Sunday Funny

This little boy. 

Look at that smile.

He knows exactly what he's doing, putting his foot up on the table :)

More DIY Arrow of Light Plaques

Back in March I wrote about the Arrow of Light plaques I made for some of our boys. I wasn't happy with the quality of some of the pictures, so when I made some more plaques this fall I took more pictures. 

40 by 40 Goal: What's Next?

love the view from Skyline Drive in Shenandoah NP

As I mentioned yesterday, I accomplished my goal of 40 races between my 38th and 40th birthdays- seven months before my 40th birthday. Yay me!

But.

Being the chronic overachiever that I am, I have 3 more races planned for November and December. I'm calling my goal "finished" after the race I run New Year's Eve. I won't be running the New Year's Day race this year since it's on a Sunday.

Of course, just because I'm finishing my goal six months early doesn't mean I won't be running any more. I'm planning on running another 4 or 5 races before I actually turn 40 at the end of June. Since I will be drastically reducing the number of races I participate in, I will be turning my energies towards training and bringing my race times down.

I had originally planned on a challenging schedule of a 10 miler in March followed by a full marathon a couple week later. The marathon would then be followed by a half marathon that's been billed as the toughest half in the country (the accompanying full marathon is billed as the toughest marathon in the country). After that is a 5k that is entirely uphill and a 5k that is run into, and then back out of, a quarry.

Basically it would be the spring of tough runs. My training would focus on two things: building the distance base and endurance I'd need, and lots of hill workouts and cross training to build the muscles needed for all the hills in the races.

However.

While running the trail run on tired, leaden legs and suffering from lack of sleep, I had a lot of random thoughts run through my head. It occurred to me that maybe running a full marathon this spring wouldn't be the best plan. With Mr M's crazy work schedule my training time is limited. I'm confident I can find the time to train for a half marathon, but I'm not confident that I'd have the time for the long training runs I'd need for a full marathon. I had been planning on running the full marathon version of the half I trained for while pregnant with River. Switching to the half marathon means I'd finally get to run that race.

But I'm not sure even the half will happen this spring. I've got a big project I'm working on that requires a lot of time and attention to detail in the beginning. I'm hoping it'll be less time intensive by April or May, but in the meantime it's sucking up a lot of my time, which is very evident in my treadmill mileage this month. Less treadmill time means I won't be as well trained as I'd like, especially for a half marathon.

I'll really have to play things by ear and see how soon my schedule calms down. I'll keep the 5ks on my schedule: the flat 5k in March (aiming for a PR), the uphill 5k in April, the quarry 5k in May, and the June 5k I've run the last 5 years. One race a month is very doable, even with my busy schedule.

Some possibilities I will keep in mind: changing the flat 5k to a 10k, and the 10 miler (I volunteered at this one last year). Those races are consecutive weeks in March, though, so if I add a race I will keep the 5k and do the 10 miler. Though the 10k would be a good lead-up to the 10 miler..... :)

If I follow through with the races planned I should end up with 47 or 48 races before I turn 40 at the end of June. Because I can't leave well enough alone and just stop at 40 races :)

I'll update this list when I actually turn 40, but in the meantime, here's some of what I've accomplished:

1 mile	Road	Completed a race while pregnant	1st in age group
2 mile	Trail	In a kilt	2nd in age group
4k (2.49 miles)	Cross country	2 races in 12 hours	Very last finisher of the race
5k (3.1 miles)	Mixed surface	Evening run	Ran a 5k without stopping to walk
3.5 miles	Virtual	Pushing jogger with one boy	Only one race of the 40 was run twice- all the other races are one-offs
4 miles	Vineyard	2 races in same day
4.8 miles	Mud run	Pushing jogger with both boys
10k (6.2 miles)	Corn maze	Predict your time
Half marathon (13.1 miles)	Color run	With all 3 kiddos
13.6 miles	Glow run	Traveled to a race (stayed in a hotel the night before)
Full marathon (26.1 miles)	Obstacle run	In costume
	Kayak race	Filled out a paper entry form
	Water stop volunteer
	Walk

While running so many races in such a short period of time has been tiring, it has enabled me to run a wide variety of races I might not otherwise have run. I've branched out to other locations and finally signed up for most of the races I've been meaning to do. I didn't get quite the variety of distances I'd hoped for, but I'm still very happy with what I've accomplished. And I have a much shorter list of races to run: that 10 miler if I don't do it this spring, an international half or full marathon, a Ragnar race, an ultra....

Two Mile Cross Country Race Recap

Saturday I ran a two mile race on an actual high school cross country course. It had some nice rolling hills- nothing super steep. The course was completely on grassy fields, so it was a cross country race in that respect as well. This was the second two mile race in a row and I quite like the two mile distance. I liked this race and will probably run it again.

