3 x 3 Things Thursday

1.  Three races I have coming up.  Next weekend I am doing a 5 mile race.  It's one of my favorite races and largest in Montana. My sisters and daughter are also going to run this one with me.  The weekend after that I have a half marathon and from what I understand there are only like 40 people signed up to run it. I find that a bit of a bummer, but it's local and fairly cheap and I wanted another half marathon this spring.  My next race after that will be a 10k in June.  Except for the sunburn I got yesterday I am feeling pretty good going into these races.

2.Three names, one calf.  This little guy is a twin, but his mom wasn't making enough milk for two so he is a bottle baby for now.

 Hopefully a mama cow will become available to graft him onto, but for now he is hanging at our house.  My husband call him Milk Dud, but the kids are sure there was already a calf with that name this year and they call him Lucky Jr.  I told them there was no Lucky Sr so how can he be a junior and I call him Bert.  Whatever we call him he's cute!

3 My long run yesterday had three fails... I waited too long to get out and run and it was HOT by the time I ran.  By hot I mean it was 80 degrees when I finished.  I felt like I couldn't drink enough water after the run and I drank 8 oz more than usual during the run.  I also used old sunscreen that was only good for 80 minutes and my run took me  2 hours and 11 minutes, so I ended up with a bit of a burn.  I also was too lazy to braid my ponytail and it ended up in a big snarl. 

I ran out of my way and up an extra couple hills to make sure Cola got lots of water yesterday too.

It was hot!

So there was the time I had a photo shoot for a calendar

I was asked recently to be considered for the 2016 Women in Ag Calendar for the Montana Farmer's Union.  I agreed and I had my photo shoot for it last week.  Here is a sneak peek of the pictures that didn't make the cut for the calendar!

The photo shoot was a ton of fun and the weather was perfect for it.  I did find a tick crawling on me during the shoot.  Eeek!

The photographer was amazing to work with and I am honored to be included in their calendar project for next year. 

I wonder what month I will be?!

When I first told my husband about it, he asked if it was going to be one of those calendars where we were nude, but artfully draped so you couldn't see any bits and pieces.  Yeah... no.

and
 side news.. my lil cowgirl finally lost her other top front tooth for an award winning smile.

Log Off Shut Down Go Run Virtual 10K Race Recap

As a Gone For a Run ambassador I was given free entry to their Log Off. Shut Down. Go Run. virtual race.

I originally planned to run this in the morning, but it was very rainy and cold out.  I ran it in the afternoon with a belly full of food, but it wasn't raining anymore.  I of course got a side ache right away.

I put my bib under my long sleeve shirt, because I was optimistic that once I got warmed up, I would want to run in my tank... wrong.

I had a 6 mile run on the plan today with 5 miles of it at tempo pace, so it worked in perfect and I just added on another .2 miles at the end. I was supposed to run the tempo part at 7:15 pace, which considering the hills on the route, I really didn't think would happen, but I was hoping for maybe 7:30 pace.. it went for more like 7:50 pace

Thankfully, even though it had rained all morning, most of the water had soaked in and the road wasn't too muddy. 


Stats
6.2 miles in 50:16 for an 8:06 pace

tempo miles
7:42
7:41
7:49
7:56
7:47

My kids thought the medal was super cool and noticed it right away hanging with my other medals.

Post race thoughts:

• I feel a little silly running with  a race bib all by myself.  Maybe if I ran it with a group of people it would feel less silly.
• The tank and the medal that came with the virtual race were great.
• The bib, tank and medal were fun to get in the mail for a virtual race.
• While the medal is awesome I can't decide how it fits in with my other race medals. Maybe I need a collection of virtual race medals vs my half marathon and marathon medals.  The half and one marathon and relay medals I have just mean more to me. They seem harder won.

If you like virtual races and want to participate in their next one the Bad Ass Runner 5 mile, check it out.  They have a nice t-shirt and medal again.

