School's out for summer!!!!!!!

Last Friday evening, we piled in the car and headed south. We made it to Vegas and got a few hours of sleep before heading the rest of the way to Arizona. We got there in time for our girls to play with their cousins for a bit. Then we got in concert mode and drove into downtown Phoenix to the U2 concert. It was the sixth U2 concert for Scott and me but the first for my two girls. If you haven't figured it out by now, we're big U2 fans around here.

We took earplugs because the girls were nervous about how loud it would be, but I accidentally left them in the car. They didn't complain once about the noise. We get presale fan club general admission "seats" on the floor, so we had to stand, but it is the ONLY way to see a U2 concert! You feel like you are a part of the action. I held Ellie most of the nearly three hour show and Scott held Grace up when she needed a better view. I'm pretty sure U2 is their favorite band now. And I'm also pretty sure no other concert will live up to the standard this one set for them.

Sunday morning we went to church with my sister's family because they blessed their baby. Shortly after church we headed home. We stopped at the Hoover Dam to break it up a little and then powered through, getting home close to 3 am.

We wanted to have Monday to unpack and to give me time to get ready for the end of year celebration for my publishing center kids on Tuesday night. After a lot of stress getting the students' published books on time, which included a visit to FedEx Tuesday morning, the night was a great success!

Today marked the end of the school year, which has been harder for me than any other year. Grace gets her resistance to change from me. So add my lack of ability to adapt to change to how sad it has made me for my girls to be moving up a grade, and I've had a hard time the past few days.

I have been struggling in other ways as well, so this week has been kind of rough. For the sake of keeping this post from being a novel, I'll share my other struggles later. For now, I want to wish you all a happy unofficial start of summer.

And as far as running updates go, I have run twice this week and plan on making it three times tomorrow. There is light at the end of this injury tunnel. I think. Fingers crossed. More on that later too...

I also want to remind you to enter my Spartan Race Entry Giveaway!! If you have any problems leaving a comment (a few people have emailed saying they got an error when trying), you can leave a comment on this post or on my Instagram post about the giveaway.

It's A Beautiful Day: Free Race Friday and Friday Funnies

It's Friday and I have a BIG weekend ahead, so I'm going to get right down to business. 

To celebrate Memorial Day, Spartan Race is offering a limited discount code that will get you up to $40 off a race registration. Just use the code MEMORIAL at checkout to get $20 off Sprint, $30 off Super, $40 off Beast.



And to get you extra excited to run a Spartan Race, I have a race entry to give away! To enter to win a free race entry to any open heat in any Spartan Race in the continental US, leave a comment on this post telling me which Spartan Race you want to run. You can find a list of races HERE.

For bonus entries, post about the giveaway on Instagram and/or Twitter. One additional entry for each place you post. Be sure to tag me (@ihaverun) and include a link to the giveaway so you get credit! Winner announced Friday, June 5.

Racing and Memorial Day go hand in hand. However, I won't be racing or even running for the next few days. But I am planning on giving running and my leg another try next week and am very much looking forward to it.

And for today's Friday funnies, I felt like it should have a theme:

Well hello Tuesday!

After sitting at the computer for hours on end for most of five days straight, putting together the books for my publishing center students, it took a few days to recover and get motivated to do anything productive on the computer again. Thus, the little unplanned blog break.

But I'm back. And although I haven't run in 14 days, I'm busting out all the cross traing! Elliptical, pool running, spin class, T25, weights, 8-Minute Abs and even a little stair mill action.

If it didn't rain every day, I would venture out on my bike. But that hasn't happened yet.

My leg is doing a lot better but is still not 100% pain free. Luckily none of my cross training makes it hurt, so I feel like I'm moving in the right direction. However I'll be glad when this can again be my serenity prayer...

I'm also keeping busy with all our weekly "stuff," including Ellie's riding lessons, which have been extra fun because of this little addition at the barn:

And although I'm not running, that doesn't mean I'm not thinking about it plenty. When I saw this, it made me laugh because it is completely the opposite for me:

When I'm running, my brain struggles even more than usual with math. If I want an easy distraction, I try to figure out my average pace or some other basic running/math problem. It keeps me busy for quite a while. Ask anyone who has run with me. They will verify my sad lack of running math abilities.

Then there's these. I'll be scouring the stores for them on Friday when they are released nationwide.

A giant tub of popcorn is almost as good as running. Almost.

I was supposed to run with Janae this morning. But I actually haven't run since our adventure last Monday. 

Before Boston, I was having some lower leg pain in my left leg. I can't pinpoint where the pain is exactly. It just aches. And when I roll it with the stick or when Scott rubs it, there are several VERY sore spots and lots of knots. 

So I'm giving it some more time off from running, will continue to work those knots out and keep cross training my little heart out. Since the only things that make my leg hurt worse are running and jumping (in other words anything with impact), there has been far too much ellipticizing going on and a little of this as well...

Luckily I've also had some distractions. Like a midday movie last Friday. With kettle corn. For the record, when I don't eat breakfast before getting a giant tub of popcorn, I am able to eat almost the entire thing. Seriously. I bet I ate all but two cups of it. And I would have eaten that too if I hadn't felt an obligation to share.

Friday night we had some serious partying going on at our house. Eight kids isn't bad at all when they are some of the best kids around. We even successfully walked to the grocery store to get ice cream cones. But I won't be adding six more to my brood. Just so you don't get any ideas.

