on apples, I eat it on a granola bar, and yes I eat it right off the spoon.

As you can see, the next part of my journey is figuring out my diet and adding in a few more carbs to help the old muscles recover and repair. I have endless possibilities, Skippy on toast, Skippy on English muffins, Skippy on bagels, Skippy on Pancakes, Skippy on waffles... I wonder what Skippy will taste like on my French Toast?

Running Schedule this week!!

Well you always wonder how your running week will be when you wake up and it is raining. Sprints are my first run of the week so today was sprint day. I love sprint day. Yes I said it, give me sprints over a long run any day. We had to run 10 x 400 with a pace of 2:15 with a rest interval of 1:30. We had to run inside on a track so it was a little different. But it was nice to have a little AC blow on you every once in awhile. And I must confess, it was nice to run with Kent and each of us led 5x's to try to get the pace. To say the least, we never got the right pace, we hit 2:00 minutes every time.

Workout #2 this week will be 1 mile warmup, 3 miles @ short tempo pace(9:56) 1 mile cooldown.

Workout #3 this week will be 10 miles @ long tempo pace(10:26)

Some weeks are good runs, some weeks are bad, and this week so far so good, but today was a great day to run!!

My Journey to the Rock-N-Roll San Diego

Ok, so here it is, I have something I can blog about and blog about often. I have never been much of a runner but I love to exercise. Well to be specific, I love to do My Body Envy Bootcamp. Over a glass of wine, my sister asked me to pick a half marathon and run it with her. The background on this, she is trying to qualify for and run in the Boston Marathon before she is 41. She has numerous races, one marathon and a few half marathons under her belt. I am not sure if it was her or the wine but I agreed to run in San Diego on June 6, 2010. When I agreed to this, I had a little over 5 months to train. I had only been back at Bootcamp for a little over three months but I felt really good. My thigh muscles were coming back and the knee felt good. I thank God that I recovered so well, some have not been as lucky and I knew it was Gods grace that I had done so well. As everyone knows who is close to me, the rehab did not go as well and truly I thought I would never run again. Someone told me half of rehab is mental, and maybe it is, but I felt broken and defeated and didn't think I would ever be at the same level of exercise I was at before my ACL injury. I know it helped going back to bootcamp and seeing for myself I wasn't broken, and having Eric push us to a level further than we think we can do helped too. So here I am, 11 weeks until race day. I am doing bootcamp six days a week and running three. I do sprints one day, a tempo run and a long run. The longest I have run is 8 miles and it felt great. I have found my new best friends

and my running partner, Kent. He puts up with me grumpy and all, I have learned I am not a fun person to run with and would rather have the solitude when my feet hit the pavement. But I am learning to love my running partner, just like I am learning to love the run. I am off for a nap now and looking forward to next weeks track runs!