Gonna cheer on some runners!

On Saturday May 3rd, there's going to be a Stroke Awareness 5k about ten minutes from where we live. Since I'm still trying to increase my miles the smart way I decided not to run it. Instead Michael and I will be cheering everyone on from the sidelines holding some signs I made today. I also want to get some "clappers" or noise makers to make it more fun.

I found some cardboard, plugged in our color printer, googled some ideas and about half an hour later I had some signs.

What's the funniest sign you've seen while running?

I almost used "this is the worst parade ever" but I wanted to be a little more encouraging. ;-)

Keepin' it short n sweet tonight. Goodnight everyone!

Bearing fruit..or veggies and a free bike

Happy Tuesday!
I'm feeling a bit under the weather today..multiple things working against me so I'll listen to my body and relax a little.

I have decided to avoid our treadmill and my knee seems to be happy about that. I'm slowly but surely getting my miles back up! I've been avoiding canal banks too. I'm up to running two miles with no pain!

So the more I think about training for a triathlon the more I realize I may not have access to a pool to train for the swimming leg. So I decided since I'm already a runner and my father in law gave me a pretty sweet road bike, I think I'll start with a short duathlon then work my way to a tri.

After some new tubes and different pedals I'm almost ready to ride. Almost. The seat is stuck..and I need it to go down. Minor problem..I hope.
I'm in for an adventure because riding a road bike is way different than riding a mountain bike. But I'm up for the challenge!


We have quite a few veggies growing already!

Early Girl Tomatoes

Cherry Tomatoes

Pea Snaps

Zucchini

I made some really good (and healthy) banana bread this morning. I got the recipe from Amanda @ .Runningwithspoons.

Very easy and so delicious! 

I changed a couple things because I didn't have everything she did but it still turned out great! 

          FLOURLESS BANANA BREAD

Ingredients: 

1/4 cup almond butter

2 ripe medium/large bananas

1 egg

2 tbsp. Honey

3/4 cup oats

1 tbsp. Vanilla

1/2 tsp. Baking soda

1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth. 

Pour into foil lined loaf pan or muffin pan. (Spray or use liners)

Bake at 375 degrees until toothpick inserted comes out clean. About 25 minutes. 

Enjoy! 

(I usually freeze bananas when they get too ripe, that way I can just thaw and use them for baking. You can freeze them just as they are. No needs to peel or place in ziplocks.)

How's your week so far? 

Do you like banana bread? 

We love it at our house! 

Have a great week everyone! 

My Friday Five

1. First and foremost I am extremely happy to say that I am all clear to start training for that triathlon! I got the results for my brain MRI and everything came back normal! No tumor! Although that doesn't give me relief of any pain but now I can sleep better at night and I can research natural ways to fight off migraines.

2. Since I have never done a triathlon I am learning about everything that I will need. My father in law has a road bike that he will no longer be using so he said he will give it to me along with any accessories he has! I'm hoping it's a good fit so I can check that off my list of things I need.

I'm sure I'll find this out the hard way ;-)

3. I am kid free for the rest of today and tonight!! What ever shall I do? For now I'll blog, read, watch Pride and Prejudice, lay around, maybe clean some things, and I'm very tempted to go for a run out in the rain. The possibilities are endless!

4. I'm on a quest to find my running shoes. I have New Balance 490's in black and pink. If anyone knows of a good shoe website that carries New Balance please let me know! P.s. I don't like the silver and pink ones from Famous Footwear.

5. I saw a quick recipe on HungryRunnerGirls's blog for chicken taquitos. I'm making some as we speak. Or as you read..whatever. I couldn't find the uncooked tortillas so I bought cooked corn tortillas and then I found some Artisan blue corn and flax seed blend tortillas. I'm also making homemade Spanish rice. If it turns out, I'll share the recipe.

How was your week?

I'm working on a few other posts..I know I was MIA this week. My mind was pretty consumed.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!!

Happy Sunday!

I usually hate when days drag by but I'm loving it today. We took the kids out to the high school track to run, jump around, do speed work and cartwheels.

I ran a mile with my boy. He did great!! Finished in 9:12! I ran right behind him and coached him on how to breathe and move his arms. He's on the track team so it was his request to go practice today.

Kate loves jumping on the "mattresses".

