8 days remaining in the yearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

You have to read that in the Bruins' announcer voice, otherwise it's just nonsense.  If you've ever heard the 1-minute warning at a Bruins game, though you know what I'm talking about. Mostly I just didn't have a better title though.  I hate those cutesy little sayings like Christmas Eve Eve, or Festivus for the Rest of Us, since technically neither of those are real things.  I mean, sure, it's the night before the night before Christmas, but let's not get into making that a thing, like we did with Black Friday.  Let's all agree to just leave the holidays where they are and not add on any more superfluous days.
Ok, so I know that probably reads like I'm not into the holidays, which is not true, I'm a fan of Thanksgiving and Christmas, as much as the next person, even if this year is so un-Christmasy we might as well be on the West Coast.  No joke, tomorrow it's going to be almost 70.  I don't know how people on the West Coast live like this, to be honest.  I hate to say it after the winter we had last year, but I miss the snow.  At least a little flurry. Heck, I'd even take just a cold day.  But you know what? Today I ran outside in a tank top.  Yes, in Massachusetts in December, I'm out burning up the miles in a flimsy lightening dry tank.  Sure, this is great running weather, but it's not great Christmas weather.  In an ideal world, it gets cold and snows for Christmas and then in January everything goes back to being 50 degrees.  Although not having weather like this until well after winter, my mind keeps thinking about all the awesome spring activities and I have to remind myself that we're still far away from that end.  School's not even close to being over and there's a lot more winter left before we make it to spring again.
Enough about all this though, back to the running.  I finally managed to stop putting off my 20 miles and get it done today.  Much like the Taco Bell Crunch Wrap Supreme, I am good to go now.  I figured that with the 15 on Saturday and the 20 today, I'm all set for Louisiana.  Today's run was a good one, finished in 3:02, not bad considering I joined up with Cynthia and Madilyn for some middle miles, which meant slowing down for the stroller. (Secretly I'm ok with that and might actually look forward to the slow down!) Even then, it wasn't much a slow down, maybe a minute on per mile, if that.  Include the hills in that and Cynthia gets way more credit than I do, because I doubt I could make it 3 with a stroller, let alone 6, at any pace! Unfortunately my headphones died at mile 19, which is always a bummer, but usually the last mile is the easiest one to power through anyways, because you know at the end of that mile, you're actually done.  It does raise the point again of finding good wireless headphones that can actually hold a charge.  I didn't even use the headphones for the entire run, I'd say maybe for 2 hours total.  Sure, I used them on Saturday and didn't recharge, but I think on Saturday I used them for just over an hour, so if that's an indicator of battery life, they still wouldn't make it through the rest of the marathon with me.  Hopefully I'll be so speedy on this nice flat course that I'll outrun my headphones charge.  Ok, that's highly unlikely, but I think this is definitely the course to hit the 4 hour mark.  I know you're not supposed to run your first half super fast, but if I can get the first half done in 1:50, that leaves just about 2 hours for the second, which I know is do-able.  If I don't get the first half done in 1:50, I can still break the 4 hour mark, but I'd really have to hold a steady pace the entire run, which may be do-able, but I don't know, because I have yet to run at a solidly consistent pace.
While we're on the subject, I know that the experts say to run your training runs around a minute slower than your expected pace, but I just can't figure out how to do that.  When I go out running, I just go. For example, my first 9 miles today were around the 8:30 mark.  Which is definitely not a minute slower than my expected pace.  I'd say that's pretty spot on to my expected pace.  But they weren't consistent 8:30s, they went all over the place from 8:03s all the way to 8:53s. Sure, I had to stop to cross some roads and chug up some hills, but still, there's no consistency there.  Then my last five were back in the 9:00s, 9:03, 9:07, etc.  How does one go out and run slower than their marathon pace and still expect to be faster on the day of the race anyways? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.  I know that races are different, there's crowds and cheering, etc, but I don't think I could do all of my training runs at a 9:30 - 10:30 pace and still expect to come out blazing in January.  Maybe it's just me though.
Sadly, I have no pictures for you today.  I do have this little life lesson that you can live by.  Sure, it says board games, but replace that with basically anything you're doing in life, and the results will be the same.  Pretend for the sake of this post that it says running instead of board games, and you'll really understand me.  And with that, Merry Christmas!
I'll try to get in one more before the end of the year, but in case I don't, Happy New Year!

