Recap of 2013...

It is almost 2013, so I thought I would sum up the year.

Lets start with the numbers.

• 851, the numbers of miles I ran this year. (Not bad considering I had to take three months off.)
• 117.3, the numbers of miles I spent on my bike. This does not include the countless spin classes I did in my three month running hiatus.
• 11.6, the miles spent in the pool. I'm going to have to increase this and the miles on the bike in 2013.
• 2 half marathons
• 3 5ks
• 1 sprint triathlon
• 1 Olympic distance triathlon
• 1 Ragnar Relay (30, the approximate number of hours spent in relay van)
• 3, the number of races I had paid for and missed due to injury
• 1 tibial stress fracture
• 1 fall that resulted in a ruined run

In all, the year has had many highs, as well as some lows. I faced my fears, running in the middle of the night in Colorado and doing my first open water swim in the Redman Olympic distance triathlon.

I also got to go back to Virginia with my sisters and kiddos to visit my aunts. We also took the girls on a week long Disney cruise. I hope we can take another cruise some day.

Josh and I got to spend a weekend celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary, and my babies turned 12 and started 7th grade. In all it was a great year, and I have big plans for 2013.

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Flat Abby, Flat Cliff and Our Ragnar Van...

I had planned to do this post ages ago but never got around to it. Since its the end of the year I thought I would wrap up all loose ends.

When we headed to Colorado in September for the Ragnar Relay we left a couple of people at home. Kelsey's boyfriend Cliff and our friend Abby didn't make the trip with us.

In true Flat Stanley style we decided to take them with us.

We all hung out at the airport waiting for our flight.

They even enjoyed some nachos with us.

Then there was breakfast Thursday morning.

Then lunch at the Dam Brewery on Thursday.

Like the rest of us, there was lots of time in the van.

They even got to take Lance for a walk.

Abby even paced Patti on her final leg. It was mostly downhill, we picked Abby up at the bottom of the hill.

We think Flat Abby and Flat Cliff had a great time in Colorado with us next time we hope the real Abby and Cliff will be going with us.

We decorated our van on Thursday night.

And then it rained a bit..

Everyone got to check off their legs as we went.

Rochelle after her first leg.

Kelsey, Patti and Jerry after their first legs.

Speedy Scotty after his first super fast leg.

What you have to remember with a rental is that what goes on the windows must come off before you turn it in. So after 30 something hours in the van we made it back to the house we were staying at and stopped on the way at the car wash.

We let the boys do all the hard work.

Bob was a great driver and got us everywhere we were supposed to be and he helped clean up the van afterwards.

This race was one of the highlights of my year. I am hoping there will be another one in 2013.

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Mini Vacay and Christmas...

This is going to be a super long post with tons of pictures...

The kiddos were out of school the Friday before Christmas, my MIL had plans to take them to see A Christmas Carol so Josh took them to meet her Thursday night. I took Friday off and after an early run with Patti, Josh and I got around and headed to Edmond to trade cars with Karen and headed down to Dallas.

Of course we stopped for my favorite road trip snack.

We were on a Christmas mission. We had been talking forever about getting the girls new beds so this was the year.

We bought the old beds for their 4th birthday, the were bunk beds but they have been split apart for a while now. That little indention on the end is where Rocky used to chew on the beds in the middle of the night. He stopped that when we gave him a fleece blanket to suck on instead.

The girls also did quite a bit of decorating over the years.

We knew what the girls wanted so we headed to IKEA.

This place was amazing. I can't wait to go back.

We had a little mix up and had to go back on Saturday morning to get Camy's bed, but we were relieved to get both beds in the back of Karen's car.

We headed over and checked into the Nylo Plano. It was a very cool place.

We decided to have dinner ar the restaurant in the hotel. I had a black bean burger, a few too many glasses of wine and this yummy dessert.

We got up Saturday morning, went back and picked up Camy's bed and got most of our Christmas shopping done before heading home. We stopped in Denton for lunch, we were right next to Target so we went inside to pick up a turkey breast so I could get it in the brine on Sunday.

Imagine my surprise when I realized they sold wine!

They even had my favorite Middle Sister wine. I grabbed two of my favorite whites, and headed to the checkout. The guy asked for my ID, and I used my Target Red Card and saved 5% on wine that was on sale to begin with. I was very happy with my purchase.

We got home, unloaded the car, and while Josh headed back to Edmond to take the old beds to Jen's and pick up the dogs and trade cars with Karen, I put Carson's bed together.

We waited until Sunday to work on Camy's bed and room. Her full sized loft bed was quite a bit of work and her room was a disaster area.

Her bed ended up being quite tall.

