Mud Run Recap

clean legs and shoes before the race

Saturday my neighbor and I ran the mud race that I've run twice before (2014, 2013). Last year I was too pregnant to be hauling my body up and over hay bales, vertical walls, culverts, and other obstacles. Since the temps were in the single digits, I wasn't too broken up about it. It was still cold this time, but not quite as bad: temperatures hovered around freezing that morning and there were large ice chunks in the puddles. A heavy rainstorm earlier in the week made for nice, sloppy mud. The first year I ran it wasn't very muddy, and I am of the opinion that if it's going to be called a mud run, there should be mud (even if it's in February).

Overall, the race felt pretty good, though my feet got pretty sore from running almost 5 miles without my orthotics. I'm not willing to ruin my expensive custom orthotics to water and mud, especially when my shoes came out looking like this:

yeah, I wore old shoes just so I could throw them away afterwards

My neighbor had twins about a month or so after Ocean was born, so we're both still in get-back-shape mode and haven't done as much running as we'd like. I could have run more, but walking the majority of the race wasn't a bad thing. Despite all the walking we did, we still were able to finish at a faster pace than the last time I ran this race. This could be partly contributed to decreased wait times at some of the early obstacles. We still had to wait around for 15-20 minutes at the hay bale obstacle, but that was the only one. Last time we had to wait around at another obstacle as well.

Interestingly enough, the race also gets a little longer each year.

2016: 1:35:37 at 19:55/mile pace = 4.8 miles
2014: 1:49:55 at 24:26/mile pace = 4.5 miles
2013: 1:12:34 at 18:09/mile pace = 4.0 miles

we slog through a water-filled culvert twice, so it actually washes off a lot of the mud 

I found that the cold was more tiring than the run itself.  Possibly that's because I'm still getting over yet another round of crud. I'm pretty sure getting chilled didn't help boost my poor immune system.

can you spot the grass tucked in the edge of my leggings? I didn't notice it until I was driving home

Last week I was able to get on the treadmill two times for a total of 3.95 miles. Add the 4.80 miles from the mud run and I completed 8.75 miles last week.

This is the 13th race towards my 40 by 40 goal. Right now it's classified under mud run and 4.8 miles, but I might run another mud run, so this'll stay on the list as a 4.8 mile race.

2016 Races

Month	Event	Time
January	New Year’s Day 5k	33:01
February	Frostbite 5k	37:37
February	Mud Run	1:35:37

40 by 40 Races

	Date	Event	Distance	Event Type
1.	July 2015	4th of July 5k	5k	Pregnant
2.	August	4 Mile Fun Run	4 miles	Road Race
3.	September	All Terrain	5k	Mixed surface
4.	October	Hill Valley Half	13.1 miles	Virtual half marathon
5.	October	Corn Maze 5k	5k	Corn Maze
6.	October	Kilted Trail 5k	5k	Kilted race
7.	November	Trail Half	13.6 miles	Trail Half
8.	November	Turkey Trot	5k	Road Race
9.	December	Veteran’s 5k	5k	Mixed surface
10.	December	Army Virtual Marathon	26.23 miles	Virtual marathon
11.	January 2016	New Year’s Day 5k	5k	Road race
12.	February	Frostbite 5k	5k	Cross country race
13.	February	Mud Run	4.8 miles	Mud run

2016 Maple Syrup, Week 3

a good sap collecting day

Last week we had a couple of good sap days. We were able to collect 70.5 cups of sap over two days. We would have gotten even more, but there was some spillage while collecting the sap. It's a hazard of the process, so I don't worry about it.  All together, that 70.5 cups of sap boiled down to 3/4 cup of syrup.

day 1: 23 cups of sap, boiled down to 1/4 cup syrup
day 2: 47.5 cups of sap, boiled down to 1/2 cup syrup

Last year I took care of all the sap collecting, but this year, Sunshine has decided to take over most of the collecting. She takes the job very seriously and takes pictures of each collecting bag before emptying it into the bucket. She likes to compare sap amounts between bags and days. Such a great learning experience!

