Let the Madness begin!

 This morning I had a 7 miles run to do.  I tried a new course, more hills but less boring.  Went OK.  I brought the fuel belt because it is already warm here.  I am not a fan of the belt.   I don't think I could  run a race with it.  Next week I am trying the liquid shot and I will bring it in my hands.   When I got back it was Duke time!  They were playing UNC for the ACC Final.  This was me before the game:

They won!
3 YEAR IN A ROW.  THERE IS NO DUKE IS OVERRATED

3 pm: The brackets were announced:

Number 1 in the West!

These guys are number 2 and they deserve it 100%:

But who is scared of that?

Not this guy:

Elite Eight in Anaheim: That is where they could meet. 

Here's to hoping they will! 

All is good for now

Duke won AGAIN!
Final tomorrow against UNC AGAIN!  Better be better then last time Duke played them.
Then we get to the serious stuff: THE BRACKETS!

Ran 3 easy miles today.  Tomorrow got 7 on the program, trying to go early before the winds show up..supposed to be bad tomorrow. I hate running against the wind.

Loosing an hour of sleep today...not good when you have 2 kids aged 5 and 6.

Went to a Karate birthday party today.  That was hilarious!

Jonathan breaking the piece of wood!

I went accros the street to get a coffee at Starbucks and on my way back I saw this

See the bike? To the left of the pick up? The clown driving the pick up hit a guy that was on that bike.  When he realized what he had done, he figured the best thing to do was to back up...without looking if there was another car behind....OOOPS! BANG!

Nobody got hurt.

2 young punks got out of the pick up.  Went to check on the young guy they hit. 

Really pissed off older lady came out of the car that was behind the pick up.

NICE JOB!

Speedwork and 80 friends!

Yesterday I ran an easy 3 miles. 
Could have been be easier if there was A LOT less pollen in the air.  Next week I have to have a skin test for my allergies, the one in the arm with needle IN the muscle..fun times ahead...so I am off antihistamine for 5 miserable days.  That means no meds for my 7 miles on Sunday.  I wish I lived closer to the beach for this time of year.

Today Speedwork at the gym. 
I had to do 7 x 400m at 5k pace.
I did 5 at 5 sec faster then 5k pace and 2 at 12 sec faster then 5k pace.  90 sec rest (fast walking) in between.  Is that too much rest? It does not say anything about rest time on the program just to walk between each repeat.
5 miles total.
It went great.  I like those workout better then tempo run. 

Still have not decided about Fall half marathon...leaning towards Long Beach and doing the 10k race at the Mission Inn race in Riverside like I did last year.  Thank you to those who left me a comment regarding this!!!

I got 80 followers now! Thank you so much !  I never thought I would have 1 follower so this is fantastic!

I will miss Will's game this Saturday :(.  Bill is in charge of the kids and taking pictures! We'll see how good that goes!!!
I hate missing games, what if he scores a goal and I am not there?!

Big NCAA basketball weekend coming up! If you hear loud screams with a few cuss words in French coming from Southern California it will be ME yelling at my TV!
GO DUKE!

WEEK 5- training plan

This is what I had to do last week, I did what is in red.  Allergy season has started here and this is not good for me.  :(

WEEK 4:
Mon: 3.5 miles: 3.5 miles
Tue: stretch and strength + XT: stretch and abs + arms and 30 min bike
Wed: 3 miles: 3 miles
Thu: 35 min tempo: 25 min tempo + 4 x400 intervals. 5 miles
Fri: REST: rest
Sat: REST or easy 3 miles: 3 miles
Sun: 5k race Susan G Komen Race for the Cure: 5k race with a PR.
TOTAL: 17.6 miles

WEEK 5
Mon: 4 miles: 4 miles
Tue: stretch and strength + XT: stretch and abs + arms and 30 min bike
Wed: 3 miles
Thu: Speedwork: 7x400 at 5k pace
Fri: REST:
Sat: XT or 3 miles:
Sun: 7 miles:

Now that I know my 5k pace it will be easier to know what pace to use for speedwork.
I used the The McMillan Running Calculator and I hope this will help me with those workout.  Now that I know I CAN run "faster" I have to figure out how to do that LONGER and without the GI problems.  It is getting warmer here and I will need to get better at hydration also.

Looking to add another half marathon to my schedule for October or November.
I got the Disneyland on September 4th.

My 3 choices are

1. Long Beach October 9th:
Pros: nice course by the water and FREE race for the kids.  Easy for family to go cheer runners along the course  Con: just one month after Disneyland, is that enough time for me?

2. LA Rock n Roll  October 30th
Pros: A little closer to my home, 3 weeks later then Long Beach.  Cons: A pain for the family of the runner to come cheer along the course because of parking, more $$, location not the prettiest.

3. Mission Inn Half marathon November 14th
Pros: closer, cheaper, 2 mos after Disneyland.  Cons: Course is hilly and very windy there usually.  Last year I ran the 10k and it was VERY windy.

