Mastering the Negative Split

Hey hey hey! Who's got two thumbs and PR'd in her 3rd half marathon over the weekend??? THIS GIRL! Woot Woot! Holla! To say I'm a little excited might be an understatement! I kinda knew and expected to PR in this race, seeing as it was pretty much all downhill, but I didn't want to count my chickens before they were hatched, nah-mean! It's weird, at no point during my training or leading up to race day did I ever feel nervous, false confidence? I don't know, but it was strange. Now, thinking about running anything longer than 13.1... now that scared the crap out of me, and this weekend will seal my fate on whether I take the leap into the world of 26.2, or stay in my half crazy little world! I am going to try to run that 18 miler again, annnnnnnnnnnd maybe 2 more miles on top of that - eek! IF, I can do it without dying, I will go ahead and pay the astronomical $135 registration fee (so ridiculous) and run the Austin Marathon in, oh you know, 25 freakin' days! Holy balls Batman, I'm freakin' out just thinking about it, even after the high of this weekend's awesome race. So speaking of the race, check out who is finally starting to master the negative split, baby bay-bay!

how stinkin' cute are the signs the hubs made?! Love him!

Austin 3M Half Marathon Splits


1 - 9:51
2 - 9:35
3 - 9:37
4 - 9:26
5 - 9:25
6 - 9:21
7 - 9:21
8 - 9:12
9 - 9:26
10 - 9:42 (there was a hill)
11 - 9:26
12 - 9:00 (tried like hell to get in under 2 hours...)
13 - 9:21 (but realized there was no way)


Unofficial time (stopped watch at 13.1)-  2:03:43, Official time- 2:05:15 (avg pace 9:27)

you bet your ass I ate an S load of Girl Scout Cookies after the race! Holla! #iheartsamoas

They say that the key to a successful race is running a negative split (your second half of the race is faster than your first half), and I have been really trying to do this in my training runs. In previous runs, I have struggled with going out too fast and burning out toward the end. So this time I really had to talk myself down coming out of the start line, because you get so caught up in the excitement that you just want to take off, all like this girl is on fi-ya, but you gotta tell yourself, yo, slow your roll girlfriend, save it for the end! And that is exactly what I tried to do! I've certainly not mastered it by any means, but I'm improving, and progress is progress my friend, and I'll take it where I can get it!




I took yesterday off, as my thighs were kinda thrashed (downhill races are killer on your quads, and running them correctly is an art form in itself, one I clearly have not mastered - eh, add it to the list), but I was back at today. I hit the pavement for a 5 mile recovery run. Gotta keep on keepin on, right! I started off slow so I could get my poor muscles nice and warmed up. I was very pleased to find that I had negative splits again, and without being a slave to my Garmin - woo hoo! If I can get this whole pacing business down, I just might be able to go the distance and earn that 26.2 sticker on the back of my car. We shall see.




In other news, there are only 10 more days left to SHOP FOR A CAUSE!




Have a fabulous week everyone!




-Candice

3M Half Marathon Playlist

Here's the list of jamz I selected for tomorrow's race. Hopefully these tunes will give me the motivation I'll need to push harder than I ever have before and leave it all out there and end the day with a PR baby! Good luck to all racers this weekend!


Pompeii - Bastille
I Wish - Cher Lloyd
Love More - Chris Brown
Survivor - Destiny's Child
Let the Drummer Kick - Citizen Cope
Acapella - Karmin
Best Song Ever - One Direction
'Til I Collapse - Eminem
The Monster - Eminem
Wanted - Jesse James
Roar - Katy Perry
People Like Us - Kelly Clarkson
Catch My Breath - Kelly Clarkson
Story of My Life - One Direction
Wild For the Night - A$AP
Run This Town - Rihanna & Kanye
Stay the Night -  Zedd
Slow Down - Selena Gomez
Red - Taylor Swift
Timber - Ke$ha
Holy Grail - Jay Z & JT
Midnight City - M83
We Can't Stop - Miley Cyrus
My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark - Fall Out Boy
Niggas In Paris - Jay Z & Kanye
Paper Planes - M.I.A.
Brave - Sara Bareilles
H.A.M. - Jay Z & Kanye
Get 'Em High - Kanye
Winner - JT & Jamie Foxx
Midnight Memories - One Direction
Revo - Walk off the Earth
No Church in the Wild - Jay Z & Kanye


And check out the shirt I just whipped together for Jason to wear :)

It's certainly not perfect, but whatevs, it's still funny! Happy racing everyone!

