And that's a wrap...

It's OMG! beautiful here today!  Beer Geek went for a nice long bike ride while the kids rode their bikes near the house while I raked leaves.  Then I headed out for one last run in 2011.

4 miles in 39:45.  Not fast, but I love that my "easy" pace is back down to around 10:15. 

106 miles in December (which is particularly impressive compared to the 37 I ran in November.)
800 miles for 2011!!

And my new BFFs kept my left calf from getting angry at me!

Now to prepare myself for a decadent dinner out with Beer Geek at one of our favorite restaurants.  Then it's back home to ring in the New Year with my two favorite boys (pretty sure Beer Geek will be asleep before midnight LOL).

Thanks for sharing 2011 with me!  I look forward to lots more adventures in 2012!

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve!!

2011 in pictures

2011 had its ups and downs, especially when it came to running, but all in all it was a good year.

January

In January, we had an a snowstorm and the boys were finally old enough to really play outside for hours.  Doesn't hurt that VA is not usually terribly cold.  I started a 5k training group and I was also lucky enough to be featured on Another Mother Runner.

February

I ran a 5k with my awesome clients. 

March

I ran a four mile race with a client and completed the National Marathon on less than optimal training.  Beer Geek and I went to St. Martin on our first real kid free vacation since Jones was born.

April

I went to running minimalist 100% of the time.  We also went camping as a family for the first time ever.  I confirmed my view that nature is awesome, but not to sleep in LOL.

May

May was filled with some awesome meetups.  I met Miss Zippy and AngieB for a beer and a walk around DC.  I also made the trip south for a quick hang out with G and T.  Along the way, I also started the process of becoming a Fitfluential Ambassador and sold my soul for a Circle of Moms contest. 

June

June had me attending my favorite beer event, Savor.  This year I did not have nearly enough to drink, so there was no 2011 attempt at a Men of Savor calendar LOL.

July

July found us vacationing in Utah and Wyoming.  I ran a race in each state, met up with a college friend, and visited quite a few brewpubs, all in addition to dragging boys up and down mountains.

August

There were some major highs in August (Taste of the Midwest beer festival and racing in Michigan) and some low points (Jones had a tonsillectomy and VA had an earthquake and a hurricane.)

September

After August, September was pretty low key.  I became a mostly SAHM to two school aged kids, took my first spin class, took the boys on a bird watching walk, and admitted my injury wasn't going away and visited the chiro.

October

October brought birthdays for the boys, my booby scare, and a freak snowfall. It was a crazy busy, stressful month that I plan to bury deep in my brain and not think about again.

November

November was everything that October wasn't.  Beer Geek got a new bike, we went on a family bike ride from Gravelly Point to Roosevelt Island and back, I ran my annual Turkey Trot as my comeback race, and I facebooked Thanksgiving prep.

December

Virginia continued with the freakishly good weather.  My body started cooperating and I began running pain free, including a 9 mile long run and my fastest 10k of the year.  I survived a trip to the zoo with a bunch of kindergartners and Shoo continued to amuse me.  All in all a good month!

I'm sure I'll come up with some goals for 2012, but right now I need to go wrap up my 100 miles for December (1.3 to go) and my 800 miles for the year (6.5 to go).  Happy Friday!

Three Things Thursday: Chiro, 100 miles, and PInterest

1. I saw a different chiro yesterday.  He went to work on a calf issue I've been having.  I pretty much cried like a baby.  Then he put on some KT Tape and told me to run with it today.  The result?  4.1 miles of pain free, barefoot running on the treadmill.  Yay!  He also told me I should try wearing calf sleeves.  Guess it's time to actually review those Tommie Copper sleeves I have.

2.  I have 1.3 miles left to hit 100 miles for the month and 6.5 miles left to hit 800 for the year.  I think if I'd known that was all I had left, I would have kept running.  Good thing I didn't know.  I'm trying really hard to be smart about both my increase of mileage and my barefoot running.  I'm also trying to be happy about that 800 miles.  I've been hitting 1000 a year since I started tracking.  I need to just be glad I'm running again.

