Should have known better

Ugh. I did something really stupid about two months ago. We were invited over to a friend’s BBQ and impromptu soccer game (they are Costa Rican- I think they called it a milangro?). I started out the soccer game wearing sneakers but the game was being played in their side yard which had a slight hill to it and my sneakers tripped me up a few times. My friend noted that people are supposed to play in bare feet, so I took my shoes off. BIG MISTAKE.

My feet didn’t hurt during the game...in fact it was nice to run around in bare feet for once. But as soon as I woke up the next morning I knew I had made a huge mistake and my plantar fasciitis had reared its ugly head again. Since then I have tried running a few times and even set out to start my 15k running plan but decided that it wasn’t worth the pain.

So I am currently signed up for the Hot Chocolate 15k early next month but won’t be ready for it. I dropped down to the 5k this week since I could run that in my sleep (albeit slowly). I really like running the race and would feel weird wearing around the gear if I didn’t actually run....

What a bummer. I’m sick of PF being a constant in my life and always messing up my ability to run and enjoy it.

North Shore Half Marathon

Right after finishing my first half marathon back in 2011, I told CP that I was so happy that I was never going to have to do another half. Well, a friend of mine signed up for a half earlier this year and I decided to also sign up because what's 3.1 more miles the weekend after running a 10 mile race? (LOL) I chalk it up to FOMO which is a silly reason to sign up for a long race, but I did it anyway.

The last time I ran a half I trained with a local Fleet Feet store in CT; this time I ran by myself because I didn't have a set time or day on the weekend that I would run. Last time I also had plantar fasciitis basically the entire time I trained; this time I was relatively pain-free in my heels. Of course it is also a move across the country, two kids, and 8 years later so things have changed slightly. Ha ha.

Stupidly, I stayed up too late the night before watching the Netflix move "Always Be My Maybe" with Ali Wong and Randall Park (which is awesome by the way- even CP liked it). Going to bed after 11pm the night before a half marathon where you have to be there at 6am isn't the best of ideas. But up I was to drive to the half. This time I decided that I would chug my Spark water bottle 45 minutes before the race started so that I would have two chances to go to the bathroom before the race started. I met up with my two friends who were in a faster corral and we hung out for a bit before they left for their corral. I peed one last time and got in my corral.

I started the race and felt pretty good. I didn't have to pee and it was cool enough that I felt good. I ended up peeing twice during the race and stopped at every water station to make sure that I had enough hydration. The first part of the course was through neighborhoods which was fine, but a lot of residents were coming and going throughout the race and at times would try to get through traffic which was annoying. I got really annoyed around mile 6 because the mile marker was clearly in the wrong place (far after we actually had hit mile 6) and it messed with my head. Around this time I heard from a nearby runner that "Heartbreak Hill" was coming up- a steep decline, turn the corner and then head right back up for a steep incline- so I took advantage of of the decline and let my legs go knowing that I was going to walk up that incline!

I felt pretty good until I hit mile 10. The third week of running 10 miles and only a week after running the Soldier Field 10 miler, my legs were begging to be done with the race. This part was mentally tough too- a very long out and back where you could see mile marker 11 but knew that you were still early in mile 9 so that you had a long way to go to just get back to the same place on the road. Plus, no shade. 

My friend who finished earlier, his wife, and his kids were there at the finish line and that gave me a boost to run a little faster towards the finish line. I will say that I definitely do NOT need to do another half marathon. I was bummed that I didn't get a PR but I am 8 years older so I probably shouldn't have expected one. :-)

Nike+ Splits

Mile 1- 10:21

Mile 2- 10:48

Mile 3- 11:00

Mile 4- 11:52

Mile 5- 11:07

Mile 6- 11:15

Mile 7- 11:07

Mile 8- 11:45

Mile 9- 11:54

Mile 10- 12:38

Mile 11- 11:36

Mile 12- 12:32

Mile 13- 12:25

Official Race Times

5k- 33:54   10:55 pace

10K- 1:14:11  11:57 pace

15K- 1:48:00    11:36 pace

Final time- 2:34:13

Pace- 11:46/mile

The rest of the day I was pretty tired but the worst was getting up the next morning to get on an early morning flight to Las Vegas for work- middle seat for three hours. I definitely hobbled around in meetings all day, finally feeling better after a long night of sleep that night.

