Great Quote

We went for Chinese food the other day and my fortune cookie had the best quote. It really seemed to fit well for my life the past year or so.

"You don't really know yourself until you know what you can do."

What a great quote!

Disappointing Run

I'm really upset with today's run. The weather was gorgeous for a run and I was geeked up for a 3-4 mile run. I went out right after work, like I usually do and was excited to run outside again. It's been treadmill workouts lately since it's been too hot to run at 3:30 in the afternoon.

I was doing great, except for some minor breathing issues, that I knew I could work through. Then right at .6 miles, I was really starting to feel some pain and had to stop. It was mostly on the top of my right ankle, but a little of my left knee again too. I stopped and stretched them both, hoping that's what it was and started again. I had to stop at 1.15 miles and stretch again... while I did this, I realized I could touch my toes bending over. I don't remember being able to do that in a long time!

I started running again and vowed I was going to run at least two miles today. I thought I was going to have to stop at 1.75 miles but since I wanted to run 2 miles I forced myself to keep going, and I did. After 2 miles, I walked the 1/4 mile back to my car, disappointed. I don't know what the problem would be.. could be shoes, lack of mileage lately (the most likely reason), actual injury... let's hope it doesn't continue though.

How do you get past a disappointing workout?

Looks like a nice day

Looks like a nice day to run outside... Not too hot, slight breeze. I miss running outside. Hoping for 3-4 miles today

Twinsburg Race Review

Better late than never, huh?

Last weekend was great. It's always pretty awesome when my sister and I get to spend a weekend together. This time we brought the babies with us (mine is 12 mos. and hers was 10 mos.) Our plan was to push the babies in our jogging strollers for her first 5k. She had done a few 5k's in training with her boy, but not an official 5k. I was pretty excited to be doing her first one with her.

The day before the race, we scoped out where we were going to be going to make sure we had enough time for before hand. There was some confusion as to whether it started at 8:30 or 9:00 so we got there in order to be ready at 8:30. We got there, checked in and fed the boys breakfast in their strollers. What good sports they were!

We line up at 8:15 with about 25 other sets of twins, some singletons and their families. It was pretty neat to see it all. Then we took off shortly after 8:30 down the school driveway, side-by-side, downhill a little. Then we went off into a bike path... we knew this was going to be an out-and-back race, so running side-by-side wasn't going to work for the whole race. By mile 1, the first runners were coming back in so we

had to go single file. I let her go ahead of me, then she took off. She stayed about 10 feet ahead of me the whole time. The water stop was at the turn-around. At that point, I was so exhausted trying to keep up with her. It was so hot and humid and my asthma was really starting to take a toll. Plus, I usually run about 11:00/min miles while pushing the baby and we were going at a 10:20 or faster pace. I was so proud of my sister. She was doing it!

At mile 2.75 we started off the bike path and headed towards the school track, which was not in great condition for a track--but it's not the worst I've ever seen either. My sister's husband was there taking pictures and got her smiling just before the finish... I was struggling, but ready to finish. Time was right around 32 minutes.! Awesome for her first 5k, and for pushing a stroller the whole time. I'm so proud of her!!!!

Next weekend, my brother is going to run his first 5k. I don't know if I'll run with him or not, but I will definitely be there to support him. I'm not sure if he wants me to run with him or not. He says he's pretty slow and doesn't want to be embarrassed but he's doing it and that's all that matters. He beat all the people who aren't doing it.

Here is my sister and I after the race... can you guess who is who? (I'm on the left with the blue stroller)

Big Race Tomorrow!

I am super excited about tomorrow's 5k... why? Tomorrow will be my sister's first 5k and we'll be running it together at the Twins' Days festival in Twinsburg, OH. It'll be interesting to see all the other runners and see how they do. The festival itself is fun to see all the doubles and triples (and sometimes more) that are there... I wonder how many runners there will be...?

Anyway, I'm super stoked about this race tomorrow and I'm so proud of my sister for her training to do this. She doesn't think 5 miles is such an accomplishment or that far but the average person can't go out and do 3 miles... I'm proud of her nonetheless.

We have our matching outfits and will be ready to take the course at 8:30am!

Guest Post: Meet Holly

The following is a guest post from Holly at I'd Rather Run Outside. This is all part of the Great Big Bloggy Post Exchange. You should see mine posted at I Have Run sometime tomorrow. Welcome Holly and all Holly's visitors. I hope you come back soon!