3.  I recently joined Pinterest.  I'm not hugely active on it, but I'm always finding things on the internet that interest me and then I can never find them again, so I'm trying to use it for that.  If you want to hit me up over there, I'm MCMMamaRuns (yes, there was already an MCMMama, WTH?)

And a bonus:  No, Shoo did not wear the holey pants.  I was going to let him, but when Jones and I were getting dressed in nice pants, he asked where his nice pants were.  I found him a pair of khaki's (probably his only pants WITHOUT holes) and he wore those instead.  And yes, it awesome that my parents read my blog. 

Not really Wordless Wednesday: Funny Christmas

When you live in my world, you have to have a sense of humor.  Although honestly, I think Shoo would make even a person who doesn't have a sense of humor laugh.  ;o)

He dressed himself for church on Christmas Eve.  What you can't tell from the picture is that (in addition to his shirt being wrinkly), the tie is a clip on that clashes and he's wearing sweat pants with holes in the knees.

Shoo also amused us during the service. As part of the Children's Sermon, our pastor asked what we were celebrating.  Shoo's answer?  "That Jesus Christ was bored."  I'm sure my giggles during the rest of the service were highly inappropriate.

On Christmas Day, we went to Beer Geek's dad's house.  Once again, my kids exhibited brotherly love.

Note to CPS: he put himself there.

When my parents read on my blog about my favorite Christmas memory being the "ducken" my dad gave my mom for Christmas 20 years ago, they sent me a picture.

Said "ducken" may have showed up at college graduations and the like for a while before someone put it out of its misery.  The stupid thing still makes me giggle when I think about it.

Evaluating 2011

2011 was an interesting year for me.  My running was plagued by injury.  My younger child started all day Kindergarten.  My work hours picked up.  Pretty much nothing went according to plan (and there were some rough moments along the way), but as I finish up the year, things are looking and feeling pretty good.

So, here's a comparison of my plan for 2011 versus what really happened LOL.

Running

1. Run injury free in 2011.  Does it count that I've been running injury free in December?  A visit to the chiro earlier in the year might have been a smart move.
2. Get back to normal distances and speed and THEN consider training for a half marathon or longer.  (Note the lack of specific mileage and speed goals for the year.  Just not going there right now.)  Umm, finally starting to accomplish this in December, LOL.
3. Run races in at least 3 states - I have Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky and one of the big
   Western states penciled in. OK, we can give this one a big old resounding YES!  But I didn't hit any of my planned states.  Instead I hit Utah, Wyoming, Michigan, and West Virginia.

Fitness/Physical Health

1. Exercise 6 days a week, move it all 7 days - Most weeks I managed 5 days of focused exercise.  Since December 1, I've managed to "move it" every day.
2. Get the kids moving with me.  See above. Moderate success here.  Need to work harder on this.
3. Cut back on sugar in my diet.  My goal is to avoid refined sugar completely at home and to really watch it when we are out. FAIL!!!  I'm still a big old sugar addict.
4. Eat differently when we go out to dinner.  We eat out once a week, usually on Fridays.  In years past, I've tried to not go out every week, but we really enjoy it, so that never worked.  Instead, this year, I'm going to designate some Fridays as "splurge" days, but the rest of the time I'll be perusing the menu for the healthier choices. Meh.  Sometimes I made healthy choices.  Some days I didn't.

Business

1. Admit that I'm a work at home mom and make it a part of my life instead of constantly shoehorning work in when I should be sleeping or cleaning or playing with the kids. Shoo started Kindergarten.  Finding time for work got easier.  Natural consequences LOL.
2. Decide on a personal training certification and pursue it. Nope.  In fact, decided that this was not the direction for me.
3. Continue to grow the mom-oriented running business I've started. Tried it.  Found it stressful. Decided I'd just rather run for fun with friends.
4. Continue to grow my relationship with my local running store, as a volunteer and a coach. This is still a work in progress with hopefully some cool developments in 2012.

