Felt like a marathon training week

This week was a complete success. I had some 'failures' if you will or I'd like to call them areas for improvement ;-)
I started off the week with a run at the park. I picked a random training run for my upcoming marathon-although training doesn't officially start until February. It was a 2 mile warm up, @ mile 7:30 pace, and a 2 mile cool down. I didn't exactly hit my 7:30 target which was surprising to me since I'm close to that with my 5k pace, welps I'll just have to try that again.

One birthday down

One birthday down and one to go! We have two December babies, then Christmas. Typically I didn't get the Christmas tree until after Allison's birthday which is the 17th in order to keep the two separate, but that puts way too much pressure on me to get everything done in just a week. Combine that with my work and running schedule = high anxiety. I am a perfectionist overall.

So this year we changed it up and I'm very happy with the results. 

Staying focused

Even on our Florida trip I was on point. I ate really well and was able to get a few short runs in. I was actually under my calorie goals on Thanksgiving day!! Running in the am is like cheating My fitness Pal into giving you more food for the day.  Unfortunately the following day I went over, mostly due to movie popcorn and some fajitas...totally worth it! Being in the car all day gave me a lot of time to think about my goals. I cant even imagine running  marathon right now let alone at Boston qualifying speed. These thoughts are not allowed in my head. I choose to acknowledge them and move on.
I didn't quite accomplish my November goals, so I decided to make a small adjustment.

Holiday week

What a great holiday week we had!
I'm so sad around the holidays most years that I'm so far away from my family. I'm extra greatful this year we were able to load up my household and join the clan in Florida.It really is very hard dealing with divorce and two seperate households when it comes to the kids but sometimes things just work out and I am super lucky for that.

We went to Legoland and had a blast riding all the coasters and hanging with the cousins.

This certainly primed us  up for Disney Land next summer!

20 hours trapped

We are brave… or stupid? I think I’ll go with brave. 

We like a challenge. So here we go! 

From Syracuse, NY to Lakeland, Florida with two little ones in the back seat.

Week-recap

So last post was my 40th!! My husband recognized it as a mile stone right away and made this:

In the shape of a shoe!

What's the point?

Lets get back to the purpose of this blog...insert long pause. As I contemplate the meaning of that sentence, I realize everything that I've written about so far is EXACTLY the purpose of this blog. My intentions were to write about running and strength training and the journey to fitness. The struggles of greatness. I feel like so far I've been more focused on my injury, then my illness, rather than my running success. As I write this, I realize if the path was easy than everyone would do it.

I think my success is: not ever giving up; even better I never even thought of giving up.I've always thought how can I get past this and get back to running? How can I optimize my schedule to get more out of my day, my week, my month? What else can I read? Who can I talk to about running? (it turns out EVERYONE) What can I do to be the best?

So I think it's time to reflect on my successes over the year despite these setbacks:

Fastest 5k

24:28 7:46/mile