sinus issues...yay...

Now that I'm over the fever and the sweats, and all that jazz I now have a sinus infection with the runny nose and everything and I'm starting to get a cough. It's crazy... I don't get sick very often, but when I do I'm usually in it for the long haul. I'm still doing some of my exercises. I may not be running the whole time, but I'm still getting some movement in.

I really need to get over this stuff...it's NOT fun!

Nice run and a 2 month check up

Now that I'm over that yucky sickness I am back to running. I'm sooo glad it didn't last longer than a couple days. It's not fun being sick.

This morning we went in for Rosalie's 2 month check up and she's doing GREAT! She's a lean and tall little thing, but she's growing right on track and even hitting some 4 month milestones already. I just love my sweet little girl.

It's amazing that only 2 months after giving birth I'm recovering as fast as I am. I'm really impressed with my body's ability to recover. Today I went on my scheduled run. 25 run/ 15 walk. I ended up walking 21 and running 25. My loop ended up being a little farther than I expected. That's ok though, it was good to get out there and I felt great. The wind was blowing some and it was kinda chilly outside, but I wore my hat and gloves which helped out in the beginning when I was walking. 

I was a little unmotivated to go out and run today, but Jason kicked me out and told me I am a happier person when I run so I needed to get it done. While I was walking I started thinking about all the things I had to do this week and when I'd find time to get my exercises in and it was starting to stress me out. But, rather than continue to go down that mental path, I had the thought..... TAKE IT ONE DAY AT A TIME! So, that's what I'm going to do. One day at a time and I will reach my goal. Step by step, little by little. I can do one day and I can find time to get a 30-60 minute run done. There's 24 hours in a day, what's a half an hour or 1 hour?

I'm still kinda having a hard time with the whole nursing/diet/running thing. Either I run and nurse or I run and diet. I can't seem to get all 3 to work together. My milk drops when I diet and run, so I have to pick one or the other. Are there any other nursing momma's out there who run, diet, and nurse and who are successful at it? If so I'd LOOOVE some tips. 

Oooh!! Check out this article about running while pregnant. My sister-in-law Hayley wrote if for the Rocky Mountain Running and Triathlon Magazine. Go Hayley!!!

Sick

I knew it, I knew that wind would make my sickness worse. I'm a genius sometimes, you know. Seriously, who in their right mind does what I did yesterday. Anyone else would have gone back inside and done something else.

I woke up this morning with a sore throat, aching ears, and an aching back. I knew today was going to be rough. Around noon my fever kicked in, good thing it was nap time for the kids cause I don't know how I would have done it with them running around. They did so great during nap time, so much so that it made it possible for me to take a 2 hour nap.

I don't feel much better right now and the DayQuil isn't really doing much. I'm so glad today is a rest day. I hope I feel better tomorrow. I don't like being sick. It's not easy to be sick and have 4 kids running around begging for your attention. It's ok though, the kids were really good today. I'm very thankful for that.

I hope tomorrow's better. :)

I hate you wind!

The kids were begging to go outside and I still needed to get my run in so, I bundled up the two little ones in the stroller while the older two got their bikes ready. We step out the door and BAM! We're hit by wind. Tons of wind. Wind that kept trying to blow Caleb off his bike. We couldn't go back inside, everyone was ready and that's NOT an easy task. 

So, we started along. Brianna's biking ahead of everyone while Caleb bikes as slow as humanly possible. I'm trying to walk at a pace that's somewhere in between the two. Caleb's starts fussing within 5 minutes of leaving the house. He doesn't want me to walk faster than him.

Well, we get to the part where you have to go up hill to cross a bridge and the fussing gets worse and so does the wind. Caleb's hat blows off, Brianna's way ahead of everyone, and the stroller with the two little ones is going to blow over if I let go. Sooooo..... I get Brianna to come back and sit on the front of the stroller (which has it's break on) and go running after Caleb's hat. 

