June recap.

June was one of those months for me. When I was in the thick of it, I didn't feel like writing about it, because I tend to feel like the more life you give anything bad, the worse it is.

Now that the month is over, I can say that it was a bit of a stressful one, full of both good and bad stress. Like regular life, right?

Anyway, June started great -- Conal turned 7 and that was a happy, happy day. But then, well, yuck. A few days later, a huge casserole pan filled with baked macaroni and cheese fell on my right big toe -- from a high shelf in the refrigerator.

So much pain, bruising, swelling. I thought my fall marathon plans would have to be put on hold. But, a week of total rest from running (and as much keeping off the foot as I could), plus some icing, elevating, and rubbing it with healing essential oils, and my toe is more or less OK. Meaning, I can run on it with not much more pain than I'm used to.

Then my little guy got Lyme disease. Grrrr . . .

Totally threw me for a loop. But, I know that it was caught early so he shouldn't have any lasting problems.

Unfortunately, it happened right in the midst of another medical issue that he had. I won't go into all the details but my poor little guy has been to so many doctor and specialist appointments in the past two months -- but this past Friday he had an exploratory procedure that gave us really good news!

I'm so lucky that he's a happy patient!

Such relief!

June wasn't all gloomy, however. Niall finished his first year of preschool and had a sweet moving up ceremony.

Moving up!

And then we had a rocking trip to Long Beach Island, where I got in some great runs and the whole family relaxed and enjoyed the beach.

My boys at the beach!

Here's what the month looked like, mileage-wise:

Running (miles): 57.6
Races: 0
Cross-training: plenty of crossfit and (here's a new one for me!) bike riding

So that was June. I finished up the month by starting marathon training. It will heat up over the summer and I. Am. Ready.

Have a great week, everyone. Thanks for stopping by!

Vacation week!

Yay for vacation week! Schools here are closed for the week and that means my little kindergartener gets to hang out with Niall and me all week. 

We kicked off vacation with a fun visit from some of our Long Island family over the weekend. My boys loved playing with their cousin! There was a lot of train track building, some outdoor play and a fun day at the NYS museum.

They had a great time!

For the rest of the week, we're jam-packed with playdates with friends we rarely get to see. If everyone stays healthy, it should be tons of fun!

As for running, well, I'll be fitting it in as best I can. The treadmill is my friend, for sure!

Have a great week, everyone!

Such good fortune.

I'm very fortunate -- for many reasons -- and I was reminded of a major one this weekend: My friends.

I have some super wonderful friends and this past weekend we all went away together. It was great fun. Great, great fun.

We spent Friday night in, and then hit the little town on Saturday for some walking around and shopping:

Bridget and me taking a break outside a shop.

We let loose on Saturday night. Everyone got dressed up and then we went out to dinner and to a gasp! nightclub. Well, a pizza nightclub -- pizza parlor by day, bar-with-a-dance-floor by night. 

That's me with Noelle before heading out for the night.

And me with Gina at the Irish bar.

Last stop was the pizza nightclub: Monique, Lisa, me, Stacey, Gina and Noelle in the back row. Janis, Jen and Karyn in the middle. Kara and Bridget in front.

Pizza nightclub. No lie. It was a tad strange but it worked. There weren't many options in the tiny town where we were staying so we went with it. It didn't much matter where we went, honestly, because we were going to have a good time no matter what. And we did.

Not that I forget very often, but this weekend reminded me that I'm really fortunate to have these awesome friends. I love them all!

And, if you're wondering, yes. I ran. Just a 4 miler on Saturday but they were 4 incredibly hilly miles and they were covered with friends so it was a terrific run. 

Now, I'm all about catching up with home and running and non-junk food eating! In other words, I need to recover from the weekend :-)

Thanks for stopping by -- have a good week!

~ Felice

Oh, and about that race . . .

So, I was on vacation for the past week, enjoying myself in lovely Stone Harbor, NJ with my family and some wonderful friends.

We go away every year -- four families rent a house together and it is always a great time.

Here we are on the last night at the beach:

Janis, Bridget, Monique and me

All the kids!

