Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Cross Country Mom

So this year one of my boys decided to try a new sport.  And I am so excited!!  Last spring after a not-so-stellar basketball season (it's tough being short), this kid decided to go to tennis camp.  He really enjoyed it, the Jr Hi coach was very encouraging.  She even sent us names of people who offered private lessons if he was interested.  So I thought he would definitely want to play tennis.  However, the last day of school he brought home a flyer about cross country conditioning for the entire summer, and said he wanted to go really bad!  I thought it would last a day, boy was I wrong.  This meant finding him a ride for the mornings, and him getting up early twice a week the entire summer.  Which he did and never complained.  

Fast forward to cross country season, and he is still in love with running.  And I am in love with cross country.  I never thought I would say that sentence.  Here are some reasons I love this sport....


1. There are no referees! Which means no parent yelling at the referees.  It's amazing!  No "you suck", "that was a horrible call", "where are your glasses?", "I can tell this is your home town", "blow the #$%&@ whistle", "are you kidding me?!?".  (all of which I've heard spectators yell)

2.  No one is telling the kids all the bad things they are doing.  No "that was a bad pass", "why didn't you catch that?", "are you kidding me?", "are you going to play or not? you're wasting my time."  (all of which I've heard parents yell at kids)


3.  Everyone is cheering for everyone.  First place or last place, everyone gets cheered for.  It is so encouraging to see the slowest runner still being rooted for.  I've seriously gotten a little emotional watching some of these kids run.  To see all the hard work these kids have put in and the hours of running they've done just gets me all choked up.

4.  It's an individual sport and a team sport.  I have no idea how the scoring/point system works.  I do know it helps to have several fast runners on one team.  Our boys team has won meets without a 1st or 2nd place runner. (still don't understand that)  So you are not only running for yourself, but also the others on your team.



5.  And lastly I love cross country because of this guy right here.  Our team has 4 7th graders who are pretty fast, and they are already talking about next season.  He's also trying to talk his twin brother (who is fast/plays soccer) into joining cross country in 8th grade.  If this happens, I'll fall even more in love!!! #allthehearts #XC

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Summer = Half Over!!

First I have to say that this summer is flying by.  June went way too fast.  July will go even faster I'm sure.  Then school starts August 2nd!  I cannot believe I will have a junior in high school (who just got his driver's license this week!) and two boys in junior high.  Also recently I just figured out that when my oldest is a freshman in college, I'll have two freshman in high school....3 freshman in one year.  SLOW DOWN TIME......

Here are some fun things we did this June.  Our middle son played in a weekend soccer tournament and they ended up in 2nd place.  We had a very rough soccer season with not a lot of wins, so it was nice to end the season with a few wins and a plaque for being in the final game.  We have about 6 weeks of no soccer, then we will be back at it!

The boys have been begging me to sign them up for a mini marathon, so I told them they had to start small.  We did a local 5K in our town a few weekends ago.  Let's just say these boys are fast.  This was all of us before the race.  Devin has a face of fear, although he has been going to cross-country conditioning at the junior high all summer.  They ended up finishing 2nd and 3rd place just behind the cross-country coach who is very fast.  I jogged slowly with a friend from work, and we all survived!

This guy's cross country conditioning definitely paid off because he beat his brother!  Which was his ultimate goal.  He really enjoys running, his brother not so much.  We have already signed up for his second 5K in August which is at Lucas Oil Stadium.  So we will keep on training.  His cross country team has a goal of running a total of 100 miles this summer, so he needs to get moving.  It definitely has kept me motivated to do the same!

Monday, May 29, 2017

May is almost Over!

I cannot believe May is almost over.  Another Indy 500 is finished.  School is out for the summer.  Let the fun begin.  I have lived in Indiana for 37 of my 42 years of life and have been to zero Indy 500 races.  Growing up, this was never anything anyone in my family did. I've learned there are racing families and there are non-racing families.  I definitely am the non-racing family variety.  Fun fact, my sister married into a racing family (I did not), and my 16 year old son has been to several races with her son.  Maybe one year, I will go with them.  Just to say I've attended...I think one race would be enough for me!

I just wanted everyone to know (in case you don't follow my Instagram, which you totally should) that I did in fact finish the mini marathon with my best time ever.  2:39:17!!!  My average mile time was 12:08/mile which I was so excited about after training on the treadmill with a 12:00 mile pace.  The weather that morning was very iffy...it looked like lots of rain would be happening.  However it ended up being a great day, and I ran most of the race with a rain jacket tied around my waist.  This year is the best I have felt before, during, and after.  I think my training and doing the Whole30 helped me.  I finished 36 days of Whole30 to get me to race day, then the next day we celebrated Mother's Day a week early where I ate a giant piece of cake at The Cake Bake Shop.  It was well worth it...not one single regret!!  I really believe eating Whole30 changes a lot of things for me including my attitude and how I feel in general.  So my plan is to stick to Whole30 for 99.9% of the time.  I did add sugar-free creamer to my diet (I know...chemicals and such, but it's so good!), and I plan to allow myself one treat on the weekend.  So far, so good!!

