We finally took the time last night to finish up decorating for Christmas.

Winston was ready to help
fireplace in the “annex”
Hanging the first ornament
OSU Santa my parents bought me when I graduated
The medal from our first half-marathon
Fireplace in the living room

Table with new dishes =)

I was craving an intense trail run this weekend, after another six-day work week I wanted a thrashing and that is what I got. The hubbs and I drove up to Boulder to run on the Mesa trail:

It was steep and rocky and BEAUTIFUL!


(This picture would be beautiful except for my rats nest hair, seriously curly hair is such a pain)

I came home to a painful ice bath, but I am glad I did it because I think it really did help. Today I am taking the day off exercising to heal, back at it tomorrow. The good news my knee held up beautifully, I am so grateful to that.

I am also a little freaked out and excited that Christmas is coming so quickly, my parents get here Friday! My brother talked them into coming out to Colorado early so they can race Rudolf’s Revenge with us. We haven’t all raced together since 2004, it will be so much fun. We grew up doing races as a family and this will be a nice revisit. I see a lot more family races in the future after mom and dad move from Oregon to Colorado (hopefully in late 2011).

This week I am focusing on cleaning my house in preparation for house guests and holiday parties and getting Christmas shopping and cards done……good luck to me!

Happy Monday everyone!

Drinking tea from my Santa mug:

Paper whites starting to bloom:

My house in the snow (not that we have gotten much this year):

Riding my bike inside on a trainer (Yes it’s boring but sometimes I like that it’s mindless and I was able to watch Sex and the City 2)

Things that don’t make me happy:
My 12 mile run turning into a 7.5 mile run after getting out of work late and wussing out when it started getting dark.

**Thanks for all the nice comments on my last post everyone! Jill it would be SO fun to meet up at the race =)

I am a superstar, yesterday after putting in an intense two-hour workout. I came home feeling like a badass. I was feeling pretty good about myself until I fell down the stairs, so lame. I am not hurt, thankfully, just a couple bruises (the biggest one on my ego).

Lesson learned: I am NOT a badass

This was the first time that Anthem has ran the 10k portion of this race, they have ran a 5k in past years. The race was well organized and there was a large community center where check-in was located which was greatly appreciated since it was so cold and there were plenty of flush toilets. The course was listed as “challenging” and I would say it was moderately challenging about the first two and a half miles were up hill but it wasn’t too steep. We ran mostly on paths some paved some not. It was not the most scenic run I have ever been on, but I am spoiled the Turkey Trot I ran growing up ran through Forest Park and ended inside the Oregon Zoo. I loved it and I don’t think anything can compare. I love Colorado but Oregon will always have my heart.

As for my personal experience it was as follows:

Mile 1: uphill, felt great

Mile 2: felt great, still running uphill

Mile 3: started to have trouble breathing

Mile 4: flat and easy but still having trouble breathing

Mile 5: starting to feel better, starting to go back down hill

Mile 6+ felt great again, wanted to keep running

Total Time: 58:31

Conclusion: I need to get my asthma under control so I can run faster than a shuffle!

What a wonderful weekend, I hope you had a wonderful weekend too. I love Thanksgiving but I am just as excited for it to be over because that means it is the start of Christmas!
We had a great Thanksgiving, starting with the Anthem Turkey Day 5k/10k. It was so much fun because Cory’s cousins Tim and Meghan came along with us. Cory Tim and I ran the 10k and Meghan ran the 5k (she hasn’t ran in a long time so I was super impressed). I was really nice to go race with family, it reminded me of growing up when my family would run the Portland turkey trot together. Race Report coming next. (Tim, Meghan and I about to do a three way high five, we are super dorks)
Thanksgiving was wonderful, Cory made wonderful food, especially the turkey and I think the completely from scratch pies were a hit. There were six people and five dogs here and it was really fun. The evening ended with Meghan beating all of us at Clue. (Thanksgiving Food) (Pumpkin for pie, this was my first time not using canned pumpkin) (Ingredients for pumpkin pie)
(Apple Pie)
(Thanksgiving Table)

Friday morning, Cory and I got ready to brave the Black Friday crowds to do some shopping. It wasn’t really that bad out, we got some presents and I even spent some of my birthday money. In the evening we pulled out our decorations and started decorating our house for Christmas.
Yesterday we headed out to Stapleton and ran 11.5 miles along the sand creek trail, the run felt great! We didn’t run fast but we did average about 10:46 mm, but that is faster than the 12mm we had been running on our long runs. I was really happy when we were done I felt like I could keep going a lot further.
Today we are going to work on putting up Christmas lights, getting a tree and finishing up decorating and getting ready to get back to reality.

