Speed up and slow down & longest run since 2019…

(Shirt, leggings)

I’m telling you, running is just the best because you can fulfill your mental, physical and social health needs ALL at once.   I came home in the best mood after talking with these girls for 2.5 hours.

I didn’t bring water, and Maddie saved me by sharing with me.  I need to start bringing my handheld water bottle on runs again (and maybe even my vest for the race?!).

One of my friends is training for the 25k that I am doing, one friend is training for Boston, and the rest were the best to join us on a very hilly run to prepare for our races.

In the first mile, I questioned if I would even make it to the hour mark because of how terrible I was feeling but with each mile, things felt a bit better (until I hit 14 miles and really had to push myself to keep up with my friends to get back to our cars).

My friend training for Boston needed 17 miles, so we decided to bump up what our plan (15-16) was and do her entire run with her.

17.19 miles @ 8:29 average, with most of the miles on the trails and a few on the roads.  This was my longest run since CIM in 2019!  The race we have next month is about 16.5 miles with about this much climbing, so now I feel confident I will be able to finish:)

I sat by the fire and stretched for a while after I finished.

The rest of our Saturday was pure family time.

The coolest part of the day was meeting Derek Parra!  He won two medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics for speed skating and he was the absolute nicest.

That gold medal looks good on her:)

Skye had the best time sleeping on the bottom bunk in Knox’s room (where Beck will be in a few years) while Brooke was gone… This made it so much easier for her because nights are when she misses Brooke the most.

My Sunday involved the back and forth flight to get Brooke from California.  She has been doing this for over eight years now and has become quite the experienced flyer.

I am not a big resolutions person (because I always quit a few weeks in, ha), but I have enjoyed coming up with a short phrase/mantra for the year and 2022’s is: Speed UP and Slow DOWN.  My simple goals this year are to push myself with my running and get comfortable being uncomfortable again, AND to slow down whenever I can in the rest of life.  I can get that need for speed out of my system in the morning and then find time to slow down in my relationships throughout the rest of the day.  Brooke and Knox are more than halfway through living here, and these years are going by too fast.  I have a hard time not constantly wanting to check items off of my to-do list, so my focus this year is to let the things that don’t matter wait because I’m happiest when I slow down and focus on the things that do.

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I know I’m a little late talking about year goals/mantras but do you have any for this year?

A question from Michelle, “I’d love to hear what everyone uses for caffeine before running. I have a sensitive stomach and can’t really eat, but I like to drink some caffeine before running.”

-For me, Nanohydr8 and one thing Hawk taught me was on marathon day to not take it until mile 16 and I LOVED that.   But normally if I am going to take it, I just use it before.