20 Mile Shower

On Saturday Steph and I had 20 miles on our training schedule for our San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon training.  We had been watching the weather all week and hoping the weather would cooperate so we didn't have to run the whole thing in the rain.  Between Damon Yauney's weather lies all week and my "smart phones" weather reports I was left wondering and confused as to what the morning would bring.  I woke up at 5 and from what I could see it wasn't raining, I checked my phone and it said the temp was in the 40's, so I dressed in a long sleeved shirt, running skirt and my favorite PRO Compression  socks, boy was I grateful for those later in the morning when my legs were still warm!  As soon as we got out of the car to start our run the sprinkles started. We hit the half way point and turned around, then it really seemed to come down.  

 This picture is from our pit stop around 6 miles, it was wet and raining pretty good.

 We hit 14 miles and were freezing and needed to fuel up so we stopped in the heated bathroom along the Murdock Canal Trail and maybe spent a "few" minutes in there drying off and warming up.  I've never been so grateful for a hand dryer until Saturday!  Except maybe the one time in the bathroom in New York when we got a little silly and had some fun with the high powered dryer, lets just say I lost my gum ;) 

 Yup, we finished all 20 miles and took a wet picture of our soggy shoes and always amazing PRO Compression socks!

 Steph looked at me and started laughing and asked what the heck was on my face!  As we were running along I got slapped in the face by a branch and was sporting some petals on my face for a few miles!

Many people would think running 20 miles is a crazy, horrible endeavor and why would anyone do such a thing to themselves.  I'm not going to lie and say its all Skittles and rainbows and easy peasy, but it is my favorite run of the week and I love a good challenge!  A long run is where you push your mind and body to a different extreme then your daily runs.  I feel such a sense of accomplishment in myself that I can truly do hard things.  It is really hard, at times I wonder if I can really get all the way back to the car when its freezing and raining and I'm 10 miles from getting warm.  Or when I run out of energy and my legs feel like dead weight and I don't know why in the heck I do this to myself.  There are great runs and pretty craptastic ones but us crazy runners always come back for more!  I love getting to run with my RBFF Steph, we can laugh and be silly, we can talk about anything and help each other through lifes ups and downs, we can run in silence and our own thoughts when we have nothing to say or we're struggling and its okay.  Its not very often you find a friend that's more like a sister that loves to run as much as I do and also do other fun things together and with our families!  We also love to organize group runs when it works out.  I have met some of the most amazing people through running and pacing and look forward to this pacing season and all of the adventures to come! 

16 miles turned to 20

On Friday Steph and I were planning our Saturday long run and we decided that since the weather wasn't looking too crazy and the air was clear we needed to run outside.  We've been doing all of our runs on the treadmill and while I'm grateful for the treadmill when its freezing, snowing and dark  it doesn't quite compare to running outside with running friends!  Josh said they (the Jo's) were running 20 miles in Provo Canyon in the morning so we decided to join them.  When I picked Steph up at 5:45 on Saturday morning we decided that we would run 16 since we'd done 20 last week and wanted to be smart and have a cut back week.  When we met up with Josh and Heather we told them of our plan and set off on our run.  The weather was perfect...40 degrees and just a slight wind.  We had to stop and take a layer off then we headed up the canyon.  We started hitting some icy spots and were reconsidering our route when 2 familiar fellas came around the corner, it happened to be Mike and Paul, a couple other running friends.  They said it was really icy so we decided to head to the Murdock Canal trail with them, and boy did we make the right choice!  Mike runs on that trail all the time and it is the perfect place to run!  

This is after we climbed a fence and got to run in the snow for a few minutes.

Our photo op when Lil Mama couldn't contain her giggles. Mike, Steph, Me, and Josh

Me running through this cool pipe.

We finally got Steph settled down and took this fine selfie of our group.  After this, Josh said we'll need to turn around in 3/4 a mile and at that point Steph and I realized we were in for the long haul and our 16 miles had just turned into 20, its a good thing we packed plenty of water and Skittles!  We ended up having an amazing run and I was so grateful for great friends to run with, having a lot of laughs and good chats, and that Steph was feeling her music and sang some good jams for me :)  At the end of our run Steph and I realized how sore and tired our legs were and we promised we'd each do a ten minute ice bath when we got home.  I'd have to say this was the coldest, most painful ice bath I've ever forced myself to do, but I think it really helped!  

I left my PRO Compression low socks on from my run to try to keep my feet from freezing and falling off.  If you need some amazing compression socks or sleeves go to their website and use the code FEB14 at checkout for 40% off and free shipping #keepittight 

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!

  

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!