Yes, I enjoyed myself a lot.

I didn't, however, run a lot.

Oh, sure. I had grand plans to run everyday and I thought for sure I'd sneak in a mid-week long run. But that didn't happen. I think I ran 3 times total. It was one thing after another but mostly it was that I was too busy being on vacation to run much. And that's OK. Sometimes a happy runner just needs a bit of a break.

What I did do, though, is run a quick little 5K on our second day. And I happened to set a new PR.

It was the Sandy Paws 5K and it took place just 6 blocks from our house. Bridget and I decided we had to run it, even though we had raced the Clove Run 10 miler just a week earlier. Who cares? we thought. We're just running for fun -- it is a vacation race after all!

After a horrible night's sleep (we experienced possibly the worst thunder storm ever), Bridget and I got up early and walked over to the race, which started at 8. It was hot. It was humid. I was dripping with sweat after about a minute of running.

As hot and sweaty as I was, I tried to run a steady pace. My A goal for the race was to finish around 23 minutes and run negative splits. Well, that didn't exactly happen:

Mile 1: 7:16
Mile 2: 7:20
Mile 3: 7:24
last .10: 6:54 pace

Finish time: 22:42

A new PR by ONE second! That's about as close as you can get. I never in a million years thought I'd PR at this race but I guess I just had it in me!

Here I am in the last mile -- Owen and the kids (along with Bridget's husband and their kids) came out to cheer us on!

Although I didn't run negative splits, I'm not too disappointed because my splits were fairly steady and I certainly didn't drop off too much in that last mile.

Bridget and I walked home right after the race because the awards ceremony was scheduled for a half hour after the ace ended. It's too bad, because I ended up finishing second in my age group. Oh, well. We had a vacation to get on with -- we couldn't stand around and wait!

And get on with the vacation we did. What a wonderful week.

Now, back to reality. And back to my training plan!

Have a great week, everyone. Thanks for stopping by!

~ Felice

And then I took a break.

 . . . from just about everything, except some great girlfriends and FUN.

That's right. Last weekend I left my husband and two boys and headed north to Lake Placid with nine of my wonderful friends. We had a blast! Words cannot describe the fun. For real.

We ate. We drank. We laughed. We danced. A lot.

Seems the only thing we didn't do much of was sleep. But who needs sleep when you're having that much fun? Not us, apparently.

This was us, Saturday night when we hit the town:

Someone -- not us -- had a huge limo.
We thought we were pretty hilarious posing in front of it.

 

Everyone has to have a "caught by the paparazzi" shot, no?

All of us!
Bridget, Monique, Lisa, Stacey, Kara, Karyn, the bartender (!), Gina, Janis, me, Jen

It was . . . worth it. Worth everything. To get a away with good people and have fun moment after fun moment is one of the best things ever. This weekend was the first time I'd ever been away from Niall for any extended amount of time and I admit I was nervous. But, he had stopped nursing on Tuesday and had done well with Owen putting him to bed on Wednesday and Thursday so I had hope that everything would be fine.

And, of course, it was. My guys had a good weekend together without me. That's important, too. Boys need long periods of time with their dads -- without mom butting-in all the time. Ha!

Oh, and, yes. If you're wondering, I did run. Saturday morning Bridget and I went out for a nice little run around town and Mirror Lake. It was beautiful and the smell of pine trees was invigorating. This happy runner can't possibly go out of town and not run! Just doesn't happen.

*     *     *

On another note . . . thank you all so much for your comments on my Lyme-ish post. I really appreciate all of your kind words. I tried to really put that whole situation out of my mind while I was away and I mostly succeeded. Sure, all of my symptoms are bugging the heck out of me now but, again, the weekend of fun was worth it all.

I hope you all had a great weekend, too. Giveaway tomorrow -- check back!

~ Felice

Long time, no post.

Yeah, huh. It's been over a week since I last wrote and lots has happened since then! In the past 10 days, I . .  .

