Jingle Bell Run

Today was Rachelle's 2nd Annual Christmas Fun Run.  We ran it last year and it was my very favorite run of the whole year! When I opened my garage to leave home at 6:30 I was quite surprised to see it snowing!!!  At first I was nervous to slip and slide all over the place but we were brave and still went. With the cold and darkness in the mornings I have been banished to treadmill running and have been excitedly looking forward to a wonderful run about the city and what made it even better was dressing up and running in the SNOW with my RBFF!! We arrived a little early and ran a couple miles before we all met up in front of Kneaders.  This picture isn't great but its all I have of Steph and I before we started running.

  

This is most of the group before we started.  There were tons of runners at all different paces. Steph and I bought some fancy elf costumes at Target and wore our holiday socks from PRO Compression.  We were the jolliest little elves around and we jingled and jangled all over town! I was wondering why we were running alone....maybe our jingle bells were a little annoying!  We didn't care though, we decided we were the Holiday Cheermeisters and used our special elf powers to bring holiday cheer to everyone!

 I love the Provo River Trail but it got super hard running through the snow and ice, up hill.  Once we hit about 6 miles we decided to bring holiday cheer to all of Provo and Orem so we turned around and headed toward town. Cars were honking and waving and there were even a few people that pulled over just to take a picture of the two deranged elves that surely escaped the North Pole! We waved and yelled "Merry Christmas" to anyone that looked at us with a confused look on their face!  

One of my favorite things was when a car drove by and Santa was hanging out the window waving at us!  We really wanted him to stop and take a picture with us but I'm sure he was in a hurry to get back to the North Pole! We were pretty sure he was the same Santa we saw last year on our run! 

I love this picture of our Elfie feet and holiday stockings! These little shoe covers saved our feet from freezing and getting soaking wet.  Everyone else stopped at Kneaders for french toast but we decided to keep on going.  We ended up with 16.20 miles, we really wanted to keep going but decided to listen to our sore, tired legs and be responsible mama's and get back to our kidlets. I'm sure people thought we were being hazed or had lost a bet, two grown women  running around dressed as elves! Sometimes its fun to take life a little less seriously and make a fool out of yourself and just have fun and I'm so grateful I got to do that today, it made my whole Christmas!  I loved this run and can't wait for next year!  

Three Things Thursday

This is a very random post but I'm pretty random so here are three things I want to share today!

1. We had our good friends, The Anderson's, over for dinner and Gingerbread house making Sunday night.  We had so much fun creating, laughing and consuming way too much sugar!  I think the adults had more fun then the kids! 

  

2. If you want to do a KILLER leg workout go check out Steph's Blog, we made some little videos to show  how to do each workout properly, she's one tough lil Mama! I'll warn you though, you are going to be sore!  After that awesome leg workout we tried out a treadmill hill workout that nearly killed us off! I warmed up for 2 miles then set the treadmill to 7 mph and started the hill climb.  After each hill repeat I lowered the treadmill to recover for a minute. Towards the end I had to jump on the sides to catch my breath.  Once the hill workout was done I lowered the treadmill and ran at 7.5 mph for a couple of miles.

I got this workout on Instagram from @sweat4sweets

Then for a little recovery I did a quick little stretch and once I showered I put on my favorite compression gear, my Aspaeris Pivot Shorts and PRO Compression Marathon socks.  I received a couple of surprises in the mail from these companies and am so excited to try them out. 

If you go to their Facebook pages they both have 40% off sales and you can get your favorite runner a great gift for Christmas! 

3. I love this picture of Jackson and Jorge at our family Christmas party on Saturday.  Jorge is working in Canada and we had the privilege of having him home for the weekend and we couldn't get enough of him!  He is an amazing husband and dad and we are so lucky and grateful he's ours!  We miss him like crazy and can't wait for him to come home for Christmas!

