best part of my day.

Sometimes living in Kansas is awesome. Like when you are running right outside the city limits at dusk and get to witness incredible sunsets. This one isn't nearly half as amazing as most of the sunsets get around here. And my iPhone camera doesn't start to do it justice. Even still... it's the little things.

the in between.

Okay Ladies. Well... and gentlemen, that all just depends. Please empathize with me for a moment. You know those times when your hair is kind of in that 'in between' phase, sort of growing out... sort of a disaster... sort of humiliating when you try and pull it back for a run, or yoga, or any workout? Uh huh. Please tell me I'm not the only one who goes through this phase? PLEASE!

Because right now my hair is about as awkward as a 13 year old boy. Need I say more? No. I needn't. Therefore, I simply leave you with the below photo and wait for your pity. I mean look at that, hair sticking up all nimbly bimbly, and of course it only gets worse the further I run or the longer a class goes.

Oh and yes, why this picture was done old school MySpace style. In the bathroom at work before my run. BAM! Yeop. 'Cause I keep it classy that way. I made sure to get the trash can in there for an extra touch of refinement.

Just be thankful I didn't take this sucker when my hair was in full-on-fluff-ball-curly mode. Trust me here. Good stuff. Fun times. Although I may go ahead and do that thanks to my utter lack of pride...

eight weeks to oz. the goal.

Finally, I'm back to feeling like I have a normal schedule, in life and in running. Such a relief. Running was back on track last week, I ran four times, did some speedwork, got a long run in with my buddies. All good stuff. Which led me to think hard about my Oz half goal time.


Oz Half Marathon Goal: 1:48 and change. This will put me running about an 8:15 average and would cut five minutes off my current PR. Ambitious, but hey, what do I have to lose?

I'd honestly be happy with 1:50, but since I'm not training for an 'm' I want to push myself quite a bit harder and really amp up my speed. I'm feeling pretty great (for all of a week) with my training, even though I only ran 23 miles last week. I'm happy with where my speedwork is taking my running, plus it's just good plain fun. I'm just going to keep training, keep doing speedwork and see what happens in all these half marathons I have coming up.


Speaking of speedwork. While it's going well, and I'm hitting paces that are making me quite happy, that doesn't mean it's easy. I did a 6 mile tempo run last week with four miles at an 8:06 pace, hit it spot on. Despite the fact that around mile four I had the overwhelming feeling that I was channeling my fat cat Frank after he's had fifth dinner. I had to literally stop and hunch over to keep myself from throwing up. But... BUT like any true devoted runner I stood up and finished it out. The urge to vomit did go away, and I'm proud to announce I didn't end up tossing any cookies. Small victories. I'm just going with the thought that this is excellent training for how I'll feel at mile 11 of the half.


This week is off to a good start so far for running. And it's even my birthday week, yes I give myself an entire week for my birthday. As should you. I plan to keep my workouts going despite a few small celebrations. I may or may not be planning some runs around said celebrations, but meh. So I'm giving myself a gold star already.

Week 5 of Training (last week):
Monday = Nothing, unless you count eating too much and having some wine
Tuesday = 4 Easy Miles
Wednesday = 3 Easy Miles (during which i felt less than stellar, most awful run in months)
Thursday = 6 Mile Tempo, 4 @ 8:06
Friday = Rest
Saturday = 10 Miles, last two at faster pace
Sunday = Rest

Total = 23

nine weeks to oz. and um....

Well, all I can say for now is thank goodness I decided not to run the 'm' in April. I'm sure my mentality in general has changed since I'm not running it. But looking back over the past three weeks I have no idea where I could have mustered the energy and time to train for an 'm'. Literally. I think the past two months have been some of the most hectic of my life. But I made it through to the other side, with a vacation at what is hopefully the end of the insanity for awhile.


I had the best intentions to run during vacation last week. Annnnnd I ran twice. But I'm finding that some priorities are changing, and while I love running, I am not willing to sacrifice precious time resting or time with my family just to get a 10 miler, or even a 5 miler in. I'm just not at that point right now in my running life. And I am so okay with that. I am happy in fact. My body is thanking me.