Race Report: 2011 Los Angeles Susan G Komen Race for the Cure 5k

With Will before the race

Today is my 1 year Runiversary!
I went back to the very first race I ran: The Susan G Komen Race for the Cure in Los Angeles.  This was at Dodger Stadium.  It was a beautiful day, great weather!

We got there at 7:45 am.  I was a team leader this year and I wanted to meet with everyone before the race!  They had a gate up to separate the runners from the walkers.  That was a good idea but one of the woman "in charge" was drunk on power and she was yelling at the runners to go lined up 20 minutes before the start so we had to take our pictures minus 3 people.  Sorry Julie! :(

My TEAM minus a couple people, I am in the middle with the hat.

All of these fine people walked except me and Rebekah my wonderful babysitter.  She is on the far left in pink top.  Shana, in the pink survivor t-shirt is the reason we did this!

After that I headed to the starting line with Rebekah:

Lot's of people at this race.  Lot's of pink everywhere, lot's of survivors, this is a special race.  I was feeling OK, not great, thanks to the allergy season in action here in California.  Right at the start we had to go up  a nasty HILL.  I remembered from last year.  That was hard.  It is long and steep.  I had trouble breathing during that but I kept telling myself that it would go down eventually!  And it did!  Rebekah and I stayed together for the most part.  First mile pace faster then I thought.  I was wondering if I could keep this for another 2.  I don't like 5k I am so not a sprinter.

They had 3 water stations on the course and I decided to skip all of them, I did not want to walk and I cannot drink and run.  Rebekah stopped at one but she caught up with me at the end.  At the second station some guy took a cup and tripped on someone and his water ended up on me making me look like I had peed on myself! Thank you dude in the black hat!



Nice look I know!  Jonathan said " Mom you KNOW they have toilets here!!!"

I finished 6 minutes faster then last year: 29:52.  I placed 10 in my age group.  This is my first time under 30 minutes for a 5k.  I am happy with that considering the HILL at mile 1 and that I am not 100%.

   



With Rebekah at the end.  She beat me by 22 seconds! I am OK with that.  She is 16 yrs YOUNGER then me!!!



With Julie from The HotLegs Runner

Julie it was so nice to meet you today!  I look like a giant next to you!!!

Jonathan working on his quads!!!



Allergy 1 Caroline 0 and my Devils played like CRAP

Allergy season is here! boooooooo hoooooo hoooooo!
It sucks. :(
I cannot breath.

On the program today I had rest day but I took a rest yesterday that is enough.  I went for a 3 miles run after Will's first soccer game.  Not the best plan.  It would have been better for me to run BEFORE the game.   Instead, I sat in  the middle of a huge field of grass for an hour or so and then I went running, of course by then I had a hard time breathing. 

Tomorrow I have a 5k race at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.   This is the race that started this whole running thing for me.  The Susan G Komen race for the Cure.  It will be my 1st year running anniversary!  I have  team of 20 runners and walkers!  Should be fun!  I have no big expectations as far as time goes.  We will see how I feel I guess.  I know I will do better then last year, not hard to beat my turtle time of 35 min!!!  5k is not my favorite distance, I am not a sprinter.

DUKE is playing North Carolina in 5 minutes so I must go and park myself in front of the TV.  Jason are you ready for this?

***Game over: it was a sad performance by my blue Devils and a great one by NC****


Here are some soccer pictures because well there is a lot of RUNNING  in soccer!!!
We are the Thunder Bolts!
Will is #5 and was the goalie for a half, first time at goalie, he was pretty brave!!

The always hilarious jumping jacks!!

"I HATE THE SUN!!!!!!"

Maybe he should be a runner?!!

GOALIE!

THE TUNNEL! A MUST AFTER A GAME!! Jonathan loves to do this!

Ah to be 6 again.....!

AWARDS

It is  Awards day in my family.

I won my second PUKIE AWARD!

This one is for my most recent race you can read about it here!
Don't know what a Pukie Award is? Oh no...means you are not a follower of Big Daddy Diesel.
Go visit his blog you will not regret it I promise.
Thank you BDD for this honor...my stomach appreciate the recognition it is getting!
Seriously I hope I stop winning these things real soon because it is not fun for me to have this happening at the end of almost every race!

Today was REST day for me.  Tomorrow is supposed to be REST day also because I have a race on Sunday but I decided I will go for a short 3 miles after Will's soccer game.  Yep we are already starting a new sport season, right after basketball ended, now it is soccer time.  I do not coach soccer, I get to be the crazy mom who cheers way too much and takes 243 pics per game.

Now to the real AWARD winner in my family: My son Will.
Yes I will brag about this boy, I gave birth to him and I get to brag about the good stuff!
This morning I went to the 2nd trimester award ceremony.

Will received 3 awards:
1. Achievement in Maths and Reading.
2. Math Champ - only first grader to get that one.
3. Accelerated Reader awards : HONOR READER: He was the only kid to get this one for 1st and 2nd grade.