Sunshine and River heading out one evening to collect sap

week one: 79 cups of sap = some burned taffy and about 1/2 cup of syrup
week two: 17.5 cups of sap = 3/16 cup of syrup
week three: 70.5 cups of sap = 3/4 cup of syrup
total: 167 cups of sap (10.4 gallons) = some burned taffy and about 1.5 cups of syrup

The bottle on the left has about 1 cup of syrup, bottle on the left has about 1/2 cup of syrup that cooked a little too long and is too thick for pouring on pancakes. I'll cook it down into candy.

The Curse of the Crud

Ocean fits a little better in the cradle, but he's still too big

Last week I never managed to get on the treadmill. I just didn't feel well enough. I'm really getting tired of getting ill every winter since aside from feeling crummy, it derails my training and sets me back several months. Getting ill twice in a row sets me back even further.

Despite not feeling well, Saturday had gorgeous weather and I would have gone out for a run, except Mr M had drill and I was doing single-parent duty.

I've got the mud run this Saturday and not being able to prepare for it has been stressful. Yesterday I had hoped to get on the treadmill after running some errands, but I just didn't have the energy. So this morning, despite feeling crummy still, I'm on the treadmill (typing as I walk).  Just walking, not running, but at this point walking is so much better than not doing anything. I may not agree later on when I'm feeling worn out from the workout, but for now it feels good.

Since I'm still recovering from two consecutive colds, I have low expectations for this Saturday. Mud runs never result in my fastest times. My goal is to finish, and not be last. I've been last in other races (both very small races), but I'd like to not be last in this one (it's got a good size field of runners).

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Not being able to exercise has been doubly stressful lately because my weight has been creeping up. I can't figure out why since I've drastically cut back on the amount of chocolate I'm eating on a daily basis (it was seriously becoming a problem) and I'm not having any obvious food issues.

My best guess is that all those glutenings back in November and December have damaged my system and that's what's causing my weight issues. Some people have weight loss issues with celiac disease, but I've never had that problem: it's always been weight gaining issues for me, which I attribute my PCOS. My PCOS hasn't been much of an issue since the first time I did GAPS (as evidenced by the fact that I was able to get and stay pregnant with River and Ocean), but I think my hormones are out of whack again since my weight keeps creeping up. So it's time to go back on GAPS and try to heal the damage and balance my hormones.

yay
{feel the excitement}

It's a lot of work and the detox phase can be stressful as I try not to be too grumpy and cranky with everyone while feeling even worse than I did before starting GAPS. I'll have to keep reminding myself of my end goal of feeling better and finally losing weight.

I'm currently gathering recipes so I can make a meal plan and shopping list. Once those are done I can actually start GAPS. I had planned to start several weeks ago, but just didn't fell well enough to do anything, let alone think about lots of cooking. Add in the stress of potty training (which hasn't been as bad as I feared it would be), and I decided to hold off a bit longer. Now that I'm feeling better though, I do need to get going.

Potty Training, Week 3

River running around in pajama shorts- no diaper necessary

These potty training posts are primarily for my benefit since we'll be going through this process again in the not-too-distant future with Ocean. I like having a written reminder of what we tried and what worked or didn't work. 

Potty training continues to be successful over all. There are accidents, naturally, but River is very good about running to the potty when he needs to go. As I suspected, being out and about is a bit trickier. We were at a ward activity Friday evening when River announced he needed to go. I picked him up and ran, and while we didn't quite make it in time, most of the pee did make it into the toilet. Luckily I had spare clothes in my bag, so it wasn't a complete disaster.

We've continued to keep him in underwear at night, with good success. This has been a surprise since night time potty training doesn't always happen this early. We do help things along by taking him potty before we go to bed, which we also did with Sunshine when she was younger.

I mentioned earlier that we've all been sick again, and I was concerned about it causing more accidents, but that hasn't been the case. Though in all honesty that's probably because he's been a bit dehydrated. It can be a challenge to keep kiddos hydrated when they're not feeling well.

This weekend I'm planning on making reinforced trainers like I found here for when we're out and about. They're reinforced with absorbent fabric and PUL to contain accidents better than plain underwear would. We'd still need to change him right away, but hopefully we'd only need to change his underwear instead of his pants, socks, and shoes also. And we wouldn't be resorting to diapers, which I don't know if he'd even let us put one on him at this point. He likes being able to run to the potty.

