half marathon training .....

Officially started today with my first 30 min tempo run.
30 min 2.9 miles.
Would have been 3 miles but had to walk a bit because of a killer side stitch.

Next time.....next time!

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"yummy"

From the mouth of the cutest 22 month old.
I am not the only one who loves popsicles on a hot day!

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a personal record....

But not what you think....ran 5 miles 55 minutes. Ave 11min mile....not my best.

BUT after my run I stretched, showered with washing my hair, got ready and walked out the door for dinner in 8 minutes flat. Now that's a personal record. :)

Now to foam roll and lay in bed and read. I am EXHAUSTED!!!!

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time to celebrate....

My dear friend Kamar! More pictures to come of her party.

Happy birthday girlie!!!!!

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Unsettled

If someone told you they promised to give you a million dollars, but you just had to be patient and wait 1 year....if 364 days later someone offered you 1/2 a million, would you settle?

If you trained for a full marathon (26.2 miles), 2 weeks prior to your race would you settle to finish only a 5k (3.1 miles)?

If you were promised to graduate college with your Doctorate as long as you tried, would you settle for only your high school diploma and never attempt college?

Of course not right? Think about it, patience and trust are key elements of these scenarios. You need to wait to become a millionaire, trust you finish a race you have trained for, and attempt to do something you know you can do.

So let me ask you this question? If God promised you that he would bless you with a spouse specifically designed for you and you for him/her, would you settle for something less because you were not patient enough to wait or lacked the trust?

UGH right?!?! What a loaded question huh? I bet you did not know this post was going this way right?

Well, I have to share this with you because it is something near and dear to my heart. Too many times I have sat down to write this post but I was afraid I would do one of the following; offend people, be questioned what "experience" I had, or be held accountable for every thing I put in this post (meaning I cant settle despite waiting for what seems like forever.) I mean, I am about to stir up the pot, but hope to encourage those who are single and waiting.

So....ready GO!

What personal experience do I have? Well....absolutely none. Never been kissed, never dated, never been married, no kids. BUT I do have the wisdom from the Lord and his Word. So, instead of you just getting my opinion on something, I want to bring in the Truth.

Why is this dear to my heart? I have seen too many people lose hope and faith that God has someone out there for them. I have seen too many of my friends settle or desire to settle for something that is less than what I truly believe God has set up for them.

To me, marriage is something to be highly valued and treasured. Marriage is not about me and what I can get out of it. It is about selfless desire to serve the Lord together. I went through a really depressing period of my life where I NEVER wanted to get married. I was so confused what the purpose of marriage was. I recall a conversation with my good friend Heather where we talked for a while and she encouraged me in this. Marriage is the closest thing to unconditional love we can show the fallen world. In a corrupted world, people need to see two people who love and care for one another on a deeper level than the lusts of their flesh.

So if I am to show the fallen world unconditional love and be united front with my spouse, how could I possibly do this with someone who does not believe this charge from the Lord? The answer is, I cant. It is impossible.

So does that mean that when I get married everything will be perfect? Will I automatically know what to do as a wife and he as a husband? NOPE, not one bit. I have not a single clue what it is going to be like to live with someone for the rest of my life. I am not going to fully know what he likes/dislikes and how we can live together....and well, he is not going to be the perfect husband either. I loved how my friend Julianna put it. (click her name to see her full blog) Here is what she had to say about an epiphany she had on marriage "Then one afternoon, in conversation with my momma, I had an epiphany. I had been "expecting" my Ty to be an experienced, well-rounded, perfect husband. I expected him to be a perfectionist at husband-ing. Even though he'd never done it before. He'd never been a husband before. What was I thinking? And I wasn't good at wife-ing. I have never been a wife before. Ah it was so freeing. It was like all the burden of perfection was released from us. We allowed each other to make mistakes. We allowed each other to grow and learn and get better at this whole marriage thing. " Read the whole blog post HERE.

So sure, marriage is hard, I do not doubt that, but can you even imagine settling because you gave up on what God had planned for you? You are selling yourself short from the blessings God desires to give his children.

Here are some verses I have found that explains further why it is so important to marry someone who has the same understanding of marriage.

2 Corinthians 6:14 talks about not being "yoked with an unbeliever." I have heard this so many times, but it has only recently made more sense since I am a runner. If I am going to run a 3 legged marathon, I sure as heck am not going to be paired up with someone who has never run in their life. They will hold me back, they will get tired and slow me down. Likewise, I am running a race toward Christ and what He has in store for me. If I pursue a relationship with someone who is not pursing the same thing, I am going to have to slow down and wait. There is no time to wait. There is a Kingdom to pursue.

Ephesians 5 talks about the role of a husband and a wife. The husband is called to love his wife as Christ loved the church and the wife is called to be submissive to her husband. Now I know for me, if I was in a relationship with a man who did not love the Lord and share the same convictions that I had, it would be really hard to trust him and be submissive.

Lastly, this verse has spoken to me in SO many aspects of my life, but I think it also is important for marriage. Romans 15 talks about being an example of Christ and that together with one voice we can glorify God. I want to be united together in one voice with my husband.

We will run a race together to pursue the Kingdom and until then....I am still running. One day my path will cross with someone else, but I will not divert from my path to find him. I will not settle but wait on the Lord for I know that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father, but only in His divine timing.

So my prayer is this, 2 Samuel 22:37 Give me a wide path for my steps under me and my feet will not slip.

Here is not settling and waiting on the Lord. Psalm 27:14 "Wait on the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait on the Lord"

day late....

And $1 short!!!!! Yahoo I won!

