Axel Rose why do you hate me?

So I am on the treadmill and I am having a pretty good run...feeling good (except for the chafing under the arms..must remember to put lotion on arms after I shower)..and then it comes on...the song that reminds me of my youth.  You all know and love them I am sure.  Guns N' Roses.  Now please do not confuse the Axel Rose I am talking about.

Not this Axel...the one with the bad corn rows and the messed up face lift...

This Axel from the days of Slash and Guns N Roses. 

 So I had just put Sweet Child O' Mine on my running play list.  I am on the treadmill and it comes on..Yes!  Winning!  Then 1 min and 2 seconds into the song it craps out and that was all Axel sang.  Why Axel???  I was looking forward to running with you???  How can I let you take me down to the Paradise City ever again???  Well I am giving Axel and Slash one more chance.  I came home and re downloaded the song again.  I hope they do not disappoint me during the Cherry Blossom Run this Sunday.  If turns out we were not meant to be I might have to turn to Whitesnake just like Tawni Kitan..and really nobody wants to see me roll around on a car.

What is your secret pleasure song on your play list??

8 miles here I come (I hope)

So the girls Run with Pride had to run with pride in the small gym.  We did some laps (pacing is going to be an issue) and then some cross training stations.  Then the parents pick them up and you would swear I have never said when the 5K run is going to be.  Ugh!  So I am keeping my fingers crossed that the girls are signed up in advance (if not I guess they can pay the 30 dollars day of). 

So I am off for an 8 mile run before the 10 miler on Sunday.  Fingers crossed, I have not been doing well on long runs..grrr...On a good note, looks like the rain will be done by Sunday.  I was dreading a 10 mile rainy run.  I am such a wimp with rain.  Before the long run tonight I have to stop off and get some iron-on t-shirt transfers.  The shirt color this year for the cherry blossom run is black :)  So I will be a ninja runner...muahhhaaaa

First day of girls run club

So today was the first day of the Girls Run with Pride run club at school.  I had 11 girls show up with one girl home sick.  We talked a bit about nutrition and then started and ran/walk about 2.5 miles.  I had 3 teachers helping me, which was really nice.  So Kristen was at the front, Becky was in the middle and Lisa and myself were at the end with the walkers and sometime joggers.  It went really well.  One of the girls kept saying she could feel that she lost some weight.  Obviously I have been running wrong because I never feel like I have lost weight after running :) 

Then here was the conversation of a 4th grader and a 5th grader.

4th:  Hey you wanna be friends?
5th:  Ok
4th:  Great!  We're going to be friends!
5th:  Yeah we're going to be friends.

So sweet!  Next practice is on Wednesday.

1 week till death

So Cherry Blossom is one week from today!  Yikes!  My training has been a bit lacking which is a bit concerning to me...yikes!  Heading to the gym today to run 8.  Then 2 weeks from today will be my 2nd half marathon, double yikes!  I have had the oddest running experience since my previous half marathon in September.  This is the first time I can honestly say I just didn't want to workout or run.  I thought it was just a small case of burn out from all the training for the race in September, but if it was it was the longest case of the workout blahs I have ever experienced.  I have been working out a bit more than I was back in November but that really doesn't say much.  I have been having small panic attacks because of my lack of running, I hope I don't die next Sunday.  The only thing I have going into it, was that a few years ago I ran 4 miles (my longest run) before running the cherry blossom 10 miler and lived to tell the tale.  But my legs hurt for days after.  Last year I had a great run and felt great afterwards.  Fingers crossed that I feel great next Sunday. 

Monday is my first Girls run with Pride training.  One of my 4th grade girls came in and she was practically bouncing off the wall she was so excited to start on Monday.  :)  She told me she was already running around the neighborhood.  So hopefully if I do die next Sunday somebody will take over the girls run club so they can have a great 5K run in May :) 

How do you get a nice race picture??