  Their Log Off. Shut Down. Go Run. virtual race sold out so act fast!

Week 5 of the Plan to Run a Faster Half Marathon

Sunday  plan said   3 miles easy, 3 miles tempo (7:15 pace) 3 miles easy

What I did:  3 miles easy, 3 miles tempo although closer to 7:27 pace and 3 miles easy. The run felt pretty good, but I really just couldn't hold the pace I was supposed to, hills, wind, whatever it was hard!

I continued with the #RunnersLoveYogaHIPS Instagram challenge this week also
Monday plan said 7 miles easy with 6-10 strides at the end

What I did  7 miles easy with 6 strides at the end for 7.5 miles

Tuesday plan said nothing.

I ran 3.15 miles after work easy before the bus brought the kids home from school. 

Thursday plan said 12-13 miles easy with 6-10 strides at the end

What really happened: 13 miles easy, no strides.  This was a pretty hilly trail run and I was beat at the end.  Strides just didn't happen.  I did a lot of my running around the edge of a field and took forays up into areas like the one pictured below.  It was a cloudy morning and a little rainy. Perfect for running!

Saturday plan said .5 mile warmup, 5 miles tempo .5 mile cooldown

what really happened:  .5 mile warmup and I got a side ache right away.  I did not feel the run love on this run. I could tell right away the 5 miles of tempo would be a struggle. I HAD THAT RIGHT!  My supposed to be 7:15 pace was 7:50 pace and lucky to be that. I added an additional .2 miles on at the end for a virtual 10k I was doing and called it a run.

Spring!  Green and mud, I love it :)

Okay so this week in my favorite TV shows, it was a little dramatic.  Derek Shepherd dies. WTF! Grey's Anatomy in case you just got lost there.  I haven't even seen the episode yet.  Thanks to Facebook I don't need too, but I will, eventually when I think I can handle it.   I also know that when I do watch it I am going to need a box of kleenex.  I don't know if I want to watch it.  After Sloan and Lexi died I nearly quit the show, but now Derek.  That is so wrong.

The other show I love right now is Vikings.  Ragnar is dying. Once again, WTF.  It all feels a little Game of Thrones. "Oh, that's your favorite character in the show... OFF WITH HIS HEAD!" Lets kill your favorite people and leave you sitting there shocked like you need therapy and something to drink.   Yeah, yeah I know Ragnar isn't dead yet, but it seems like he isn't far away and they didn't have antibiotics.  Ragnar is the freaking show, please don't kill him!

Gone For A Run asked me to help promote their virtual run in exchange for a free entry to it.  It came with a nice tank, bib to run in, and a medal.  I like the tank, the bib was a great touch and the medal is nice, but I can't decide how I feel about having a medal from a virtual run.   Sure, I did the run, but even with a bib and a race shirt it really doesn't feel that much different than a normal training run.  This leads me to having a hard time being proud of the medal.  I don't look at the medal and think YAY I just ran a race and EARNED this.

I hung it up with my other medals, but I don't know that it deserves to be there. I look at my other medals and remember how I ran my hiney off to get them and had a race experience with other runners, race support, race excitement, etc and it just doesn't feel the same for a virtual race. 

Anyone else feel the same about virtual race medals?
How was your week in training?  Mine was so much better than last week!

Tiger Balm Ultra Review and Giveaway

I was sent a small box of Tiger Balm products to try out recently.  I hadn't tried them before, but it seems like I always have an aching lower or upper back and if I don't my husband does so this was
awesome.

 I was sent a tub of the Tiger Balm Ultra Strength pain relieving ointment as well as 10 sample sizes of the Ultra Strength Ointment and a box of 5 of the Tiger Balm Pain Relieving Patches with advanced hydrogel patch technology.

My favorite is the ointment, mostly because when you put it on you can massage it in and who doesn't like a massage, on a sore area, with pain relieving ointment?  The patch is great if you are in a hurry, you can just put it on and go.

