Hello Again

Once again, time got away from me. 

The summer was busy. And wonderful. And relaxing. I really did not want to return to work and it's taken me over a month to get back into a routine. It was hard this time. It's hard to believe that I have been teaching for 11 years now. Where did the time go?

A lot happened in August and September. Way more than I care to go into, so let's concentrate on the good!

My hubby had a birthday this week! "Happy Birthday for you Daddy!" as B said. He helped me make C a cake on Monday. 

Happy Birthday Daddy!

One good thing I did back in August was sign up to become an Origami Owl Independent Designer! I absolutely love their jewelry and when I started to research the company to figure out whether this was something I really wanted to do or not, I fell even more in love with them. They really are a good company, they care about their designers (direct sales, like Mary Kay) and have a lot of incentives and programs to help you succeed. For some people who sell it, it is their full time job. Will the title Work From Home Mom be in my future?? I have no idea. But for now, I enjoy telling people about it because I enjoy it so much. I would love to eventually earn the trip to Cancun though!

Check out what they have to offer and shop with me HERE! 

Now on to the topic that is the reason behind this blog! Running! 

I have not been on my A game lately. At the beginning of August we went to visit my in laws up in the mountains of PA and while they live right next to a biking trail that is great for running, I never got off my butt and got out there. All my running clothes and shoes went with me, but I never got them out of the suitcase. I was on a really good running streak prior to that and it totally sidelined me. I also get lazier as the beginning of school approaches and I do more sitting in a lawn chair by the water than anything else. Can you blame me really? Since I have been back at work I have been doing over 10K steps EVERY DAY. That did not happen in years past...

So that being said, I decided I needed some motivation, and the main motivation that has always kept me moving, has been races. So yesterday I signed up for the HCA 8K which is part of the Richmond Marathon. I would really love to be doing the Half Marathon that day, but I just don't have the time to train for a half and I'm really too close to the race date to start now anyways. But I am excited for the 8K! If I can keep the training for that consistent I will try to keep going and look into a spring half. Because I really, REALLY want to do a half marathon again. It's been too long.

One of the paths I run near my house. It had rained last night, and was cool, and it's beginning to look like fall. It was perfect.

So this week I got 2 runs in (and they hurt, man did they hurt) and today I did 2 miles. It did not hurt as much. This is how running works. Once you've started and been consistent for a good amount of time, to the point you call yourself a "runner", you can jump back in fairly easily after a break.

Not too bad!

Average pace: kinda slow. But that's OK! Improvement happens over time and it feels so good. I find that running without the jogger feels SO easy after running with the jogger a lot. I had to take B with me on Tuesday and Wednesday so today was a real test to see where I am. I'm at 'slow', but that's alright. It will be interesting to see how far I go in just a few weeks.

My laps

I love running with an app because it is so much easier than a watch. I do want to start running with my Garmin again though so I can keep an eye on time. I keep my phone in my FlipBelt so I can't really look at it while running. I started easy with mile one and when I heard "11:25" I decided to try and make mile 2 faster than mile 1. It wasn't exactly easy but I shaved one minute off my time! Start small with your goals and you will reach them, and they will grow.

Check back next week for an update on how training is going!

TTFN-Ta Ta For Now! (My son is watching Winnie the Pooh...)

Deltaville 5K 2015 and everything else

Hello friends! This has been a crazy and hectic last few weeks! I thought my life would be a little better after school let out for the summer but boy was I wrong. B has kept me on my toes along with everything else going on.

First, I got new prescription sunglasses! I've never had prescription sunglasses before but I am loving it. I also got new glasses as well. It has been an adjustment because I have developed an astigmatism and now I am supposed to be wearing glasses all the time instead of just to see distance. I am very slowly getting used to them and still being stubborn about wearing them all the time, but I am loving the prescription ones for driving.

Stylin'

My parents' 40th wedding anniversary was June 28th so I threw them a surprise dinner with their closest friends. It was perfect! They thought they were just meeting us for dinner...hehehe.

Surprise!

My "aunts and uncles"

Everyone had a great time, and even B was semi well behaved. The empty outdoor dining area helped because he could run around out there.

Argg!

June 30th was our wedding anniversary! We waited and celebrated with dinner in Urbanna. We went to a place called The Works and it was soooooo good! It was also so good to have some kid-free time.

4 years and counting!

Crabby hat. Crabby baby.

Friday we went out on the boat and B wore the best hat ever. We went out in the bay and it was a gorgeous day! Since there were storms the night before the humidity was low. I liked swimming out in the open water and even (finally!) got to drive the boat!

Saturday morning I had the Deltaville 5K. It is a fun race with an out and back course. I think I could have had a better time if it weren't for the guy who decided to dress up in sleigh bells (not jingle bells, legit sleigh bells) and a Santa hat and run near me through the whole race. The bells were absolutely maddening. I had 2 choices: go ahead of him or let him pull ahead of me, because he ran my EXACT pace. I tried pulling ahead and that worked for a little while, until my app told me I ran the first mile in 8 minutes 57 seconds. I knew I had totally screwed myself. I slowed down so I wouldn't hurt myself and here comes Sleigh Bells again....every time I got away from him he would catch up. Or if I let him get ahead, he stopped at the water stations and then started running when I got near him again. It was honestly horrible. I can understand dressing like that for a Christmas race...but not in July. It kind of ruined it for me :-( Next time I will just wait and move back into another wave so as to avoid that annoyingness...All in all though I was super happy with my finishing time. 31 minutes 48 seconds is really good! If I could run a consistent 9 something mile I could probably pull in at 30 or less like I have been trying so hard to do. Maybe next time...

I saw this on Facebook later and will be looking for it next year. They had CRAB RACES at the race!! I so wish I had seen this in person!

ouch

Saturday night I was super tired and my feet were so swollen. I understood why when I looked at my FitBit app. I haven't had that many steps in one day in a long time.

Sunday we went out on the boat again and went fishing for cobia! Apparently they are hard to catch because they don't school and they are extremely picky about their bait. But we got one!! Unfortunately he snapped the line before we could get him in the boat, but it was fun trying to get him in. Cobia can get very big and we weren't sure if he was a keeper anyways. I think he was just shy of the 37 inches they have to be to keep them.

Check out that mouth!

Feisty!

You can kind of see him below the water.

Personally I was happy just to drive

 

Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July weekend!