Beds, new bedding, mattress pads and new pillows and this is what we had.

Friday night we fixed the height problem with Camy's bed. It was so tall she couldn't sleep on it. There was barely enough room to get up there. Not sure what kind of room this bed was built for. I was pretty nervous about Josh using power tools to hack up her new bed, but it turned out ok.

Much better! Although Camy got sick and threw up her first night sleeping on it.

It was a good Christmas. We got snow and ice on Christmas Day and my in-laws headed home very early.

We watched Elf and had a nice relaxing day. I didn't have to work on Wednesday so I got to go to a hot yoga class the middle of the week which was very nice. The room only got up to 89 degrees because it was about 18 degrees outside, but it was very hard to leave the nice warm room and head back into the cold.

We got together with my family on Thursday night. I made Mint Chocolate Brownie Bites.

It was a crazy night with lots of kiddos.

It was a great holiday and 2013 is just around the corner...

 

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I Need a Marathon Plan...

I don't know about you, but for me, I do better when I have a plan.  I like to have a race or races on my calendar so I know what I am working towards.  Don't get me wrong, I have my share of "junk" miles, but I like to know that I am working towards something.

Ask my friends, I am a planner.  I like to know what we are doing, when we are going, and how we are going to get there.  I do have friends that prefer to PIBE, but I'm not one of them.  I love having a plan.

I have a bunch of running friends that are going to go run this race:

Including one that is doing the Goofy Challenge!  So fun. 

Then there was talk of maybe doing this race:

I am a big fan of the Rock n Roll race series, but it doesn't look like this is going to work out.

So then there is this race:

Which seriously, we had so much fun last year.  Plus we got to watch this guy come to the finish line with a police escort.  I still totally love that we got to watch that.
We are definitely planning a trip back to Fort Worth, but I wasn't planning on running the full there, the half was such a great race last year.  Now I am undecided.

Here's my dilemma.  I am registered for the full right now for the OKC Memorial Marathon.  This race scores high marks for being able to defer my registration earlier this year because of my injury.  I just really don't want to run the full in OKC again.  I'd be happy with running the half.  I really want to run a marathon before then and run the half instead.

I just seem to be having a hard time finding a race that I really want to run.  Really, you can only do so many 20 mile training runs before you have to sign up for something, right?  *sigh*  I am trying to find my plan, but I have not had any luck yet.

Oh yeah, and then there is this race.

I do plan on going back to this race if it all works out.  It was fun last year, except for the whole breakdown after the start because I had to take the train to the finish line. 

I would LOVE to run this race.

Who wouldn't want to run a race that had this kind of press?

Eugene Marathon a Runner's World 'Best of the Best'

The Eugene Marathon was recently named a 'Best of the Best' race by Runner's World in the January 2013 edition. Bart Yasso, Runner's World Chief Running Officer and finisher of more than 100 marathons, praised TrackTown USA's only marathon. "There's such a spirit in this place…a go-to event for speedy times." Catch Yasso's praise and the complete 2013 Marathon Guide in January's edition on newsstands now.

That one's going on the Bucket List for sure.  Then there's the possibility of this race happening.  Ragnar where it all began?  Sign me up.

Still, I have no real plan.  Just some possibilities on the horizon and it's driving me nuts.  20 mile training run with my awesome friends that are running Disney?  I'm in.  I just need a reason to make others run 20 mile training runs for fun with me too.



I Am Completely Addicted...

My name is Becky and I am a television junkie. The first step is admitting you have a problem, right? It seems like most of the television shows I like end up being cancelled. Seems its not just me.

This weekend Josh and I discovered a new show.

Have you seen this show? It is amazing.

It seems like every episode has a new surprise. We had a marathon viewing session on Sunday. The girls watched a little bit but lost interest, Josh and I are addicted.

Here are a few of the highlights so far:

• When Rick runs into Glenn the first time and Glenn says "Not dead!"
• Sophia is a walker.
• Amy gets attacked.
• Rick wakes up in the hospital.
• Glenn gets lowered into the well.

I like that its not all at night, makes it less scary for me. I will admit to being a little weirded out when I backed out of the garage at 5 am yesterday morning. I will admit to being a little afraid of the dark.

It's nice to be fan of a show in its third season, less likely to be cancelled. If you aren't watching, you should be. You won't regret it.

 

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I'm Gonna Try to Not Be Such a Girl...

Today my #RWrunstreak ended. Let me explain.

During yesterday's Dirty Bird Trail Run after about a mile or so Ro sped off without us and Kim and I stuck together for the remainder of the miles. At the water stop we meet back up with Tim and ran and chatted with him for a few miles.