Personal

1. Find something to do for fun that doesn't involve exercise or the computer. Does shopping count?  Or reorganizing my house?  Still working on this one.
2. Go out with Beer Geek without the kids at least once every two weeks. It was possibly closer to every 3 weeks, but we did manage several kid free overnights, so that's a bonus.
3. Take a trip with Beer Geek.  St. Martin, baby!  It was awesome. 

2011 wasn't the year I'd hoped it would be.  Over the course of 12 months, we replaced our dryer, a refrigerator, and a tv.  We had our basement ceilings replaced.  The jeep needed new brakes, the civic needed chipmunk nest removal.  I had a lump biopsied in my breast.  My achilles plagued me until November.  Shoo lost another front tooth due to trauma to his face.  Jones had a tonsillectomy.  I'm sure there's more...

But in the end, we've made it through 2011 strong, healthy, and happy.  I really couldn't ask for more.

Home for the Holidays Virtual 10K

Now that I'm no longer injured, I wanted to run one last race in 2011.  Unfortunately, my schedule didn't allow me to run any of the local races in December.  Thankfully, I found the Home for the Holidays Virtual 10K to run.

I wanted to wear a holiday outfit, but I don't really have any "Christmasy" running clothes.  I thought about wearing a Bucky Badger hat, but honestly it just wasn't cold enough out.

Instead I wore one of my Christmas presents: a pair of Brooks Pure Connect.  My kids really know how spoil me!

I haven't set many goals lately.  I've just been focused on rebuilding my endurance.  I decided to actually try to push myself today.

C Goal:  Finish the entire distance upright and smiling.  Since I was running in new shoes, there was a chance this might not happen.

B Goal:  Finish every mile at a 10:00 minute pace or faster.

A Goal:  Finish in under one hour.

I'm happy to say I finished in 59:03, which is my fastest 10k in 2011.  I negative split the run AND I didn't puke.  All good things.

As I was walking my cool down, I came upon these two guys:

Apparently Santa and Snoopy went on a bender after the presents were all delivered!

Thanks to Stephanie, Ashley, and Robin for organizing!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

A little early celebrating and a Christmas meme...

Last night we made our usual Friday night trip to Mad Fox.  They were having a little Festivus celebration, complete with food and beer specials.  I, of course, had to have a glass of the beer I brewed.

Yesterday I also got a couple of early Christmas gifts.  I got my gift from the blogger secret Santa exchange (thanks, Jill, for organizing!!!)

You know I'll be enjoying a beer in that mug while I read.  Not sure if the beer will help me get to Boston or not LOL.  Thanks, "Road Jane".

A running buddy  also stopped by yesterday to drop off a gift.  She apparently knows me well.

 

And there's a little Christmas meme going around that I couldn't resist ...

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Egg Nog.  Love the stuff.  Especially spiked.  Ahem.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa always wraps, even if it has to be in newspaper or trashbags because the gift is too big to wrap normally.
3.  Colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored lights on tree.  None on the house.
4.  Do you hang mistletoe? Nope
5. When do you hang your decorations up? Thanksgiving weekend if I'm motivated...
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Kranz - a baked good we have for Christmas morning when we are with my family.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?  The year my dad had a present hand made for my mom.  It was supposed to be a chicken wreath (she collects chickens), but it ended up looking like Big Bird gone wrong.  We wrapped it in a trash bag and when she opened it, we all laughed until we cried. Some day I'll find a picture to share.
8. What is on your Christmas Wish list? I really want an ipad.
9. Do you open a gifts on Christmas Eve? My family does, but when we aren't with them, we open Christmas morning.  Funny story:  growing up I always thought we opened on Christmas Eve because we are German.  Turns out (I asked my grandma), we open on Christmas Eve because the cows needed to be milked in the morning.  Hmm...
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Every ornament on our tree is either homemade or has special meaning.  We finally have enough that I was able to not put on the "filler" ornaments this year.
11. Snow? Love it or dread it? Love it when we are in Wisconsin.  Hate it in Virginia because no one knows how to deal with it.
12. Real tree or fake tree?  Fake - I've never met a real Christmas tree that didn't make me sneeze.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Diamond earrings Beer Geek gave me on our first Christmas together.  You have to know him to understand what a big deal it is that he actually bought me jewelry. On his own. Without my input.  I've worn them nearly every day for the last 17 years.
14. What’s the most important thing about Christmas for you?  Spending time with family.  
15. What is your favorite Holiday dessert? Christmas cookies.
16. What is your favorite tradition? My favorite tradition with my kids is making gingerbread houses and then on New Year's Day, breaking them into little pieces with hammers and leaving them for the squirrels and birds to eat.
17. What tops your tree? Theoretically a beautiful angel, but it's too big for our current tree, so nothing right now.
18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? I love giving gifts and try really hard to find the "perfect" gift, but it always makes my day when I get a little surprise something.  
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? I'm not really a Christmas song kind of girl, but I LOVE singing the German version of Silent Night at church on Christmas Eve.
20. Candy canes, yuck or yum? Yum.  
21. Favorite Christmas Movie? Don't really have one.
22. What do you leave for Santa? Cookies and beer.  (What?  You don't think he needs a beer after delivering presents all night long?)
23. Do you have a Christmas morning tradition? Not really.  Mostly just drink coffee while the kids open their presents.  We always had Kranz growing up, but I suck at baking it, so it doesn't happen unless we are at my parents' house.
24. Do you prefer to shop on-line or at the mall? I never hit the mall, but I do some shopping at local stores.  Probably 50% comes from online.
25. Christmas letter or Christmas card?  Christmas card.  Between Facebook and my blog, most of my life is out in public LOL.