I get his hat, Brianna rides off again, and Caleb's refusing to get on his bike again because the mean old wind is going to blow him and his bike away. So, I push the stroller and the bike up the hill and make the decision that we are going to leave the bikes at the top of the hill while we finish our walk. (The walk/run/whatever is only 35 minutes, mind you, but it feels like a LIFETIME!)

Brianna and Caleb run ahead. That's great, until the wind starts gushing again. When will we ever start going with the wind rather than against it is what I kept wondering. Caleb starts fussing because his legs were tired (we're 10 minutes into it for heaven's sake!) and Brianna follows along with his thinking. I need to start running so I have them get on the stroller so I don't have to listen to them whine anymore. 4 kids + 26 mph winds + 1 stroller + hills = one frustrated mom. 

So, I'm trudging along pushing the stroller when FINALLY the wind is helping me. I jog along and turn the corner and we're back facing the wind. Brianna makes the comment, "Mom, you're breathing is scary." I ask her why and she says, "Because it sounds like your going to die." Hahaha! Yeah, it's not easy to push all of you in this stroller with the wind. 

After about 5 more minutes of that, I tell both kids to get off, I can't push them anymore, they're way too heavy and the wind is nuts. So, they run along. Brianna does awesome and runs without complaint. Caleb on the other hand.... ugh. He whines and whines and whines while holding onto the stroller making it a MILLION times harder to push. So, I have him get back on it just to make it a LITTLE easier. We round the corner and we're coming to the part where we're under the bridge.

I tell Caleb to get off and we take a little break. The kids start throwing rocks and I start texting my brother about how mad I was. This was the worst run ever! After about 10 minutes we get back to the top of the hill where the bikes were and go back home. Well, not even 2 minutes after getting the bikes Caleb REFUSES to get on or push his bike sooooo I put the bike and him on the stroller and push it all the way back home. By now all 4 kids are fussing. Brianna's cold, Caleb's legs are tired, Annabelle's following along with the other two, and Rosalie is hungry.

We walk in the door, the kids are cranky and I want to binge on all the sweets in the house because I'm so frustrated with the run/walk/whatever it was. Plus, I wasn't feeling 100% before the run and if I wasn't sick then, then I am sure I will be now. I should have just waited until the kids were in bed and ran around the living room. 

Worst run EVER! I just hope Wednesday's run is a million times better. I wish I could take them to the fitness center's daycare for an hour, but it costs WAY to much for 4 kids. Oh well, that's life right?

Here's to better days!!

This week

This week is going to be a good one. I get to start doing Fartleks! Yay! It's just one day with a few of them, but it'll be fun seeing how fast I can go. :)


Monday: 35 Minutes (20/15)
Tuesday: 30 Minutes R1
Wednesday: 45 (30/15) wo1
Thursday: 30 Minutes R2
Friday: 30 (15/15)
Saturday: 60 min (40/20)
Sunday: OFF

I gotta build my base for this half, so that's what I'm gonna do.

Can you believe it's been 2 months already since little Rosalie came? Talk about time flying. Jeez.... In some ways it feels like it's been much longer than 2 months and in other ways it seems a lot shorter. I'm so glad things are working out the way they are. I'm feeling great and she's growing strong. It's great being a mom.

Anyway... I hope everyone has a great week!! I know I will. :)

Longest yet.

I just finished my longest run so far. 4.35 miles in an hour! :)

I wasn't sure how I'd feel since I pushed so hard with the 5k, but I felt great! My muscles weren't sore or anything. I was able to go the distance without any aches. I felt great out there. I'm still doing a walking warm up and cool down, but it's amazing to me that I can go that far only after 2 months. I can't wait for next week's long run. :)

St. Patricks Day 5k!

I did it!  

My first race post pregnancy. :) 

I ran it in 38.58. Not bad at all! 