My biggest complaint about the ointment is the strong smell, but as long as I am hanging out at home I don't mind it.  I wouldn't wear it too work, but it is great at bed time or after a long day at work.  My husband agrees.   He has been spending some very long days in the saddle and building fences lately so he has been getting the benefit of this for sure!

What makes this over a 100 year old ointment work so great? 

Tiger Balm contains ingredients like oil from clove, wintergreen, spike lavender, eucalyptus, cinnamon, and cajuput, as well as camphor, capsicum and condroitin sulfate which all work together to help relieve sore muscles and joints.

Want to try the Ultra Strength Pain Relieving Ointment for yourself?  One person will win a full size version of the Tiger Balm Ultra for sure

Things I am Loving in Life

The kids were out of school on Monday and after a weekend of my little cowgirl laying on the couch with a fever we were all ready to get out of the house and into the sunshine!   Since my lil cowgirl had been sick I just planned a short hike. We also hunted for cool rocks, saw some deer, found some 4 point antlers and just enjoyed the day.

My heart is so happy watching these two when they get along and are having fun.  True to form, my lil cowboy wanted to hike and hike and hike and his sister got tired legs.

I also recently received another Grainy Day box, this one contained Prairie Farro also known as Emmer and I made Farroto or risotto with farro last night for supper.  It was amazing good. Sorry, not a food blogger so the picture isn't the best, but look how awesome it looks. 

I used rainbow carrots for extra color.  The kids were really suspicious of it, but ended up really liking it too.

I was able to get in a 2.5 mile run before the bus came after work yesterday and then my son ran another half mile with me for a grand total of three miles.  It was so beautiful out.  I love the peacefulness of this picture my daughter took afterwards and in the lower left corner is one of her doll strollers.  It's just all saying so much!

I am so grateful for all these things.  My kids are such a blessing.  I was reminding myself that last night as I was trying to get permanent marker off of the dining room floor.  No idea how my daughter splattered it like that.  Maybe better I don't know.

What are you loving in life right now? Me..

• my kids, such a great age and such great kids (most of the time)
• spring
• running
• sunshine
• the outdoors
• trying new to me foods
• my new running shoes
• those InkNBurn shorts

Week 4 of the Plan to Run a Faster Half Marathon

This was not my best week.

Sunday
plan said run 1.5 miles then do 1200 x4 with 1200 recovery and 1.5 mile cool down.

What I did..
nothing

Well not nothing, but I didn't run.  We helped the neighbors brand and it was so miserably windy out and by the time we got done and finally ate lunch the only thing I could think about was a nap and getting out of the wind.

Monday
plan said run 8 miles easy with strides at the end

what I did
I ran 2 miles easy then started doing 1200 intervals.  I got 2 and a half done and my Garmin died.  I finished out roughly 1200 and then ran easy with some strides for a total of about 8 miles.

The week is clearly going great.

Did I mention I woke up Monday with my lower back all mad and feeling like it wanted to go on strike?  Oddly running didn't bother it, just trying to clean the house did.  It was a sign.

Wednesday
plan said run 2 easy, 2 tempo, 2 easy, 2 tempo and 2 easy for a total of ten.

what I did.. wussed out.  That snow and wind was miserable and the thought of running in it made me not want to run at all. I watched Outlander and ellipticalled  (surely that is a word) for 90 minutes which is not at all the same but close to how long I would have been running

Thursday plan said nothing
I ran 3.3 miles after work and it felt amazing
Why couldn't the weather have been this nice on Wednesday!?

Saturday
plan called for 4 miles easy

I ran 4 miles easy and then did 7 strides for a total of 5.1 miles. It was so beautiful out, perfect running weather!

so I ended up not even close to the 31 miles I was supposed to run this week, but there is always next week.  It was a cut back week but I wasn't supposed to cut back quite so far  to 16 ish miles.  Oops.  Next week will be better!