Speed work. I really do love you. You allow me to get my frustration out, get a refill on endorphins and improve my pace. I don't have a name for what I do but it's pretty effective. I walk on the straight sides of the track then run as fast as my legs will go on the curved ends of the track. I did that four times. I haven't done speed work in over four months so my legs felt like jello afterwards! But it felt so good to run fast and hard then collapse on the grass with a smile on my face. AND my knee felt amazing! I think I need to break up with my treadmill :-/

Here's Mr. Speedy. He's one of those runners that looks like they run with such ease and finish in about 7:45.

Cartwheels are fun.

Having some lunch. (Kate made a mess with the popcorn) Michael still likes to play with dinosaurs..

And take naps..

Moving on to the long jump!

Daniel jumped 8 feet!
Michael jumped 11!
Kate jumped just over 2 and I jumped about 5 feet and looked like a complete dork! I'll give you all a good laugh and share a pic:

I may look like I was about to fall backwards, but I didn't.

Daniel is a photo bombing king!

I was trying to get a pic of my crazy hair. Totally didn't expect that.

Garden update:
I made these collages a few days ago and our plants have grown so much since then!

Photo from today:

Soon we will have more squash than we can eat! But I don't mind sharing our veggies.

All that fun at the track wore me out! I can't wait to go again! Its a lot more fun to be active as a family than by yourself. And I'm so proud of Daniel! He has shown so much improvement from last year!

How was your weekend?

I hope everyone has a great Monday!

Ready To Ride

Is it weird that I got excited when my husband came home with a can of green slime?

We live out in the country so we have to do what we can to protect our bike tires from goat heads. If you don't know what a goat head is, consider that a blessing!

After goopin' up our tires I went on a short ride with the kids.

There she is. What do you think I should name her? Or do they only name the fancy bikes?

I love how the early morning air makes me want to get up and go for a run or ride. I need to find a safe route to ride. (Pedestrians get hit quite often around here. Or mugged, or jumped for their bike. Maybe I'll just have to break the rules and ride on the high school track. ;-)

Yesterday's "ride" ended shortly after we started because Kate was hot and for some reason Daniel's tires went flat again.. so while they ate dinner I ran on the treadmill. I have been foam rolling and icing everyday, multiple times a day and I'm reaping the benefits. I was able to run two whole miles non stop unit some pain showed up! TWO whole miles! I'm so happy about that!

Update on my eye/headaches:

Our insurance FINALLY approved a brain and orbit MRI! It's scheduled for this coming Tuesday with a follow up on Friday with my neurologist. I'll finally get some answers! The right side of my head and my right eye hurt pretty bad while running yesterday so today I'm going to take it easy and just stretch and foam roll.


On a lighter note: I signed up to volunteer at the finish line of a local half marathon. I got a quick response from the race coordinator (assuming that's her role) and she asked me if I would like to be the Pacer Host. I would hand out all the pacers packets and signs at the start then at the finish I would help them with drinks and food. I told her I would love to do that! Its not until June 8th. I was really impressed with her timely response and with how the website is displayed. It seems very well planned and organized so far! Maybe next year I'll be able to run the half!

Enjoy your Thursday everyone!!

Using Intimidation As Motivation

We all have goals in life. We set goals for self improvement or to make our lives better in one way or another. I've never heard of someone setting a goal that would have a negative outcome. But with setting goals and creating dreams comes intimidation in the form of fear. 

We've all heard those inspirational quotes that tell us to use that fear to push you harder to reach your goal. But that's so much easier said than done. 

Unfortunately there are some of us who allow fear and/or intimidation to keep us from even trying. 

I used to be the shy, quiet type who would never step out of her comfort zone. I always thought it would be cool to do certain things but then I'd feel intimidated by all the people that were already doing it and I'd never even try. 

I have thought about doing a sprint triathlon for months but never looked for a training plan or took any steps in that direction because I was afraid. Afraid of all the "what ifs".

Afraid of finishing last.

Afraid of looking like a newbie.

Afraid of being laughed at because I might just have to use my cheap mountain bike instead of a nice road bike. 

Afraid of getting punched or kicked during the swim.

Or worse, touching a fish! Kidding...sorta.

I realized the other day that all I can do is my best. And I made up my mind to use all of those intimidating thoughts as fuel to motivate me to do it. 

Harder things have been done.

Much harder.

I know deep down that since I've set my mind to finishing a sprint triathlon this year, I will do it. I may not be the fastest but I'll finish. 

"Don't be intimidated by the impossibility, be motivated by the possibility."