He hasn't worn a diaper since we stopped diapering him at night about a week ago. We haven't attempted church without a diaper yet since we were all sick in bed this past weekend. We'll have our chance this Sunday and we'll see how that goes. The nursery has a miniature toilet in the attached bathroom, which should make it easier for him to use and we'll stop in and remind him to go every so often. I'll be bringing extra clothes and ziplock bags just in case.

I will say that potty training a little boy is definitely different from potty training a little girl in one major respect. I never had to worry overly much about Sunshine's position on the potty, but that is definitely not the case with River. He has to sit just so, make sure his shirt isn't tucked between his legs, and keep his legs together as much as possible. When he doesn't, there's a mess to clean up. It keeps me on my toes- I can't get complacent with the process :)

Potty Training, week 1
Potty Training, week 2

2016 Maple Syrup, Week 2

The weather hasn't been prime sap weather lately, so last week we only collected 17.5 cups of sap over two days. This boiled down to 3/16 cup of syrup.  Starting earlier in the year does mean that we have good days and bad days, but it also means that overall there will be more good days than if we had started later in the season.

week one: 79 cups of sap = some burned taffy and about 1/2 cup of syrup
week two: 17.5 cups of sap = 3/16 cup of syrup
total: 96.5 cups of sap (a smidge over 6 gallons) = some burned taffy and almost 3/4 cup of syrup

Mr M's Favorite Christmas Present

After living in our house almost 5 years now and paying someone to plow us out every time we get any amount of snow, we decided to do something about it: we used our Christmas money to buy a plow for our lawn tractor. It's not the biggest and best one out there, but it fit our budget and does a pretty good job.

The initial install was a massive pain as the instructions weren't very clear and the only youtube videos Mr M could find involved redneck plow installs, not actual installs of the type of plow we have. Despite our years of experience with snow we didn't really think we needed snow chains, so we didn't buy them when we bought the plow. This was a mistake since of course you need chains to get any traction when going up and down hills, and our driveway and road definitely have hills.

So after spending a day and a half in the cold during our first snowstorm installing the plow, Mr M couldn't actually use it, much to his disgust. Once most of the snow melted, he was able to bring it out and do a couple runs up and down the driveway.

After that fiasco we ordered chains and Mr M put them on so the tractor would be ready to go.

Less than a week later we got more snow- 4  or 5 inches, at least- and Mr M got to finally use the lawn tractor to plow our driveway.  It worked great and the kiddos enjoyed the ride. Mr M goes very slowly to keep everyone safe.

The circle is wide enough to require multiple passes, but it only takes one up and one down to clear the driveway and the road.

It didn't take too long for Mr M to plow our driveway, the road, and the neighbor's driveways and it didn't cost us anything other than a little bit of gas. And just in time since our usual plow guy is out of commission with a recent heart surgery so we would have had to find someone else {more expensive, I'm sure} to do the plowing. It's nice to be more self-sufficient and not have to rely on others to get us out of our driveway and road.

Treadmill Time

plowing the driveway after the most recent snowfall

We were all finally almost over the crud we got in January, and now we're all sick again. Mr M got hit the worst this time- bronchitis. We all spent our three day weekend in bed, feeling crummy. Not at all how we'd planned to spend our weekend, but what can you do?

And because we were sick, it snowed again. It's a conspiracy to make sure we don't actually enjoy the snow. Mr M and the kiddos spent some time outside in the snow, but they all felt worse afterward, so it wasn't really worth it.

I'm seriously considering keeping River out of nursery at church for the next month or so to see if we can't stay healthy for longer than a week. I'm pretty sure both bugs we've gotten came home with him from nursery. Three wards share the nursery, so it's one huge, icky petri dish.

Getting sick again last week meant I only managed three days on the treadmill walking a total of 6.2 miles. I've got the mud run coming up in a week and a half, so I need to get my mileage back up, but first I need to wait and make sure the fever I've been fighting is completely beat.