I am also a little sad that after the Run To The Pub Half Marathon pictures were FINALLY posted and I scrolled through all 647 of them, I didn't find me in any of them.  They had a ton of pictures of getting on the bus, before the start and after the finish. I saw several photographers along the way, but maybe they never saw me, or I didn't take good pictures!

Four weeks until my next half marathon.  I suppose if I am going to get faster I am going to have to have better running weeks than this! Don't worry this week is already better! 

How was your last training week?  Ever not get any race photos taken?

Loving Spring Running (mostly)

Spring is one of my favorite seasons and I think one of the most temperamental.  Take last week for example

•  cold and windy on Sunday, like blow us all away windy
• windy and mild Monday
• 80 degrees Tuesday
• snowing and blowing on Wednesday
• mild and perfect with temps in the high 50s low 60s the rest of the week.  and gorgeous.  
• beautiful morning Saturday and then back to blow us away windy for the afternoon

Lucky for me I ran in the morning.  I had a 4 mile easy run on the plan so I decided to get off the main road and hit the trails.  I also took a time out to do my #RunnersLoveYogaHIPS Instagram challenge poses for yesterday and today.

I took time to enjoy all the little wildflowers that have popped out since we got some much needed moisture earlier in the week

and just take in the views in general.  I finished the run with 7 strides for a total of 5.1 miles

I got back to my parent's house where my kids were and found my son happily playing in the creek with a cousin and my daughter inside on the couch with a fever.

We did stop on the way home to take in the wild plum blooms and I brought a few back to the car for my sickie to enjoy too.

ah spring!  Feel so good to see everything greening up again and feel the warm air after making it through the winter.

I can never decide if I love spring more for the warmth after the cold or fall more for the coolness after the hot of summer.  Maybe spring because with it comes all the new life and the green!

Three Things Friday (because I missed Thursday)

1. I was off work one of the days mentioned in the picture below.  Can you guess which one?  Hint it's not the one I would have picked!

Yep, I was off on the day that looked like this.

Only that picture makes the weather look nicer than it was.  It was windy and blowing snow and ice straight across.  I got dressed up and went out to run three times.  All three times I turned around and went back into the house.

I like to run in the snow, but it was freaking miserable out.  It's April.  I have survived the dark of winter.  I want to wear shorts and run in the sunshine.  So I spent an hour and a half on my elliptical since I don't have a treadmill and watched Outlander instead.

It felt so good to get home from work yesterday and go for a short run before the kids got home from school.  In shorts and a tank.

2. I found a fun yoga challenge on Instagram with @runnersloveyoga 
It actually started Wednesday so I played catch up yesterday.  Easy since I was only a day behind. This one is all about hip opening.

3. and finally...Happy Birthday to my Poppa!

Super blessed to have such a great Dad. 

4 Food Things I Can't Do

1. Ground turkey or chicken... just has a big eww factor for me.  I like chicken and turkey fine, it is never a first choice at our house.  My husband has a thing against chicken and turkeys (he got attacked by a turkey when he was little, and they used to butcher their own chicken).  I see recipes posted all the time about healthier recipes with ground turkey. 

Enough said for me.. given the option it's ground beef here every time for burgers, meat balls, etc.

2. Zoodles.  Not in my spaghetti bowl please.  Sure it is a fun, different and interesting way to eat zucchini, but it is a poor replacement for spaghetti noodles.  I tried it once.  I was left feeling unfulfilled and like I had been cheated somehow.   If I am going to cheat on my spaghetti noodles, spaghetti squash is the only thing that sort of works.

3. Not to pick on zucchini here but, I saw someone post on Twitter about how great it was in smoothies.  We bantered back and forth, me saying ew and her saying "no really you don't even notice it in there".   I just can't.