Going into it I was expecting to run it in around 47 minutes. Figuring I had been doing all my runs during the week at 13-14 minute pace I was really surprised when I looked at my watch a mile into it and saw that I was running at an 11 minute pace.

I was moving along just fine until around mile 2 when my legs started telling me that they were getting really tired. So, I stopped and walked about a quarter of a mile and then started running again. I felt good while running and realized a few things....

I was talking to my little brother the other day and I told him that 5ks weren't doing it for me anymore and that the half was my favorite distance. Well....boy was I wrong. 5ks are exactly what I need right now. My mind said 5ks were too easy, but my body was saying otherwise. I keep forgetting that I just had a baby. I've recovered so quickly that I forget that I did take 9 months off of running and I'm not in the same shape I was before. 

The good thing about all of that though is I haven't lost as much of my running ability as I thought I did. The fact that I was able to do 2 of the 3 miles in under a 12:30 pace is awesome. I mean, like Adam pointed out, I did run it faster than a lot of my races in 2009. I'm not starting from scratch like I did then.

All in all I feel really good about my race. Sure, I didn't run the whole thing and that's ok. But, I did run it and I ran it with all that I had. 

I was having a little bit of a hard time before the race started. I was getting pictures of myself all dressed and ready to go and I just kept seeing this big girl with this big belly. I was starting to get really frustrated and self conscious about it all. That's when I had to be reminded that I did just give birth not too long ago. I'm no Angelina Jolie or Mel Roggia (my sis-in-law). I don't look like I did before I got pregnant right after I gave birth. My body's not built that way. That's ok, my body is different. I have to work hard to lose weight. So, with saying that I'm going to really start WW this weekend. (It's not really working doing it on my own.) I have to go to the meetings and stuff. To do the best that I can do I need to put in 100%. I need to track everything and I need to follow the plan. Like my dad always says, "Proper prior planning prevents poor performance." If I don't want a poor performance for my half I'm going to need to plan and I'm going to need to work that plan and not take any short cuts.

I know that in the end it will be worth it. I will be a better person. A better wife, mother, daughter, and friend. Plus, it's a MILLION times easier to run not carrying an extra 50 lbs. 

Now that I have my next months training plan, I'm going to work extra hard on my eating plan. With the two together I'm hoping to do even better on my next 5k, the Salt Lake City Marathon 5k. Wish me luck!!

Now, I need to go ice my legs, my calf muscles are begging for some love. :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

yuck...

I don't feel good.... I got a filling today and I have some sort of stomach flu going on. I'm sure it's the same thing the kids had last week that had them throwing up and all that jazz. The only thing is I don't throw up. That can be a good thing and a bad thing, but I'd rather have puke burps than actually be puking. I'm nice and bloated, too. Fun.... I'm sure that's a little TMI, but oh well.

I put off my run/walk as long as I could hoping I'd feel better, but I had to do it. So, I went slow and got my 35 minutes done (25R/10W). I feel a little better after, but I think a good nights rest will help me feel much better.

I can't be sick this week. I have my first 5k since last year on Thursday and I can't miss it. I want to do well. Let's hope this sickness is a 24 hour thing.

I hope everyone else has a great week!

Rain, wind, and night.

Today was busy. I didn't get up and run in the morning, I was planning on running in the afternoon while the kids were sleeping. Well, rather than getting my run in (I know, I really should have.) I took a nap as well. It's 4:30 when I woke up and now I want to go run. Not gonna happen... Soooo.... We end up running errands and getting pizza for dinner and I start to get cranky cause I still haven't gotten my run in.

It's now 6:30 and Jason offers to drop me off at the soccer fields and have me run home. I wasn't sure about it at first. I didn't have my watch and it was starting to rain. The closer we got to the soccer fields the more my mind started to change. Who needs a watch anyway, right? So, I pulled up MapMyRun on my phone, told Jason to drop me off, and away I went.