Can you tell this mommy is really PROUD?   Before I had Will and Jonathan,  I was working as an engineer.  I always thought I would continue to work outside the house after having kids.  Well the plan changed and I became a stay at home parent.  It was not easy for me in the beginning.  This is a HARD job people.  On days like today I know I made a good decision 6 years ago.

 Will with some of his classmates and his wonderful teacher.

 Those are the Math Champs! 14 kids only out of 4 2nd grade classes.

 Getting his AR award from the Principal.

 The GOLDEN Button!

Somebody deserves a little treat for all this!

I'm going home!!

I am going home!!!
We got the tickets! It is official! I am going HOME! MAY 26th!!!
I am so happy!!!
I had that song in my head all day I think I sang it out loud at the gym while I was running on the treadmill..sorry people next to me: I am NO American Idol!

Speaking of Idol..who do you like?
I LOVE Paul McDonald and Casey Abrams

Speaking of running on the treadmill...
Well I got to the gym and before I started my workout I made a call to try to get an appointment with the allergy Dr.  When I called they said to come right away.  I am so miserable these days that I packed my stuff,  got Jonathan and went to see the Dr.
He told me I have severe congestion, the worst he has ever seen.
No wonder I feel like I have been hit by a bus.

After that visit I went back to the gym to do my speedwork. 
I had 35 min tempo today.  I ran 1 mile easy and increased the speed for the 35 tempo...after 25 min I wanted to DIE.  I had a really hard time breathing, SEVERE congestion will do that to you.    I slowed down a bit for the rest of the 35 and so I did not complete the tempo portion like I was supposed to.  Because of that I decided to add 4x400 intervals.  Punishment for not finishing the 35 min at tempo pace.  5 miles total.

I got some new meds let's hope they work because if they don't I will have to take Prednisone and I HATE to take that.  But I cannot stay like this.  It sucks.  All the bones in my face hurt. :(  OK 1-2-3:  Poor me.

Rest day tomorrow.  It is the awards ceremony at Will's school.  He is getting 3 awards.  I will be smiling a lot pain or no pain!!!

ABC's

Went for 3 miles this morning.  I got a sinus infection and it sucks but for some reason while I run it sucks a little less.  

ABC's of Caroline

A~Age: 42

B~ Bed Size: California King,  Maggie, my Golden Retriever thinks it is hers.

C~Chore you hate: folding laundry..contour sheets are the worst

D~Dogs: One Maggie

E~Essential Start your Day Item: COFFEE

F~Favorite Color: Blue

G~Gold or Silver: Neither, I prefer the natural stones and really simple things.

H~Height: Too Tall: 5'11"

I~Instruments you play: I played flute when I was younger. 

J~Job Title: Mom of  Will and Jonathan. Operation Director of my house.  CEO of the E. Family. 

K~Kids: Will 6 yrs old and Jonathan 5 yrs old.

L~Live: California wish it was Canada instead.

M~Mom’s Name: Cécile

N~Nicknames: Caro and Bird (not the kind that can fly)

O~Overnight Hospital Stays: 5: Twice for giving birth, Twice for surgeries and once for Mononucleosis (was pretty bad).

P~Pet Peeve: People who talk or and kick my seat at the movies.

Q~Quote from a Movie:    "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary." and "You can't handle the truth!"

R~Right or Left Handed: Left

S~Siblings: Younger Brother, 16 mos younger.

T~Time you wake up: 7 am

U~Underwear: Hello Kitty...no no just kidding.

V~Vegetable you Dislike: Brussel Sprouts, Tomatoes and ALL Beans.

W~What Makes You Late: Nothing.  I am always early.

X~X-rays You’ve had Done: I broke 7 bones so far so lot's of X rays.

Y~Yummy Food you Make: Homemade Spaghetti sauce.

Z~Zoo Animal Favorite: Gorillas.

Week 4 of training for Half Marathon #2

It is going fast..already at week 4 and in March and that means that best time of the year for MOI is near!!!!

My Blue Devils had a set back last weekend... That made some really mean people woman with fancy belt buckle happy...It's OK I can handle it.  We will show up when it counts. YOU WILL SEE MISSY.

Training plan:

Last week's recap: What a week! I had the chance to run with Dean Karnazes and I had a PR in my 10k race on Sunday

Week 3:
Mon: 3 miles: 3.25 miles
Tue: stretch and strength + XT: bike +abs and arms
Wed: 3.5 miles: 3.5 miles
Thu: Speedwork: 6x400m 5k pace: 4 miles
Fri: REST: rest
Sat: REST: 5k Run with Dean
Sun: 10k race: 10k Race with PR!
total: 20 miles

WEEK 4:
Mon: 3.5 miles: 3.5 miles
Tue: stretch and strength + XT:
Wed: 3 miles
Thu: 35 min tempo
Fri: REST:
Sat: REST or easy 3 miles:
Sun: 5k race Susan G Komen Race for the Cure:

Last Saturday was our last game with my basketball team.  I am not sad, this was a hard group to coach.  3 out of 9 were all THERE..the 6 others were in their own little world.  I know they are still young but usually it's not THAT bad.  I do this for my kid.  At least he was in the 3 that were all there!