Vloggin' Wednesday - bike

Here is a picture of my bike that I talk about/show you in my video.

Tuesday's Tunes - I RUN THIS TOWN

I almost talked myself out of running early this morning.  I still have yet to get a grip on my night time sleeping.  My new normal bedtime is 10 - 11 p.m.  EVERY NIGHT I think....I'm going to get to bed by 9.  And it just doesn't happen.  As I stood at my alarm I reset it for another hour of sleep and told myself I would run this afternoon.  When I crawled back into bed the thought Tuesday's Tunes popped into my head.  OH NO!  I can't blog until I have tunes to post.  And I really didn't want to wait until that late in the day to blog either.  For the most part, I really like to have this done as early as possible.  So I got up and going.....just for YOU ALL!

I was suppose to run 4 miles, but due to some extra motivation, that I will tell you about next, I threw in another mile or so.  I had enough time before my class, so why not.  Even though it was a "cool" 55 when I headed out at 5 a.m. I really worked up a sweat.  It took me awhile to get my stride flowing, but once I did I felt like I was flying.  I was SO thankful I did get myself up and running early! 

I didn't plan it, but I had a Michael Jackson theme to my music today.  When I run, I hit shuffle and let the randomness of 2600+ songs take me on my run.  I started with a MJ song (it's just what was on and playing when I started) and noticed a few more in there and ended with an MJ song.  Twice I did skip a song because it was really was just too boring for running.  When I have this situation I just hit the next button.  I don't go searching for a specific song.  Here are my tunes for today:

Heal the World - Michael Jackson
Eight is Enough - TV theme song
Seinfield - TV theme song
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
I Just Can't Stop Loving You - Michael Jackson
Blue - LeAnn Rimes
Rainbow Brite & Me - TV theme song
Papi - Jennifer Lopez
Friends - Michael W. Smith
Doogie Howser, M.D. - TV theme song
Take It to the Limit - The Eagles
Praclaim the Glory of the Lord - Steve Green
Bad - Michael Jackson
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf - 3 Little Pigs
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
Beat It - Michael Jackson



I have a new challenge to work through this summer.  It's called I RUN THIS TOWN.  The idea originated from my hometown running group, Muscatine Running Friends, where through out the course of a year they ran every single street in Muscatine.  This running club meets on Wednesday nights, Saturday & Sunday mornings.  They really are one great group of runners.  I love them to pieces and can not speak highly enough of them.  Many in the group completed what they set out to do and got cute t-shirts on them that have the map of the town and and logo to match.  I had considered doing this where I live (I live a little too far away to run with them all the time), but never got past the thought process.  Recently, my husband, Jim, had been talking about doing the same thing.  Thanks to some extra motivation and a challenge from him to get it done I decided to start in on this task.  Sometimes when I go out to run I have specific streets to run to cross off my list.  Other times it just happens while I am out on a run.  That is why this morning I added the extra loop.  I was able to knock a little neighborhood off my list since I was right there & had the time to run around it. 

I have a goal to get every street in Galesburg run by Labor Day.  I plan to make this the theme of my Monday posts to update you and let you know how things are going.  What about YOU?   Can you run your town?  Any Galesburgians want to join me in this challenge?  What about where you live?  Will you be able to say YOU RUN THIS TOWN?!?!?!

Friday's Findings & a Virtual Race

I didn't post last week about my find from that week so I combined it with this weeks find.  Last week I was running down Carl Sandburg Dr., as I often do to loop back to the Y and I saw a pair of flip flops.  It's not uncommon to find one shoe while out running, but usually not a complete pair.  It was quite obvious that to begin with these were very cheap flip flops.  They reminded me of the shower shoes that we wore in the Army.  Cheap & basic. 

Having recently battled plantar fasciitis I knew these shoes were a big no - no.  Which is not fair, because I'm very guilty of being a flip flop lover.  Very!  I wouldn't mind so much if my pf would flare up and give me problems all winter long when it's normal for me to wear strong supporting shoes.  But during the summer....come ooooooon!  So cheap, flip floppy shoes have become a past thing for me (make no mistake I'm still a huge sandal person, I just have to stick to good, sturdy, supportive ones).  Upon inspection of these particular shoes I could see how worn and "bad" these shoes were for any person.  No wonder the person threw them away. 

My second treasure I found yesterday was a bank debit/credit card.  Complete, intact with signature on the back card.  I have no clue if it's valid or not.  I see it's not expired.  Maybe it was stolen and someone ditched it.  Maybe she lost it.  I'm going to drop it in the mail and send it to the bank.  If anything for peace of mind that someone doesn't have the card in their possession.

