Croissants=Cwawesome

Exercise: 6.1 miles- 54:36, avg pace 8:56

My wonderful husband got me an early mother's day gift. The motoactv!!! I've had a Garmin 305, I've used plenty of apps (sportstracker[my fave], map my run, endomondo and strava) but this is my favorite so far. Its touch screen is super easy to use and navigate, the map function is awesome and it's super light weight. I loved the music option as well, although it did drain my battery quite a bit extra. I haven't run with music since 2008 and I can't tell you how much I missed it! (Even though it did play J Simpson and New kids on the block, unacceptable ;)

My favorite function is knowing my splits which some of the aps and the Garmin have access to. But then they didn't have other info I was interested in. Sportstracker didn't have split or lap time so anytime I wanted to know my splits I had to calculate in my head which is no fun while running. Sportstracker was great for calling out pace, distance, avg speed. Great function, user friendly and it never lost my data which some of the other aps did.

So here are my splits, just because:

1. 9:34
2. 8:52
3. 8:47
4: 8:53
5. 8:41
6. 8:55
6.1 :53

I had wanted to try for negative splits but I went out a bit fast. I'm super happy with my times though. It's amazing how a great run can really make your day.

After running I took little man on a bunch of errands. Our first stop was Costco and he freaked out when we got to the bread section. I just needed buns for a gathering we were having but he HAD to have the croissants. He kept shouting "bread, bread", and I told him that no, they were croissants, in my best heavy French accent. What he heard was "cwawsome." And proceeded to shout "cwaesome" through the store until we got to the car and I let him break into those puppies. I think he's right though, croissants are cwawesome.

Active Carrier

Exercise: 5 mile tm run- 8:45 avg pace

My goal today was to do some speed work and a sustained 8:45 is very speedy pace for me. I did a .2 warm up and cool down so my pace was even a bit faster. It's pretty warm here in So Cal today with temps above 90 so I was more than grateful today to have access to a gym. Thank you Y! I hope to get in some hills on Thursday or this weekend but I'm a wuss in the heat so we'll see how it goes.

This weekend I did some road running (7mi) and trail running (8mi) and even took the Little Man on a 3.75 mile hike with a friend. He ran about 3/4 of a mile and then slept in the Ergo until we were nearly finished. Carrying a 32 lb sleeping human on your chest for close to an hour up steep hills in the hot sun (while walking backwards ;) jk) is not for the faint of heart but at least the Ergo made it possible. It is an amazing contraption and if you plan to have a kid in the near future I highly recommend it. Especially if you are active. My good friend still uses hers with her nearly 3 year old son. So $100 may seem steep but you can use it far longer than most of the other carriers.

In other news I'm watching my friend's son for a few hours for the next few weeks. It's kind of a job, but not really since I'm basically just making gas money ;) And I totally reserve the right to take this comment back but so far two 2 year-olds seem easier than 1. Oh, and I get to give one back after a few hours ;) There is a ton of extra energy but the boys keep each other occupied and wear themselves out. So it's not really a job because the benefit is mutual and much greater than money. I'm sure it will get old but for now it's perfect.

Now I'm off to enjoy the remainder of nap time, clean a bit, and get ready for a mother's day tea party I'm hosting tomorrow evening. Have a wonderful rest of your day!

Sad Day

RIP MCA

TMI

How To Not Crap Yourself On the Run

One of my favorite rowdy bloggers.

Increasing my Odds

Exercise: 5 mile tm run- 9:30 avg pace w/ negative splits and rolling hills

For me, running on the treadmill is so much easier than on the road. That being said I much prefer running outside for the scenery but when I just want to get a run done, can't beat the treadmill. I had fun playing with speed and incline and it was a pretty tough and sweaty run.

Even though I got a good amount of exercise today I don't feel as though my nutrition today has been on point an I was contemplating working out on the elliptical for a bit. Then I realized I was crazy because I'll be up in 8 hours to workout again. Since I started seriously considering baby #2 I also started thinking about how it was to be pregnant with Little Man. I had a very easy pregnancy, an average labor, but a less than ideal delivery. I feel like things went awry because of my pre-pregnancy weight, 211. Jeesh. There were some other issues but my weight was a constant concern throughout.