-Candice

The 18 miler that uh...wasn't :(

Yup. Ventured out for my scheduled 18 miler over the weekend. Which would have been the longest distance I have ever run. But yeah... it didn't happen. womp womp. The first 4 miles flew by, and I had to try hard to keep my pace at around 11 min miles so as not to burn myself out, but somewhere around mile 10, everything started to hurt and I began to lose faith in whether or not I could pull this 18 mile run off. I'm pretty sure the fact that around mile marker 10 I was also dangerously close to my house and had to make the mental decision to go the distance, or wuss out. Yeah. I wussed out. Ironically, when I stopped my watch as I entered my driveway, it was at 13.1 - weird. So yeah, I ran 13.1 miles, which to the average person is huge, but when you set out to run 18, ehh, not so much.

Sure hope I can get the 26.2 sticker instead of this one!

I'm not sure how much of me was "listening to my body" or just psyching myself out. Regardless, it WILL happen after my half. January 25th, I hope you're listening, cause I AM going to make you my bitch! (OK , I know I'm a Christian and shouldn't talk like that, but I've gotta pump myself up, plus, Hi, my name is Candice, and I'm not perfect, but I still love Jesus, so there.)

I came across this verse this morning while I laid in bed reading a devotional (it was actually from Sunday - which I supposed I should have read that morning, and perhaps I would have actually ran the 18 miles, but I digress):

Ah to run and not grow weary... so many life applications there. This may be my new favorite verse. Tattoo worthy? We'll see :) I'll just let that soak in a minute....

 

Mkay, moving right along. If one more person asks me how the adoption is going, I think I may scream, and maybe cut somebody (awesome verbiage brought to you by the ever funny Gayla). And that somebody might be our adoption coordinator. I'm not sure how much of this is me being impatient and type A, but it sure seems like this guy has sub par communication skills. Like for real. Everything is still hinging on whether or not we get into this February adoption training class, if we do, then we can schedule our homestudy, and once approved can "officially" be waiting, aka paper pregnant. But, the only way to get into the February class is to wait for placements between now and then. For every placement made between now and the class, a spot will open up. If we don't get in, we have to wait until August :( Which also means we can't do our homestudy until September, wait for it to be approved, and then wait (usually 9-18 months), so basically Max and Emma will be in college before we can give them a sibling! Dramatic much?? It just makes me sad. I wish someone would just drop a baby off on our front porch. On the other side of the coin, we've got surrogacy. Not much going on there at the moment either. A friend of a friend did express interest in possibly carrying our baby, but alas it was not in the cards :( It did give me hope though that there are amazing people out there willing to offer such sacrificial love to complete strangers, how cool is that?!

So yeah, still looking for a womb and/or a baby - any leads?? I kid. But no really, if you hear something say something :) Pretty sure this was not the context they had in mind when coming up with that phrase, but whatever works, right?!

Things I am grateful for right now (cause I feel I need to balance this post out)... I LOVE our new house, and we are almost completely unpacked! PTL The kids are back in school = mama gets a break! Holla! I have amazing friends & family!

Anyone in the market for some Scentsy? Advocare? doTerra Essential Oils? Arbonne? Velata? Thirty-one? Rodan+Fields? Cute women's boutique clothing? Stella & Dot? Premiere Designs jewelry? Lia Sophia jewelry?  AND help us bring home baby in the process? Stay tuned and I'll tell you how! I am about to make a new post now and you don't want to miss it!!!