So here is the question for everyone...any secrets on how to get a nice picture while running?  The Cherry Blossom 10 miler is coming up along with my half marathon the following weekend and I would like a running picture where I don't look:
a. fat (ok nobody can help that look)
b. in pain
c. horrible
d. a combo of a,b and c

The first time I ran the Cherry Blossom I tried the don't look at the camera guy technique..it didn't work too well.  Then the following year I tried oh I see the camera guy I will smile like I am enjoying this run.  I was so excited to see those pictures....then I was wondering what happened to my nice smiling pictures???  Then I had the run where I was sick and just wanted to be done and never saw the camera guy or really cared about the camera guy...in every instance I looked horrible!  This year I would love, love, love a nice picture. 

Anyone have a great pictures that they have had from a race?  Any ideas on what I can do to get a nice race picture..maybe I could do the two thumbs up every time I see them...I am willing to try anything lol.

Girls Run with Pride

Girls Run with Pride (my girl's running club at school) has been coming together.  I decided to call us girls run with Pride because our school mascot is the lion..lion's pride...and hopefully we will be learning about how to be proud of ourselves..very clever if I do say so myself. 

I got a bunch of 3rd, 4th and 5th grade girls that were interested in joining.  I picked 12 girls names this morning and announced them on the morning announcements.  The girls were really excited.  I gave them their permission slips which have to be returned on Thursday.  We will see how many girls return them on time.  Monday is our first practice.  Yeah!  Hopefully I have a positive experience and will be willing to do it again next year ;)  Tomorrow I am going to let the staff know about my Girls Run with Pride group and offer up the chance to train with us to any willing staff member along with begging asking if anyone would be interested in running with one of the girls in May for their first 5k.  I hope I have enough teachers that would be willing to run in the 5k so that each girl will have a running buddy to run the race with...fingers crossed.

ok, the running gods are working against me! I went to the gym and realized I forgot my water bottle...great! Well I decided I was going to run 3 miles to get me back into the groove (yeah that's what we are calling what I was formally doing before I got sick). Tomorrow I will run 6 or 7..I will see how I feel. Then Friday or Sat it is 9 miles...

2 weeks till the 10 miler and 3 till the 1/2 marathon..should I start running now??

So the kids at school gave me my first bout of strep.  Yeah me!  I know hard to believe I work with kids and it has taken me this long to contract strep...what can I say I am a pink eye sort of girl ;)  So needless to say I haven't been running.  I thought I had the flu on Thursday night (exhausted, headache, sore throat and fever) and the sore throat just didn't clear up over the weekend, so it took me till Sunday to go to the doctor to find out that I had strep..looks like another sick day on Monday. 

So with such a short time before I run the cherry blossom 10 miler and then the next weekend the Flying Pirate 1/2 marathon in OBX.  I think I might have to cancel running club this evening....grrr...I really like running club.  I figure this will get me to bed early (This will be the first day back to work and I have been taking lots of naps and getting up really late for the last 5 days).  I also figure that I can attempt a 6 mile run tonight and then come home and go to bed.  Then 4 or 5 miles on Wed...Zumba on Thursday and long run either Friday after work or Saturday morning before Kristi and the my favorite nieces come to visit on Saturday.  Then next week some 5 mile runs with a 9 mile run next weekend...Hopefully that will get me on some sort of track before all the races.  At this point with all of training lack of running I am hoping to finish alive.

Well looks like I am off to work.  Hope everyone has a great day :)

7 mile run...Fail....3 mile run completed

So my plan was to run 7...failed!

It was a nice day for a run.  All I could think about was I didn't want to run and it is going to be really nice later in the week.  I mean so nice that I would be really really sad if I used up my 7 mile run on a nice day and didn't save it for a really nice day.  So I am saving it for a really nice day this week.  I then finished my 5k run.  Which I guess is fine.  But really I need to run 7 miles this week.  I am 3 weeks out from the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and 4 weeks from the Flying Pirate Half...not good times to be skimping on the training runs. 

