Baystate Half 2018

I'm sure you've been dying to read this update, and here it is.  Not even a week late! Amazing. 
So I did run last Sunday, as I said I was going too.  Turns out I ran more than I anticipated, making it to around 7.5 before I started walk/running.  Pretty good considering 6 was my max and even that was a one time only training run.  Of course, I still had to stop at every porta-john on the course, but that's just something I'm going to have to embrace, for now, I guess.  The course itself wasn't too bad and the weather turned out pretty nice considering it was cloudy and drizzly when I woke up.  Wind was only an issue on the back side of the course on the Esplanade and on the bridges.  Other than that, it wasn't too noticeable.  Ryan and X came for the end but it was too cold for X so they ended up waiting in the car for me.  At least they made it to the end, last year, Scott and I went to meet Ryan and Brittany and arrived after they had finished!
Speaking of finishes, I suppose you want my stats now.  I'm going to give both Garmin and official stats because they're widely different.  Of course, every bathroom stop I paused my Garmin because I like to know runtime, not time elapsed.  And I'm sure you're all aware that the course time doesn't stop for you.  So my course time was 2:45, official.  My Garmin time was 2:26.  I guess I took 20 minutes worth of bathroom breaks! If there's one thing I would like to improve on now, it would be that.  20 minutes is almost enough time for another whole 5K! Unfortunately, I'm not really sure there's much I can do in the way of eliminating bathroom breaks, except let time pass.  At the end of the day though, I'm just happy I was able to finish the race and that I can reasonably expect to be able to continue running longer distances now. 
In a weird coincidence, this half was 11 weeks after his birth.  The Louisiana half, which was the last half I ran, I was 11 weeks pregnant.  For comparison, I ran Louisiana in 2:30, also with bathroom breaks.  But I was a bit more in shape then, considering I had been working out all summer and had just run a trail marathon back in November.  So that one was probably easier, though it didn't seem like it at the time.
So I was a bit sore the day after, but who wouldn't be.  It took a long time for me to not be sore after running a half and then I went 5 months without running longer than 4 miles once or twice.  So that's going to be something else I need to build back up.  Since I didn't want to run and make the soreness worse, I decided to at least go out walking this week.  We went all over the place this time, the bike path, the battle road, you name it, we went there.  Two of our walks were over 4 miles, the others were shorter.  Still, I feel better walking since I haven't been able to get to the gym.  Plus, stroller time is the only long nap X takes, so it's either go out walking while he naps or sit at home and listen to him cry every 30 minutes when he wakes and probably won't go back to sleep.  I'll choose to walk every time in that case. 
But now I need to make a choice.  Sign up for another half or just run for recreation.  Both seem like good ideas on any given day.  The biggest influence is the weather, which could ruin both choices.  If I run for recreation, I know I won't go when it's too cold, windy, snowy, etc.  If I have a half to run, I'm more likely to go out and run. However, I wouldn't want to run in that weather, so I just don't know.  Sometimes it's just hard to make a choice. 

On our way to the start

I will take a porta-potty picture every time.

Starting line---brrrrr

Finished. X is not impressed

Inspiring messages on the bike path. 

Only 5 days until Halloween.  So we wear our costumes out to stay warm.

