45 MILES THIS WEEK!!!

Seriously. 

I'm totally shocked too. But it's true. I managed to run 45 miles this week. I know I've hit 40 miles before a couple times, but I don't think I've ever made it to 45. The most surprising part of all this running is that my body is cooperating like a champ. I think the key is that I've been keeping the easy runs at an easy pace, and the long run was also slower. Yeah, i know, thats how i should always run, but i dont. My hip has only been nagging me a little bit and my busted toe, while still pretty swollen, isn't sore when I put it in a shoe and run. Maybe it's just lost all feeling. That would be fine with me I guess. 

So, here's the breakdown. 

Monday: easy 5 miles

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: easy 6 miles

Thursday: easy 5 miles in the morning and 4.2 in the evening

Friday: 7.3 mile Tempo run

Saturday: easy 3.1

Sunday: 15 miles 

Total 45.6 miles! 

My only significant runs this week were the 7 miles at 8:50 pace, it's been awhile since I've seen the 8:xx, but it felt good. 

And the long run. It's been even longer since I've run much over 10 miles. I'd say this week has been a success as far as training goes and that's saying a lot since I'm trying to train for 2 very different things, a 200 mile relay and a marathon. 

We did our long run yesterday at a local metro park. We love it there. There is a paved path around the lake, it's just about 8.5 miles with lots of bathrooms and drinking fountains. It's pretty perfect. And beautiful. Unfortunately yesterday, we ran in the cold rain for an hour, then the sun came out for a little bit and then went away leaving it cold and rainy again. We packed a lunch and planned to let Lorelei play afterwards, but that didn't last long because of the rain. And since we were really wet all the wind and rain made us really cold. My kid is a champ though because she didn't mind at all. 

We basically filled our car with the stroller, food and our gear. See that sun block? I brought it but didn't use it because it was rainy and gross. Somehow Paul still managed to get a burn on his forehead. On a rainy day. 

The rain clouds...

And then...the sun! 

And more rain. 

And since it felt like fall I needed some coffee. Perfect. 

Surprise!

Hi friends!

Some of you may or may not know that yesterday was our 9 year anniversary. I can't believe I've been married for 9 years! We haven't really done anything to celebrate our anniversary in years, but Paul was sneaky and managed to surprise me by getting out of work early and getting a babysitter.

The wonderful Emily and Owen duo came over to hang out with Lorelei. She was pretty excited and told us to leave as soon as they got there.

I kind of ruined Paul's plans because I asked him earlier in the day if I should run or wait for him to get home. He said he wasn't sure about his schedule so to go ahead and do a short run without him. I did 5 miles. His plan was to go to a nice trail and run before dinner but since my hip has been acting up and is just finally starting to get a little better I decided it would be a bad idea to run again. It was really hard for me to turn it down though.

Instead we got coffee and then headed to dinner. I wasn't really hungry because I had a snack after my run, another plan ruiner, but oh well. He chose a pretty great place for us. He was really thoughtful, as always, and did some research to pick a place he knew I would love. That place was the Inn Season Cafe. They serve only vegetarian and vegan food. And it's all organic, in season and the ingredients come from local farms and businesses. My vegetarian, tree hugging heart was so happy! And the food was amazing!

I wanted a salad, it just sounded good, but it felt wrong to get a salad at a place like this. Only because salad is my go to at restaurants that don't get the concept of cooking something that doesn't have meat in it. There were a lot of things that sounded great so I just pointed at one of the specials and my menu was taken away. I'm not even quite sure what I ordered, but it was really good.

Inside that gloriously flaky, whole wheat, pastry was mushrooms and the best tempeh I've ever had. The sauce was some sort of miso sauce I think. And that salad. So good. See, it would be nice to know exactly what I ordered right now...

Paul got the Portabella Walnut pizza. Also, really so good.