And it didn't help that I gained close to 50 pounds. Crazy! I lost all the baby weight and then some but it is very important that if I do get pregnant again I start at a healthy weight and gain a healthy amount. I'd also like to run through my pregnancy, or at least have the option to. I was told not to run last time because my doc was afraid for my joints with the added weight. I did walk 7 miles every day though.

It's hard to believe I gained so much weight while doing so much exercise. I have heard that some people just gain weight and lose it and my pregnancy weight disappeared pretty easily. But still. So along with losing a few pounds, my goal is 12 in 9 weeks (doable right?) I'm also laying off the booze and trying to eat more whole foods. Last time I didn't do anything special and got knocked up on the first try ;) So let's just hope I'm increasing my odds. Sorry if this is TMI, if you think this is bad I can happily direct you to some blogs that talk about way worse ;) The rowdy blogs are my favorite.

Hope you all have a great Friday. Happy almost weekend!

Plans Have DEFINITELY Changed

On Friday I received an email about the Bulldog 50k which seriously changed how I viewed the next few years of my life. Initially I was devastated but if there's anything I've learned from parenthood over the last 2 years it's the ability to adapt to change. (STILL LEARNING) 

I realized around this time last year that I wanted to try (and might actually be able) to run an ultra and a month after that found out about the Bulldog. I thought I might be able to run it last year but life proved otherwise and I was fine delaying my ultra to this year feeling that I'd be much more trained and ready. Today I am much better prepared to run longer distances and have done a few trail runs but know that I can definitely be ready for 50k (32m) by the end of August. But then I received the new 50k qualifying requirements.

NEW 50K QUALIFIER REQUIREMENT: Please submit one of the following:

(A) Official finisher at any previous 50K mountain trail run (give name/year/time), or .........

(B) Sub-4:00 finisher at any previous Bulldog 25k Trail Run (give year/time), or .........

(C) Sub-5:00 marathon finish within 12-months (give year/time)

A and B do not apply which means I would really have to hustle to accomplish C in time to register. I'd have to be able to pull a sub 5 this Sunday at the OC Marathon or in 2 weeks at the Pasadena Marathon. I think there's a good chance I could do sub 5 at Pasadena but I just don't want to. I don't think I want to do any big races anymore. I'm a RnR and LA Marathon veteran so I might feel comfortable doing established or organized races in the future but because I have a toddler and a husband with a crazy schedule the larger races and destination races are a logistical nightmare. 

The main issue is that I wanted to crush this goal this year. I didn't care about time, I just wanted to do it. To say I truly am Ultra Lauren! And why can't I hold off another year? Crush it next year? Because if Music Man and I choose to have another child I would like to do so before I'm 35. I know many parents are having children later these days but for my, and the baby's, safety I'd really want to be done with pregnancy before 35. It's also important to me that there isn't a huge gap in age of my children. Now if I can't get pregnant or something changes I'll be sad but I know I will eventually adapt. But children and family are so much more important than running an ultra marathon. So what I'm saying is, plans have definitely changed.

I still see an ultra in my future. Hello Bulldog 2014! ;) If I'm not pregnant in August I will definitely run the 25k. If I am pregnant, there's a good chance I'll still be able to run the 25k next year to qualify for 2014. 

So now I truly need to focus on nutrition and start seducing my husband ;)

Birthday Celebration

Exercise: 5 mile run- 9:42 avg pace

I got through the weekend! Little Man's birthday celebration was a lot of fun but also a ton of work. 

Totally looked like a carnival!

I spent Most of Friday and Saturday preparing food and crafts. I forgot to take a photo of the whole set up of food and stuff because it was really cute. If my parents have any pictures I'll post them. But I made these foam blocks to hold watermelon and pineapple "lollipops" (just balled fruit with lollipop sticks)

I also decided I needed a large #2 banner or balloon or something like that but it was already Saturday so I painted Little Man a 2 that decorated the snack table and now hangs above his bed.

The most work went into the cake which was a pretty complex operation, aka, disaster. It was tiered with multi colored frosting and colored cakes. One of the layers stuck to the pan and 1/2 was unusable and some pieces had to be "glued" with copious amounts of frosting. A friend told me that disaster cakes are the best because that means more frosting. Hello bright side. in the end it looked pretty cool and it tasted freakin' delicious. 

I was especially happy with how the inside looked. Pretty cute

A little car!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and a great rest of your week!