I ran 1.99 miles in 22:24. There were more hills in the second mile, so I spent more time walking, and my time reflects that.
1st mile: 10:31
2nd mile: 11:53

I actually added 1.46 miles to the race distance just walking back and forth from the car to the start of the race- they were that far apart.

One thing to note on this race: I had to fill out a paper entry form and mail it in with a check. I haven't had to do that in years! Very old school. They were looking for volunteers for a variety of things though, so I think they want to bring things a little more up to date for next year.

This race also marked the 40th race since I started my 40 by 40 goal less than a year and a half ago! I have three more races planned for this year, and a few more before my birthday in June, but I will be scaling waaaay back on the number of races I run after the new year. I'll be doing another post about my plans for the rest of the time left in my 40 by 40 goal and my thoughts on the 40 by 40 goal itself.

Weekly Mileage:
Monday- walked 3.54 miles on the treadmill
Thursday- took the kids hiking at our local trails park- 1.54 miles
Saturday- 2 mile cross country race + 1.46 miles walked = 3.45 miles
         total miles for the week: 8.53 miles

28th race in 2016

	Month	Event	Time
1.	January	New Year’s Day 5k	33:01
2.	February	Frostbite 5k	37:37
3.	February	Mud Run	1:35:37
4.	March	4k Walk	33:19
5.	March	March 5k	33:49
6.	March	Pi Day Virtual 5k	1:01:30
7.	March	Obstacle Race	44:06
8.	April	Glow Run	35:16
9.	April	April 5k	41:15
10.	April	Evening Run	34:59
11.	May	May 5k	35:18
12.	May	Evening Cross Country Race	43:17
13.	June	June 5k	39:21
14.	June	1 Mile Glow Run	11:38
15.	June	Vineyard 5k	39:10
16.	July	July 5k	35:53
17.	August	Predict Your Time 5k	37:41
18.	August	August 5k	35:45
19.	August	NPS 100th Virtual 10k	1:49:17
20.	August	4 Mile Run	45:20
21.	September	Labor Day 5k	46:54
22.	September	1 Mile Color Run	18:25
23.	September	3.5 Mile Trail Run	41:07
24.	October	Run Long & Prosper Virtual 5k	49:55
25.	October	Flat Trail 5k	33:47
26.	October	Halloween Trail 5k	37:06
27.	November	Two Mile Road Race	20:55
28.	November	Two Mile Cross Country Race	22:24

40th race towards my 40 by 40 goal!

	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, 1st in age group
6.	October	Kilted Trail 5k	5k	Kilted race
7.	November	Trail Half	13.6 miles	Trail Half, last finisher
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
14.	March	4k Walk	4k	Walk
15.	March	March 5k	5k	Road race
16.	March	Pi Day Virtual 5k	5k	Virtual 5k Walk
17.	March	10 mile race	Not applicable	Water stop volunteer
18.	March	Obstacle Race	5k	Obstacle run
19.	April	Glow Run	5k	Glow Run, 1st of 2 races in 12 hours
20.	April	April 5k	5k	Pushing jogger, 2nd of 2 races in 12 hours
21.	April	Evening Run	5k	Evening run
22.	May	10k Kayak Race	10k	Kayak race
23.	May	May 5k	5k	1st of 2 races in same day
24.	May	Evening CC Race	5k	Evening cross country, 2nd of 2 races in same day
25.	June	June 5k	5k	Pushing jogger, 1st of 2 races in same day
26.	June	1 Mile Glow Run	1 mile	Pushing jogger with both boys, 2nd of 2 races in same day, glow run
27.	June	Vineyard 5k	5k	Vineyard run
28.	July	July 5k	5k	Road race
29.	August	Predict Your Time 5k	5k	Predict your time
30.	August	August 5k	5k	Road race
31.	August	NPS 100th Virtual 10k	10k	Virtual 10k run
32.	August	4 Mile Run	4 miles	Road race
33.	September	Labor Day 5k	5k	With all 3 kiddos
34.	September	1 Mile Color Run	1 mile	Color run, Sunshine’s first solo race, River’s first race
35.	September	3.5 Mile Trail Run	3.5 miles	Trail run
36.	October	Run Long & Prosper Virtual 5k	5k	Virtual 5k run
37.	October	Flat Trail 5k	5k	Travel to race, trail run, ran w/o stopping, 2nd in age group
38.	October	Halloween Trail 5k	5k	Trail run, in costume, in a vineyard
39.	November	Two Mile Road Race	2 miles	2 miles, road race
40.	November	Two Mile Cross Country Race	2 miles	2 miles, cross country race, paper entry form