Top 10 reasons to join us for the Chosen Marathon!

Top 10 reasons to join us for the Chosen Marathon!

It's hard to believe that we are finally *almost* "OFFICIALLY" a waiting adoptive family! This will be our first year participating in this incredible fundraising event and we pray many many of our friends will join us on Team Miksovsky.

While we may still have a bit of a wait ahead of us, and we have no idea who our precious birth mother will be or the sweet baby the Lord has chosen for us, they are both in our hearts and we will be running for them.

So here are 10 reasons to run the Chosen Marathon on Team Miksovsky

10. Joining over 2,000 runners from around the country for one purpose – running for orphans around the globe

The atmosphere at the Chosen Marathon is heart warming and beautiful. You can truly feel and see the purpose of the event. As you near the finish line, huge banners line the street with the faces of children that have come home thanks to funds raised through the Chosen Marathon. You realize that by simply running you truly are making a difference in children’s lives.

9. Marking “Run a half (or full) marathon” off your “bucket list”
I never ever thought I would run a half-marathon, let alone a FULL marathon, but the satisfaction of completing my first half-marathon in 2012 was amazing. Bettering my time in early 2014 was even better (almost a sub 2), and completing my marathon in February was an accomplishment I never dreamed I could do!

8. Preparing for the Chosen Marathon will get your body in amazing shape
Training for a half-marathon is hard work, no doubt, but it is exciting and rewarding to see your level of physical fitness improve week by week.

7. Enjoying the scenic route in New Braunfels, TX along the Guadalupe River
It is a beautiful course which makes the run so much more enjoyable. But be prepared, it is slightly hilly in a couple spots. And bonus, you can float the river and/or hit up the Gristmill & catch a show at Gruene Hall when you're done!

6. Friends and complete strangers handing you water and cheering you on as you run
It IS possible to complete 13.1 (or 26.2) miles when you are being constantly encouraged. The environment at the Chosen Marathon is so exhilarating and full of love. My kids LOVE making fun signs for my races and cheering me on.

5. For those super serious and slightly crazy runners, the Chosen Marathon is a Boston Qualifier, thanks to U Run the course is USATF certified.

4. Receiving a super cool Chosen Marathon t-shirt in your runner’s packet
You know you feel like a stud wearing your marathon t-shirt around town and to the gym. And the Chosen team always designs a super cool and incredibly comfortable shirt!

3. Seeing a child on the side of the course cheering you on by holding a sign that reads, “Thank you for running. I was Chosen”
You see a child that was once an orphan and is now home with their forever family and you are reminded of the fact that you’re involved in something way bigger than just a race.

2. Free food and drinks at the finish line
If you are afraid you will be starving (or rungry as I like to refer to it) after completing the half marathon (which you probably will be), don’t worry, you will be well taken care of. And there is usually a free beer involved, if that is of interest to you ;)

1. And in my opinion, the most rewarding reason – the joy of one day seeing our child's face and knowing that you helped to bring them home!
If you register under Running on Faith: Team Miksovsky, 100% of your registration fee will go directly to our adoption fund. God has continued providing for us in this process and we are only $15,000 away from our financial goal. We can’t wait to one day show our future son or daughter pictures from the Chosen Marathon and show them the friends that ran out of love, a love that helped bring them home to us

Please register under Running on Faith: Team Miksovsky and help us recruit other runners to join our team!

click the banner for more info on how to get registered!

One day these little shoes will be filled!

Running For A Purpose

On October 25th, over 3,000 people will come together for a common purpose. Together we will be encouraging one another, sweating, cheering and RUNNING for a common cause, to bring awareness to and raise money for adoptive families and orphans around the world. The 5th annual Chosen Marathon (ful, 1/2, and kids fun run) will be October 25th in New Braunfels, TX.

An Amazing part of the Chosen Marathon is that 100% of registration fees go directly to adoptive families, everything needed to put on the marathon is sponsor donated! So, Jason and I are thrilled to form a team for this year’s marathon and invite you to run with us to help bring our baby home and support other adoptive families and orphans around the world. If you are not a runner, you can walk or run/walk, volunteer, or make a financial contribution. If you would like to join us, you can register here. Please be sure to register under Running on faith: Team Miksovsky so your fees will go towards our fund.

