What a wonderful weekend!

 I needed a weekend like this! What a great weekend! We started the weekend off with "date night" on Friday night. Tim and I went with our friends/neighbors to another friends house for a wonderful dinner and then headed off to Rodney Carrington. Like I said in an earlier post, I have heard of him but I had no idea what to expect. For some reason I thought he was a singer - boy was I wrong! He is a comedian! I am not sure that I have ever heard that many swear words used in that amount of time! At times it felt like they were really not necessary but I do have to admit that he was pretty funny at times too! It was a fun night out with my hubby!

Saturday we played lazy and slept in. Once everyone was up and had eaten breakfast we decided that we better get our butts moving for our long run. Finally it was a beautiful spring day in Wisconsin - the sun was actually shining for a change! Riley and Isaac headed off to a local park with some older neighbor kids so they could play tennis and baseball for the afternoon. We loaded up the stroller with our water and Honey Stingers and some snacks and activities for Aidan and we took off on our 18 mile training run. We used the 4:1 run/walk ratio again and it worked great. In the beginning we had to tell ourselves to slow down and pace ourselves. We kept trying to push ourselves too much during the running portions which I think was the problem with our last longer run that sucked a couple of weeks ago. At about the 6 mile mark we made a quick stop at Kwik Trip for Tim and Aidan to use the bathroom. We also grabbed lunch for Aidan and Gatorade for us to split. After our stop the route got a little hilly.

Aidan enjoying the beautiful spring day!

This is where I really started to notice that I was pushing the stroller. It was great to have the stroller to carry everything though! At one point we had 7 deer run right towards us and then cross the path about 15-20 feet in front of us. Aidan loved seeing them that close! Tim and I talked a lot during most of the run. It was a great way to get caught back up after not seeing each other much last week due to me working extra. Other than my right arm/hand being a little sore from pushing the stroller, it didn't feel too bad! The last few miles were tough but as we looked back at our splits we started to speed things up a bit at that point. It was the longest run for all of us! In the end we got it done - 18 miles pushing the stroller, done in 3:12:10 (average pace 10:38/mile).

Playing at the park!

 Aidan did a great job being content in the stroller for that long - as soon as we got home he got on his bike and we walked with him to a local park where he got to play while we stretched. We are working on building his endurance on his bike so he can eventually ride while we run. We have a ways to go but we will get there!

Sunday Tim and I were registered for the American Cancer Society Family 5K Run/Walk. I wasn't sure how doing a 5K would go the day after doing an 18 mile training run but doing this race was really important to me so we decided to go for it. It was a wonderful race - I couldn't think of a better outcome than a 5K PR the day after doing 18 miles pushing the stroller.... or maybe I could.... first place in my age group!!!! Details to come soon in my race recap!

American Cancer Society Family 5K Run/ Walk Pre-Race

 Once again it is Monday and that means it is time for The Weekly Chase!

 The following were my goals for the past couple of weeks:

Challenge Goal: Improve my eating habits!

• This week I will make sure to have at least one fruit or vegetable with each meal/snack.- Accomplished about 75% of the time. Still something that I need to work on but it is getting better.
• This week I will be more conscious of my water intake and I will get it back to where it needs to be each day.- Accomplished 100% of the time! I have been very good about making sure to get the right about of water each day. Now I just need to keep it up.

Challenge Goal: Become a stronger runner!

• This week I will do my daily planks and at least two core workouts.- Only missed 3 days over the past two weeks doing my planks. I also got in one core workout each week.
• This week I will add in at least two strength sessions. Didn't get this one done. I have really been working on my running for marathon training and need to get the strength training back into the mix!
• This week I will make sure to get in at least one cross-training session. Done! I rode bike each week and got back in the pool once.
• This week I will get all of my marathon training runs completed.- This week I was successful with this and even made up for the week before when I was sick and missed some training runs.

Challenge Goal: Become a better mother!

• This week I will make time to spend time with each of my boys individually. I am still struggling with this. It is hard to get time one-on-one with the older two boys. I did have time with each of the older boys while with Aidan and that was fun. I need to make this a priority over the next few weeks!
• This week I will have conversations with the boys about what they would like to see change in our life/family so that we have stronger connections.- I still haven't done this but will make it a priority over the next week when we are all able to have dinner together again.

Here are my goals for this week:

Challenge Goal: Improve my eating habits!

• This week I will make sure to have at least one fruit or vegetable with each meal/snack.
• This week I will be more aware of portion sizes and not have seconds.

Challenge Goal: Become a stronger runner!

• This week I will do my daily planks and at least two core workouts.
• This week I will make sure to get in at least one cross-training session.
• This week I will get all of my marathon training runs completed.

Challenge Goal: Become a better mother!

• This week I will make time to spend time with each of my boys individually.
• This week I will have conversations with the boys about what they would like to see change in our life/family so that we have stronger connections.

How was your weekend? What are your goals for this week?