Happy Tuesday all!


-Candice

New Year, New Goals

I'm all for people making New Year's Resolutions, but I always find that I set myself up for disappointment when I do that, because I inevitably fall short of the resolutions I set for myself. Does this happen to you??

For instance, I have had floss everyday on my resolution list for the last 10 or so years. Have I ever once flossed everyday for a year? That'd be a big fat NO! Do I floss for a week straight before a dentist appointment? You betcha! So, a few years ago, while sitting in our ABF (adult bible fellowship), our group leader suggested choosing a word for the year instead. I really loved this idea and adopted it for myself (interesting choice of words, eh?) So, what is my word this year you ask??? Well, I couldn't decide on just one, so I picked two! Surrender and Intentional.


I chose Surrender because that's exactly what I need to remind myself to do in all situations.

Everyday. Surrender my control. Surrender my fears. Surrender my worry. Surrender it all to Him and let him to do His work in my life.


I chose Intentional, because I often find myself not being the parent or the wife that I know I should be.

I need to be more Intentional with the time I spend with them. For me, that means, less yelling at my kids, spend quality time with them. Try to see the wonder and the world through their eyes. Laugh more. Be more intentional about teaching them about the word and living out the gospel through my actions and more importantly reactions (I struggle with this one). Be more Intentional about the words I use, cause these guys are sponges I tell ya! Be more Intentional about the time I spend with the hubs (ie: read the bible together, pray together, spend time in conversation rather than Homeland and Mad Men). Be more intimate with the hubs. (sorry for the tmi. sorry I'm not sorry)


So yeah. There you have it. Those our my words of the year! Aside from my WOTY, I also try to set a few goals for myself:


-Run a marathon

-Get out of debt once and for all (Thank you Dace Ramsey)
-Take my medication as directed, everyday (I am SOOOO bad about this, seriously it's embarrassing! But in my defense, it's a lot of medication!)
-Read the bible (like the whole thing, can't tell you how many times I have started this task! Let's just say I have read Genesis ALOT)


And of course, there is always the usual, eat better, work out more, yada yada yada. I left off: grow our family, because we are not clear yet if that is what God has in store for us, we hope it is, but we will just continue to listen and follow where the Lord leads us.


My half marathon is in a week and half!!Well, 10 days, 22 minutes, and 22, 21 20 seconds (you get the idea). I was worried at first that I might not be ready for it, and I'm not yet at the pace I was before my injury, but I'm getting there! I am proud of myself for getting every single run in since December 20th! Over the weekend, I had a 12 miler on tap, and was able to get it done in 2 hours 3 minutes (about a 10:15 min/mile pace), so if I keep that up, I am set to PR in this half! I'm pretty pumped about that. If you also take into account that the 3M half is almost entirely downhill (holla), then there is no doubt that I should PR (double holla!). I was finally able to break through the 10 min/mile pace yesterday in my 4 mile run! 9:50 pace yo! I am slowly but surely getting my pace back to where it was. I have my longest run ever scheduled for this Saturday... 18 miles baby! I'm a little nervous about it, but I know that it is supposed to be a be-you-ti-ful day, so that makes me feel a little better about it.


Let's see what else... oh yeah, we moved over the weekend, so that was fun, said no one ever.

I really loathe moving, especially since I know we are going to have to do it all again in a year or so - ugh, gag me! Anyway, at least we aren't moving on my birthday. What? It's almost your birthday you say? Yessir! I'll be turning the big double 3 on Friday, which I will likely not remember until I am almost 34 - that's the way getting older go, take note youngins!

I literally have to do math to figure out how old I am sometimes. But, at least I still get carded sometimes, so I have that going for me :)


So yeah, that's what's been going on around here lately. Oh and an awesome Adoption Fundraising opportunity which deserves it's own post, so be on the lookout for that today too!  For now, we are off to the gym for some 400 yard sprints and a little mommy sanity break (don't act like you don't know exactly what I'm talking about!)


I hope you all have an awesome hump day!


-Candice