We know 13.1 miles can be a bit overwhelming (and 26.2 miles sounds insane!), therefore it is wise to begin training to have a successful and pleasant marathon experience. You've got about 15 weeks, which is MORE than enough time to prepare! Hal Higdon has never steered me wrong in all my race training, please check out his website for almost 20 different training guides to help you get half or full marathon ready! There's even one for walkers! hint hint Mom & Dad I will personally be using his Intermediate Half Marathon training schedule and Jason will be using the Novice 1 plan.

We would GREATLY appreciate if you would invite friends, coworkers, neighbors, family members, anyone that might be interested in joining our team! This is guaranteed to be an amazing day and we can’t wait to share the experience with others! (I haven't figured out how to put a Facebook "like" button on here, but if you could share this post and our team info on FB, Twitter, Instagram, or any other form of social media, we would be forever grateful!)

For information on the marathon, visit www.chosenmarathon.com

Please email Candice with any questions, candice.miksovsky@gmail.com

click on the banner for more information

Register today and start training!

Love,

The Miksovskys

"...for this child we have prayed" 1 Samuel 1:27

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

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

Rock 'n' Roll Half Playlist

So for the past couple days I have been carefully constructing my playlist for this weekend's San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll Half, and here's what I came up with...

RnR Half Jamz

One Direction - Best Song Ever
Jay Z - Holy Grail
Katy Perry - ET
M83 - Midnight City
Jay Z/Kanye - No Church in the Wild
Miley Cyrus - We Can't Stop
Karmin - Brokenhearted
Ke$ha - C'mon
LeCrae - Go Hard
Youngblood Hawke - We Come Running
Fall Out Boy - My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark
Citizen Cope - Let the Drummer Kick
Neon Trees - Everybody Talks
Kanye - Get 'Em High
Flo Rida - Wild Ones
Carrie Underwood - Blown Away
Flo Rida - Club Can't Handle Me
Jay Z - Run This Town
Zedd - Clarity
Walk Off The Earth - Revo
Jay Z/Kanye - Ni**as in Paris
Kanye - Jesus Walks
Young the Giant - My Body
K'naan - Better
Oliy Murs - Troublemaker
LaCrae - Gravity
M.I.A. - Paper Planes
Imagine Dragons - Demons
The Script - Hall of Fame
Mandisa - Overcomer
Selena Gomez - Come & Get It
Sara Bareilles - Brave
Katy Perry - Roar
Jay Z/Kanye - H.A.M.

It comes to 2 hours and 13 minutes and my goal is 2:10, so I better not hear one of these songs, ya feel me?! Hopefully the streets are so loud with kick a$$ music that I won't even need my jamz, but we shall see.

My 12 mile run yesterday was not so great :( It actually turned into a 10 mile run (with literally a 12 min mile pace - ouch!) because I was in such pain. I had gotten the new Mizuno Sayonaras and while I'm sure they are an awesome shoe, it was just too much of a profile drop for my poor feet and ankles to handle! This was the 3rd or 4th run I had done in them, and I just couldn't do it anymore, so I took those babies back and got me some Mizuno Wave Inspire 9s (they are supposed to be most like my Mizuno Wave Nirvanas which they discontinued... awesome).

wish they came in more fun colors, but whatevs it is what it is?

 

Can I just say, Rogue Running in Cedar Park is the BOMB! I do have a little blister on my foot, which I'm hoping with just go away quickly (thanks a lot Sayonaras), and I can just continue right along with my last week of half training. I'm going to break in the new shoes today with my 4 mile run and a little strength training. The guy at Rogue told me that since these shoes are so similar to my Nirvanas that I should be able to run in them this week and be ready to use them on Sunday for the half - score!

In other news, we had family pics over the weekend, including a fun little photo op for our adoption announcements that we plan to include on our Christmas card, I'll give you a teaser... it involves feet - oh my goodness I can't wait, it's going to be so cute! Speaking of adoption stuff, we have completed and submitted our pre-application paperwork! My typed answers came out to 6 pages, Jason's, not even a full page, ha! He's a man of few words :)

OK, so maybe his was a whole page

 

In other news, I decided on a whim to weigh myself yesterday, no particular reason, just curious. And imagine my surprise to see 129.5?! What the what?! Mind you, I have not been lifting (or running much for that matter) in the last few weeks, so that just goes to show you what a liar the scale is. All that number represents is the amount of muscle I have lost in the last few weeks - womp womp! So yes, a part of me was a little excited, but at the end of the day, it doesn't change what you see when you look in the mirror! Gotta lift those weights!