• ran a 6:12.25 mile (yay!);
• had my vacation delayed by ol' Hurricane Irene;
• ran my longest run of this training cycle (13.5 miles);
• hosted some hurricane evacuees -- my sister-in-law and her three kids came up from Long Island to avoid Irene. Unfortunately, Irene caused major flooding up here, too. Fortunately, Conal and Niall had a blast playing with their cousins for three days:

Happy baby!

•  was diagnosed with Lyme disease (boo!);
• finally made it to lovely Stone Harbor, NJ for an abbreviated week at the beach;
• had a super time on vacation with my little family:

• and some great friends:

Now, it's catch-up and back-to-the-routine time! 

Thanks for stopping by -- have a great week!

~ Felice

Happy 4th of July!

I'm home. Vacation is over. My mind is full of wonderful memories of a fun week, I'm all kinds of tan and I'm feeling relaxed, yet a bit beat, from the week away. In other words, I had a terrific time!

Today I had the grand plan to run 4 miles to celebrate the 4th of July. Only, the baby had different ideas. I managed just about 2.7 miles and called it a run. OK, in truth it was more of a run/walk. And, if I'm going to be super honest, it was more of a run/lots of walk. Eh, no big deal. I was still out there.

So, that's that. Now I'm off to catch up on laundry, vacuuming and a little outdoor activity if I can manage it (we're looking at a really hot day here in upstate NY). And I'll leave you with a few picks from my time at the beach:


Have a great day, everyone!

~ Felice


Don't miss the Athletica $50 gift card giveaway.

Jaws Youth Fund Fitness Festival 5k race report.

Ah, vacation. Perfect time for a 5k race!

Yep, I'm away this week, basking in the sun (and lots of it!) at the Jersey shore. And on Sunday -- a hazy, hot, humid morning -- my friends (and vacation and running buddies) and I ran the Jaws Youth Fund Fitness Festival 5k. For Janis and Bridget, this was their second 5k and it marked their first in New Jersey. Two races, two states. I wonder if that'll be a trend . . .

The night before the race, Bridget, Janis and I talked about race goals. I had none other than to run the race with them. But they both wanted to run faster than they had at the Freihofer's Run for Women. So we talked times and settled on finishing in under 30 minutes. Janis had run her first 5k in just over 31 minutes and Bridget in just under 33 so it was a reachable goal.

Here we are before the race:

Bridget, me, Janis

The race started at 9, which seemed like it would be the perfect time for a summer race. But the weather was already super sunny and steamy by 8 and there was no shade whatsoever on the course so we pretty much dripped with sweat the whole race.

The race started with a goofy mascot race, and all 400 or so runners hanging around getting hotter, waiting for the gun to go off. I'm telling you, we were dripping before we even took our first step. Once we did, though, we settled into a nice pace. With the 30 minute goal in mind, I decided to keep the pace right around 9:35, which would give us a little wiggle room. I knew with the heat that it could be difficult but I also knew that the course was flat so I figured that would balance out the heat. And it did.

I have to say, it was great to run with my pals! Of course, I was slightly obsessive about checking my Garmin to make sure we were on pace but, other than that, it was fun. Here we are just past the half-way point:

Bridget, Janis, me -- happy runners!

Our husbands and kids were able to walk to the main street to cheer for us and it was a real treat to see them. Conal even got into the action, giving the runners the high-five:

I felt like we were all running strong through the whole race. With just about a half mile to go, Bridget took a quick walk break and Janis and I continued on. She ran tough, sprinting the last bit and finished in 29:34. I was right behind her in 29:35 and Bridget crossed the line in 30:37.

Awesome, right? I mean, second race ever and they pulled off 2 minute or so PRs! Yay! I couldn't have been prouder of my running mama pals!

After the race, we chowed down on some fresh berries and walked a mile back to the vacation house. It was a good cooldown and just an overall nice time for the three of us.

Since the race, we've been lying about on the beach and just fully enjoying our time away. Oh, and doing a little running. We ran on the beach on Tuesday and plan to go later today, although I think we're going to opt for the roads this time since the sand seemed to kick our butts!

Hope you're all having a great week!

~ Felice

PS: I have a $50 gift card giveaway going on over here. Don't miss it!