Soldier Field 10 Miler

Oh boy am I behind in my blogging! Let's dig into what I have been doing the past month+ with a few posts.

First up- the Soldier Field 10 miler! I have always wanted to do this race because it ends on the 50 yard line of Soldier Field. You all know that I am an Eagles fan, but getting to finish on the 50 yard line of an NFL stadium is super cool so I went for it. For Mother's Day this year I asked CP for one thing- the okay to sign up for this race and the half marathon the following weekend and the weekend time I would need to train for the races. Thankfully, he agreed.

I was really good to keeping to a good 3 day a week running schedule. After finishing the 10k in the snow, I set out to add mileage every week by following a half marathon training plan...so the weekend before this race, I ran 10 miles since the two 10 milers would be the longest runs before the half.

Friday night I took the train to my parent's house downtown and slept over at their place (they were in MI) so that I wouldn't have to get up hours earlier to get downtown. I brought a bagel, Spark, and all of my stuff. Saturday morning I woke up bright and early, ate my toasted bagel with butter, and dressed for the day. It had been scheduled to POUR RAIN all week so it was nice to see that the forecast had changed to sunny- but it was also going to be HOT.

I took a Lyft to Soldier Field and arrived about 50 minutes before the race was to begin. About 30 minutes before the race I chugged my water bottle filled with Spark for some caffeine and used the bathroom. I knew that I had to get into the corral at least 15 minutes before the race started. I stretched a bit and then watched as the Color Guard came out, a charity spokesperson talked for a few minutes, and then the elite and earlier corrals went off. The whole time I am thinking that I should run back to the bathroom to pee, but decided not to (I should have known better).

Needless to say, when my corral finally started the race, I really had to pee. My first chance to use a port-a-potty was not until about 2.5 miles in so I had an uncomfortable start to the race and then had to sit waiting at the port-a-potty for a bit. 

The race had us start out going south along the lake and turn around halfway to head back to the stadium. The first 7 or so miles weren't so bad. It wasn't too hot out and I was feeling pretty good. Around mile 8 I was just SO HOT with the sun beating down on me and my legs felt like lead. I definitely started walking more than usual and it shows in my pace.

Nike+ Splits

Mile 1- 10:12

Mile 2- 11:03

Mile 3- 10:48

Mile 4- 11:28

Mile 5- 11:35

Mile 6- 12:01

Mile 7- 11:30

Mile 8- 12:37

Mile 9- 12:45

Mile 10- 11:56 

(The Nike+ App automatically pauses when you stop moving so it didn't register my bathroom stop and thought that I finished faster than I did. Without the bathroom stop I would have finished in 1:58:18)

Official times

5k- 37:20 (damn bathroom stop!)   12:01 pace

10k- 1:14:09  11:56 pace

15K- 1:53:59    12:14 pace

Finish time- 2:01:42

Average pace- 12:11

My goal going in was to finish in less than 2 hours so I *almost* made it. My body certainly wasn't used to the hotter weather as we have had a nice, cool spring so far so all of my training runs were in cooler weather. I believe that this is my first 10 miler so currently, this is my PR. 

Champion of Trees 10K

On Sunday I ran in the Champion of Trees 10K (6.2 miles) with two friends. All week long the forecast was for rain so when the forecast changed to snow we were a least a bit happier. It started snowing as soon as we started our drive towards the race. (The snow did not stop until 8pm that night!!) Thankfully we got there in enough time to go to the bathroom, get lined up at the start, and even to get a heat pack from one of the sponsors. 

My friend's husband runs way faster than us so he headed closer to the starting line while my friend and I stuck close to the 11 minute pace sign. The first part of the course is a small loop where you go up a fairly large hill early (Frost Hill), loop around towards the start line, and then have to do Frost Hill for a second time before doing a much larger loop. I am NOT used to running hills so let's just say my butt is seriously feeling it today!