Lifting weights toddler style! Gotta get it in when/where you can!

Hope you all have a fabulous Tuesday! Is it just me or is November flying by at the speed of light?! Cray!

-Candice

Long time no see...

Has it seriously been over 2 weeks (almost 3) since my last post?! Holy crap! Life has a way of getting in the way. I won't bore you with the semantics, but here's a little run down of the last 3 weeks...

-I started subbing for elementary, and I LOVE it!!!!!
-I threw Max and Emma's 3rd birthday party at our house, Choo Choos & Tutus, so cute, I'll have another post about all the deets later.

 

 

 

 

 

-We went to Funky Town (Ft. Worth) for about 5 days for my cousin's wedding and Jason's work, and also got to stay at The Great Wolf Lodge for the kids' birthday (Thanks Gram & Poppy!)... so fun!

 

-I was sick (sinus infection), Jason's birthday, more subbing, soccer practice, soccer games, more subbing...

-Halloween...solo

-Jason left for Tampa on business, I took the kids to Mimi and Poppy's (yes they have two Poppys)
-Printed out adoption paperwork and joined Jason in Tampa on Saturday

Yup... it's really happening!!!!

view of the bay from our hotel room

 

I got my toes in the water fire, a$$ in the sand :)

 

Yup... this happened... and it was sinfully delicious!

Didn't venture into the water, but the weather was awesome!

 

 

-Came back home Monday night (sitting on a plane for several hours after running almost 10 miles, um not so much a good idea)

And here we are! I am a about a week and a half away from Half #2, and I gotta tell ya, the second half of my training has been plagued with sickness and injury, to the point that I have had to kiss my dreams of a sub 2 half goodbye :( womp womp! I know I will PR, and am now aiming for a goal time of 2:10, so I'm trying not to beat myself up too much about it. It is what it is. Between my sports hernia, a sinus infection, and recent torrential downpours here in Austin (like 15 inches and massive flooding), it has made getting my runs in a bit difficult. I was able to get in 9.5 miles along the bay while in Tampa, so there's that.

not a bad little view!

My pace wasn't great, but when you haven't run much in about 5 weeks, what can you expect, you know! I took Tuesday off, and got in 3 miles at the gym yesterday, and 6 miles today, so that's progress.

Goals for the next week and half:

Friday - 4 miles
Saturday - 12 miles
Sunday - off
Monday - strength train
Tuesday - 3 miles
Wednesday - off/strength train
Thursday - 6 miles
Friday - 5 miles
Saturday - 3 miles
Sunday - 13 point freakin 1 baby!

I'll probably take a couple days off and pick back up on Thursday. For my marathon training, I am sticking with Hal, and am going to jump right on into his Novice 1 Marathon Training Schedule at week 9. I am going to tweak it just a little to add in 2 extra weeks so that it will take me right up to race day!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Candice

 

This Girl is on Fi-ya... and ice

Sorry I've been MIA this past week, between party planning and being a parent to the spawns of satan the most precious angels ever, it has left me with little time for blogging. This past week may go down in history as one of the most challenging weeks we, as a family, have endured to date! And if you  know anything about us, you know that says a lot!

 

First, J was on-call all week, and it suuuuuuccccccckkkkkkkkeeeeeeedddddddd! He was getting paged ALL.NIGHT.LONG, EVERY.SINGLE.NIGHT! It's the kind of on-call week you pray will never happen, but it did. On top of that, J started getting sick on Tuesday, annnnnnnd is still sick today. So you can imagine what a wonderful person he was to be around all week.

And really both of us, as we tend to take on the mood of the other person, and then the kids feed into that, and it's just a train wreck. Add to that me tapering off my anti-depressants (which I was finally able to do now that my hormones have leveled off, I could go on and on and on about how much I hate how uneducated my doctor was when he put me on these pills, but that's for another day). It's not that weaning myself made me extra emotional or anything, they just literally zap me of ALL energy and make me feel like I drank an entire bottle of Nyquil, I can never seem to wake up, it totally sucks!