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here

  I mean, sure, it's like, 60 degrees out, there's barely any lights around the neighborhood, and our tree is a little bit of a reject, but still, it's Christmastime.  That means it's almost Christmas vacation, which means it's almost time for the 20 miler.  Because what better use of vacation time than to run 20 miles.  There's not much else happening in the running world right now, but I do need to order more Tailwind stat.  Unrelated to anything happening here, I'm watching last weeks Saturday Night Live and I really have to say, Ryan Gosling is not a great live actor.  He's funny enough, but he can't keep it together very well.  But, more than I could do, so way to go you.  Plus, I suppose if you look like Ryan Gosling, you don't necessarily need to be good at what you're doing, you just have to look it.
Back to running now, I took a week off because I thought I had a broken toe.  Upon further review, it may have just been super bruised, but I don't really know.  It hurt for a while and was all purple but now it's just kind of red and doesn't hurt anymore.  So, back to running like nothing happened on that front.  I ran 5 today at an 8:04 pace and no water.  I clearly made a judgement error on that one, but it worked out fine.  I'd also like to take a moment to note how hard it is to keep a sentence flowing with Weekend Update on in the background.
Let's see, so aside from running, I've been sort of feeling a little bored of my workouts.  Here's the thing.  I'm Facebook friends with a lot of people that go to the boxing club and I constantly see updates about how hard the workout was.  Yet, I don't really feel like the workouts are that hard whenever I'm there.  Maybe it's because the workouts have to be beginner ready and I'm really past that stage.  Or maybe it's because I've spent so much time running that the short, hour long classes, just aren't enough.  Whatever the reason is, I figured that I needed to get some answers/results.  Doing what any good athlete would do, I went to the trainers and asked what I should be doing differently to get better results.  Smart move, really.  This was my answer: Climb the rope 3 times, run a fast mile before class, and add push-ups to the mountain climbers.  So, like any good athlete, I did that.  The rope climb was definitely the hardest, but I made it up.  Turns out that wasn't enough though.  Instead of doing a first round, I got bombarded by trainers and was told to do push-ups for 3 minutes instead of doing the actual round.  That was a lot of fun.  Until I couldn't do push-ups anymore and then still had to do them during the mountain climber active rest later in the class.  Today, after I ran 5 miles I was going to do uphill/sprint repeats on the treadmill.  Unfortunately, both treadmills were being utilized during the time I had, so I was instructed to do the row machine for 5 minutes instead.  Way harder than I thought it was.  Seriously, have you ever used a rowing machine and tried to keep it in the 2:00/500m range for 5 minutes? I have no idea what that means, but it was super hard.  I actually never got it down to 2:00, but I managed to hold it steady at 2:30, so I figured that was close enough.  Then I did a mile of uphills and was basically dead, so I wrapped it up and left.  But, I have to say, after all that, it was definitely worth it.  I actually feel like I did something again.  My legs are little tight, my arms are sore, and I have a giant blister on my left palm. A perfect ending.
In case you're wondering, I haven't run any new races lately, and probably won't run any before Louisiana, so you'll just have to put up with my mess of poorly flowing paragraphs and not very informative running information until then.  I'm sure I'll have a great update after Louisiana but sadly, probably not 26 selfies this time.  Don't be too disappointed, I just really want to get in under that 4:00 mark, and I don't think the selfies helped.  While you're waiting patiently for new running information though, enjoy some pictures from Winter Wonderland, the school's winter open house that held last night. It was a big hit.  And of course, I'm still taking donations for Morty.  As always, click here to donate

I was recruited to draw a Christmas theme at the Saugus Title.  For those of you reading this from out of state, or even out of the North Shore, there used to be a mini-golf course right down the street on Rt 1 that had a giant orange dinosaur visible to people driving by.  The orange dinosaur is well known around these parts, so if you're from here, it's kind of funny. If you're not, it probably doesn't make a lot of sense.  Don't worry, my January board will be better, if I'm still allowed to do it!

Got myself the Harry Potter coloring book and I love it.  Plus I made that little canvas, just because

Last weekend while I was babysitting I had to come up with a creative way to move the Elf on the Shelf.  Since the little girl I was watching wrote a letter to Santa, I made the elf a mail-box out of an empty Kleenex box. Of course I had to decorate the box to make it more Christmas friendly.

Boxing selfie with the other Ali and Brian.  

Santaaaaaa!

I feel like through this picture, you can really tell how well squats work. 

Our little Christmas tree.  The Nexus really does take good pictures for a phone.