 

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!  

Crack smokin' Garmin, brick legs, and the zoo

1.  I swear some times I think my garmin is on crack.  I'll glance down at my speed and see 12:** and think "really, I don't feel that slow."  Then I'll glance down a minute or so later and it will say 6:**.  It happens a lot when I run in the more urban areas near me.  I think because of all the tall buildings.   Last night I was just running in my neighborhood, where it usually does a pretty good job.  It was just funny to see all the random readings and then have my mile pace turn out to be exactly what it felt like.  LOL

2.  Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous out.  Seriously beautiful.  It was in the 60s and sunny on the first day of Winter.  So, of course, I went for a run.  Apparently my legs were not recovered from Tuesday.  I felt my quads on every.single.step.  I've been focusing on form and on running lightly lately, but yesterday I sounded like an elephant running down the street.

3.  Yesterday was also the Kindergarten class zoo trip.  The animals were amazing!  I've been going to the National Zoo for years and I've never seen them like they were yesterday.  The lions were actually playing - one would go over and smack the other and then they'd all run!  Of course, the only camera I had was my phone, sigh.

Tag, you are it!

Of the 3 baby red pandas, I could only get a picture of the one sitting still.

Yum, lunch!

See the orangutan in the window? Shoo was RIGHT THERE seconds before, but trying to get a 6 year old (and an orangutan) to both cooperate = impossible.  ;o)

Today has dawned with beautiful weather again and the boys are home for the break.  Unfortunately, our upstairs toilet has a leak I can't fix, so we are stuck waiting for a plumber.  Oh well, I'll kick them out the front door to play.

Hope your winter is treating you as well as ours is so far!

What do you consider a "rest day"?

Most of the training plans I've done have at least one rest day and often a day that can be rest or cross training.  In the past, rest day meant I did nothing to intentionally get my heart pumping.  I might walk to the kids' school or kick a soccer ball around the yard with them or go up and down my stairs a billion times doing laundry, but if that didn't happen, I didn't care.

Since I started the 30by60 challenge, I've had exactly one day where I didn't take 30 minutes and purposefully get my heart beating.  On that day I went for an easy one mile each way walk to the bookstore and back.  So, even then, I moved a bit more than my standard normal movement day.

I was a little worried at the start that my body would not handle this challenge well.  I was wrong.  I've found that as long as I throw in days where the workout is less intense, my body seems to actually recover better.

This morning I woke up sore and a bit stiff after yesterday's hilly 9 miles.  My hips just ached from the workout.  I hit the local gym for an easy 30 minutes on the elliptical.  And you know what?  My legs are still tired, but I feel much looser and the ache in my hips is gone.  Hmmm....