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I had stopped talking about it, but today/tomorrow was suppose to be my Back Yard 100 miler.  In light of my problems with pf and taking the whole month of May off I  had to tuck this dream away FOR NOW!  It still floats in my mind and I want to just start running NOW and go and go and go and go.  It's really just a personal goal & dream that I want to do this.  It will happen, I promise.

In the mean time I'm working on getting a good base built up for Howl at the Moon, my 8 hour ultra in August.  I also have a little streak going on.  Run everyday for at least 1 mile.  I know Runner's World has one going on from Memorial Day to July 4th.  I'm hoping to extend mine from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  After that, we'll see...it might just keep going.  To help keep from getting the training blues and things turning mundane I have signed up to do a virtual 5/10k Race.  If you don't know what that means, you sign up on the great blog and agree to run/race a 5 or 10k or both between the dates of June 18 - 25.  You can actually compete in a race (which I plan to do the Railroad Days 5k on June 23) or make up your own time & place (which I plan to do for a 10k).  You can run against yourself or you can run against other people.  The idea is to get you out there to RUUUUUUN!  Now there's an idea! : )  Speaking of which, I need to go do myself.  One mile today.  I'm running on little sleep AGAIN so I'm not feeling over ambitious.  (It was so worth it to be out until to 2 a.m. with a gf at Steak 'n Shake though)

Have a great weekend everyone!  Don't wear cheap, basic flip flops.  Go make sure your bank debit/card is not missing.  And go sign up for this virtual 5/10k Run.

Three Things Thursday

1. I have been up since 4 a.m. I went to bed shortly after midnight. Do the math. Amazingly though I feel fine. I do expect to crash & burn at some point though. I really, REALLY need to work on my sleeping schedule. I know ultimately it's my responsibility, but my kid's summer schedule is throwing me for a loop. This is nothing new. I go through this every summer. On the plus side with such a carefree schedule (most of the time) I can afford to take a little snoozy this afternoon. I love soaking up the sun, so just when I'm ready to crash & burn I will throw on my swimsuit and go lounge/nap out in my lawn chair. I'm not a heavy sleeper so I'll hear the kids if they scream bloody murder over something & demand my attention. Even then I'll lay there half asleep and decide if they are just being over dramatic (my kids? neeeveeeeer?!?!?!) or perhaps need a good "KNOCK IT OFF!". Either way they'll survive mommy's little snooze time in the sun and we'll all be one happy family!  What is your sleep schedule like right now?  Does it being summer effect your normal routine?

2. I have been sitting out on my front porch for quite some time now.  This is my favorite place to be in the morning.  It has taken me way too long to get this post done.  I keep finding myself staring out into who knows what.  Just enjoying my quiet time.  Although it's not truly quiet since I have music playing on my ipod.  Among many things music can soothe my soul, quiet me down and leave me feeling refreshed.  What are some things you do for quiet time?

3.  In 16 days we leave for our annual vacation to IRBC Family Camp.  I am SO EXCITED!  I just want to hit fast forward and get there NOW!  I grew up going to this camp and this will be our 11th year attending as a family.  It was there a year ago is when I made my introductory vlog posts to kick of SRE.  Yay!  I'm coming up to my one year anniversary!  I will need to think of something special to celebrate my past year with you all.  Anyway....vacation.  I'm really looking forward to it and the awesomeness that always surrounds it.  I CAN'T WAIT!!!!    What are your vacation plans do you have for this summer?  Is there somewhere or something you do every summer to get away?

Vloggin' Wednesday - Splish Splash

Running solo

Last Sunday was the inaugural Galesburg Half Marathon Express.  I swear if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if I was running I'd be really rich!  Add another dollar for each time I had to tell them no, see their look of confusion/surprise then try and explain why I wasn't running....even richer.  Now that the race is done I STILL have people asking me if I ran and when I tell them no I have to explain AGAIN!  I need a shirt that says NO I DID NOT RACE THIS WEEKEND! because I'm ready to punch the next well meaning person that asks me about it.

I know I don't owe anyone an explanation, but I'll tell you anyway.  I didn't race because I went to church.  Sunday's is always a conflicting day for me to run when it requires me to miss church.  I was born and raised to go to church every Sunday.  Not so much church, as in the building, but my faith in God is a very vital part of who I am and that leads me to attend church the way I do.  You may or may not have known that about me.  I don't hide my faith in anyway, but I don't believe in shoving it in people's faces either.  I don't use my blog as a platform, but I have mentioned and worked my beliefs into a blog post from time to time when it works that way.