My muscles were a little sore from yesterday's workout, but I think they were extra sore on my right side because I was being a genius yesterday.

Here's the story with that... Our BOB stroller is usually hanging at the top of the garage on one of those bike hooks. Well, I wanted to take all the kids for a walk and Jason wasn't available to get the BOB down for me. So, me being the smarty pants I am, I take the ladder and start to take it down myself. It's not too heavy right? Wrong! I wasn't as strong as I thought I was, so the BOB and I fell over on top of the car. The car got a tiny little dent and I got nice and banged up. Needless to say, I'm a little sore and very blessed. I'm lucky I just fell over and got a little banged up. It could have been much worse.

Anyway, my run went well. It was cold and wet and the wind was blowing at first. I started out with a 10 minute walk and then I started running. My mind fell into the groove and my legs followed. I ended up going 4 miles in an hour. Not too bad. I felt great through out the whole thing. My muscles felt great and I was glad to be out there. I just love when a run goes smoothly. Now that I'm settling down I can feel my muscles aching on my right side. Nothing too bad, I'm not going to cry over it and it's not stopping me from moving around. It just feels like I worked out really hard on my right side.

I'm glad to have gotten my run in. I'm a much happier momma, wife, and person. Now, for a good nights sleep! Yay!

Views from today

I did my strength exercises today (wall sits are HARD!!) and I went on a walk with the kids around the lake for about 45 minutes. Let me tell you... it is NOT easy to get 4 kids ready and out the door. They were SO excited to finally get out of the house. We haven't really gone out a lot this winter with the baby coming and kids being sick and all. It was nice to get out and feel the AWESOME weather. It was about 54 out and it just felt amazing! The kids started out with coats on and then ditched them after about 10 minutes.

I felt good, my muscles felt great. The kids did awesome! Brianna and Caleb had so much fun riding their bikes around, Annabelle just sat and looked around, and Rosalie slept the whole time. We stopped a couple times to look at the lake and throw rocks. It was such a beautiful spring day.

Here's one of the shots from our walk. Isn't it beautiful?? The day was just great. I love, love, love spring!

Tomorrow's my "long" run. Lets see if I can pass the 2.5 mile mark. 35 minutes, the longest I've run in a while... Such a difference from a year ago. Oh well, it'll come in time.

done

I just finished my workout. Yes, it's 11:00 at night, but I did it. Today's been rough. Caleb has a fever, Brianna's getting over her throwing up, Annabelle has the runs, and Rosalie is warm (It's a borderline fever.) and threw up tonight. I've just been going all day. I did finish the quilt though. It's a simple quilt and it's nothing fancy, but it's good enough that Brianna snatched it up before I could get a good picture of the finished product.

The best part of this quilt is the fact that I didn't do it traditionally. I don't have batting in it. It's just the t-shirts and some fleece for the backing. It's like a giant sweatshirt!! Talk about comfy. Maybe I'll have a chance to try it out if Brianna ever gives it back to me. :)

 

(45.16 min)

A little project

I got my workout done. Yay! Strength stuff and all that jazz. I went to the running store today and got some pepper spray for runners. I figured that would be a smart idea since I run alone sometimes. I also picked up this new shirt for myself (you like my "suck in your gut" picture? lol!). Its so soft and comfy. I needed a new running shirt for the cooler weather that fit me, all my other stuff is too small.

I figured since I bought a new shirt I should get rid of some old shirts. But, they're all my race shirts I can't really get rid of them. So, I'm going to start a little project today. I'm going to make a quilt out of them! It should be a pretty simple quilt. Hopefully I can get it done this week and show it off.

feelin' gooood

As promised, I got my workout done.Yay! It was raining outside so I decided to go to the fitness center and run on the treadmill. I started out great. I walked 5 at 3.5, then did 25 at 4.5, and then did the last 10 minutes at 3.5. I wanted to hold onto the hand rails again, but I didn't. I also wanted to hit the pause button a couple times, but after covering it up with my towel it was much easier. I feel great about today's workout. I love the feeling after a run.