So, what's a rest day for you?  Is it a lighter workout or no workout at all?

So, how are those challenges going?

As I've mentioned before, I'm doing HBBC, 30for60 and Tall Mom's mile a day for December.  The question of the day is whether that's working for me.

I'll have to say an unequivocal YES!  So far, I've hit 30 minutes of working out for 20 days, I've eaten 7 fruits and veggies a day for more than half the days, and I've managed to walk or run at least a mile every day so far this month.

I can tell you right now that there would definitely have been some "eat junk and sit on my butt" days if I hadn't felt accountable.  In fact, one night at 9:00pm, I hit the treadmill and the weights so that I could keep my record going.   Yep, I'm apparently very externally motivated.  LOL

Today I ran 9.1 miles.  The first 3 miles were mostly uphill, which guaranteed I started slow.

Mile 1: 11:12 (hit a long light)
Mile 2: 12:27 (long light + complete outfit failure:  my iphone armband fell off and I was too hot in my windbreaker and I couldn't get the jacket and the armband separated.  I'm sure I looked like an idiot, standing on the side of the road trying to get myself together.  I actually almost turned around and headed home.)
Mile 3: 11:04 (holy uphill, Batman!)
Mile 4: 11:01 (another long light, am I never going to have a mile faster than 11 minutes?)
Mile 5: 11:00 (%$#^ light)
Mile 6: 10:30 (It's about damned time!)
Mile 7: 10:51 (Meh.)
Mile 8: 10:43 (Ready to just stop)
Mile 9: 10:37 (Whose bright idea was this last mile anyways?)

I actually contemplated 10, but when I hit mile 9, my speed dropped to about 13 minute miles and I knew I was just done.  I actually think I ran at about 10:30-10:45 for most miles, but I never stopped my garmin at lights (I always forget to start it again...).

And that's it for long runs for 2011.  Next week is an easy recovery week.  And every single part of me from my hips on down is in need of that break!

JIngle Bell Hell 2011 Virtual Run

AKA hell of my own making.

XLMIC challenged us to run a race that was as challenging as we could make it.  I did the best I could, but the weather decided to be only chilly and kind of windy, so it could have been worse...

• I'm pretty sure my sweat was made up entirely of red wine and Belgian beer.
• My toes hurt from standing in high heels for four hours the night before.
• I ran north/south in my neighborhood, which meant all hills.

What you can't see here is the waistband of my pants is almost up to my chest.

Why do hills not look as bad in a picture?  This was hell.

This one was worse.

Those hills were definitely hellish.  And you know I don't run them unless I have a reason.  Thanks, XLMIC, for giving me a reason to challenge myself.  3.4 miles of quad straining goodness!

Confession: I'm scared of long runs

I love to run.  Even a bad run helps me stay sane and be a better parent.  If I only have 3-4 miles on the schedule (in my head - not officially training for anything), I have no problem getting out there.  As soon as a run gets any longer than that, my little brain starts freaking out.

It's such a long way!
It's cold out!
I'm not going to be able to do it!
What if my feet hurt?  (This is actually legit. I'm having some issues with my toes.)
What if I need to go to the bathroom?

I drag my feet and don't want to go.  Finally, I make myself head out to run, but I tell myself I only have to do 3 miles.  If I feel good at the end, I can do more.  I remind myself I can go as slow as I want and that I don't have to push myself. 

And then I do my run.  Most of the time I end up hitting my goal pace and distance, so it's obviously all in my head. 

Yesterday I ran 8 amazing miles.  I felt fabulous right up to about 7.5.   I averaged 10:22, which felt really comfortable (but is faster than most training guides recommend).  I went out to do 6 and just kept going.  But I know when I head out for 9 this coming Wednesday, I'll have to go through the whole mental lack of confidence again.

I don't remember being like this for either of my marathons.  How on earth do I get mentally strong again?

TTT: Cello, 10 foods, and crazy ideas

1.  Last night was Jones' winter concert.  He started playing the cello this fall, so we got to attend the annual band, orchestra, and chorus concert.  The concert was surprisingly good.  It was probably helped by the fact that the beginning strings section is not using bows yet and we were spared the sound of 30+ cats being tortured.