So I saw this over at Chelsey's and thought it was really fun! I have been seeing a lot of these survey type things going around lately and will rotate them into Wednesday posts to make things more interesting and so we can learn stuff about each other!

Three Ways I’m Still a Kid:

1) I LOVE to watch cartoons with my girls and prefer to watch them over most of the shows on t.v. during the day. I do like watching adult stuff at night: Man vs. Wild (umm….Bear), NY Ink (ummmm…Ami), MythBusters, Dual Survival, etc…notice the Discovery Channel trend!

2) I love to play fun games, and that’s one of the reasons that I became a P.E. teacher, so I could play all day!! I do prefer Elementary School to upper grades. Upper Grades know everything already and don’t want to learn if they don’t know. I like teaching little kids things and seeing them do things for the first time.

3) I’m stubborn and it takes a lot to get me to “give in”. I am a lot better than I used to be but it’s still hard!

Three Ways I’m already “Old”:

1) I like to get up early, before the girls. I like to have a little time to myself in the morning so I can feel like a real person before I put on my mommy hat.

2) I can say that things came out “25 years ago” and I am able to remember that far back, although no very well.

3) Most nights I fall asleep on the couch by 10, if not earlier.

Three things that I want to do:

1) Teach again! I just renewed my teaching license and there happens to be an Elementary P.E. position available in my area that I just applied for. I would love to get it but it is tearing out my soul just thinking about the prospect of having to leave my girls all day 5 days a week. I know they would be fine, and I would be fine, but it still hurts that I wouldn’t be the one filling their needs for 8 hours of the day. I was rocking Brighit at 3 in the morning and started thinking about this and started crying. I hadn’t originally planned on going back to work until both girls were in school. That would be either 2 years from now if Brighit went to pre-school or 3 years if she just went to Kindergarten, but this seems like the perfect position and the pay would be enough to not just be paying for childcare.

2) Go back to school! I have my Master’s and part of me wants to go back for another, not sure what area though. That would be in the future though.

3) Get certified as a Personal Trainer. If I can’t teach than I want to be able to help others lead a healthy lifestyle. I wouldn’t do this until the girls were both in school as I probably wouldn’t be making enough here to cover the childcare.

Three ways that I’m a stereotypical boy…

1) I have my mind in the gutter a lot and laugh at fart jokes…enough said!

2) I LOVE cars!! I always have but the hubby is passionate about cars and works with them all day so my love has increased as well.

3) I must be a growing teenager because I eat more than my husband!

Three ways that I’m a stereotypical girl…

1) I love the color pink! I never used to like it but I guess with having 2 girls I have grown to love it!

2) I would love to be able to wear dresses more but I can never find ones that I like.

3) I always have to have my toes painted, even in the dead of winter!

Three things that I like about myself…

1) That I am physically STRONG! I am probably stronger and in better shape all around now than I have ever been in my life! All my work is paying off and I LOVE that my girls both want to be strong and healthy like Mommy!

2) That I am tired of acting a certain way or worrying about saying the right thing to have friends. If you want to be my friend you have to like me for me. Yeah, I don’t always say the right thing, but I will be your friend till the end if you like me for me!

3) That I am a GREAT Mommy! Yeah, I make mistakes and some days are better than others, but in the end my girls love me and SHOW me that they love me!! They are healthy and happy and SMART and I want to take credit for that! Of course the hubby has part in this too but I am the one that’s been with them since the day they were born!

Three of my everyday essentials…

1) My Family. If they weren’t around me every day I know life wouldn’t be as fun!

2) Exercise! I do feel best on the days that I exercise but I will not sacrifice family time for it, so sometimes it just doesn’t get done for a couple of days.

3) Coffee! I usually only drink it in the morning and I am certainly capable of having a conversation before my first cup but I love the way it tastes and the fact that it keeps everything going.

Three Things that Scare me:

1) Flying insects that bite….enough said!

2) Not seeing my girls grow up/not having a good relationship with them as they get older

3) Not living up to my potential

Any you want to answer???

What's Next?

The question I keep getting... what's in store for me next? I really don't know yet. I took it easy today and only ran 1.5 miles on the treadmill today as a recovery run after work today. My next race is this weekend but the focus is not on me this time. I'm running with my twin sister, in HER first official 5k. She's been training with the Couch to 5k program and has done the distance in training. This weekend we will be running at the Twins Days 5k. We will be both pushing our babies--mine (#3) is a year old and hers is 10 months old. I'm so proud of her. I never pushed her to do this and she told me she wanted to start training, on her own. So this weekend is about her.