I exercise because I am worth it. :)

This week

Well, I missed 2 days this last week due to the crazy life of a mother of 4.  Lets just say it involved lots of poop and TONS of cleaning. This week I hope is MUCH better. I plan on getting out every day and getting my runs done early and if I can't get it done early I'll do it during nap time, but I promise you I will get them done no matter what. 

This week I'm also going to start tracking my food again with WW. I'm to cheap to pay for the membership while Jason's still doing it so, I'm going to use all my old trackers and stuff from when I was doing it a year ago (I'm sticking to the old plan, not their new plan.). I need to do better cause let me tell ya a whole day (Wednesday of last week) of just eating homemade chocolate chip cookies isn't going to cut it (as much as I'd love it to). Here's to more veggies and fruits! Yum!

Well, this week I'm upping my running time which I'm excited about. Here's the plan:

Monday: 40 Minutes (25 R/15 W)
Tuesday: 30 Minutes R1
Wednesday: 45 min (30 R/15 W)
Thursday: 30 min R2
Friday: 20 min
Saturday: 55 min (35 R/20 W)
Sunday: OFF 

I think it's totally doable. I just need to take it one day at a time and make sure I make it a priority. 

In other news you wanna know what I did today?? I registered for a race. You wanna know which one? The Utah Valley HALF MARATHON!  

YAY!!! 

It'll be my first half this year. It's 13 weeks and 5 days away. I think I can do it....No, I KNOW I can do it. I was going to sign up for the 5k, but after doing the full marathon last year there's no way I could do the 5k, I had to do more than that. It was so much fun being with all the great people running the full. Plus, my mom did the half last year and I know she had a great time. 

The best part about registering for it...I totally got the butterflies in my tummy. I love that feeling when you're signing up for a race. :) Exciting!!!

I hope everyone has a GREAT week!!

My "long" run

Today was my scheduled "long run". 30 minutes running 20 minutes walking. I set my alarm last night for 6am. I figured that would be the best time to do it so I could get it done earlier in the day and not have to worry about it for the rest of the day. Plus, I was excited to run it. I haven't ran for 30 minutes straight in a long time. 

Well, I went to bed at 10:00 and then woke up at 11, 2, and 3:33 to feed Rosalie. After the last feeding it was about 4:00 when I decided that I'd go run then rather than fall asleep and not want to get up again until after 7. I know myself and I know that if I went back to sleep and the alarm went off I'd shut it off and talk myself into just doing it later in the day. So, I got all my stuff on that I set out the night before, but I couldn't find my other shoe. Ugh! I ended up using my new Pearl Izumi shoes. They were perfect! The shoes were amazing, but my socks were too big.

It felt so weird going that early. I was the only one out there. Which was nice, but I couldn't stop being paranoid in the back of my mind. The main thing keeping my mind off of that was my socks rubbing my heels wrong. I knew they were going to give me a blister right when I walked out the door, but I knew that if I went back in and searched for socks (hard to do when everyone's asleep) I'd stay in, so I just kept going.

Yep, that's what I got.... A nice blister the size of a thumb print on the back of my right heel. Stinkin' socks! Smart Cathy...real smart. I shoulda changed the socks. 

I ended up walking 10 minutes, jogged 30, and walked another 10. I felt great!! I didn't want to stop (other than that stinking blister). I really loved it. Now, I need to lose this weight so I can run easier. I really need to watch what I eat. Time to get back on with WeightWatchers. 

I can't wait until my long runs are really long runs. I miss the great feeling you get after a nice long run.

Tired momma

I did my rest day workout around 9:00 and I'm still up. Today's been a BUSY day. I'd better go to bed before it's too late, I'm getting up to go run in the morning. A wonderful friend of mine is going to watch the kids while a run.

I'm so thankful for great friends. :)