  

2 Long Runs

Can I just say that I LOVE long runs, like a lot!  Ever since I started training for my first marathon long run Saturdays have always been my absolute favorite run of the week!  People always wonder what we're training for but we just love to run!  I love the preparation and planning the day before a long run.  I love running in a group or with my RBFF Steph. We run, talk, laugh, cry and share so much in those hours of running.  It is so much fun!  Whether I'm feeling great or having a hard run nothing quite beats the feeling of accomplishment after pushing your body beyond what you thought possible both physically and mentally!

 

 We did a big group run and ran the Thankful 13 course.  We got lost for a minute and the rest of the group turned around, but Steph, Josh and I stuck it out and had a great 14 mile run in the snow!

 

Last Saturday Jorge, Josh, Steph and I drove up the right hand fork of Hobble Creek Canyon and ran down the canyon, then into Mapleton and made our way home!  We dedicated that run as our virtual 5k x 5 for the Philippines, it was an awesome run!  Our long run will be this Thursday when we pace the Thankful 13 1/2 Marathon.  What better way to earn your turkey on Thanksgiving!

17.5 Beautiful Fall Miles

I so look forward to running in the fall all year long, it is my absolute favorite time of year to run.  Its chilly at the start and warms up at the end.  Since it gets light so late in the morning my week day runs have been on the treadmill for the last few weeks, I'm a wimp, I dislike running in the dark and cold!  Saturdays are extra exciting because that usually means a long run, later start and running OUTSIDE!!! Yesterday Stephanie and I headed out at 7 with no real plan in mind other then a long, slower run.  Both of us had very tired and sore legs so we just needed to take it easy.  On Friday I took a drive up Hobble Creek Canyon and was pleasantly surprised to see that they had fixed and repaved the running trail so we decided to head up that way.

 We just cruised along and enjoyed the beautiful morning and chatted away. I kept saying how much I loved it and how beautiful the morning was! Its so nice to have a close friend to run and talk with, the miles just flew by!

 Can you tell we've missed our beautiful canyon and running trail!? We took turns kissing the beloved trail that we have looked forward to running on for months!  A little strange, I know!

I don't quite know why this wrecking ball is painted like a jack o lantern but it sure made our day and if Steph had been a little taller she would have jumped right on that thing!!! We decided that whoever owns this wrecking ball needs to paint it for each holiday...turkey, Santa, cupid, you get the idea! 

I hate posing, I feel like a dork, but had to show off my fancy PRO Compression socks and arm sleeves! The arm sleeves are a new product and once it warmed up and I had to take off my jacket they kept my arms nice and warm!

We ended up running 17.5 miles which is the most we have ran on a long run, at our pace, in months. It felt good to push through what we thought was possible at the end to get those last miles in.  The last few months we trained our boys to run the Haunted Half Marathon, you can check out Steph's awesome race recap on her blog runlilmamarun of the adventure of the day and how our boys did!  We would go run 10-12 miles on our own then hurry home to get the boys to do their long run.  We both have LOVED running with our boys, they decided that their little bodies needed some time off for a little while. So yesterday it was so fun to set out without a plan and just run all over Springville and Mapleton until our legs said they were done!  It is amazing what our bodies can do and I'm so grateful to be able to run and to have Steph be such an amazing friend and running buddy to me!  I am feeling truly blessed today!  I know not everyone runs or has a desire to run but it is what I love to do and it has enriched my life so much!  I have met some of my closest friends through running that I wouldn't have met otherwise and I am so grateful for that!  I am looking forward to blogging more and sharing more fun adventures and some healthy recipes in the weeks to come!

Remebering Boston

Today I have been thinking a lot about what happened in Boston yesterday.  I am so saddened that someone would do such a horrible thing! I am so overwhelmed with gratitude for the experience I was able to have there last year.  We went on an amazing trip to New York and Boston with our great friends Jake and Steph, so Steph and I could run the marathon.  I had been thinking about that fun trip and wishing I was there all day yesterday and was shocked when I turned on the news to see what happened.  I was so grateful Steph and I were home safe and sound!  Last year it was almost 90 degrees when we finished.  We felt like death and had a very hard race but I'll take that experience any day  over what happened yesterday.  My heart goes out to those families that have been affected by the tragic events yesterday.