After this weekend, I will need to find something else to do. I'm going to stick with running right now, and will cross train at least once, maybe twice week, but running is what I enjoy. I need to find something in the fall to challenge me. Another half maybe or a Warrior Dash?

I Survived! First Triathlon Race Report

The swim was not pretty. I lined up with the 15:00+ swimmers. The comraderie of the ladies-only triathlon was pretty cool. We lined up for our time trial start, and before I was even close to starting, the first lady came out of the swim. All the participants waiting to start were clapping for everyone getting out--that was neat. I spotted Hubby and kids across the way waved and was off. I started off great, taking it slow. Then something happened... I don't know what it was, but I ran out of breath fast. After that I gave up all hope of swimming underwater, and I was in survival mode from there. I kept my head above water most of the time, and spent a lot of time on my back. It was like I forgot everything I learned. I probably would have been done sooner if I would have sucked it up and continued swimming underwater.

After the swim, we had to climb up a bunch of concrete stairs to the transition. Apparently I did really well in T1--I was third in my age group in transition. That's when you take your swim stuff off and get ready for the bike. I felt really good on the bike after the horrible swim. I went out pretty fast and passed a decent number of people. I think only 1 or 2 people passed me, but I know I passed at least one again. After riding the course on Thursday I was pretty familiar with the roads and it seemed to go by faster this second time. My overall pace was 15.5 mph, which isn't great, but it's pretty good for me. I went out hoping to go faster than a leisurely bike ride but not kill myself where I wouldn't be able to run. I'd say I succeeded there.

Transition 2 was a little crazier. There were more cyclists around me trying to get into T2 so it was a little congested. I am not skilled at the bike dismount either so that was not graceful. I got in, racked my bike and switched my helmet for my hat, grabbed my race number and took off... then I remembered I forgot to take my GPS watch off the bike. Luckily I didn't get very far. I grabbed that and headed off to the run. Hubby and kids were right around the corner cheering. I can still hear the familiar "Go, Mommy Go!" I love that sound--they make me smile whenever I hear it.

The run felt pretty good. My legs weren't as jelly-legged as I thought they would be. I noticed that one of my shoes was not tied very tight (I have the lock laces, so I just pulled them on without tightening them). I almost stopped but decided it wasn't bad enough. The first half/three-quarters of a mile were tough but after that it was smooth sailing. I actually ended up going fairly fast, I think my pace was 10:02, which is on the faster end for me. There were three water stops on the run, which is a lot for a 5k, but it was so hot that it was well appreciated. The final water stop was right around 2.5 miles and was manned by high school students. I was sort of half-joking, but I asked the kid to just throw the water at me and he did. He grabbed two cups and threw the ice cold water at me. It felt really good since it was probably 90 degrees at that point. As I rounded the corner I could see the finish line. My kids and Hubby were there again, cheering me on. It was awesome. I hear the announcer announce my name, which was pretty cool. I finished!

Overall it was a great experience. If I were to do another one, I have to improve on the swim A LOT. It was almost miserable. Just like I thought though, as soon as I was out of the water, I was good. Maybe I should have started with a Duathlon. Anyway, my first triathlon is in the books and done. I had fun (after the swim was over). I accomplished my two goals--1. Finish without drowning, and 2. Don't be last. I did pretty well. My overall time was 1:31:06 and I finished 26/34 in my age group. Not too bad, considering the size of the age group.

Here is a picture of me after the finish.. and I'm smiling!

Tri Eve

Tomorrow is the big day! I swam in the lake yesterday, first time in open water. It didn't go so well out of the gate. I've never swum in waves before and going out, I was headed straight for them. Between that and possibly going out to fast, something took my breath away and knocked the wind out of me. I tried to keep going, but it didn't last long. I swam back to shore and regained my breath. Then I turned around and headed the other way, with the waves. That was a lot better but I had to turn around so I stopped.

I picked up my packet today, checked out the quarry and swim area. I attended my "orientation" and heard all about the event. I'm still nervous as can be about the swim. Once I get beyond that, I should be okay, but it's the swim that will get me, if anything.

We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Course Preview

Today the family took a preview of Sunday's bike route together. It is a gigantic square, mostly farmland. We got a lot of interesting smells from those farms too. After touring the 11 mile bike route I ran a mile in the 90 degree heat. It actually wasn't too bad of a run. If it wasn't so darn hot, I would have run some more. It felt good to run.

I'm feeling a little better about Sunday's race now. I'm still a little worried about the swim, but tomorrow I will be swimming in open water so that should help ease my worry (I hope...).