So what's next for me?  I want to continue jogging 3-4 miles twice a week.  The boys really want to do a 5K this summer, so I am planning on signing us up for one.  They also want to join the jr. high cross country team, so they will need to also jog/run each week.  I keep telling them they are not going to be lazy all summer!  Hopefully they will read some?!? (which can be very painful to enforce)  And does the amount of toilet paper consumed during the summer quadruple, or is that just at my house?!?  I'm thinking of ordering toilet paper on Amazon because I'm afraid we will run out.


Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Whole30 + Mini Marathon Training = One Crazy Month!!

So it's been another long stretch since I've posted on the blog!  I'm definitely more active on Instagram, and I've noticed lots of bloggers I loved to follow have fallen off the blogging wagon.  Maybe it's because of the ages of our kids that keep us busy, busy, busy!!  It's fun having things to do, but sometimes it's more fun having NOTHING to do (which rarely happens in my case!)

The Indy Mini Marathon is quickly approaching, and I've been putting on the miles at the gym on the treadmill.  One thing that definitely has helped this time is the mini iPad.  I've been catching up on lots of shows (The Middle, American Housewife, and The Goldbergs mostly) that I never have time to watch at home.  I've been going to the gym 2 days a week (my day off work, then Saturday or Sunday depending on sports schedules) and doing a short run (3-4 miles) during the week and a long run on the weekend.  The longest weekend run before the race will be 8 miles which is longer than last year's training regime.  So all in all I'm feeling pretty good about May 6th and am not dreading it yet!  I think I said last year I was going to keep running after the mini, but that did not happen.  In fact, I didn't start training this year until February....yikes!  Much later than I had planned originally, but at least I got started and was able to keep with it.  This will be my 5th Indy Mini, and I hope to beat my previous times....we shall see!   Here's my official running plan I made myself....

Now about the Whole30!!!  April 1st I started a new round of Whole30.  If you follow Melissa Hartwig at all on social media, you know she encouraged her followers to start a round of Whole30 on that date.  Looking at the calendar, the month included Easter (think Reese's Eggs) and my twin's birthday (think peanut butter icing), so I knew if I made the commitment, I'd be missing out on two of my favorite things to eat.  Now granted, after doing Whole30 several times, I try my hardest to eat that way 90% of the time.  But for some reason this year after the holidays, my eating went way down hill.  As I described it to my co-workers, "I fell off the wagon, then rolled down the hill!!"
This is a very bad thing if you want your clothes to fit...which is where I was.  My jeans were tight and I just felt bad most of the time.  So I made the commitment to doing Whole30 the month of April, and I survived Easter and the birthday without cheating.  And let's just say I'm so glad I did!  Here are the benefits that I have noticed after 26 days of this.....
1. my clothes fit again
2. I swear my body has Whole 30 memory
3. my back fat has gotten smaller
4. I feel better
5. I'm not as tired in the morning when I get up
6. my mini marathon training has felt great (I don't dread getting on the treadmill....HUGE!)
7. all around I think my mood/attitude is better (my family might protest this one)
So I'm so glad I decided to do this again.  Technically this round is over April 30th, but I think I'm going to go for a Whole36 so I don't mess myself up before the mini.  I'd hate to have issues in the middle of Speedway, Indiana with only port-a-pots.  What's the first thing I'm eating day 37, I'm not sure yet....but I'm leaning towards this!!

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Just Some Numbers

ZERO....the number of LuLuRoe items of clothing that I own.  All of a sudden, everyone on Facebook is posting about LuLuRoe leggings, tunics, dresses, tops, etc.... They all have names and fit differently and you have to have a LuLuRoe unboxing Facebook video... I just don't get it!  Maybe that's why I have no clothing items from them.


SEVEN....the number of times I cried while my twins and I watched A Dog's Purpose at the movie theatre yesterday.  In my defense I begged them to go see Beauty and the Beast with me,  but they turned me down.  I compromised by going to see a movie about a dog.  Boy was it emotional.  I guess I cannot handle dogs dying.


ELEVEN...the number of days until I have a 16 year old boy.  I am mostly excited for 16 because it means 90 days later he can get his drivers license.  This means less running him around and a little more freedom for him.  It also means insurance for a 16 year old boy which I am not excited about!



SEVEN HUNDRED....the number of hours I've watched NCAA men's basketball since the March Madness tournament began.  We did another family bracket, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to win this year. (again)



THIRTY SEVEN...the number of times I swept up dog hair this week.  There is something about spring and dogs, and it drives me crazy.  It's insane here.  I'm hoping it ends soon!