Here is something funny. This picture was taken yesterday...

This one was about shear and a half ago, same trails different day.

We had some interesting conversations on the trail. One was about injuries. Tim told us about how he has never suffered from a running related injury, he didn't even need to knock on wood after.

He had a very good theory on injury prevention. His thinking is pretty simple, if he doesn't feel good while he's running he stops. What a novel idea, to listen to your body, to not always push through the pain. To know when to say when and to be okay with it. To know that, as runners we are not defined by just today's run.

It seems so simple. Why is this such a hard thing?

I have had two runs in particular that I can say were my most horrible. One was durning marathon training, the second was when I had my stress fracture in March. Both times it was so hard to stop, even when it was insanely painful. I try not to think of it in terms of quitting, but that is just what it feels like.

Is it a girl thing? I think it might be. Why do we push ourselves so hard? Why don't we let ourselves off the hook? Why is it so hard to remember that one run, race or mile doesn't define us?

With this new thinking in mind, I decided to call it quits with the Runners World Holiday Running Streak. After running a marathon this weekend {I know it was over two days, but I think that's a lot of miles for two days} I meet Ro at the Y this morning for some cross training. I figured I would get my rest day one mile run in after I got home from work. The more I thought about it, the more horrible it sounded and the more my body was telling me that I just didn't need to do it. So I came home, made some pasta and have been watching tv with the family, just relaxing all evening.

Here is what I have decided I will do.

• Listen to my body, if it tells me that I shouldn't run then I won't, if it tells me to stop then I will. {This is going to be so hard!}
• Rest, I have a hard time embracing my rest days, I really need to get over that.
• Focus on cross training, weights will make me stronger even though I hate them.
• Become consistent with yoga. I am going to work very hard to keep doing Sunday night hot yoga, and Thursday night free yoga at Lululemon.
• Keep my fingers crossed that Patti keeps doing her Wednesday night Pilates class at OK Runner.

Running is fun, and there is nothing worse than thinking that everyone else is out running and having fun without me. My new goal is to help my body keep running for a long time to come. There is lots of pavement to pound, trails to cover and races to run. I'm gonna try to be a big picture kind of girl.

 

I didn't say it would be easy but I am gonna try.

 

Do you push yourself too hard? Do you try not to?

 

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20 Miles and a Trail Run...

#RWrunstreak still alive, total run streak = 13 days.

My friend Patti is training to run the Disney Marathon in January. She had a 20 mile run on her schedule this weekend. Rochelle and I made a plan to meet her and run with her.

I haven't run 20 miles since I ran the Memorial Marathon in 2011, so I figured I would run as long as my mind and my legs were in agreement. We meet at Patti's house at 6:15 am and ran the four miles to OK Runner to meet the group.

We discovered in the first four miles that we were overdressed in our long sleeved shirts, good thing we were meeting at my favorite running store. After a costume change we headed out on a 12 mile loop around campus. I had a Garmin fail at the first water stop when I stopped my Garmin instead of using my auto pause. When we started up again I forgot to start my watch for almost a mile and a half.

It was pretty windy out but the weather was pretty amazing for December 1st. I didn't think I would be running in capris and a tank top in December. We finished up the loop and made it back to the store, got a little water and fuel and headed back out for the four mile run back to Patti's house.

It was a great day, and a real confidence booster for me. Coming back from injury, this distance seemed so far off for me. Total running time was around three hours and I even felt pretty strong in the last few miles. I got to finish with a smile on my face.

After a stop for some Gatorade with protein and two bags of ice I headed home and straight into an ice bath.

I am really loving the ice baths, I stayed in for about thirty minutes and I really thinker it helped with my recovery. I was on my feet for most of the rest of the day.

Today was the Dirty Bird Trail Run and Chili Cook-Off. I made a plan to meet Ro and Kim to do the 10k trail run.

We took off and after about a mile or so Kim and I dropped back a little. Our plan was to just have fun and walk when we needed to. My tired legs weren't too uncooperative. We meet back up with Tim at the water stop and we just chatted and ran and walked our way to the finish line.

The finish line had chili (even vegetarian) and beer. We hung out for a while and visited with friends and took come pictures...

My favorite race director, Dave, who also provided the beer.

Julie, Kim, Tim, me and Ro. It takes a lot to get a picture with this group. The guy taking the pic for us was good enough to get candid shots of the group assembling.

After a few more pics, two beers, and some veggie chili I was headed back to the house covered in dirt.

The weekend ended with hot yoga and The Amazing Race with Josh and the girls. Not a bad two days of running. Maybe there will be a marathon in Galveston after all.

 

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