I felt fairly good running so I left my friend to go faster on the downhill sections before we finished the first mile- gotta take advantage of those! Sadly I have no idea what my splits are because Nike+ thought that I ran 6.3 and once I changed the mileage to 6.2 the split information is wiped away. :-(

By mile 2 I put away the heat pack that I had been trading from hand to hand and took off my gloves. I wore a baseball cap so that it wouldn't snow/rain in my eyes and that somewhat helped, but it was windy and I was still getting a lot of snow in my face. Around mile 3 I noticed that my socks were wet which was a bit uncomfortable. During mile 3 was the only time I stopped to drink water on the course. By mile 4 I started trying to psych myself up and thought "less than 24 minutes left of running!" I had been trying to run up most of the hills on the course but in the last two miles I ended up walking at least part of most of them. Thankfully most of the last two miles are actually downhill so I saved a lot of time there. I was worried that I would slip but the ground temperature was warm enough that no ice formed during the race. Phew!

Mid race photo

I kept thinking that my friend would catch up with me as I ran the first two miles without walking and then would take a walk break every 1/2 mile or so, but she stayed behind me the entire race. Once I hit mile 6 I looked for the finish but we had to run around a curve and it certainly felt like more than .2 of a mile before we finally hit the finish line! About a minute later my friend came through the finish line.

Me right after the race- check out the snow/ice on my hat brim!

Official 10K time: 1:06:20

Pace: 10:41/mile

A new 10K PR by over FIVE MINUTES! 

(My last 10K and previous PR was this same race only four months after having Izzy. This is only my third time running a 10K.)

Thankfully all of us thought ahead to bring a new set of clothes so we peeled the wet clothes off in the bathroom after the race and changed into dry clothes for the ride home. I got home before CP and the kids so I took a nice warm bath and stayed inside the rest of the day while it snowed!

Next up? I have signed up for the Soldier Field 10 miler Memorial Day weekend and then the weekend after that, a half marathon!

2019 goals

Since it's almost March, it's probably time to write down my goals for the year. LOL.

1. Eat at least one vegetarian dinner every week. 
While we certainly have been eating less red meat with Weight Watchers, we are eating a lot of chicken. I would like to lessen my environmental impact this year.

2. Lose 25 pounds this year. 

I'm happy with the 25 that I lost last year and would like to lose 25 more to get down to my 

wedding weight.

3. Work out for at least 30 minutes at least three times a week. 

I have started strong so far this year, mostly with 21 Day Fix workouts. I am looking forward 

to Shaun T's new program when it comes out in March and when the weather gets nicer I 

will be spending time running outside.

4. Continue monthly dates with CP.

5. Get our credit card balance to $0 this year.

Recent news stories have me worried about whether we are going to owe taxes this year 

instead of getting a refund....that will certainly hinder our ability to meet this goal but I 

hate throwing money away each month.

6. Get a new job. 

I spent a lot of last year doing informational interviews and working on crafting a good 

resume. I have also spent a lot of time figuring out what exactly I would like to do and what

I have a passion for outside my current job. I have two paths that I am pursing and I would 

like to make 2019 my year to make the jump.

7. Continue to be politically active whether it is writing postcards to voters, contacting my

elected officials about things that are important to me, or participating in marches.

8. Run in at least three races this year including the Soldier Field 10 miler.

I have always wanted to do the Soldier Field 10 miler and I have some other friends on 

board to run this race with me. It's in May so I have some time to prepare.

9. Run one race with Izzy this year.

I need to find a 1 mile race to do with Izzy this year. I think that she would love it!

There we go! Now I have 10.5 months to get these done!

Wrap up on 2018 goals

Since it is February, it's a good time to see how I did on my 2018 goals. LOL.

1. Continue our part vegetarian lifestyle through the year. 

We did great on this for the first half of the year and then fell off the second half. 

We certainly continued to eat less red meat but still ate chicken, turkey, and fish. 

2. Continue to send paper cards to friends for their birthdays. 

Success!

I hear from my friends that they love getting a paper card, so I will definitely continue this.

3. The usual lose weight goal.

Success! 

I got down below 200 before my birthday. I didn't lose any more weight due to the holidays, 
but I at least hit my goal for the year.

4. Be more consistent with working out.

Success!

I really like Beachbody on Demand because whenever I have time I head down to the 
basement to work out. I certainly can't and don't work out every day but would say that I 
work out 3-4 times a week.