We were considering dessert and Paul said we could walk around and go somewhere else but I knew if the food here was this good the dessert would be too, so we stayed. And had this. Cashew Cardamom Cake. 

There are no words for this cake. Seriously, no words.

Then, because I had ruined our pre dinner plans we had time to kill and being the old, fun hater that I am I decided we should go to Ikea and get some shopping done that is hard to do with Lorelei. I was embarrassed to even suggest it, but he was willing to go along with anything. And we did close the place down, so there's that.

And we splurged on Ikea chocolate and this stuffed mouse that Lorelei has been wanting.

A treadmill distance record

I was really determined to get a longer run in this weekend. It's been weeks since I've done any double digit runs. My hips have been protesting and it's been miserable. I was feeling good all week, I think because I did a lot of slow treadmill runs. But on Friday I messed it all up by doing a 7 mile tempo run. So I was back to being sore. I didn't feel too bad today and was just going to do what I could do on the mill. I turned Shark Week on on Netflix and before I knew it I had done 10 miles. It was slow and not completely painless but it felt better than my long run attempts in weeks past. I'm also pretty sure that's a treadmill distance record for me. 

And the rest of the day was spent at the carnival enjoying Fathers Day. 

That girl wasn't afraid of anything. The higher it went and the faster it spun the more she liked it. She got bored with the jeeps but loved the Ferris wheel.

The giant on my treadmill

Lorelei was really excited to see the treadmill when she woke up yesterday. She was really upset when we couldn't fit it in our car and had to leave it at the store for Paul to pick up later. She kept saying "Oh no! What are we going to do?!" when we realized it wouldn't fit with her seat in the car. Now you all know how much I love her because I didn't choose to take the treadmill home over her. She's still my favorite. Priorities. 

I was obviously excited to try it out but it was really nice to be able to drink as much coffee as I wanted and be lazy wake up before I rushed off to the gym. 

The iPad fit perfectly right over the display so I could catch up on shows I like rather than watch the time and miles go by. 

I was a little worried about whether or not Lorelei would be good while I was running but she was. She chatted with me a little but most of the time she played and watched a little tv. 5 glorious miles later she wanted my attention so I called it a day.

It was rainy when Paul got home so I was nice and shared. It was hard for me though. 

I just realized that in that picture the treadmill, which normally looks huge, looks tiny with Paul on it. He looks like a giant! 

In non running related life stuff, my latest favorite afternoon snack. 

Iced coffee with vanilla almond milk and those coffee cubes I made.

On Tuesday night Lorelei and I met some friends at the park for a picnic. It was fun. And the view wasn't too bad either.

My new favorite thing

So....! I'm excited to tell you that I have a new favorite thing. A new BFF.

I've been trying to convince Paul to let me cancel my gym membership because I hate going. I really only go to use the treadmill and I just hate it there. The gym is fine, but all the guys walking around shaped like inverted triangles (large on top with chicken legs), grunting and looking at themselves in the mirror really bug me. It also bugs me that they take up half the treadmills just to walk. Seriously? If I didn't have a person to take care of I would probably never use the treadmill. I won't apologize for sounding like a jerk because I kind of am a jerk. I also hate that there are only certain periods of time that they will watch Lorelei. It's not the most convenient. And they feel no sense of urgency when things are broken. There are 2 problems with canceling my membership though 1) I hate pushing that stroller for more than 4 miles and 2) the stroller is falling apart.

Anyway. Back to my new BFF.

Yay! Hubs must really love me. He picked it up and even set it up for me. He's kind of the best.

It was a bit messy for awhile. New BFF still doesn't have a permanent home, it's in the living room, but I'm sure i can find a good spot. Eventually.

I'm hoping we have many happy miles together. But not too many, I'd still rather run outside.

Wedding weekend

Hi guys!

We had another busy but really great weekend. My brother Doug, the one closest in age to me, got married on Saturday! We're all really happy and excited for them. Carrie, his wife, is so sweet and wonderful and we're glad she's officially part of the family.