I do like zucchini bread so maybe I could, but I am just not ready to go there.  I had a green smoothie once with cucumber in it and it tasted so strongly of cucumber.. in a smoothie..it was too weird for me.  I couldn't drink it all.  That's what I think of when I think of zucchini in a smoothie.

4. Food Babe.  Where to start with that one.  I think her heart is or at least was at some point in the right place with wanting people to eat healthy, but somewhere along the way she got a little crazy.  I hadn't even heard of her until about six months ago.

I got banned from her Facebook page for making a comment that didn't support her position on something.  It was not derogatory, I didn't use bad language.  I wish I would have taken a screen shot of the comment.  I had heard she banned people pretty liberally and they were not joking.

Anyone who disagrees with her is instantly a "paid shill for Monsanto" .  I want to know where my money is if that's the case. As far as I can tell all she wants to do is sell you her book or her eating plan.  Or you can buy something off her Amazon affliate links.   Her biggest detractors are science people. 

Her degree is in computer science and people follow her for her nutrition advice?  Really?!  I have been happy to see lately that the media is catching on to her quackery and this article published on Gawker by the Science Babe is one of my favorites Although if you Google Food Babe news right now there are a plethora of recent articles that come up.

What food things annoy you?

Week 3 of the Plan to run a faster half marathon

Another week down and another week closer to my next half marathon in May.  Here is how the week went.

Sunday plan said run 9 miles easy.

What I did  6.2 miles with 6 strides at the end.  (I had traded Sunday and Saturday's workouts due to Easter)

Monday
plan said  1 mile warmup, 800s x6 with 800 recovery and 1 mile cooldown

what I did  1.25 mile warmup (getting to a flat spot in the field)
800s x 6 all between 3:15 and 3:20
cooldown 1.55 miles.

These were tough, and it snowed on my the whole time, sometimes I had to break the ice clumps out of my eyelashes so I could see.

total of 8.8 miles

Thursday
plan said run 12 miles

what I did ran 11 miles,  No excuses.  I just didn't want to run another mile.  I was tired, my legs had no zip, I choose I boring route of out and backs, blah blah blah.

Cola was so embarrassed I quit the run early he wouldn't even look at the camera.  Okay he never likes to look at the camera.

Saturday
plan said run 5 miles easy with hills

what I did
ran 6.2 miles with hill repeats and 6 strides at the end

Check out the sweet new InkNBurn shorts I bought this week.  They look like jean shorts but are not jean material.  Super comfy.

And the waistband folds down if you want to show off a different look

total miles
plan: 34
actual  32.2
(I was supposed to do a 9 mile run Sunday but did it on the day before instead.. so that didn't help my weekly total)

I also decided I have been feeling rather uninspired in the strength training department lately and logged onto Zuzkalight.com Friday and did the latest workout. 

I loved it.  I forgot how much I love her workouts.  It also made me realize how long it has been since I had a butt kicking workout.  I did two more Saturday morning before my run.  The first one made me want to be sick for a little bit. 

There you have it, another week of the plan done with only slight deviation.  Next week.. I have 1200m intervals and I have to admit I am a little scared of them!  They seem so long compared to 800s which seem so long compared to 400s.  I only have to do four so I can tell a lot of mental pep talking will be going on.

What is your least favorite interval to run?

The Yoga Collective Review and Giveaway

It's no secret I am a yoga fan.  I credit yoga with keeping my out on the road running.  I try to do yoga at least three times a week and I do it all at home so when I was asked if I wanted to try The Yoga Collective free for a year I was excited to try something new.

two of my favorite classes

The website it beautiful and easy to navigate.  Once I sign in, classes are sorted into categories like Heart Opening, Relax and Restore, Super Sweaty Flow, and Inversions to name a few.

Or I can search classes based on

• Level
• Duration
• Teacher
• Style
• Focus

Online yoga classes are great for me to add variety to my practice and continue to challenge myself.  I find that it is easy to get in a rut and do the same two videos over and over.  This has really helped. 