5. Continue monthly dates with CP.

Success! 

I think we maybe missed one month all year? The trip to FL for a long weekend without 
the kids was sooooo great as well.

6. Pay down our credit card debt.

Still working on this.

Christmas didn't help....and then being furloughed made it worse....but thankfully I have 
gotten paid again and we are back to working on paying it down. 

7. Continue to be politically active and contact my elected officials when necessary.

Success!

My elected officials have heard from me on lots of different subjects this year. :-)

8. Create a better and more consistent bedtime routine.

Mixed success.

This is certainly tough to do on a consistent basis.

9. Run in at least two races this year.

Success!

I ended up running in three races this year after battling plantar fasciitis most of the year. 
The 5k that I do with coworkers, the 5k that runs right by my house, and a Thanksgiving 
5k that is in another local neighborhood.

Overall, I was much more successful this year in my goals than I have been in the past. I 
believe this was due to making manageable goals and checking in with them quarterly so that
I don't forget about them.

2019 goals in my next post.

Good and the Bad

Let’s start with the GOOD because it is Friday.

GOOD

I ran my second 5k of the year last Sunday and averaged 10:33/mile for a time of 32:41 (this is the race that runs right by my house). According to Nike+ this is the fastest 5k I have ever run since I started tracking in May 2008 (prior to this my fastest 5k was 33:02). Woo hoo! I was up part of the night before with stomach cramps/diarrhea so I was pretty excited about my time. As I ran by my house a second time I asked Izzy if she wanted to finish with me (she was in her pajamas) and she ran with me for the last .25 or so. She loved it!

The other good is that over the month of September I was able to reverse the weight I gained in August (4 lbs) and now I am thisclose to my first goal of being under 200 pounds again. On Wednesday I weighed in at 200.5 so I am crossing my fingers I will see a number that starts with 1 next Wednesday. My goal was to be under 200 by my birthday in December so if I can do it two months in advance (despite almost getting there *ahem* two months ago and the backsliding) then I'm happy. 

BAD

The bad news is that there is something going on with my IUD. I hadn’t checked for the strings recently but did so the other day in the shower. It basically felt like the strings had embedded into cervical tissue as I could feel them but couldn’t move them. Today I had my doctor check them out and the good news is that she can see the end of the strings so they didn’t perforate my uterus but she can’t move them. The next step is to have an ultrasound to see if the IUD has moved. If it has moved and is no longer in place I am looking at a surgery (GRRRR) to get it removed and then I would have to get a different kind of birth control as it wouldn’t be recommended to get an IUD again. If it is in the right place my doctor recommends to remove the current one and replace it with one with longer strings. Obviously I am hoping for the latter because the no period thing with an IUD is super nice and I don't want to have yet ANOTHER surgery.

It’s a rainy, dreary day in Chicago and overall it has been a really hard two weeks with the Ford/Kavanaugh hearings bringing out a lot of emotions in me that I didn’t realize were bottled up. I hope everyone else out there is doing okay.

Friday news dump

Ugh! There is simply no time for blogging these days. I also need to catch up on my Feedly reader. That being said, here is what is going on in our lives these days:

-Izzy did great on her first two weeks at her new school. Her good friend at her old school was scheduled to move to a new daycare that hasn't opened yet but I was able to convince her parents to move her kid into the new school instead. Izzy is super excited for her friend to start on Monday! 

-I was supposed to be on a work trip this week to Missouri but it got cancelled. It has now been rescheduled for the very end of November which is fine except I will miss Izzy's birthday. :-( My MIL came into town to help CP out while I was going to be gone, but instead it has just turned into a regular visit. 

My MIL took Izzy for her first manicure

We also all went to the Brookfield Zoo

90+ degrees + no nap= this face

We also went apple picking and Wes got attacked by mosquitoes.....again.

We offered to have her join us on our trip to Cancun next February and she agreed which means we will get at least one night for a dinner to ourselves AND maybe even get to go scuba diving together!

-CP and I will celebrate 9 years of marriage on October 3rd a little early this weekend since we have a built-in babysitter (MIL). I got tickets to see the musical Avenue Q and then we are going out to dinner. Should be nice to have a kid-free night on Saturday.