I was also nursing a groin injury after my 10 mile run on Sunday (well actually, it had already been bothering me for a couple days, but I ran anyway). Throw a couple crazy toddler in the mix, and you've got yourself a nice little craptastic week! Seriously, was it a full moon all.week.long? It sure felt like it at our house! On Saturday, we put Max down for his nap and yada yada yada, we spent the afternoon scrubbing poop of the walls, curtains, carpet, train table, hot wheels..... So yeah, we now have a poop story to add to our repertoire. Fun times.

So, when last I wrote, I had just killed a 45 min tempo run and lifted weights. I'm not sure exactly when it occurred, but at some point early last week, I strained my groin, or maybe it's a sports hernia, I just don't know for sure. What I do know is that it hurts, and it's really annoying. I really wanted to take it easy and let it rest and heal before I did anything to injure it further (I should note that this is my first injury since I started running in June of last year). So, I skipped my scheduled 5 mile pace run on Friday, rested on Saturday, and ran 10 miles on Sunday. It was supposed to be 11 miles, but I didn't want to make us late for church, it was a total game time to decision to go for a run, but with the weather we had that day (60 freakin degrees yo!) I could NOT pass up perfect running weather, strained groin or not! So I ran at a 9:47 pace - what what! HOLLA! If you can't tell, I'm pretty pumped about that pace! I was all This girl is on fi-ya! Seriously, it was an AH-MAZE-ING run! That last mile or so, I was really feeling the groin and it started to slow me down. I made the decision to rest for the whole week and just ice and stretch, ice and stretch, and hope it would be enough.

Today was my first run in over a week! The lack of running and working out likely had a little something to do with my foul mood all week, and I am so glad to finally be able to lace up and hit the pavement again! It wasn't too awful today, 74 degrees, but there was 100% humidity - nothing like the feeling of running in a vat of soup! I was supposed to do 5 miles, but only made it 4 before I started to feel some pain, so I listened to my body and stopped. My pace was right at 9:41, not horrible, but I can definitely see and feel a difference when you take a week off! Right now, I cannot even wrap my brain around running 26.2 miles, and I'm really starting to doubt my ability to do this. I just have to keep telling myself that I never thought I could run 13.1 miles, but I did. And I CAN and I WILL do the marathon! I'm thinking about moving right on into marathon training this month. My half isn't until November 17th, but my full is in February, so I just want to give myself plenty of time to build up that endurance.

Let's see... in other news, Jason and I are in the middle of the FPU (Financial Peace University) class at our church, and we are LOVING it! I have never been so excited about spreadsheets and budgets before in my life! Such an eye opening and awesome course - you should all totally find out if there is a class being offered in your area! Can I just tell you, I CANNOT wait to get this stupid medical debt paid off! I HATE forking over so much money to our credit card company every month!

Other things we did this weekend... Thomas the Train (totally LAME but the kids loved it), Max's first soccer game, which apparently Max thinks the object of the game is to tackle anyone with the ball and/or to pick the ball up and hand it to the cute girl on the other team because well, she wanted it, seems like a valid reason!

Naturally, everyone has their eyes open and smiling at the camera when the photos are $15 each!

 

Max warming up for the big game!

Max... on the ground... after tackling his teammates

 

 

I'm so sad that I am going to miss his soccer game this weekend, but am super pumped about going on my first women's retreat. Almost 3 full glorious days away. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?!

I hope you all have a fabulous week!

-Candice

 

Half Marathon Training Week 10

OK, so the hub's precious Aggies did not win last Saturday :( womp womp! But they did put up a helluva good fight! I think I heard something like, they scored the most points that have ever been scored against Bama since Saban has been the head coach, so there's that. Hey, I'm just glad they didn't get blown out! And of course, I LOVE College Game Day and all the funny signs... like this one...

 

LOVE IT!

Or this one... this one is my personal fav

Ahh - cracks me up!

 



After the game, we went to a friend's house to watch the boxing match/fight (unsure of the proper wording here??) between Mayweather and Canelo (who I swear has to be related to my bff, like for real!)

Both are red-headed Mexicans with strong jaw lines... coincidence? I think not!

 

Anywho, as I predicted, Mayweather won. I wish you could gamble in Texas, I would have put some dollar bills on that guy - he just doesn't lose! Let me just say that I am in no way a boxing fan, but the hubs always wants to watch the 24/7 show on HBO documenting both fighters as they prepare for the big fight. It's actually pretty good, although I'm pretty sure that the guy who narrates it (Liev Schreiber) could read the phone book and I'd be sucked in! I didn't realize it was this guy

Until I just looked up his name. Crazy! Never would have guessed. Anyway, I think he also does the narrating for Hard Knocks, which we also watch. Every year. They totes need to choose the Cowboys again, errbody knows there's no shortage of drama there!