Fall is (not) in the air

Today it was a lovely 79 degrees.  Yup. October 9 and it's 79.  It's fine though, yesterday it was 52.  Consistency is what's important here, of course.  (Hard eye roll.)  Listen, I love summer as much as the next person, but is it too much to ask the weather to cooperate and just stick to fall?  Or at least maintain a steady average instead of jumping from sweater weather to shorts and a tank top again.  Apparently, it is, and here we are. 
Alright though, I know you're all here for the running updates, not my thoughts on the weather.  So the other day I asked the pediatrician when I could start running with X in the stroller, and he said there was no reason I couldn't start now.  Just stay off rocky trails, bundle him up in the cold, you know, common sense. So today we took the BOB out to the Minuteman Bike Path.  On Saturday, I had gone for a 6 mile run, just to make sure the trail was as flat as I thought.  This bike path goes all the way from Bedford to Alewife Station out in Boston, so it's really an ideal route if you need a flat path.  There are so many plus sides to this path that it mostly makes up for the fact that I get bored running in straight lines. 
One plus is that you can run basically any distance, as I think the trail is about 10 miles long.  Now, I am clearly on my computer and could easily Google the actual distance, but I'm not going too.  And that's probably the laziest I've ever been.  So, anyway, it's somewhere between 10 - 13 miles long in one direction.  That means you could basically use it for full marathon training if you felt the need.  It's also incredibly flat, though it does incline up slightly through to Lexington, at least from the Bedford side.  It's not noticeable until you turn around and realize you're kind of running downhill.  They've also added free bike shares to the Bedford end, so, in theory, if you got tired of running, you could hop on a bike and make your way back to the other end.  Finally, it passes through a few different towns, so there are a few different bathroom options should you find yourself in need. 
Like I said, a nice path, even if I'm not a fan of running straight.  So, on Saturday I started in Bedford, but today we went to Lexington center to run.  I wanted to see a different part of the path, so it made sense.  It was nice to be able to run again during the day and bring my little man with me.  I originally planned on going 3, but at 1.5 I decided to just keep going the extra .5 and make it 2 out and 2 back.  It was a good plan and a good run.  X slept for most of the first 3 miles.  Then we stopped for a bottle and diaper break before finishing the last mile.  Next time maybe we'll go to a different spot and run some more.  Hopefully, the leaves will start changing on the path too, making it even nicer.  Right now most of them are still green. 
Ok so the half is coming up and I haven't made it up past 6, but I did make it to 6, which was my goal anyway.  I'm sure I can run and finish the half, even if there's a lot of walking involved.  Maybe I'll find it easier after pushing a stroller for the next few runs, to run without it again.  We'll see with that. So, that's it for now.  Since it is October, no matter what the weather wants to pretend, X is dressed for Halloween, if you're wondering about that. Oh, and wearing shorts now leads to chaffing, a problem I didn't have before, so I had to come up with a quick solution after mile 2 when it started to get bad.  Luckily I had his diaper bag with us so I threw some diaper cream on the thighs and carried on.  It seemed to work a bit, and mostly it just taught me to not wear shorts anymore.  Or at least not for a while.  Hopefully I can remember that!

2 weeks out

Baystate is on the 21, so that's just about 2 weeks from now.  So far, I've gotten 5 miles on the treadmill, so that's almost good enough for me.  I want to be able to do at least 6 running, which I don't think should be a problem at this point.  Mostly I figured if I can run 6, I can walk the other six, if necessary.  Of course, I don't plan on running the first six and then walking the whole second half.  No, I'll probably end up doing a combination run/walk every 5K or so.  Obviously, it will all depend on how I feel that morning, if I got any sleep the night before, etc. 
Now I don't want to ruin a good thing, but we have been lucky enough that Mr. X seems to know daytime from nighttime. He's not a great daytime napper, maybe sleeps in half-hour chunks, but does well throughout the night.  Generally, he's pretty good about sleeping for a six-hour stretch, waking up to eat, and then sleeping for another 3.  That works out fine for me right now because I don't have to go to work in the morning.  I don't know what I'll do when I actually have to get up after his second wake up instead of taking a nap with him. 
He does sleep well if we're out for a walk, so I suppose if I really wanted him too, I could strap him in the stroller and put him to sleep that way.  His dr. said it was perfectly ok to take him running in the BOB, so we're going to try that out today.  I'm not sure why BOB says to wait until 8 months, actually. I asked his Dr about it the other day and he seemed to think that was an absurd recommendation.  I mean, I'm not going to take him off-roading, but for paved surfaces, apparently, there's no reason NOT to take him.  I'm very curious to see if he will sleep through a run, so I'm going to, possibly, take him with me to do my 6 today.  Hard call, I might want to just go alone and have some me time and take him during the week.  But either way, he's coming running with me now, which opens up a whole new world of fun for us!
Since it is October, he's been dressing up in different Halloween outfits, basically every day.  It's not as crazy as it sounds.  Mostly they're just onesies with ghosts or pumpkins on them. But he has a few different costumes he's going to wear throughout the month.  After all, there are only a few times I can get away with this before he voices his opinion on what he wants to wear/be for Halloween.  So I'm taking this opportunity to dress him in costumes that I think are cute.  For instance, we may go running Salem on Monday afternoon.  He can't go to Salem in October without a costume, he'd be a weirdo! 
Plus, none of the Thanksgiving outfits for boys are cute.  That is quickly becoming an annoyance for me.  There are thousands of girls clothes and for boys, you either get bowties and collared or plaid shirts.  Carter's had a super cute Thanksgiving outfit, a turkey onesie with a cover-all blue skirt with white polka-dots.  This outfit could easily be made for a boy too, just take the tiny bow off the onesie and make the skirt into overalls.  But no, instead, the boys get football shirts and onesies that say, I came, I ate, I napped.  I haven't started looking at Christmas clothes yet, but I imagine it's going to be more of the same.  So disappointing.  Which is why we're making the most of all our cute Halloween outfits instead!  Maybe I'll even wear my Disney running costume for Baystate.  Hmmm....