-Izzy has started up ice skating lessons and tennis lessons for the fall. Poor Wes is in nothing until we will put both kids in swimming for the winter (likely around November).

-No work changes on the horizon any time soon. I continue to try to speak to people and have an in-person informational interview next Thursday. The area that I want to move into doesn't have a ton of positions so I may not go anywhere any time soon. :-( But I am working on my resume with someone to make sure it is ready.

-I'm super excited that although I was wait listed for the Michelle Obama presale tickets, I was able to get tickets for her Chicago event in November! I also got a ticket for my sister and my mom and figured they could be Xmas presents. :-)

-Friends of ours started a Healthy Kids Running Series group in our town and last weekend was the first event (the series runs for 5 weeks). Izzy easily won her 4-5 year old division (they only ran 75 meters and she was taller than any of the other kids). I volunteered to help on the race course for the older kid races and was so sad to see a mother berating her child during the last race (1 mile). Her daughter was in third to last place and the mother (who may have been athletic at one time but was not now) was upset that she was walking (it was 85+ degrees out and sunny). She told her daughter "alright, if you aren't going to try then we are just going home right now. Let's go." The daughter picked up her pace and finished, but I was heartbroken for the kid. These races are supposed to be FUN. I debated saying something to the mother but in the end decided not to. I'm still questioning whether I should have. Thoughts?

-Speaking of running, Izzy has been wanting to do a real race with me so while we were in MI my mom and I took her out for a run. She kept wanted to actually RUN instead of jog and we did some walking, but she ran a mile in less than 14 minutes. We were planning on dropping her off at the house and continuing to run, but then she wanted to run more with us. She ended up running another .5 of a mile, then tripping and falling and walking back home with my mom. I'm pretty proud of that 1.5 miles for her though!

-I ran my first race of the year last Thursday. I went out too fast and ran a 10:15 first mile which is unheard of for me. I ended up running the whole race with an 11:15 average so I slowed down towards the end but for a race at the end of a workday when I also was battling a cold I was okay with the time. 

My favorite tshirt of the night. Paul Manafort joke anyone?

But then this past Wednesday I got home and had 30 minutes to myself while Izzy, CP, and Wes were at ice skating so I laced up my shoes for a run. I was feeling good, but when it started to pour right after the first .5 mile I decided that I was just going to try to run fast since I should probably get inside due to lighting. Needless to say I only got to run 1.5 miles but it was at a 10:30 pace so maybe I need to start pushing myself to go faster? My next (and maybe final race) of the year is at the end of the month.

-This week I got the fantastic news that a college friend of mine (who turned 40 earlier this year) is pregnant! She just turned 40 and I had some in depth conversations with her about IVF, the drugs, etc. so I'm so happy that it worked (her first retrieval didn't go well)! She is due in February and I'm tempted to give her a onesie that says "I love science." :-)

Checking in on 2018 goals

We are now halfway through the year so I thought that I would check in on my 2018 goals to see how I am doing.

1. Continue our part vegetarian lifestyle through the year. 

Wavering a bit. We have continued to not eat as much red meat but have started to eat more fish and chicken since CP joined Weight Watchers.

2. Continue to send paper cards to friends for their birthdays. 

On Track! 

3. The usual lose weight goal.

On Track! 

January- 1 lb

February- 2lb

March- 6lb

April- 3.5

May- 1

June- 6

Total over the last 6 months: 19.5 pounds!

Only 5.5 more pounds until I hit my first major goal!

4. Be more consistent with working out.

On Track! Currently working on the Beta section of Beachbody's T25 program and feeling stronger! Trying to figure out what program to work on next when I finish this one. Maybe do it over again? I really like the fact that it is only 30 minutes long.

5. Continue monthly dates with CP.

On Track! We just missed March (but made up for it with two dates in April). No dates planned for July but it will be hard to fit one in with our camping vacation, Wes' 2nd birthday this weekend, and then my surgery on the 20th.

6. Pay down our credit card debt.

Stalled! Our patio was finally completed and we had a few extra additions to our final amount due to the landscaper AND we bought new patio furniture so we are still working on this. 