Potty Training, Week 2

hmmm, too big for Sunshine's cradle

We made good progress this past week and it hasn't been quite the disaster I was afraid it would be. Though there's still time for that, of course :) I've always heard that boys are harder to potty train than girls and since we'll be doing this again in the near future with Ocean I need to record what we did in hopes of making things easier when it's Ocean's turn.

River started out spending time sitting on the potty (while watching the iPad) but he soon progressed to playing, then running and sitting on it when he needed to use it. So he can tell when he needs to poop or pee, which is a huge step in the process. If I haven't seen him sit on the potty for awhile I'll ask him if he needs to go. Sometimes he does, sometimes he tells me "no!" The number of accidents has decreased as the week has progressed.

He goes down for naps without a diaper and has had good success staying dry. The trick is making sure he has access to the potty as soon as he wakes up.

We were keeping him in diapers at night, but two nights ago after he woke up several times to pee, I decided it wasn't worth it and put him in underwear last night. We took him to the bathroom before we went to bed and he stayed dry all night. Whether we have a repeat of that tonight remains to be seen.

We've gone to Sunshine's fiddle lesson, run errands, and gone to Scouts without any accidents. I bring along the little potty and ask him when we leave the car and when we return if he needs to use it. I did the same with Sunshine and it worked quite well.  So far he's stayed dry while we're out and about, but there's a lot of potential for accidents since he doesn't usually tell us he needs to use the potty. At home he usually tells us after the fact that he peed in the potty. That doesn't work when we're in a store and there's no bathroom nearby. So we'll see what happens. Hopefully he gives us enough warning that we can find a bathroom in time. He has shown us that he can hold it, so I'm hoping we won't have too many accidents.

When we're home, River runs around in his underwear, which makes it easy to sit on the potty quickly. What makes it even easier is to have him wear loose pajama pants or pajama shorts. Since they're loose they're super easy to pull up and down as needed.

So two weeks into official potty training I'm cautiously optimistic about the whole thing :)

Potty Training, Week 1

February 5k Recap

cold winter morning

Saturday I ran my February 5k. This one is going on my 40 by 40 list as a cross country race since it was run on a local high school's cross country course. It was a nice flashback to high school cross country races :)

The course itself was pretty nice, mostly some small hills mixed with flat areas. The worst hill was at the 2.8 mile mark that was very steep, though thankfully also fairly short. Most of the race was alongside a wooded area, but a loop in the middle ran through the woods themselves. I always enjoy running through the woods. The hard part of this race was the temperatures: it was 28 degrees at the start and only warmed up to 30 by the end. Brrrr.

This is a race I'll probably do again since it's fairly local, small, and I liked the course. And it's earlier in the month than the February races I've run in the past, which means there's not such a long gap since the New Year's Day race - 5 weeks instead of 8.

This past week I did 8.12 miles on the treadmill and ran/walked 3.08 during the race. All my time on the treadmill was walking, except for 10 minutes that I ran since I'm easing back into the whole running thing after being sick and not running all of January. Despite the lack of running time I did manage to run a good portion of the race. I've always found it easier to run outside than to run on the treadmill.

I finished 3.08 miles in 37:37. One of my slower 5k times, but considering my under-training and the cold, it was not unexpected. I felt pretty good, so I'm happy with the time.
1st mile: 11:44
2nd mile: 12:57
3rd mile: 12:11

2016 Races

Month	Event	Time
January	New Year’s Day 5k	33:01
February	Frostbite 5k	37:37

40 by 40 Races

	Date	Event	Distance	Event Type
1.	July 2015	4th of July 5k	5k	Pregnant
2.	August	4 Mile Fun Run	4 miles	Road Race
3.	September	All Terrain	5k	Mixed surface
4.	October	Hill Valley Half	13.1 miles	Virtual half marathon
5.	October	Corn Maze 5k	5k	Corn Maze
6.	October	Kilted Trail 5k	5k	Kilted race
7.	November	Trail Half	13.6 miles	Trail Half
8.	November	Turkey Trot	5k	Road Race
9.	December	Veteran’s 5k	5k	Mixed surface
10.	December	Army Virtual Marathon	26.23 miles	Virtual marathon
11.	January 2016	New Year’s Day 5k	5k	Road race
12.	February	Frostbite 5k	5k	Cross country race