 

Steph and I before the race.  It was already hot at 8 am.

 

 After the race, we survived, just barely!

 

 

My favorite running jewelry that reminds me of Boston and the experiences we had there.

 

 Today I wore my Boston Marathon shirt in remembrance of all of the people in Boston.

I hope that everyone can come together and help those affected by the bombings and that nothing that horrible will happen to any more races.  It has me quite nervous for the Salt Lake 1/2 and full that Jorge, Steph, and I are all running this Saturday. I hope and pray we will all be safe and that we can all run in rememberance of the people who were killed and injured in Boston yesterday.

 

PRO Compression #keepittight

Another company that I LOVE is PRO Compression, they make the most amazing compression stockings and sleeves ever! I ordered some of their purple marathon socks for myself for Christmas and after wearing them and loving them I decided to contact them when we were finding our pacer team sponsors. Eric at PRO Compression was so generous and sent Jorge, Steph and I some socks to test out and review.  They've also done a giveaway on our pacing blog ryrpacers.blogspot.com.

 

 

 

I use my PRO Compression socks to run in and recover in.  I like to wear them to bed at night before I have a long run or if my legs feel particularly TIGHT!

 

These are the lucky socks Eric sent us last month.  People may look at Steph and I weird when we're running about in leprechaun socks in July but who cares, right!?

 

 

Steph and I both had some PRO Compression socks on yesterday on our 20 mile training run and we both had a great run and our legs felt great the whole time! After my horrendous ice bath i put on a fresh pair of PRO Compression socks and they helped my little leggies recover quite nicely!  If you need some awesome compression socks go to procompression.com and if you enter BLG13 you'll get 40% off all marathon socks and free shipping this month, ya can't beat that! #keepittight

 

 

 

Aspaeris Pivot Shorts Review

 A little over a month ago I contacted Aspaeris to see if they'd like to be a sponsor for our pacing team.  Kari was so nice and excitedly got on board with us and also sent Steph and I each a pair to test out and review.  The first time I put them on was interesting, they are tight! They're supposed to be tight since they are compression but boy did I feel like a little sausage  stuffed into them!

The Most Amazing Incrediballs

I love experimenting in the kitchen and making up new recipes and trying to put a healthier spin on some favorite recipes. Some recipes work out great and others are disgusting.  Jorge is quite the food expert so I go to him to critique my creations before giving them to anyone else!  I have seen different recipes for protein balls and decided to make up my own. My family loves them as a good little healthy snack and Stephanie likes to use them as a pre workout or run fuel.

I have named these little beauties Chocolate Peanut Butter Incrediballs. 

The ingredients you'll need are:

* 1/4 cup of oats lightly chopped in a Magic Bullet

*1/4 cup of Chocolate Protein Powder

* 1 Tbsp. Cocoa Powder

* 2 and a half Packets of Truvia Sweetener

* Dash of Sea Salt

* 1 Tbsp. Agave

* 1 Tsp. Pure Vanilla

* 2 Tbsp. Almond Milk

* 1/4 cup of Adams Natural Peanut Butter

* 2 Tbsp. Mini Chocolate Chips

First gather all your supplies and lightly chop the oats in a Magic Bullet(if you have one) not too much though or you'll end up with oat flour and not as good of a texture.  Next, pour oats into a small mixing bowl and add all dry ingredients. Using a hand mixer mix until well combined. Next add  everything but chocolate chips and mix really well.  If its too moist add a little more oats or if its too dry add a tiny bit more peanut butter or Almond Milk. Not too much though because you want them to stick together.  Very last add the chocolate chips and stir really good. 

 Using a medium cookie scoop make 6 balls and place in a Tupperware and keep in the fridge and eat em up!