7. Continue to be politically active and contact my elected officials when necessary.

On Track! Since joining the local Moms Demand Action group I have been busy contacting elected officials and going to marches. I have been calling our governor recently about a gun dealer licensing bill and calling elected officials about the immigrant family separations.

8. Create a better and more consistent bedtime routine.

Working on it!  This week I put myself to bed at 9pm and according to my Fitbit slept for 8 hours that night. It was glorious. I do try to head upstairs by 9:30...especially on the nights prior to getting up at 5am to work out.

9. Run in at least two races this year.

Not completed yet! Due to my left foot issue which is more than just plantar fasciitis (according to my physical therapist), I haven't run any races. I dropped out of Tough Mudder because I haven't run in 8 months and thought that starting up running right now before the race would be a good way to have foot problems again. Currently I don't have any pain while walking so it's getting better but I want to keep it that way for a few weeks before I test out any running. I would like to do the Hot Chocolate race later this year...I'm assuming that I would do the 5K version and not the 15K version though.

Check in on 2018 goals

We are now quarter of the way through the year so I thought that I would check in on my 2018 goals to see how I am doing.

1. Continue our part vegetarian lifestyle through the year. 

On Track! I really can't take much credit with this goal because it is really CP that cooks most of our meals, but we have continued to eat meat only a couple nights a week for dinner (mostly Friday and Saturday). I have been trying to eat more fish when we are out at restaurants instead of eating red meat. We have significantly cut down on the amount of meat eaten in our household.

2. Continue to send paper cards to friends for their birthdays. 

On Track! 

3. The usual lose weight goal.

On Track! As I mentioned before, I was slow in making changes so January I saw a 1 pound weight loss, the same in February. However, March was a better month and I lost 4.5 pounds so I am down 6.5 pounds so far. If I can keep up even just losing 4 pounds a month I will definitely hit the weight that I wanted to hit by my birthday in December and even more! 

4. Be more consistent with working out.

Working on it! Last week I took almost a whole week off of my Beachbody workout because...well, I didn't reallyhave a great excuse. But on Friday and Sunday I was back at it for week 3 and feeling fairly good. My heel pain hasn't lessened with the inserts so no running anytime soon, but I will continue with my workouts as there is a low-impact option. 

I will say that a local mom's group did a pushup challenge for the month of March and I faithfully did my pushups EVERY DAY in March. On the last day we were up to two sets of 31 pushups which meant that I did 62 pushups on Saturday (on my knees of course)! So at least I was consistent with that. This month we are doing a combo of moves every day- situps, planks, leg raises, crunches, and pushups. :-)

5. Continue monthly dates with CP.

On Track! I think that we may have missed going on a date in March, but CP was in Ireland for two of the weekends and we were quite busy the rest of the month. We are going to make up for it by going out two weekends in a row this month. :-)

6. Pay down our credit card debt.

On Track! We are watching our spending and we are so close to paying off our credit card debt. Our work bonuses should be hitting our accounts soon and CP gets three paychecks in the month of May and I get three paychecks in the month of June so between all of those things we should be completely set and may have some money to put into our savings account.

7. Continue to be politically active and contact my elected officials when necessary.

On Track! Since joining the local Moms Demand Action group I have been busy contacting elected officials and going to marches. I also wrote a bunch of postcards for the Postcards to Voters group.

8. Create a better and more consistent bedtime routine.

Working on it! I really am a night owl at heart so I enjoy going to bed later on the weekends...but then it messes up my schedule for the week. Unless I am out and having fun with friends, I need to work on getting to bed on time.

9. Run in at least two races this year.

Not completed yet! I'm still not running yet and had to drop out of the Ragnar Relays (the race from Chicago to Madison, WI) in May. However I am signed up for a Tough Mudder with mom friends in August and there is always the local 5K that runs past our house and the 5K that I do with coworkers in September. Plenty of time to get back into running shape and hopefully with less weight on my body I will be able to run faster than last year!

2018 Goals

2018 Goals

1. Continue our part vegetarian lifestyle through the year. It's better for the planet and better 

for our bodies.

2. Continue to send paper cards to friends for their birthdays. 

3. The usual lose weight goal. I turn 40 at the end of 2018 and I would like to be back below 

200. At the beginning of the year I decided to join Weight Watchers since it helped me lose 

weight before my wedding, so fingers crossed it helps again! I have signed up for 6 months 

and so far it has been eye-opening.