You can check out their free online yoga and try it out for yourself.  

The people at the Yoga Collective are going to give two of you a free year also.  So if you do yoga at home, want to do yoga at home or whatever this is for you! 

Week 2 of the plan to run a faster half marathon

First of all, hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.  My kids had two egg hunts. One at home in the morning and one at my parent's house later in the day.  No easy hunt at the parent's this year, we hid them in the grass good and then each kid could only find a certain color.

no drama with this girl ever.

Running this week started great with a 5k PR and then I fell and hurt my knee so I took a couple days off, including my long run.  The rest of the week I felt  awesome.  I had that spring in my step I haven't felt in a long time.  I LOVE IT.

Sunday
plan said 1 mile warmup, 6 miles tempo at 7:15 pace, 1 mile cooldown

what I did   1 mile warmup
                   3.1 mile race at 6:37 pace
                   2 mile cooldown total of 6.1 miles

I actually had planned to run more after the race, on the way back to my car at tempo pace, but lets face it, after running a 5k PR I was tired.  And a friend wanted to run back to the start to our cars with me and I didn't want to tell her I no.

Monday
  plan said 8 miles easy with 5-7 strides

what I did   8 miles easy with 6 strides for a total of  8.3 miles my knee felt so stiff after this run from having fallen hard on it the day before while playing kick the can with the family. OUCH. 

Wednesday 
plan said run 11-12 miles easy

what I did  ... nothing...  okay I did my elliptical for an hour and a half, but I don't count it as running.  I had landed HARD on my left knee Sunday playing kick the can with the family and after my run Monday it was really stiff and sore.  It was feeling a bit better by Wednesday but still sore to run on.  The low impact of the elliptical didn't bother it, so I did that instead.

Friday
plan said  nothing

What I did  6.5 miles easy with 6 strides  Legs felt good and left knee felt better.  I was so glad I rested it Wednesday instead of running long.  Skipping one long run at this point will not hurt me.

My awesome new tank.

Saturday
plan said 5 miles easy with 4-5 strides at the end

What I did
9 miles easy with 6 strides at the end... this was really the workout for the NEXT day which is also Easter day, and I was worried I wouldn't have time to get the run done so I decided to trade them.  This also would put the easy 5 before a harder workout which since I ran Friday will also be 4 days in a row of running.

\

Plan called for 32-33 miles

I ran 29.9 miles, so not far off.  Overall I am just happy my knee feels better.  Yoga and strength training both got done at least three times last week.  I quit keeping track. 

 

and a return to Easter pics.  My mom's sister Tami brought out her great collection of hats and we had fun trying them on and posing for a picture.

The little girls loved it.

Lil Cowboy already had his hat and of course he brought his gun to Easter dinner.

More goofing around. This rock was a favorite place to play while I was growing up.  It was a house, a fort, a castle, a boat, whatever we needed it to be.  I love seeing my kids and their cousins use it for the same fun.

How was your week in running?

LOG OFF. SHUT DOWN. GO RUN Virtual 10k race

Gone for a Run is hosting a virtual 10k run that will be held April 24th-April 26th.

Included in the race packet is some fabulous swag!

• Either a womens athletic tank or men's lifestyle tee
• a fabulous finisher's medal
• a real bib (you don't have to print your own)
• a car magnet

What you need to do:

1. Check out this link
2. Register by the 14th of April
3. Run, walk or shuffle the 10k on April 24th, 25th, or 26th anywhere you want
4. Optional: share your recap on Gone For A Run's Facebook page and be entered to win raffle prizes like medal hangers and beach throws.

 Disclosure: My compensation for this post is a free entry to the virtual run.  I am also a Gone For A Run ambassador. I was not compensated in any other way or required to give a positive post about it.

Do you ever have a hard time getting out and logging off?  I rarely do, but it is easier when the weather is nicer!