So really there isn't much to say except wow, I hope I'm ready to PR in Oz. I have run so little the past three weeks that it's not even worth posting about. Although I did have one magnificent speedwork session on the treadmill before I left for my trip. The Lawyer was on the TM next to me, egging me on to do it even though I was whining I didn't think I could. And what do you know? I knocked out three one-mile repeats at a 7:40 pace at a 2% incline (that's about my 5k pace) and felt fantastic. Talk about a confidence booster!


Besides that, I felt the skiing I did and the rest I've had the past week have done wonders for me. I plan to get a quick run in with my all time favorite running buddy Milo (my dog) before a quiet valentines dinner this evening. The weather in Kansas turned beautiful, and I will capitalize, especially considering it was a blizzard here last week! Not that I was here to see it, I just heard things! You know, things like the Edder drove 13 hours (usually it takes 9) across this fine state in that blizzard to get to southern Colorado.... right. Bag of chuckles. Oh, Kansas. Should be in the 50's-60's all week though. Fabulous.


The last thing I've been meaning to mention on my little blahggie blahg is that while I have four half marathons planned between April - June, the Oz half is my main focus. With the Wichita half being my secondary focus. The others are just for fun. I've been meaning to point that out.

I HOPE to run a major PR at Oz. I haven't decided on my half PR goal, especially considering my training the past three weeks. Or lack thereof. Hopefully by next week I'll have a better idea on what I want to shoot for. I don't want to be too ambitious, but I also don't want to sell myself short in thinking I can't achieve my goal. Regardless, my PR goal for Oz will come to me eventually. I'll keep you posted.


Happy Valentines Day blahgesphere. I hope it's filled with a lot of love!

best part of my day.

Being on vacation. And knowing I still have a few days of it left.

I couldn't find the time before I left last week to blahg that I would be MIA for a good 10 days, and my running schedule would be shot. I'm in the mountains of Colorado skiing, eating, and sleeping to my hearts content, all with my family and Edder (who, thanks to that job of his, just made it out to join us today. it's a small miracle he was able to join at all. so no complaints).

I told myself I wouldn't get all interwebby while I was on vacation, but me + being relaxed = boredom after four days. Clearly. I can only take so much before I have to do something besides read and sleep and ski! I have managed to get two five-mile runs in so far. And wowza running at altitude is no joke! And I won't lie, I am loving those waterproof Mizuno trail runners of mine. I plan to get a few more runs in, and snap some pictures while I'm at it. Although none of the runs will be very long. If I add in five days of skiing to those short runs, I think I'll be fine to pick back up on some hardcore training once I get home.

Until next week blahgesphere. For now, just a little peek at my daily view around here.


Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go stuff my face, snuggle my new niece and get ready for another day of snowy-skiing-goodness.

best part of my day.

Well it was my Saturday really, but it was so happy that it's oozed over into the rest of my week. Saturday was a beautiful and rare 60+ degree day in Kansas in January. Part of it spent doing my 'long' run of 10 miles with some fantastic running buddies. It made me ridiculously happy that my long run was only 10 miles. So freeing. So freeing for all of us in fact, that we were game for making total idiots or ourselves in a gym parking lot halfway through our run.

Behold. "Special" runners (if you're smellin' what i'm steppin' in). Attempting to jump for joy. A photo series:

*attempt to jump together, take one. photographer fail*

*attempt to jump take two, with a new photographer. still, a fail. and we all look particularly dim-witted. awesome.*

*this is the photo i took, please note there is air in the photo, i make myself proud. this was as good as the action shot got. trust me there are more, but they are far more humiliating than even these that i posted, so this is all you get!*

*we gave up on the jumping and went ahead and just took a normal group shot. my running pals. happy.*

*we found a fox during the run, it was SO friendly.... hannah became besties with it.*

In contrast to Saturday what a week it's been in Kansas, we deemed it Blizzard of Oz at work. And while it's still quite a mess, it's not half as bad here as it is in other parts of Kansas or other areas of the country. But I love snow and winter storms, so no complaints from this girl. My point is, only in Kansas can it be nearly 70 degrees on Saturday and then Monday and Tuesday it's the Blizzard of Oz. Beautiful.