4. Along with the weight goal, I would like to be more consistent with working out. In 2017 I 

did great for half the year, but didn't really start really working out until I finished breastfeeding 

and then got out of my routine as soon as I went to TX. I need to heal my heel before I can 

get back to running/high impact stuff, but there is plenty of stuff that I can do in the meantime.

17 days into the new year and I have yet to work out so this needs to change asap.

5. Continue monthly dates with CP to make sure that our marriage stays strong.

6. Pay down our credit card debt from rehabbing the house within the first six months of the 

year. Unfortunately due to a few unplanned things that happened with our rehab the project 

cost more than was budgeted. We are unsure how we are going to fare during tax season 

this year and CP's bonus will be a lot smaller this year at the new job, so we are going to 

have to stick to tight budgets.

7. Continue to be politically active and contact my elected officials when necessary.

8. Create a better and more consistent bedtime routine. I do think that with getting up early to 

work out, I need to make sure that I am in bed earlier as well. Some days it is great and I'm in 

bed and asleep by 10pm, some days I am up until 10:30pm and then the next day I am tired. 

It needs to be all about consistency.

9. Run in at least two races this year.

2017 Results

Last year I posted my 2017 goals. How did I do? Well, it was a mixed bag.

1. Dress up more on the weekends and when I am at home. It's so easy to throw on a sweatshirt and yoga pants to do anything and everything on the weekends. I have really been trying to make an effort to dress up for dinners out with the family and to look a bit nicer in general when I go out in public. I have continued my goal of doing my hair and putting on makeup more often so the next step is my clothes. :-)

RESULT: I did a pretty good job. I have upgraded my wardrobe more and don't wear yoga pants EVERY day on the weekends. :-)

2. Continue to send paper cards to friends for their birthdays. This has been a goal for the past couple of years and I have kept it up. I know how much I love receiving mail and think that my friends would too (I do get thank yous from friends every year. They are also amazed that I remember- well, generally I don't but I use a free website called birthday-reminders.com. I input birthdays and I get an email 7 days beforehand which gives me time to buy a card and send it! (If I was smart I would buy all the cards for a year ahead of time but I like to personalize the card for each friend.)

RESULT: Success! I think that I only missed one card this year and I took Lacey's suggestion of stocking up on cards ahead of time so that I didn't have to run out for a card every time I had a birthday coming up.

3. The usual lose weight goal. I'm back at 208 but really want to be at 190 by the end of the year. I've got to do better about eating healthy- especially while I am still BF so that I can burn the extra calories!

RESULT: Big fat fail. I'm now more like 220 so now I have even more weight to lose this year. :-(

4. Part of that weight goal will include working on being more active. Right now during the week I am going from 5am to about 8:30pm (depending on when the kids get to bed). I'm not sure I have it in me to wake up before 5am to exercise. I do take Buster on walks three days a week (Sat, Sun, and my telework day), but my body is itching for MORE and HARDER exercise. This goal will get easier once I am no longer breastfeeding as I will get that time back. For now, I would like my goal to be to work out 4 days a week.

RESULT: Mixed. Starting in May I would wake up at 5am to work out a few times a week. I was doing great with running until I left for TX in November and have since fallen off the wagon. So for about half the year I was getting up early to exercise.

5. Spend more quality time with CP. I would love if we could take a trip, or even just stay overnight in downtown Chicago, just the two of us later this year. We try hard to have one date night every month- thank goodness my mom is willing and able to babysit!

RESULT: Success! CP and I got away for a weekend around his birthday to eat meals without the kids and to see Hamilton. It was really nice!

6. Breastfeed Wes *at least* as long as I breastfed Izzy. I don't think that this one will be too hard. Wes is now 6 months old and I made it 7.5 months before Izzy decided she no longer wanted to nurse....so I don't have that long to go. Best case scenario I breastfeed until the end of winter. I would be okay with mostly formula feeding and then maybe nursing in the morning and at night as he gets closer to the age of 1. 

RESULT: Success! I was able to breastfeed Wes longer than I breastfed Izzy although my body stopped producing milk before I was ready to stop. 