This isn't so much a distraction as an annoyance. I am fairly used to people butchering my last name. There are just so many things you can do to spell it incorrectly. My first name, however? If it is going on something this permanent, wouldn't you think to double check rather than just assume? I'll be requesting a new one today.

Then there's Mother's Day. It was pretty perfect. It included cards, homemade coupons, treats, flowers and gifts. If I haven't mentioned it before, Scott is the best gift giver. He always remembers things I've mentioned I want. Like these. 

I also got lots of hugs and snuggles. My Ellie Bean is the snuggliest little human ever. It was one of my favorite parts of the day!

And just because you should be aware, every date this week will be the same forward and backward...

And just in case you were wondering if Ellie still loves horses, she had to write a sentence for the word "wish" on her spelling test last week. This was her sentence:

A winner on Friday just makes sense

Grace did me a favor and selected the winner of the SLS3 compression socks/sleeves...

If you are the lucky winner, please shoot me a quick email at ihaverun@gmail.com. Everyone else can save 40% off your SLS3 order with the code: Candice40

Happy Friday!

Mean Girls Suck

This is going to be short and sweet and to the point.

After school one day last week, my 9-year-old began sobbing the moment she saw me. He heart was breaking, and I felt like mine was being torn out of my chest. She finally calmed down enough to tell me what was wrong, and I discovered the cause of her heartbreak was other girls.

I went into serious mama bear mode and may have even said something about drop kicking her friends. But I calmed down, and we had a good talk about what had happened to her that day.

Since then, I've thought a lot about girls. Mean girls. And when I told my husband about the incident, he commented how he always heard about how catty and mean girls are to each other, but he didn't realize how true and how bad it really is until the last few years. He also commented that it never ends. That adults are as bad (or worse) than young girls.

It is a sad, sad truth.

So as you go about your Thursday, try to be a little kinder. Think before you speak. Kindness begins with you. Do unto others...

You get the idea.

PS - Don't forget to enter the SLS3 giveaway HERE!! Winner announced tomorrow.

Two and a half donuts. In one day. NBD.

During marathon training, being hungry 24/7 makes sense. During marathon recovery, not so much. Yet I feel famished ALL. THE. TIME. I'm hungry within 20 minutes of eating. It's getting ridiculous.

One day last week, I totally let myself eat everything in sight. Including two and a half donuts. One of which was a HUGE maple bar. And the half was a Boston cream donut, oozing with creamy vanilla pudding filling. I managed to consume a salad for lunch but followed it up with a salted caramel cookie as big around as a softball. So when I saw this, I felt a little better about my insane day of eating:

I can't decide if it's because I am doing so much cross training, including some workouts that I haven't done in a while, which is shocking my body and has revved up my metabolism or if my body has just decided it likes food being shoveled into my mouth non-stop. I'm hoping it's the first.

Last week I did the elliptical several times, had my sad little 4 mile run/walk on Tuesday, threw in some 30-Day Shred and T25 workouts, and of course had a few rounds of 8-minute abs. I kind of like having my glutes and shoulders sore, places that are rarely sore because I am a creature of habit and usually do the same workouts over and over and over and over. I have also enjoyed the variety. I assume I will eventually miss running and start jonesing for my next run, right?!?

In the meantime, I took advantage of having a Saturday off from running and enjoyed a morning at the temple sharing a special event with two very special friends. Then we celebrated with a delicious lunch at La Jolla Groves that ended with this deliciousness:

Last but not least, if you haven't entered already, don't forget to enter to win a pairs of SLS3 compression socks or sleeves. Details HERE!

Friday = All Good Things (including a giveaway)

It's Friday. So that means all good things, right?!?

First good thing. A giveaway. I told you I love my SLS3 butterfly compression sleeves. So much so that I want you to experience the awesomeness of SLS3 too! You can win a pair of SLS3 compression SOCKS or SLEEVES of your choice by doing the following:

• Visit the SLS3 web site and tell me in a comment on this post which socks or sleeves you want. (required - 1 entry)
• Like SLS3 on Facebook. Leave a separate comment letting me know you did. (optional - 1 additional entry)
• Follow SLS3 on Twitter. Leave a separate comment with the Twitter name under which you did this. (optional - 1 additional entry)
• Post about this giveaway on Instagram, Twitter and/or Facebook. Be sure to tag me (FB Page: I Have Run; Twitter: @ihaverun; Instagram: @ihaverun) and leave a comment here letting me know which place(s) you posted. I posted about the giveaway this morning, and you are welcome to use that to repost about the giveaway. (optional - 2 additional entries for each place you post about the giveaway for up to 6 extra entries)

Winner will be announced Friday, May 8.

 

Second good thing. Freeing up approximately 19 hours of my time. Yep, when I found out what happened on last week's episode of Grey's Anatomy, I deleted the 19 episodes on my DVR that were waiting to be watched. My fading enthusiasm for the show is evident in the fact that I was 19 episodes behind, so it wasn't that difficult to delete them all after last week's unacceptable turn of events.

Third good thing. My latest article on Skinny Mom.

Fourth good thing. A father's response to his children's school when they were given unexcused absences for going to Boston to watch him run the Boston Marathon.

Fifth good thing. Going to see The Duff on a Wednesday night with three of your favorite friends.