Anyway, I am in no way a be in church on Sunday or burn in hell type of person.  I don't know anywhere in the Bible where is says you MUST attend service every Sunday in a building between the times of 9 a.m. - 12 noon.  I still do on MOST Sundays, but that is my choice, my doing....not because I believe I "have" to.  I've been known to skip church for a lot of reasons, some of them even racing.  However, it's not the norm for me and my family.

Months ago when I hear about this race being formed & coming to town I was beyond excited!  How nice to race in your own backyard.  I remember it being the first thing I wrote in my 2012 calender.  Nothing was going to stand in my way of this race.  I knew from the get go that it would be on a Sunday.  In many ways that would still work just find.  My church offers 2 services and I could easily run and still make it to the second service that I normally attend anyway.  No problemo!   If I didn't want to push the time I could opt for the 5k and still make it ok.  As time went on though, something else came up that would change it all.  Our church had a big praise gathering on this same Sunday and the choir was singing several pieces during the 1st service.

If there is something that I love as much as running, it's music.  I think I was born signing and from the age of 4 I have been up on the stage singing my heart out for Jesus.  In school I was always in choir & have a long list of accomplishments in the area.  Don't get me wrong, I am in no way the next American Idol, but singing & music completes me almost as much as running does.  I'm not sure if one does more than the other.  What is even better is when they collide.  Ever see me out running while I"m totally jamming along to a song and singing my heart out.  Yeah, I'm sure it's quite a sight.  It's like a runner's high x 10.  Amazing!

So I sing in the choir which on occasion means I attend the 1st service.  I do this because I want to....I really, really want to.  When I realized the two created a huge conflict I had to choose.  This made it even harder.  *I* had to make this decision, in advance, and follow through with it.  *Siiiiigh*  Why, can't life be easy?!?!?!?  So, I knew in advance this was how it was going to be.  I made up my mind well in advance to not even start whining and complaining about what was going to happen.  Aside from being driven crazy (short drive) with the constant inquires about my running status, I think I did ok.   Yes, I really missed being part of the race.  I had hoped to volunteer and still be part of the race without racing, but remember last week I told you there was a snafoo, an oversight, something...I don't know, but I'm sure it was a honest mistake and I had to miss out on that too.

On Saturday I had a light bulb moment to still go out on race day and run the 13.1 mile course.  It would require me to be up and running by 5 a.m.  Yikes.....but I could do it.  If I wanted it bad enough I would make it happen.  So that was the plan, until I was up until 1 a.m. that morning.  Instead of being up and running at 5, I was just rolling out of bed.  I still decided to head out for a run and complete the 5k course instead.  When I got to the start/finish line (which they were in the process of getting set up) I heard a few whoops and hollers from my friends Matt & Tracy.  I won't lie, I started to tear up a little bit, knowing that I was going to miss out on the race time excitement.  I hollered at Matt & Tracy that I would be THE FIRST person that morning to run and cross the finish line.  I got a lot of weird looks and comments from people who were setting up the course.  Yes, I know the race doesn't start for 3 more hours!!!!  When I came back around to the finish line area I ran hard like I really was finishing.  I have no idea on time, I was just out there to run the course and even then I still had to run back home.  When I did get back to the area there were several groups of volunteers standing around.  I tried really REALLY hard to just casually run through the area, but several people were turning to look at this psycho me.  So to make fun of the moment and my craziness I turned, looked at everyone, gave a fist pump and yelled at the top of my lungs "5k course all cleared & good to go!"  I HAD to laugh at myself and get others to join too to just enjoy the moment and my day!

I was able to go down before the race for a little bit to talk to some friends and encourage them before they started.  Once 1st service was done I snuck back down there for a little bit to see some friends finish and talk to more people.  I'm sure that did not help the non stop questions.  Here I was dressed for church, milling around and not looking like my usual self on a race day.  It was still great to be there & do what I could.  I know that I could have done things the other way around and maybe it would have made no difference at all.  I just know that on this day for this particular conflict, choosing to sing with the choir is what I felt was right to do.  Maybe next year it will be different.  Who knows.  Either way the race itself was a great success.  Many people came out, I've heard nothing but non stop positive things about how things went.  That still makes it all worth the experience even I didn't participate in the traditional way.

And the winners are....

Congratulations!
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Email me at 6packmomma@gmail.com to give me your mail information and choice of band (first come, first serve). I will get it in the mail TODAY!!!! (or as soon as you contact me)

Thanks to everyone who participated. I sure wish I could give everyone a Bondi Band.  They are amazing and a must have for your running needs!  If you want to order some bands on your own here a few coupon codes for you to use:

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You can also buy some amazing Bondi Bands at Go Outside and Play.  They have a selection available there for purchase.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!!