November 30 - The Locked Out Edition

I locked myself and the dogs out of the house tonight.  Yup.  I don't really know how, I swear I checked the door before we left for a walk, and yet when we returned, boom, locked out.  Of course we have a spare key, but wouldn't you know it, that was in the house.  Great place for it huh?  Luckily my mom is the best and drove out here with her key to unlock the door.  Otherwise we'd be some frozen pup-sicles.  After that, I went to Target and bought a bunch of stuff for our Boy's Raffle Basket.  Maybe a little bit too much stuff, but I just couldn't help it.  I kept finding things that I thought the boys would like, and probably would never get on their own.  Hopefully whoever wins the basket has a sibling to share with! While at Target I also bought another nutcracker, because I love them, and the white fudge covered Oreos, because they're the best ever.  Yesterday I made a real fancy Christmas decoration, which I really like.  I really need to get more decorations though, because I feel like we're really lacking in that department.  Right now we just have a bunch of mixed up pieces, old and new.  I'd like to get everything more together though, some bigger pieces to decorate the empty rooms.  Let's see....I also ordered the Harry Potter adult coloring book, signed up for the Louisiana Marathon, and bought a few Christmas presents for the family.  Seems like a productive weekend, even though it doesn't really feel like it.  Is anyone watching Charlie Brown Christmas right now?  I'm not a fan of the second version, none of the character voices are the same and Sally is real annoying.  However, Charlie Brown is drawn a lot cuter in this version, so I like that part.  I like adorable Charlie Brown better than old Charlie Brown.  In fact, if you've ever read the original Charlie Brown comic strips, he starts out as a real young kid, and he's super adorable.  I used to have a whole book of them somewhere, I'd love to find that again. It's probably long gone by now, but it might still be at my mom's house.
Alright, so there's nothing in here about running, but don't worry, I'm still on it.  I ran 15.5 on Wednesday and 7 on Sunday.  I definitely need to do more, but I'm not sure I'm going to have the time this week.  Looks like I might have to bring back the Saturday run.  Not my favorite, but sometimes you have to do things you don't want too. After my 15 miles I also climbed the rope at boxing.  Maybe not a big thing, but considering I've never done a rope climb before and managed to master it in just under 5 minutes is pretty good, I think.  Ok, now that I've covered all that, here's a few pictures of the Christmas decorations. Enjoy.

Locked out! :(

Beaching in November....she loves it there

Oooh the top of the hill.  Mid-15 mile run

Boom...climbed that rope all the way to the top.  It's all in the leg swoop

And of course a pie

My medal holder is getting too full!

Told the 2nd grade that boy turkeys were called Toms.  Later, got this picture from a 2nd grader. He really took the Tom thing and ran with it.

And so starts the taper.

Today was my last long run before the Louisiana Marathon. I just love that sentence.  Except for the part that includes the word marathon, since I know I still have to do the ultimate long run. BUT, for now, I'm pumped.  Taper time is the best.  And the worst, because literally as soon as I stopped running I started panicking about all the different things that could go wrong in the next two - three weeks.  Figures.
Before my taper could officially begin though, I had to do the 20 miler.  Well, technically, the second 20 miler.  My first round of 20 was split up though, so this one counted more as the full 20.  Of course it was something that I didn't really WANT to do, but something I HAD to do.  Originally I planned on taking today as a rest day and running it tomorrow.  After seeing the weather report for both days though, I decided to scrap that plan and get it done today.  There's a 10 degree temperature difference, which might not seem like a lot, but trust me when I say there's a huge difference between running in 40 degrees and 30 degrees.  As you may be aware, my goal is to run the Louisiana marathon in 4 hours, or slightly under 4 if I'm feeling really awesome that day. In order to do this, I know there is a pace I have to keep and a way to fuel properly during the run.  So really today was my trial run.  I figured if I could do the 20 miles in 3 hours, then I could do the 26.2 in 4, giving myself an extra few minutes for those last 6 miles if necessary.  I am happy to say that after my run today I am 99% sure I can run it in 4 or less.  My 20 miler today clocked in at 2:56:04. That's right.  You saw that. UNDER THREE HOURS! With hills! I actually set new PRs for a 10K and a half marathon today. So, sure, I'm a little worried that maybe I over extended myself today and that I can't match that on marathon day.  On the other hand, I don't see why I can't match that.  It didn't feel like a mistake on my part.  I knew what pace I had to keep and I basically managed to hold around that pace for the entire run.  Sure I lost my running partner around mile 14.  And by lost I mean abandoned.  So, no man left behind clearly means nothing to me when it comes to smashing personal records.  I suppose that says something about me as a person but I really don't want to delve into that right now. By now I'm sure you're dying of curiosity to see my route. Don't worry, it's coming.  Be aware that I miscalculated though, so I had to walk/run an extra mile back to my car at the end.  Which is why the start and the finish are not quite next to each other.   Sure I COULD have run the last mile, but I just felt like that was pushing it.  So, here it is.

Besides this lovely run, I had a nice Christmas, in case you were wondering. We went to NYC for the night, just because we can. I love to look at the window displays and see the giant decorations. Plus the shops at Bryant Park are always good for a little trinket or gift if you want something different/locally made.  Of course all we got was some Max Brenner chocolate, which is neither different nor local, but it was so worth it.  Here are some pictures of NYC and some pictures of when we got back and spent time with our lovely puppies again. Oh, and some more Disney pictures I drew. Still can't get that princess face right. Oh well.  Enjoy it.

Stella hates the paparazzi.

The planet windows are Macy's, the library window was my favorite display at Lord and Taylor's.