All it takes is all you've got

Had to run at the gym on the treadmill because Aaron left at 5:30 a.m. to do a 60 mile ride with friends and I wasn't interested in waking up at 4:30 to run in the dark.  Ali had a fever from teething though so I also knew that putting her in child care could be hard.  Ran 5 miles at 7:00 pace and the last 2 miles at 6:08 pace, for a 12:16 two mile threshold.  Was going to cool down another couple of miles, but just a half mile after my threshold, the child care paged me and I quickly wiped my sweat off the treadmill and went to Ali.  I fed her a bottle and asked the child care if they could put up with her for a bit longer so that I could do a quick lifting circut and shower.  30 minutes later I was back.  Lifting wasn't as effective and thourough as I would have liked, but at least I got 7.5 miles in.

Poor Ali.  She has been SO sad the past few days.  She is cutting two new teeth on the top and has these bright red, puffy gums and a mild fever all the time.  I hope it is over soon.   

Easy 8 miles 7:30 ave.  

Took the kids on a hike afterwards and the 2 mile hike was more mentally draining than my run.  Ali screamed pretty much the whole time from her teething pain/fever. Breanne apparently woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning because she hasn't been able to stop whining about every little thing today.  Abe was awake before me this morning which never happens, and by 8:30 when we left for our hike, he was ready to go back to bed.  It has just been one of THOSE mornings.  And now the kids are all taking naps, so I think I will too.  

Had a stomach ache...must have been something I ate last night.  I didn't sleep very well either because Ali kept waking up from her teething pain, I assume.  Took it easy on my run.  7.8 miles around Standley Lake.  7:28 ave.

I will probably do my long run tomorrow since I am racing Saturday.  That will give me Friday to take it easy and hopefully I'll feel good Saturday morning.  

We are remodeling our kitchen.  I just sold our old cabinets this morning and we and are picking up our new cabinets tomorrow morning.  Hopefully we can get the new cabinets up fast because we have the granite people coming Tuesday to do the template and Thursday to install.  Looking forward to a new kitchen!

The long run gets a mile longer each week.  Went out and back on big dry creek trail again for my long run.  Its a perfect route for the long run because it is a nice easy trail and it goes on for miles (probably over 15 miles one way) and the trailhead begins .1 mile from my front door.  It is pretty flat; I guess a gradual downhill all the way out and gradual uphill on the way back.  Starting elevation: 5567 ft, lowest elevation (around the turn-around point): 5238 ft.

Wore the water belt today but stashed it for the middle 3 miles to give my bellie a break.  I think once I start getting over 15 miles I'm going to stash water and just pack food in my shorts.  I drank 16 ounces of gatorade and since I got my honey stix in the mail yesterday, I took a couple of those...YUM!  Thanks for the recommendation, Allie!

Speaking of Allie, MY Ali continues to be overly sad over her teething woes.  I hope she can start feeling better soon.  I didn't sleep very well again last night because of her bursts of crying and I am really looking forward to some more peaceful, fun daytime activities with a happy instead of screaming baby.  And here comes the screaming baby now.  Gotta go!

Got to Breckenridge last night.  Nice house we're staying in!  The kids are loving being together.  

I went out this morning for a short run to check out the course for the 10k tomorrow.  Its going to be a HILLY one!  There is no such thing as flat here in Breckenridge.  Its a way cool trail run though.  Through thick wooded areas.  I'm looking forward to a fun time...but not anticipating a very fast time, considering the elevation gains and tricky footing.   

That was an awesome race!  The midpoint was 800 ft. elevation higher than the start, so basically we ran up a mountain the first 3 miles and back down the mountain the second 3 miles.  There were some extremely steep sections where I couldn't even hold a sub 10:00 mile pace.  I really enjoyed the course because it was different than anything I had ever raced, and very thick forest of shade and turns.  The only somewhat annoying thing about the race was that they decided to start the women 10 minutes after the men because they had more entrants than they had ever had and they didn't want the trail to be too bottlenecked.  So I had to pass a LOT of men throughout the race and I'm sure it slowed me down some..but whatever, I wasn't going for time anyway.  Just wanted to have fun and hopefully win...so both goals accomplished!

Here is my split breakdown: mile 1 (uphill) 8:03, Mile 2 (steeper uphill, started passing men) 8:50, Mile 3 (extremely steep scramble up the mountain passing many walking men) 9:49, Mile 4 (flat for a bit, then starting the descent and passing more men) 6:50, Mile 5 (more decending with lots of sharp turns and passing men...one guy took a turn too tightly while I passed him on the outside and he slipped down...he'll have a nice bum bruise tomorrow...sorry man), Mile 6 (only .75, I guess they decided to make it shorter than an official 10K because of the insane amount of climbing) I'm not sure my pace on the last .75 because I forgot to stop my watch at the finish...but it was probably around 6:30 pace.  I think my overall time was around 45 minutes, but I'm not exactly sure since I forgot to stop my watch.  I'll check the results when they post them.  

Good Times! 

UPDATE: Went to pick up my prize later this afternoon and found out that the male winner came in at 38 and change.  My official time was 44:24 and the 2nd place woman was 46:36.  Got a free North Face backpack for winning.  

On another note, my husband, Aaron did the Firecracker 50 mile Mt. Bike race today in Breckenridge too.  It was the USA Cycling Marathon Mountain Bike National Championships for the pros.  Aaron was entered in the open clydesdale division!  Haha.  190 lbs, might as well compete against guys your same size, right?  Anyway, he had a blast and I'm happy he did it.  He has been pretty overworked in his  business lately so I think it was nice for him to take a fun 50 mile supported mountain bike ride through the beautiful mountains of Colorado.