So yeah, half training. It's going good, just trucking right along. Logging the miles. Some days are certainly better than others, but I try not to think of any of my runs as "junk" runs, even if they may feel that way at the time. I know it's just the heat and humidity. I'm going to try my hardest to stop bitching about it! You're welcome.

So Saturday's long run of 15K, kinda turned into a 10K instead. You see, I had a little shit-utation on my hands and had to run back home to take care of some bitness, if you know what I'm sayin'! So whatev, I logged 6.25 miles. I skipped BodyPump on Monday... again... I think I must have pulled something in my pelvis/groin area, so I figured I'd rest a little bit so as not to aggravate it.  I pulled out 4.25 miles on Tuesday instead of my scheduled 5 because it was just too dang hot and I thought I was going to die.

My hands get so swollen when I run in the heat - they're like sausage fingers - eww.

 

And today, I hit the treadmill for the dreaded 45 minute tempo run.

Bam! 4.77 miles in the books!

 

Here's what the genius Hal Higdon has to say about tempo runs, in case this is a forign term to you (it was to me before I started half training round 2):

Tempo Runs: This is a continuous run with a buildup in the middle to near 10-K race pace. A Tempo Run of 30 to 45 minutes would begin with 10-15 minutes easy running, build to 15-20 minutes near the middle, then 5-10 minutes easy toward the end. The pace buildup should be gradual, not sudden, with peak speed coming about two-thirds into the workout. Hold that peak only for a minute or two. I consider Tempo Runs to be the "Thinking Runner's Workout." A Tempo Run can be as hard or easy as you want to make it, and it has nothing to do with how long (in time) you run or how far. In fact, the times prescribed for Tempo Runs serve mainly as rough guidelines. Feel free to improvise. Improvisation is the heart of doing a Tempo Run correctly.

Ugh. I was just rudely interrupted from writing this by a screaming toddler with poop ALL OVER HIS FLOOR. Kill me now. This will require several glasses of wine tonight!

Anyway... you can click on my daily mile tab to the right to see my splits, but I knocked out 4.77 miles in 45 min - whew! I was a sweaty beast! Then I was feeling good and decided to go ahead and make a little Tabata workout my biznitch too! Booya! I use the Tabata Timer app on my iphone. Here's the rotations:
Tabata 1 - Bent over bench rows (alternated sides) with 15 and 17 lb weights
Tabata 2 - Overhead press on one foot using 10 lb dumbbells/ bicep curls with 10 lb weights (also on one foot)
Tabata 3 - Dumbbell Punches with 8 lb weights on one foot/tricep extensions with a 10 lb weight
Tabata 4 - Push Ups (on my knees, I am weak, like the Ukraine - only die hard Seinfeld fans with understand that reference, if you are Ukrainian, please do not take offense)/bicycle crunches

 

 

I gotta tell you, my current fav songs to jam out to while I'm running/working out are Katy Perry's "Roar" and Lecrae "Go Hard". Seriously, I could probably listen to those 2 songs on repeat and be totally happy! One thing I MUST do, is take that damn Harlem Shake song out of my playlist - it just pisses me off when it come on now, I just can't stand it, I want punch something! I seriously can't find the skip button fast enough. So yeah... I'm a psycho. Moving right along...

I figured out that I have 48 LONG days until my half in November. Which totally sucks. I'm ready to run NOW! Grrr. Why can't race registrations be like $20? #poorpeopleproblems

So I'll leave you with some of this cuteness - I need something to take my mind off of all that poop I just had to clean up!

what can I say, my kids are strong :)

every time I come home from a run and have my compression sleeves on, Emma immediately runs to her room to get hers on so she can be like mommy! Be still my beating heart!

 

Let me just tell you that this is such a RARE occurrence, that it mos def needed to be documented!

 

Morning snuggles with my baby girl. #iliveforthis

Max's first soccer practice!

He's a natural!

 

Sorry (I'm not sorry) about the impromptu photo dump, but I couldn't help myself! #cuteasskidproblems

 

I hope you all have a lovely Hump Day and rest of the week! We have our first soccer game this Saturday, so that should yield lots of fun stories and photos!

 

-Candice