7. Run in at least two races this year. I don't care the distance, but participating in races makes me more accountable with my running!

RESULT: Success! I ran in 4 races this year- three 5Ks and one 15K. I ran a total of 171.24 miles this year in 9 out of the 12 months of the year. My biggest month was October when I ran 37.68 miles (also the month that I ran the 15K).

I'm still mulling over my 2018 goals. What is your #1 2018 goal?

Hot Chocolate 15K

In the beginning of October after running a 5K I decided that I wanted to try to run the Hot Chocolate 15K at the end of the month. I had thought about doing it a few months before but hadn't signed up yet and it was getting to crunch time....here it was the beginning of the October and I would have less than 4 weeks to get ready for a 9.3 mile race. 

I told myself that if I survived a 5 mile run that first week that I would sign up for the race. I survived it so it was on! The following week I ran 6 miles and the week after that I bumped it up to 8 miles so that I would only have to tack on 1.3 miles for the race. Last week was too busy so I actually didn't get to run between my 8 mile training run in MI and the race on Sunday (whoops!). I also was throwing up on Thursday night for an unknown reason- one minute reading Izzy a book, then deciding that I needed to put it down to head into the bathroom- so I wasn't 100%. The day before the race I ran around after the kids and planted 90 daffodil bulbs so I wasn't exactly "resting." 

Okay, so no more excuses.

Sunday morning was COLD. The temperature was 35 degrees, but it felt like 31. I stayed over at my parents place Saturday night so that I could sleep a little later and my mom was nice enough to drop me off at the race start. Too bad gear check was four blocks away, but I guess the walking was helping me stay warm? I was so sad to leave my jacket and nice warm gloves at gear check, but hit the bathroom again before heading to the corral. Race time was at 7:30am, but because I was in Corral E I had to wait for the other corrals to start and you wait four minutes in between corrals (great race-wise because you are not running around people at the start but bad when it is cold out!). I had to go to the bathroom again even before the race started.

For the first couple miles I was simply trying to warm up. Fairly soon after the start we ran on Lower Wacker Drive which is a road beneath Upper Wacker Drive. It is also where a lot of homeless people sleep as it is covered; I felt bad as we ran past because what a way to wake up- with tens of thousands of runners running past you. I was happy to see the bathrooms so that I could pee again before mile 2 and then the 5K runners peel off around 2.8 miles. Soon after I took off my third layer as I was starting to get hot. I was running 1/2 mile and then walking for a minute as I have been doing during my training runs. Around mile 3.5 I thought that I saw my boss and his wife run past me but it turns out it wasn't them. 

It was evident early on that the time on Lower Wacker Drive had screwed up the GPS on my Nike+ app so it started to tell me .15 or .20 before I would hit a mile marker that I had gone another mile. I got so angry at the app as I was running because it was telling me that I was farther along than I really was. I stopped at every Nuun station to pick up some fluids and ate some M&Ms at one point too (I skipped by the marshmallow aid station as I remember that not going over very well in a previous race). I walked up every hill (thankfully there were not too many) in order to save my energy, but also because for the first time during a race I was having hamstring issues. At three different points on the course I had to stop to stretch my hamstrings.

When I saw the 10K marker I got super excited- I only had a 5K left! I got a little annoyed when we met up with the 5K walkers with less than .5 to go in the race. They were jumping around and had tons of energy and it just annoyed me after running almost 9 miles at that point. Plus they were in my way! :-) I was happy to cross over the finish line and finally stop running!

5K time- 39:25

10K time- 1:18:32

Finish- 1:57:16

Because I had to edit my distance in the Nike+ app (it thought I had run 9.67 miles), my splits are all gone (they were wrong anyway), but my average pace was 12:35/mile. I was happy to finish in less than two hours, although I did run the race slower than I did three years ago. But hey, not bad for only ramping up my mileage this month and for being sick a few days beforehand.

After grabbing my jacket and warm gloves from gear check then making the long walk to the post-race party to get my fondue and hot chocolate, I headed to my parents for a nice warm shower and a delicious brunch of blueberry waffles and fruit. I ended up with more than 30,000 steps over the course of the day as I ran after the kids when I got home!