2.  One of the blogs I read, Roc the Run,  posted about "what would you choose if you could only have 10 foods (and 5 seasonings) for the rest of your life."  Is it bad that my first thought was beer and my next was coffee?  LOL  Then I sat down and thought about it (and decided beverages don't count) and came up with a list:

Foods

• chicken
• eggs
• bread
• apples
• bananas
• cauliflower
• arugula
• mushrooms
• cheese
• onions

 Seasonings:

• black pepper
• cinnamon
• basil
• cumin 
• dried chipotle powder

What would you choose if you could only have 10 foods?

3.  Even when it sucks, running has been great lately.  I'm not fast, but I'm faster.  My endurance is slowly coming back.  Nothing hurts.  This may just possibly be affecting my thinking process.  I may have tweeted yesterday about doing 12 half marathons in 2012.  There may be thoughts of a very late fall marathon running through my head.  There may be significant progress made on my 50 states goal.  Last night I was a bit like an ADD rabbit on speed looking at race sites, completely unable to narrow down my goals.  Sadly though, my life doesn't exist in a vacuum.  I have budget constraints, time constraints, and, oh yeah, two kids.  So, sometime in the next couple of weeks, I'll start penciling in my race calendar for 2012, which will be busy and challenging, is not likely to be as crazy as it was last night. 

WIAW #2: The Beer Dinner Edition

You knew it was coming.  As soon as I start blogging about food, you KNOW I'm going to start talking about beer.  If you are a friend on Facebook, you know I had "breakfast" for dinner (scrambled eggs, sausage, and toast) with a Starr Hill "The Gift" to drink one night.  Yes, I do believe there's a beer for every meal.  ;o)

But this wasn't just any dinner with beer.  This was the annual beer dinner that I donate to the kids' school auction.  This year was a rockin' success if I do say so myself LOL.

All ready to go.  Every beer had it's own glass.  And yes, I do own that many beer glasses.

We started with a cheese platter paired with Port City's Pale Ale.  (I totally forgot to take a picture.)

Salad with pears, walnuts, and gorgonzola cheese and a hefeweizen vinaigrette.  We paired this with a Mad Fox hefeweizen.

Pork tenderloin with raspberry chipotle sauce, green beans, and japonica rice paired with Legend Brewing's Brown Ale. 

Decadent chocolate raspberry tort paired with Lindemann's Framboise.  I would have also like to try it with Mad Fox Wee Heavy or Heavy Seas Siren Noire, but I couldn't get my hands on either last week.

We finished the evening with a vertical tasting of Alaskan Smoked Porter (2002, 2003, and 2004). All in all, it was a completely decadent evening and it's a really good thing I've been working out like crazy lately!

Balance? What's that?

September and October always pass in a blur for me.  Back to school, races, kids' birthday parties, sports... you name it, we seem to have it going on.  Finally,  on November 1, I take a deep breath and take a break for a month (although this year I worked the most hours in November that I've worked in a month since before Shoo was born.)

And now it's December.  In fact, it's already half way through December.  I'm still trying to figure out where the first two weeks of the month went.  And it's going to get worse before it gets better.  I need to reclaim a little sanity ASAP.  (And a little sleep would be nice too.)

So, how do I find balance (or the next best thing, sanity) during the holiday season?

1. Pick and choose - I can't do everything.  I'm not going to make it to every party.  Not every gift is going to be homemade or perfect or exactly what I want to find.  So I prioritize and make sure the priorities happen first.  If I manage other things, bonus!  If I don't, oh well.

2.  Make time for me - I know it seems selfish, but if I don't make my needs a priority and just give, give, give, I'm going to end up resentful and crabby.  I know I need to exercise.  I know I need downtime.  I know I can skimp on sleep and function fine.  So, I won't give up my run, but I will give up a couple of hours of sleep.

