Is it already the end of November?  I’m not sure where this month went but we are down to the last few days.  I haven’t written in over a week.  Life has been busy.  The big kids were home all last week for Thanksgiving break and I just didn’t get around to any posts.  We had a very relaxing week home complete with no travel plans.  It was wonderful.  We had a great meal at my in-laws (who live one mile away) and then we came home and started our Christmas decorating.  Ashton has already managed to destroy quite a few small Christmas objects and ornaments even though I thought we had it pretty child friendly.  That boy! He keeps me busy. And now for a blur of pictures from the past few days…

Ashton is ready to eat… as usual!

The cooks!

Setting up our tree. Our tree farm is the attic…

My silly Anna

Decorating = done!

My 4 little buddies

I love those big brown eyes!

We also took down the crib and turned Ashton’s nursery into Abi’s bedroom.  It was a big day for our family! We set up our crib in 2004 and it seems a little strange not having one up anymore.  I’m sure I won’t be as sentimental when it comes time to being done with diapers.  Unfortunately, Ashton shows no interest in potty training any time soon…

Our first baby to use the crib in 2004- seems like yesterday.

Taking the crib apart- Abi is pretty excited about getting her own room!

The same spot where the crib was…

This past week has had its fair share of struggles.  Mostly involving a certain 22 month-old who wants to play instead of go to sleep and who also likes to get up in the middle of the night every night to wander into mom and dad’s room…  I know this adjustment phase will pass so we’re just trying to make the best of it.

As far as running… last week was a great training week.  I felt like I was back in the groove and everything is feeling good.  (Let’s just keep it that way!)  I ran a total of 51 miles Sunday- Saturday.  Here’s how it went down…

St. Jude Marathon Training- Week 3 (of 4)
Sun.  11/18– 5 easy mi. @7:48 pace.

Mon. 11/19– Speed session at track. 7 miles total with 5 x 800’s (2:57, 2:55, 2:53, 2:53, 2:48). This is my fastest set of 800’s to date and they felt good.  I finished feeling like I could have done a few more. I wore my new Brooks Cadence and they felt light yet still supportive enough for me. 

Tue. 11/20– 4 easy mi. @ 7:42 pace.  Legs were pretty sore and I would have liked to have gone a little longer but I was short on time and needed to squeeze in this run.

Wed. 11/21– 15 mi. @ 7:43 pace. This was my first and last “long” run for this mini training cycle.  I did it alone but it was a good run for me.  I felt strong.  It was cool but perfect running weather. 

Thur. 11/22– 9 mi. @ 8:09 pace. Thanksgiving fun run with some friends. Would have loved to race but there are not any nearby Turkey Trots so the fun run with friends continues…

Fri. 11/23– Off.  I decided to take a complete rest day since my last day off was over a week before.

Sat. 11/24– 11 mi. @ 7:33 pace.  This was a COLD run! Temps were in the 20’s when I started.  I jogged to the trail to meet a friend and ran miles 2-7 with her.  If it wasn’t for meeting her I would have probably done this one on the TM.  It did warm up a little but I was glad to have this run done.

Week 4 (of 4) so far:
Sun. 11/25– 5 easy mi. @ 7:58 on TM.

Mon. 11/26- 7 easy mi. @ 7:48 with the girls.

The rest of this week will be light.  It hasn’t fully hit me that I will be running in a marathon on Saturday.  It also hasn’t hit me that I’ll be 34 on Thursday.  Wasn’t it Bart Yasso who said he never really counts birthdays unless they are a year when he switches age brackets.  So in my case, I guess I don’t really need to worry about this one since I’ll still be in the 30-34 age group!

And speaking of birthdays- I got my birthday present from my sister Tricky today….

It’s the Brooks Nightlife Equilibrium Long Sleeve shirt.  I LOVE it!!! I am so excited about running in it  tomorrow morning! 

4th Times the Charm

This will be marathon # 4 for the year for me.  I don’t know that I will usually run this many marathons in one year.  It’s my 6th marathon ever.  I have learned so much from each one and I’m looking forward to getting on that starting line Saturday morning.  I’m trying to prepare myself for the many different sides of the marathon.  I was looking up a lot of different running quotes this weekend and I read one that I’m pretty sure has become my new go-to marathon quote.  I’m sure most of you know but it was new to me.

And then there is this one from Tom Hanks that I love.  I know he was talking about girls softball in this movie but it definitely applies to running!