Getting back on track

I'm happy to report that I've eaten very well this week and I even did a workout and have been icing and foam rolling.
I'm even happier to report that I shed two solid pounds as well! :-)

I bought these guac cups that I've been eyeing for some time. They're great with pretzel crisps or used as a spread on pita bread.

A not-so-funny story:  on Saturday my mother in law was making ceviche and she asked me to cut up the jalepenos. I said sure, cut em up then rinsed my hands. I felt a little splash of water on my lip then rubbed it off not even thinking I just handled jalepenos. My lips were on fire! They felt like they should've been as red as a tomato. The burn doesn't end there..Michael and I left to go to dinner and about 20 minutes later I rubbed my left eye with one finger. My eye burned like nobody's business! I have never, in my life felt pain like that! The skin next to my eye burned too! After about ten minutes I was able to open my eye. Of course we had a good laugh after we realized I was going to be ok. Those things should come with a warning label.

It was Michael's idea for me to take a selfie with an injured eye.

Moving on..

Dinner was so bad I don't even want to talk about it. I will say this though: I absolutely hate buffets. They give me anxiety and Michael knows this.

We did go to Trader Joe's and got some goodies and some food for me for the week

These are delicious!

We ended the night with The Book Thief. It looked like such a good movie but it left us saying, "huh?!" Weird ending.

Sunday morning we woke up and since the kids stayed with their grandparents this weekend we decided to take the Stang up to the mountains. (Where we used to live and would love to live there again)

Every time we come to visit we always roll the windows in this spot. It smells so good!

We went to breakfast at our favorite restaurant in town: Perko's. I'm sure you're thinkingthat place isn't anything special. Well, this particular Perko's was our favorite because it has had the same owners for years, the employees are mostly older women that are so sweet and they remember you every time you come, and the breakfast is really good and consistent. A woman named Dolly was our waitress and after a few seconds she said hey! Long time no see! :-) it was as if we never left.

We visited Michael's dad then grabbed a snack before heading back down the hill. These are currently my favorite almonds.

My father in law has been trying to find me a jacket for months. He bought me a hoodie but it was way too big. Then he found a really nice coat that had a thin jacket inside but that one was too big as well. So he finally found me this:

All I can say is, "I'm ready to ride." ;-)

How was your weekend?
Did you do anything spontaneous?
What's your favorite snack from a gas station?

Have an awesome Monday everyone!!

I seem to have fallen off the blogger planet

Boy have I been in a rut lately!
But even though I haven't been posting, I've been a silent reader to most of the blogs I follow. I'm hoping I'm not the only one but every now and then I get in this funk where I just. Don't. Care.

I haven't even kept up with my exercise and I *gasp* gained 4 lbs. I'm so ashamed...ok not really.

But I'm back for now to update you all who care on what my life has been like.

Kids. Kids. And more kids. Today I get to hang with the handsome fella in the middle. (Emma on the left has a diaper on. Don't worry. She got away from me after I changed her and she won the pants fight.)

My sister babysits Emma for our brother but since she was busy being on vacation at Disney Land I got the privilege of watching her for two days. That sounded bad.. it was fun hanging out with her and Kate enjoyed having someone to play with.

The below picture is Evil Fat Annie. That's her real name. And it suits her well. We had to be on constant guard because we never knew where she'd be hiding. Of course she decided to hang out where the kids like to play..

There she is. Waiting for someone to pet her anywhere other than her head so she can tear their hand off. Evil.

So what did the kids do? They built a barrier with toys.

Smart kids.

Our garden is growing and we had a couple nice surprises. The watermelon and spaghetti squash sprouted!

The weather has been in the 80's so the evenings have been perfect for walks. I'm still having some knee pain when I run any more than 2 miles so I definitely need to be more proactive with icing and foam rolling. I know that running is my anti-depressent so I need to step it up. I'm done being in a slump and so over this pity party I've been throwing for myself.

Time to just let it all go.

Afterall, I've got a triathlon to train for
;-)

So how do you fight off the "I don't care" attitude?

Tell me one of your goals for this year! It'll motivate me :-)

Enjoy your Thursday everyone!

How I spent my Friday night

I watched this on YouTube
The Badwater Ultra Documentary.

I'm sure most of you have seen it already but if you haven't, you should! It. Is. Amazing.
135 miles in 25 hours!!
Scorching heat and a killer hill right at the end!

Just the motivation I needed!

Have you seen this before?
Does it motivate you?