2013 Year in Review

It’s crazy to think that the year is a day away from being over. I feel like since having kids, time goes by at a different pace than before. People would tell me when I was pregnant with my first, my daughter, to cherish the moments because before I’ll know it, time will fly by. Back then, I thought it was just hogwash and would just smile and nod. But whoa! It’s true!

There are so many things I’m thankful for in 2013. So many things that I can reflect on and call special moments. But, I’m going to slim it down to 13 highlights. In no particular order, well, in chronological order… : )

January: I had signed up for the P.F Chang’s Rock n Roll ½ marathon months before and found out I was pregnant the second time two months before this race. I went back and forth on whether or not I should still run it. I decided, literally the night before, that I’d do it and walk/jog the 13.1 miles. Here I am with my husband and my son 13 weeks in my tummy : )

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2. April: My daughter turned ONE this month. I just can’t believer that my little girl is growing up so soon and right before my eyes. She is my little energizer bunny that constantly keeps me on my toes. I
love her.

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3. May: This was my last month of work. It was a super hard decision to leave my job and become a stay-at-home-mom. There are times that I still wonder if I did the right thing. I love being with my kids and sharing special moments with them, but I also miss my other kids. I miss reading literature and teaching writing and listening to my students’ stories. I miss my co-workers and the knowledge they shared with me. There is a possibility of me returning this fall; I have yet to decide on what I’ll do.

4. July: Helping to start and being a part a Healthy Moms group has been such a rewarding experience. Every day I post a Daily Check-in with a pump up song where moms check in with their workouts. I love reading what the women are doing and seeing their accomplishments. So many have said that the group has inspired them to change their lives and being even a small part of that gives me chills. I may never meet any of them, but knowing I’m remotely a part of their change makes me so happy.

5. July: Oh my goodness, my son was born this month. Throughout my entire pregnancy, I called my son a chill dude and that’s exactly what he is. He is such a good baby. He’s happy wherever he’s at and whatever he’s doing. He’s just cool.

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Seeing him and holding him, I knew our family was complete. We have our beautiful daughter and now our son, we couldn’t be more blessed.

6. September: Having been pregnant for what seemed like two straight years (my kids are 16 months apart), I was extremely antsy to get back on the workout field. At 3 weeks post-partum, I began going to hot yoga and at 6 weeks post baby, I ran my first 5k! It was a slow one, but it felt oh so good!

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7. October: I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’m pretty obsessed with my husband. I won the lottery with this guy. Our anniversary is in this month and every year we try and do something fun and memorable. Last year, we ran the Bisbee 1000 and this year we took an amazing mini vacation to San Francisco. Any time I think of this trip, I smile. This trip was absolute perfection. Seriously, I could not name or think of one negative thing. It was just perfect.

8. November: Anytime I can run a race with my husband, I get all mushy and excited. We’ve been running our hometown’s Turkey Trot 5K 3 years now and this year we were super excited as I was finally NOT pregnant! Lol! We had goals in our minds as far as how we wanted to do and I was beyond excited at my final time of 25:40. I had been shooting for anything under 27 and boy did I deliver : )

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9. December: This was a busy month for me running wise. I ran the Hot Chocolate 15K early December and was just blown away. I honestly think back at this race and can’t believer that I actually did so well. My goal had been to finish in under 1:30 and my final time was 1:25 with a 9:11min/mile pace. !!!!

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10. I had a 5K race not too long after and I had a lofty goal of finishing under 25 minutes (I still can’t believe I’m even saying that!) I finished at 25:05 and was sooo close. But I’m so freaking excited that I’m even in that range and that I had gotten 2nd in my age group 😀

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11. Christmas this year was so special because it was our first Christmas in our own home. We chose not to travel this year and I’m so glad we didn’t. It was truly something special waking up and seeing my daughter’s eyes light up seeing the gifts under the tree—how did those get there!?!