Paul and I snuck in one 6.6 mile run on Saturday afternoon but the rest of the weekend was devoted to wedding festivities and family fun. It was really nice to run in an unfamiliar area. Seeing the same things on every run gets a little old sometimes. Especially when your motivation is lacking like mine has been.

Fun in the hotel pool. 

We weren't planning to stay at the hotel with everyone else. We were just going to drive back and forth from our house both days. My grandma and grandpa offered to let us use the extra bed in their room and I'm glad we (Lorelei and I) took them up on it. The drive was a bit farther than I thought it would be. I also would have missed out on fun things like drinking wine and chatting and laughing with the bride and her girls on Friday night. And Saturday would have been much more rushed for us if we had to make a 1.5 hour drive.

Goofing around at the rehearsal dinner. Carrie wanted a pic with Lorelei but Lorelei wouldn't cooperate. She just wanted to take pics of herself making funny faces on my phone. Carrie still managed to be in the background of one of them though.

The best man AKA my youngest brother, Jared.

My mom needed help teasing her hair or something like that. I've never done such a thing to my hair so I don't know anything about that. Luckily the bride was there to help her out.

My aunt brought a cooler full of these with her from Wisconsin. Yum!

Heading to the chapel to get her dressed!

We're ready!

Love them!

Beautiful!

Feeding the fish. She loved it.

My brother Bryan and his wife Heather.

Couldn't decide what to drink so I got one of each. Coffee, wine, water. 

 It was a great wedding. But it turns out that Lorelei doesn't sleep well in hotels and each night she didn't fall asleep until really late, 10:30 one night and after 11 the next. We were both pretty tired from the weekend and didn't wake up until almost 10am today! Crazy. Poor Doug and Carrie had such an early flight they had to leave the reception and go right to the airport. I bet they're really tired too.

Happy Running Day!

I realized that I haven't posted anything in quite some time and that's mostly because I just haven't felt like it. There's been a lot going on around here lately that's been pretty draining. We're in the midst of some big changes that I'll share later because I just don't want to talk about it until it's all settled. Good things (we hope) are coming for our family but it's still been draining both physically and emotionally. I don't want to be one of those people that talks all the time about the thing they won't talk about and leaves everyone hanging so instead I've just been quiet on here. I know I'm kind of doing that now, so I'm sorry.

Moving on, I've started to get back to running the last couple of weeks. There hasn't really been anything exciting happening, I've just been forcing myself to do it. Paul and I decided we should pick a marathon and sign up so we'll have some motivation but we still haven't done that. Tonight I think we decided on one. Maybe. It's been really strange for me to not really want to do the one thing that I always want to do. It's also a bummer because running is usually a great stress reliever for me and I've definitely been stressing. And I've been really busy traveling for races and graduations and bridal showers and one of my brothers is getting married this weekend. It's been fun to see all our family so often, but traveling with Lorelei and the three dogs every weekend is tiring.

You probably already know that today is National Running Day, even if you aren't a runner, unless you live under a rock with no computer. To celebrate I ran. Twice. The first run was a short 3.1 miles pushing Lorelei and the second one was 6 miles with Paul and Lorelei. Paul totally busted me for not showering between my runs. I just didn't see the point since I knew I was going to run again later. And wear the same sweaty clothes again later. Also, I'm lazy.

Lorelei takes great pictures of me. 

She's the best. I love chatting with her when we run. 

Post run snack. Yep, I ate that entire half of a watermelon by myself. I'm the only one in the house that likes it and I really like it. Paul told me he can't even stand the smell of it. What's wrong with him? Seriously. He's broken. Watermelon might be the best thing about summer. Speaking of summer, I made coffee cubes today. I can't give up my afternoon coffee but sometimes it's just too hot. I'm developing a tolerance, even a like, for cold coffee. 

Coffee and vanilla almond milk cubes. Yum!