Election day

Don't let the title mislead you, this has nothing to do with voting.  I mean, I did it, but that's probably the only reference you'll find in here.  Basically this is just a catch up post.  This past weekend I was lazy.  The weather was sub-par and I just did not feel like running, so, I didn't. Unfortunately, that meant I had to find another day to struggle through my 15 miles. Today was that day.  After professional development, but before my regular boxing class, I went and ran my 15 miles. I'll be honest here, it wasn't the greatest.  Partly I was bored and partly I just didn't really feel like doing it. So it was a struggle, even with the Tailwind.  It was an even bigger struggle when the Tailwind ran out at mile 13 :(
All I did was follow the Danvers Rail Trail up to Topsfield and then turn around.  Seriously boring.  The trail was nice enough, but I don't think I'll be taking that route again anytime soon.  It's just so straight and boring.  Nothing but nature to look at, which is nice, but I was getting lonely running by myself and not seeing anyone else on the trail.  I think that was a major reason why the 15 miles seemed so long.  Those first 7 miles really seemed like they were taking hours.  In reality, they took AN hour.  Obviously my mental game was not on today, but it did pick up a little bit when I turned around.  The last 8 seemed faster, even though they really weren't.  I could definitely feel when I was running low on Tailwind though.  You can see it in my splits too.  They went from low 8s to high 9s.  Funny though, I still managed to get my fastest half marathon time today.  Not by a lot, and I certainly wasn't aiming for that, but it made me feel a little bit better about the run.  Boxing was definitely harder after the 15 miles, but not too bad. I skipped doing the warm up and jumped in for the 8 rounds and the abs.  My only regret in that was that I didn't bring a banana or any type of recovery food.  Luckily, one of the girls who works the front desk gave me a Lara Bar which helped get me through the power hour. The run is below, followed by more blogging excitement.





We also had PD today at work, which I mentioned above. Nothing too exciting there, just more ways to add stuff to lesson plans and prove that we know what we're doing. Because the degrees, evaluations, tests, and observations aren't enough.  But I did get to put my November door, so that was helpful.  Plus, I laminated all the MCAS accommodation sheets for the classrooms and made about a million copies of plans for the week.

Here's my door

And here's a photo from Halloween last Friday, because I know you wanted to see my fantastic home-made Skeleton costume. I can't remember if I wrote about what it was, so in case I didn't, here's a recap.  Black t-shirt - $3 at Michael's.  Black tights cut into sleeves - free.  Black running pants from Old Navy - no idea what they cost when I bought them two years ago, but I don't use them for running anymore, so they were just going to waste. I'd guess around $15. Black gloves - $1. Glow in the dark paint - $0.99.  White paint - I had at home. It couldn't have been any easier.  Paint bones on the black clothes. Let dry.  Wear.

My arm bones didn't match up, I had to safety pin the sleeves together in the end to fix that problem. That minion costume is homemade too. We're a crafty bunch.