12. I had a goal to run 5 races, one for each month of my son’s age at the end of the year : ), and I was able to complete that with 3 5Ks, 1 10K, and 1 15K.

Of course another goal was to lose as much baby weight as I could and with the year closing, I am very happy to announce I’m 7 pounds away from pre PRE pregnancy weight!

13. Finally, a highlight of my year has been “meeting” so many people through this blog and other social mediums related to my blog. I was so nervous about starting this but I’m so glad I did. I truly am thankful to my sole sister Salt, as she gave me the push I needed to get started and is a patient helping hand whenever I need it.

—Tell me about your 2013 highlights!!! I’d love to hear them !!

12 Days of Fitmas–Day 2

Hope you’re enjoying your weekend! Starting yesterday, I began the 12 days of Fitmas where each leading up to the big day, Christmas, I’ll have a “task” for you to work on. So…

On the 2nd day of Fitmas…

GET CREATIVE WITH YOUR WORKOUTS

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One of the biggest complaints I’ve been hearing lately is that people don’t have time to work out because of the holidays. I say, get creative!

Cooking up a storm in the kitchen? Throw in a few sets of calf raises while you’re waiting for those cookies to brown. The recipe calls for milk? Work out those biceps and triceps with the gallon before you put it back in the fridge. Forgot something in the living room? Lunge your way over there.

I’m serious.

I know it sounds silly but it’s all about using whatever time you have to be as productive as you can.

My daughter loves watching Sesame Street every morning so I’ll throw a blanket on the floor and we’ll lay and watch Elmo, Big Bird, and the gang. While it’s playing, I do leg raises and work out my thighs. Lauren thinks it’s hilarious when she sees my leg go up and down, up and down. I get to spend some time hanging out with my little girl and sneak in a mini leg work out. Win!

Too embarrassed of getting caught? Include your family and make it a fun day of finding ways to turn normal tasks into an exercise! While something is heating up in the microwave, tell your children to do jumping jacks until the timer beeps. Send your kids to pick up the mail and tell them to jog there (if you live in an area safe enough to do so). Have a family plank-a-thon. Set the timer on your phone and see who can last the longest.

What are some other ways you can get creative with a work out? I’d love to hear it!

Week Three Marathon Training Recap

One of the things I hear the most from people is, “You always have something going on!” It’s true. It’s like I thrive on having a lot to do jaja! That’s actually part of why my blog is named hellyontherun—I’m always running around everywhere, literally and figuratively

This past week was busy busy as I’m sure it was for most Americans preparing for the holidays. Last Sunday we began Christmas decorating (I know, I know, Thanksgiving hadn’t even happened) and I had the cutest little helper.

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I had to rearrange my training schedule for the holiday and because we were going out of town so I did my tempo run on Monday—a chill 4 miles. On Tuesday I had my doctor’s appointment to check out my shins which I wrote about here. Tuesday this guy also had an appointment–

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–his 4 month check-up. Yep, 4 months already!

That same day (told you I was busy) we hit the road down south.

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Wednesday, my husband and I ran an easy 2 miles to get acclimated to the cold weather. I love running in Douglas but I forget how cold it can get there.

Thursday was Turkey Trot 5k day and boy was it an awesome day : )

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Friday morning my husband and I did another easy 2 miles (I started the Runner’s World Streak Challenge on Thanksgiving) before we hit the road back to Phoenix.

Saturday morning at 5:30 I was up and ready for my long run, 8 miles. I decided that after a whirlwind week I’d make it an easy 8 so I started the first half of it at a very comfortable pace. The second half I picked up the pace. Here are my all over the place splits:

1- 10:48
2- 10:51
3- 10:56
4- 10:52
5- 10:43
6- 10:17
7- 10:08
8- 9:43

19 total miles for the week and finished November with a grand total of 50.43 miles.

Oh, and this happened today : )

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–Do you like having a lot of things going on?

–Are you excited for the holidays?