As payment for not completing my long run I will give Riley a bath tonight.  Poor Riley he is probably going to be asking himself what he did to deserve a bath. :(

crazy weekend

So this weekend started off with me letting my friend's dog out..turns out it is not smart to lock the deadbolt on the front door and then leave your keys along with the friend's house keys on the kitchen counter as you head out the locked back door with Holly the Shepperd.  Holly was a bit confused why we kept going to the front and then to the back of the house.  I did learn I am not a good burglar.  So then we headed off to walk along a very busy Rt 1 which really does not have a lot of walking room.  It didn't help that it was rush hour on a Friday when I am walking down the road to get to my house about a mile and half away.  I am sure the drivers were wondering why in the world I was walking my dog along a busy road instead of in a neighborhood.  So I made it without getting hit and luck would have it that my neighbor was home so he called my three friends that live at Holly's house.  Of course nobody picked up their phone!  So I called school and Becky was still there and she drove the 30 mins to pick me up and let me in her house.  Holly was saved!!  I also lucked out when I got in my house Holly got along with Riley pretty well.  Riley just wanted to follow her around and sniff her ( I don't think Holly enjoyed that too much).  So my 15 min. let Holly out and feed her turned into 2 hrs of fun.  So needless to say my 7 mile run was canceled. 

Saturday my friend Rachel came in from Ohio to go to Shamrockfest in DC. 



It was such a nice day!  For the past 2 years we have had rainstorms during shamrockfest.  This year it was warm and no rain! :)  Yippee!!  We met a bunch of interesting people.  Needless to say I was feeling the festivities the next day...so no running on Sunday.  My 7 miles has now moved to Monday.  Grrr...

Well here are some pictures of fun Shamrockfest!

Girls' Run Club

So I have decided to start a girls running club at my elementary school.  I have done Girls on the Run at my previous school and liked it.  I was going to do Girls on the Run at my school now, but I didn't get my application in on time so I decided to do my own version of Girls on the Run. 

Today I got the letter to go home and I tried to find a race for us to run that was local.  Much harder than I thought.  I am all for driving for a race, but I am not sure how parents would feel having to get up really early to go to a race that is 30 to 40 minutes away.  So local it is.  I found a great 5k that a high school was sponsoring.  How great we can support other students and run our first 5k.  So I printed out the flyer and put the name of the run in the letter to the parents...then half way through the day someone mentions Memorial Day Weekend...crap!  Yep I picked a race on Memorial Day Weekend.  Back to the drawing board.  So I found a race at the beginning of May that supports the family of a slain local police officer.  Same area but a few weeks less of training.  I am thinking of 12 girls for the run.  It looks like I might have some other teachers willing to pop in to help, but not sure how reliable they will be.  My assistant thinks that the kids will not be able to afford the 20 dollar entry fee.  I don't think she enjoyed my response of then don't join the running club.  Most of those kids have multiple game systems and a bunch of games at 50 dollars a pop...a 20 dollar race fee is not that bad.  Hopefully my run group will get approved by the principal.  Fingers crossed.

no running for me...

So I haven't ran in  about a week.  I was sick with a head cold last week so all I did was down Nyquil like it was my business.  This weekend I was planning on running...but I didn't.  Instead I sat on the couch and read books and watched tv.  I know that what  a productive weekend.  I had planned on running 5 miles but that didn't turn out to happen.  So tonight I finally ran...only a few miles, but I didn't walk at all and I ran!  Yeah!!  Tomorrow is run club, so I didn't want to over do it tonight.  That and it was starting to get chilly outside.  Outside running really makes such a difference in my running.  I hate running at the gym. 

Tonight is Too fat for 15.  I love that show!  I can't wait to see if the kids lost weight since last year.  I am so addicted to fat shows!  Last night was Ruby on Style..love that show too.  Her friends so enable her eating...I couldn't imagine being Ruby's size.