A minion, a skeleton, and a princess. Only on Halloween.

A pinteresting week

Warning: This has absolutely nothing to do with running.

This week has been full of projects that I decided to do.  Couldn't tell you why this week became the craft week, but here we are.  Monday night I decided to try a new recipe I found on Pinterest two years ago....the person who wrote it called it armadillo eggs. I call them reverse stuffed peppers.  Anyways, the basic concept/way to make it is this.  Get some peppers, chili are recommended, by since RyGuy doesn't love spicy, I also used some regular small assorted peppers. You'll also need some cheese and some ground beef.  For cheese, I used a block of Cabot Vermont Cheddar, but you can switch that up to your liking.  Cut the top off the pepper, scrape out the seeds, and stuff in some cubes of cheese.  Then, take your ground beef, which should probably be mixed up like you're making meatloaf or meatballs.  (Eggs and bread crumbs recommended, but I never use that stuff in my regular meatballs, so I skipped it here too.) Wrap your pepper so that it covered in ground beef, like a giant pepper meatball, and stick it in a pan.  I made nine of them, using a little more than a pound of beef.  Bake at 300 degrees for 45 - 60 minutes.  The end product, while a little hard to eat as one, is delicious.  Totally worth it.

These are the after they came out of the oven.  Be warned, there is a lot of grease, but some of that is cheese mixing in.

Tuesday, I found a delicious dessert that I also wanted to try, so that was my next project.  This is called the blooming baked apple, but I feel like that name is also kind of ridiculous, so I'm going with just plain old baked caramel apple.  This one is also super easy, all you need is an apple, some caramels, brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon.  (But I use apple pie spice in place of the cinnamon.) As far as apple variety goes, I don't think it matters what kind you use, it depends on your preference.  Generally I love Granny Smith apples, but since the original post called for honeycrisp, I went for something more similar to that.  So I've been using Gala apples, because I like to do things my own way.  To make, cut the top 1/3 off the apple.  Find a way to scoop out the core, if you don't have a corer.  I use a paring knife and a spoon, because I definitely do not have a corer.  Once the core is out,  take your paring knife and cut two circles around the inside of the apple.  That is actually not as easy as it sounds, because without the core, the inside gets a lot smaller.  Basically though, you just want to slice down and around, like you're carving the top off a pumpkin.  Then flip the apple over and make narrow slices around the outside of the apple.  I didn't take pictures of all this, so if you want to see the steps, you'll have to find the original recipe.  (SORRY!) Once you have everything cut, stuff two unwrapped caramels into the center of the apple.  Melt 1 tbsp of butter with 1.5 tbsp of brown sugar in the microwave for 30 seconds.  Stir, and then microwave for another 30 seconds.  Once that's done, add in one tbsp of flour, and as much apple pie spice, or cinnamon, as you want. Pour that little mixture over the top of the apple, put the apple in a pan and bake in a preheated 350 oven for 25 - 30 minutes.  

Note: I've been making them one at a time, so all the ingredients that you need to mix to make the sauce are halved.  You need to double it if you're going to be making two. 

If you look at the picture, you might be able to get an idea of how your cuts are supposed to be made.

This is pre-bake, after everything is ready.  It was too delicious to take a post-bake picture.  But definitely add vanilla ice cream to the side.  

Finally, today, I decided to try out our pizza stone, which worked great.  I also made a costume for school tomorrow, because I didn't want to be the buzzkill that didn't dress up for Halloween.  Even though I have no face make-up, I think the costume came out fairly well for a last minute effort.  All in all it took me about two hours.  In hindsight, I probably could have used fabric paint instead of regular acrylic paint, but too late.  So I made a skeleton costume using an old pair of black running pants, a black short sleeve t-shirt, black gloves, and black nylons that I cut up into arm sleeves.  Not bad overall. 

It kind of bugs me that everything looks super wide, but I think it's just the camera.  Plus the shirt is crooked.  On the plus side, it's covered in glow in the dark paint, so that's exciting!