Today’s workout: 40 minuets easy swim (I lost count of my laps, shrug) and an easy tempo run with my dogs tonight

Easy week has been nice, but I am afraid I am getting lazy. Oh well Come Thursday it will be time to kick back into focused training mode. Five days off work should give me some extra motivation to get moving. Tomorrow I am going to try to make a pumpkin pie completely from scratch (I am a little nervous so I bought a can of pumpkin just in case). The pumpkin has been baked and scraped and everything seems fine so far. Hope it turns out! I plan to take pictures to document the process and post everything. It’s not about triathlon or running but can it count as carbo-loading?

I have started thinking about the things I am really grateful for, there is a long list so I want to start today but I know I won’t be able to list them all:
• My husband- he is supportive and understanding and always there for me. He puts up with my crazy plans and generally goes along with them. He takes great care of me and always lets me know how much he loves me. Thanks baby, I love you and appreciate you and don’t let you know as much as I should. (He is also the cook in our family and without him I would starve)

• My parents- my parents are very loving and supportive, they are always there to help out and I genuinely like hanging out with them. I am so grateful that they have chosen to move to Colorado to be near my brother and I, they have lived in Oregon their entire lives so moving here is a big deal. It means more to me then they will ever know.

• My dogs- It may seem silly to some people but I love my dogs to pieces, they are my babies. They are so sweet and loving and cuddly, I can’t imagine living without a dog.

• My health- I may complain that I am a slow runner, slow cyclist and slow swimmer but I am thankful that I can run, bike and swim. There may be a time when I can’t so I am trying to enjoy the time I have.
• My Job- It may not always be easy but I am so thankful that I get to work at a place that shares my values and passions (animals and the environment). It doesn’t hurt that my team is made up of amazing people.

We didn’t train at all this weekend and it was such a weird feeling. This is supposed to be a recovery week but I don’t think doing nothing was really the best thing. Normally I would blame it on being lazy because I love being lazy , but not this week. We are hosting six people for Thanksgiving and there was just too much cleaning, shopping and cooking that had to be done. We also shopped for and bought a new couch as well as sold our old ones this weekend.

It’s amazing how much time it takes to exercise on the weekend. We spend about four hours actually moving but it’s all the other time that adds up. We normally try to run somewhere other than right around our house because we get sick of it fast so there is driving time. There is also digesting time because I refuse to go out without two cups of coffee and a cliff bar. Afterwards we have to cool down, stretch, roll on the foam roller, possibly take an ice bath and shower. This process can add up to six hours each day! We just didn’t have time for that this weekend. As our training hours ramp up I think I will need to find ways to trim down the extra time possibly so that I have extra nap time =) At least my legs will be fresh for the turkey day 10k I am running on Thursday.

Things on my mind this week:
• Need to finish my Christmas list
• Need to start my Christmas shopping list
• Need to make an agenda for when my parents are in town for Christmas
• Need to decorate for Christmas

Can you tell I get excited for Christmas, it really is my favorite time of the year and I can’t wait to get started!

Workout: 5.1 mile run (1 mile warm up and cool down with a 3.1 mile race pace run) and an easy mile swim

Had a good workout this morning. Last week I fell apart at the gym trying to do a tempo run. I couldn’t make it a full 3 miles at 8:45 mm (I know, I am really slow, I am working on it). I don’t know if it was because I skipped my weight lifting class on Wednesday so I had fresher legs or if it was just a better day, but this morning it went much better. After my warm up I set the treadmill on 8:45mm and was feeling good at 2.5 miles so I sped up to 8 mm to finish my set. I know it’s not a ground speed record but it’s good for me =). Swim felt great after running hard, the gym was surprisingly muggy this morning (yuck). I am hoping to do my first ever indoor ride on a trainer tomorrow. Cory and I have one now but we would like two so we can ride at the same time. Does anyone have any suggestions on what kind of trainers to get, or not get?

I am so glad it’s almost the weekend and next week is a two day work week!