3.  Plan ahead - I do this all year round.  The first thing I do every morning is look at my calendar.  I look at that day and the week ahead.  This allows me to figure out where I'm going to put exercise each day and how I'm going to fit in a longer run each week.  It also alerts me to days when I know I'm going to make poor food choices (hey, it happens, so I work around it LOL).  It lets me know when I've managed to double book our family, usually with enough time to resolve the problem.

4. Start over (and over and over) - Each day is a new day.  Missed a workout the day before?  Add a little today.  Ate (or drank) too much at a party last night?  Focus on eating cleaner today.  Yesterday's mistakes do not define today.  And don't wait for Monday or January 1 (or even tomorrow for that matter).  Do it now.

5. Don't forget to that the season is supposed to be fun - For me, this is the most important thing.  I sometimes get so wrapped up in trying to meet all of our obligations that I forget I'm supposed to enjoy myself.  I'm always looking to the next thing that needs to happen rather than appreciating the moment I'm in.  I have to constantly remind myself to enjoy the present.

How do you survive the holiday craziness?

(Of course, the best thing for my sanity is a nice 4 mile run with my dad at a pace I'd never do on my own.  Surprisingly, no streets were puked on during this run.)

I am not a streaker

And I'm ok with that.

I'm doing Mel's "Mile a day for December" challenge and I really thought I'd make sure I ran every day.  She did give us an out a few days ago and say that walking counted too.  Since December 1, I've run the following:

1. 3
2. 3.5
3. 2.2
4. 7
5. 4
6. 3.3
7. 1
8. 8
9. 2.2
10. 3.5

That totals 37.7 miles and is more than the total number of miles I ran in the month of November.  Whoa!

If I want to keep running and not hurt myself, I needed to step back for a day.  Oh well, a 10 day streak is not so bad.  ;o)

On a totally unrelated topic, I began moving our CDs from their cases into a CD wallet last night (yes, I realize I could upload them and get rid of the CDs, but baby steps, people!)  I filled an album that holds 208 CDs and I'm only up to J.  OY!

Random things I learned:

• There's something wrong with a collection that has Air Supply and Chicago alongside Husker Du and Fugazi.
• My musical knowledge stopped in 1999.
• If you put "Toad the Wet Sprocket" in as artist in Pandora, every.single.song it plays after that exists in our collection.
• I really enjoyed listening to Pandora until the kids got home.  Then the combination of child noise and music was major sensory overload.  Guess that explains why I don't know any recent music.

My parents are here and we are doing some work on the house, so my 30 minutes of movement today is most likely going to be walking up and down my stairs and lifting big pieces of wood.  It's all good.

Brewing with Mad Fox

When Beer Geek and I first started dating, he was a home brewer.  He made some really good brews back in the day.  As life got busier, home brewing fell by the wayside and eventually we sold all of his equipment to make room for all the kid related stuff that came into our lives.  Lately, though, *I've* been thinking that I want to start brewing.   And I figured where better to learn than from one of the best?

So, I called up Bill Madden and Charlie Buettner at Mad Fox Brewing Company and asked if I could help them brew a batch.  Not only did they say yes, Charlie let me know when they were brewing their next batch of Wee Heavy (my favorite beer).

I had to miss the very beginning of the brew process because I had to get my kids to school, but Charlie was kind enough to share some pictures with me.  I'm not going to go in depth into the process for two reasons 1) this is a running blog LOL and 2) I'm still learning and there are lots of great resources that can give you more info than I can.

Getting the yeast ready

Closeup of the yeast

Putting the grain into the mill

Grain in the mill

Milled grain and water in mash tun

Bubbly goodness in the mash tun

The kettle full of wort

Putting the hops into the kettle

Charlie keeping the madly boiling wort under control

Wort moving to the fermenter

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Remember all that grain that went into the mash tun to make the yummy beer?  Well, it's not going to get itself out of there.

Spent grain

Pulling out the spent grain (that stuff is damn heavy!)

Note that this brew set up was designed for Bill Madden.  He's at least 6' tall.  I'm 5'3". LOL

A huge thank you to Bill and Charlie for letting me spend the day brewing.  I had an absolute blast!  (If you are in the area, "my" Wee Heavy is currently on cask at Mad Fox and I can't say enough good things about the beer or the food there.)