I still have one more project that I started this week.  It's about half way done, but it's going to be a gift for someone, so I don't want to put out any details until after it's been finished, packed up, and sent off.  So don't worry, next time I write, it's back to running!

Halloween!

So, this post is unrelated to running, which is why it's separate from the previous post! But, since it's basically October at this point, I wanted to share my new classroom door for the month.  My goal is to change the door monthly this year, just to add a little pep to the third floor hallway. If you recall, my September door was a Minion from Despicable Me.  This month, I had to go Halloween themed, obviously.

Meet Frank. He's my newest creation using only fadeless bulletin board paper, some scissors, and a black marker. I added the bowtie because I like my door to have some class. (hahaha, get it!) Anyways, this was actually even easier than the Minion, believe it or not.  All I did was layer two long strips of green paper down the door for the base and cut out a handle hole.  Then I flipped the scraps over and cut out two eyes. Luckily the back of the paper is white, so it makes everything easier.  For the hair I took pieces of construction paper and cut out random chunks. I used the scraps from that to make the eyebrows, bolts, and scars on his face.  Then I used a separate piece to make two eyes, and a another piece for the mouth background.  The teeth are the leftover scraps from Frankie's bowtie, and I drew the nose on with a sharpie. Seriously, so easy, a caveman could do it. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with a cute saying to go with it this time, so it's just Frank hanging out.  Stayed tuned for next month, I already have something in mind!

Why, candy, Whyyyyyyyyyyy?????

Ever since the marathon I've been super, super hungry.  I'm talking abnormally hungry.  No matter what I eat, it doesn't seem to be enough.  Here's a little list of all the ridiculous food I've eaten since running 26.2
Sunday after the marathon: A banana at the finish line, obv that doesn't count for much, that was necessary just to get some calories back after the 2700 I burned. Then, about a lb of watermelon, an entire cheeseburger with a side of fries, a cinnabon, (regular sized), a small-ish bag of Doritos (well, only half of that), and some Jelly Belly Protein recovery crisps.  BTW, amazing, I need to go get some more them.
Monday: still starving, I ate a chocolate belvita for breakfast, some macaroni with grated cheese for lunch, and two pieces of pizza, some Parmesan bites and a quarter of cinnastix from Dominos.
Tuesday: Not getting any less hungry, a Snickers Marathon bar for breakfast, a piece of leftover pizza and two or three fun sized Three Musketeer bars for lunch, and then some pasta with ground chicken and sauce for dinner.  Oh, and almost a whole bag of beef jerky for a snack on the way to boxing, and some more fun sized Snickers/Reeses in between, as well as the rest of that marathon bar.
Wednesday: Seriously, am I dying? STILL starving. Chocolate belvita for breakfast, leftover dinner for lunch, more than necessary Halloween candy for a snack.   For dinner? HALF OF A LARGE PIZZA from Papa Ginos.
Thursday: I might not be hungry anymore, maybe I'm just in full gluttony mode at this point.  Seem to have lost track of which is which.  Anyways, breakfast, Munchkins because duh, Halloween.  Lunch, two slices of leftover pizza, four homemade cookies, and probably worst of all, 2/3 of a package of Chips Ahoy Halloween cookies. I wish that was an exaggeration.  For dinner I had my leftover dinner from Tuesday, as well as an absurd amount of Halloween candy that I can't even count and don't want to.
Friday: Breakfast, chocolate belvita, lunch was planned leftover pizza, instead I ate cheese fries.  Great plan there.... of course Halloween candy for in between snacks.  Then I had pretzel bites for another snack.  After that I had dinner....chicken and rice.  With a side of Halloween candy.  Does anyone see a trend here?
Ok, so clearly I've gone a bit completely overboard in the eating department this week.  Usually I eat mostly ok, and I don't even order out on Fridays when we order at school.  This week was an outlier though. Let's not get totally ridiculous though. I did workout after all.  I went boxing on Tuesday and Thursday and I intend to go tomorrow.  Walking the dogs is a daily activity and if you had to conquer the stairs I have to every day, you'd understand why sustenance is necessary sometimes.  If we're following patterns here, it's clear that the main culprit is Halloween candy.  All the extra candy everywhere has taken over my life. Let's just take one moment and realize that this week was a ridiculous week for eating and I'll try not to relive it every week.  Just because Thanksgiving is coming doesn't mean I have to eat for 12.  I'll leave you with one more picture from the marathon, a picture I forgot to post last night, and one of my favorites.  And a picture or two of the sunset, just because.