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one of my favorite times with my dad....

Is playing cribbage. It is the only time trash talking is encouraged.

Truth be told my dad taught me how to play and I have kicked his butt almost every time.

Tonight...the wager is high 20¢ a point.

We shall she how it all turns out. But if I learned one thing from my dad "never make a bet you can't win"

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this is what happens....

When I leave my bag of chapstick at home.

$3.25 later at a gas station is even steep for me and Burts is my absolute fav.

Me-0 Chevron- 1 for the win

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nothing is cuter....

Than this little girl doing her "core exercises."
Joy is being an auntie!!!

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death by frosting...

This.is.so.good!!!! 'Nuff said!!!!

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this is what happens in my free time....

I clean/organize/get rid of junk.

Fresh sheets on the bed.
Cleaned out drawers.
Organized drawers.
Huge bag of clothes to get rid of.
Clean shower/sink/toilet
Laundry clean/folded/hung/put away

My reward: ICED COFFEE (made at home of course) why you ask? Because with spending $120 on coffee last month, I realized I needed to cut back...A bit/LOT!

HAPPY SATURDAY. How have you filled your day?

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a minor setback

A diamond valley "death hill" run x2 experienced a minor upset (stomach edition) and landed me sleeping here for three hours.

I guess the flu or something like it happens to the best of us. No amount of fluids and hand santitizer could of fought this one :(

Take two tomorrow. (Fingers crossed)

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Everything in Moderation....

But I can honestly say....this is far from moderation.

Maybe it was playing Candyland with my kids all day....

Or a monthly visitor that made its debut this week.....

Or maybe I was really hungry.

Regardless, these bad boys made it into the trash tonight.

A short lived life. Better to waste $10 instead of 10 pounds :)

Me-1 cookies- 0

WIN:)

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Gilligan's Island and Red Bull.....

We all know the Gilligan's Island theme song... "A three hour tour, a three hour tour." Well today, I felt like I was running to that theme song...."A three mile run, a three mile run."

That is all I planned on running today. Truth be told, I have not run since last Monday and it was a piddly little run. My Cardio trainer keeps track of my calories burned in the last 7 days and gives me "medal" on my phone that is color coded. Usually I am in the 2000-3000 range and get a "gold" medal. Well today something tragic happened, I dropped down to blue and 800 calories. I HAD to earn that gold medal again, so I planned to get out and run a short run around the block.

I felt like a Red Bull commercial...."Red bull....gives you WIIINNNGGSSS!!!!" But today, my Sauconys were like rocket ships.

I rounded the corner of my run and about to turn around when I thought to myself "This is easy, let's keep going." So that is exactly what I did! And it was GLORIOUS! I got back to my street where I should have turned but my rockets were still blasting....so I went another block....then another....then another.

As I was getting tired, I realized that the place I was supposed to cross was marked "no pedestrian crossing" forcing me to run up another block. At this point, I was getting pretty darn tired...so I did what any normal runner does....count my steps to 100 then start over. Well, that got pretty boring since I had quite some time left and I had already counted 500 steps, so naturally a caboshed that idea:)

But, finally with quads burning, knees aching and out of breath,

I made it back feeling great only to map it out..... 5.6 unplanned miles. My feet led the way and my heart and soul followed! I am feeling super great:)

Let's see where my feet decide to take me tomorrow.

Until then.....I will be nursing a bit of a blister on the side of my foot.

re-uniting with some old friends

Dear sauconys:
Sorry I have neglected you. Sorry you have stayed in my gym bag for the last few days.
Today....we meet again. Be prepared to be pounded into the pavement (only in the context of running is this a good thing)
Don't fail me kay?
<3 you running enthusiastic

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ch ch check it out!!!

Just trying out new contacts:) you can see my true colors now. Ain't I purdy?!?!

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ahhhh this is the life:)

Day two of spring break is a blast from the past. Sitting at Coffee Bean in San Diego reading a book in the beautiful weather.

On tap today....meeting with a plastic surgeon about getting my extra skin removed, lunch with a dear friend, an eye doctor appointment to get contacts (YIPEE!!!!!!) then dinner with the pops and the boxing:)

It is a great day!!!!

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A PR and a great dinner:)

After yesterday's running failure, I knew I had to hit the streets hard but with some success looming. My 5 mile run ended up to only being 2.8 miles but I knew I was going to have to punish the pavement with each step. That is precisely what I did. 26 minutes later at a 9:26 pace I finished my run victorious!

So...I decided to reward myself with a wonderful home cooked meal. I cooked quinoa for the first time and put some lemon juice and salt on it. I ate a spinach salad with parmesean cheese and balsamic vinegarette dressing. And I think I was most proud of my garlic curry shrimp. MMM MMM MMM

Now off to paint my nails and eat some SF butterscotch pudding.

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HOT AIR conditioning

Good thing I decided to run semi-incognito today. In 87° weather let's just say it was a rough run...and to be more honest ....I was a long run/walk.

I inadvertently signed to condition my body to HOT HOT weather. Its the hottest day we have had ALL month. (Ok so I realize it is only the first day of the month) *wink*

But man I tried to run my typical 4 mile route...easy peesy. I even drank extra water but a run just wasn't happening.

Dissatisfied for sure but I gave it all I had. Guess tomorrow's run will be an early morning run.

Off to an ice bath I go. My legs are hurting from not only my run today but a hard core bootcamp training sesh on Weds.

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In the dark.....

Cant see? Me neither because apparently I am too small for my own good. My office at work does not recogonize that someone(me) is in here so the lights turned off. Haha I guess that is a good "small" problem to have.

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