When you finish, a new LT gives you a medal.  Cynthia got mine perfectly in mid-award.

Sorry they're not more exciting.

Now what?

So, the marathon excitement has waned...at least enough that I can walk around like a normal human being again, and not some superhuman.  (Yes, I did walk around like I was all that, because I WAS ALL THAT MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM) But since that's worn off, all I have left is the now what?  For the first time in months, my Sunday will not be spent long running.  I don't have to worry about making a wrong move and breaking a leg, foot, ankle, toe, etc.  My running shoes don't need to be in the forefront of my closet anymore.  I could actually wear non-workout clothes on the weekends.  (I could, doesn't mean I will!) So, seriously, now what? Suddenly I'm afraid I'll fall completely out of shape and end up not fitting into my wedding dress, even though it hasn't been sized or anything yet, so that's basically a non-factor.  Of course I plan to continue boxing/kickboxing at Title.  I was going three times a week, and I might be interested in upping it to four times.  Boxing is a lot of fun, the trainers are a blast, and it really is a great workout. Actually, if you're ever interested in going, I recommend the Alex or Lucas classes.  They're CRAZY hard, and somehow lots of fun, as long as you don't mind sweating all over the place.   However, I'm not sure that ONLY boxing all the time is the best workout plan.  Now that I don't have to run 10+ miles every week, I don't mind going out and running when the weather is nice or just if I feel like it.  Yesterday I did a quick 5K around Lake Q in just over 27 minutes actually.  I have noticed that running everything at marathon pace has brought my 5K time back up a little bit, from 25 back to 27, but really that's not a huge deal.
The question really is, where do I go from here?  Do I want to run another marathon?  Maybe I want to stick to only running half marathons.  Perhaps I should work on my speed and get my 5K back down to a 24/25 minute run, or lower if possible.  Should I try a Spartan race, Warrior Dash, or Tough Mudder? How about trying to lower my marathon time and make an attempt to qualify for Boston in a few years?  See how complicated this all is?  I know I'm probably over thinking everything, but I just like to have a plan.  Seems to me that everything in my life works better when I have a goal to meet.
For example: I wanted to be a teacher, so I went to grad school, passed my MTELs, worked as a sub, aide, etc, and got a job.  Goal met.  Check that off the bucket list, if you wish.
Goal 2: I wanted to run a marathon. I went out, trained, and ran a marathon, in a reasonable time at that.  Goal met. Check that off.
Both of these goals were long term goals.  They took a lot of time, effort, and mental as well as physical strength to complete.  So it seems weird to me that I don't have a looming goal to meet.  Obviously there's a wedding coming up, but that's not a goal, that's a life changer.  It's not the same as having a goal to work towards.  Alright, so I've gone on about this and gotten no further in my thinking.  If you have an answer, throw it at me.  Now what?

Case in point: Every race bib and medal I've used/won over the past year (except the MCM, that one has a special spot and is still on display on my bookshelf.  Maybe I'm not QUITE over it yet) That's a lot to just cut out.

Btw, here's a picture of my Halloween costume.  I consider it a minor failure, because the children thought I was, a) Lala Loopsy, b) The White Rabbit c) Abraham Lincoln. (No, that last one is not a joke).  If you're not sure, I was a snowman.  It was a fairly easy last minute costume considering I had the shirt from a Christmas themed 5K we did last year, the scarf because scarves are still in (I think?) and the hat, which I had to remake just a little bit.  All I really added was a long sleeve white shirt and white jeans.  Perfect last minute costume even if none of the kids got it. 

Happy Halloween.

PS: Sox won the World Series, at Fenway last night. If you're not from Boston, you won't even be able to understand that. If you are, you know why that's some of the best news out of Boston this year.