Sunset runs and baby pains

Today's run turned into tonight's run. Well, it seemed like a night run, but during the winter that really means like, 5:30. Pre-dinner. My goal was to run early and get it out of the way, but my husband and son were both home today, so there was a lot of hanging out, cleaning, and general procrastination. 

Love those days. 

But on the plus side I got to run during the sunset, which is my FAVORITE time to run. I don't love running that late in the day, cause I'm usually busier, but man it's pretty outside when the sun is going down. So I'm always thankful for the opportunity to do so. 

And tonight was beautiful! I stopped during my first mile several times to snap some pics. I hate how camera phones do no justice to what you see with your eyes. This is about a 1/4 mile in, the sun just left below the horizon.

Below is my mile turn around. This is a huge empty parking lot. The sky is so big and open at this point, and it is right next to a horse track which is empty in the evening so there is not a sole around. It is so peaceful to be out here running in the dark. My husband is afraid I'll be mugged or something, but I find these moments of peace some of the greatest in that of being a runner. 

In the meantime while I was running, my husband was on our back porch snapping some photos. This is looking out over the side of the porch. The street on the right side is the street we live on, the street to the left is the other one :) We live on the corner. That building to the left is city hall. There is a huge christmas tree out front. 

Compare my photo of the sunset to my Amazing photographer husband's photo of the same sunset around the same time. I know... Pretty similar :)

It was such a nice night out. Chilly. Just under 40 with no wind and clear skies.

Stats of my run!!

• DISTANCE3.05 mi
• DURATION29m:05s
• AVG. SPEED9:31 min/mi
• MAX. SPEED6:30 min/mi
• CALORIES465 kcal
• HYDRATION0.11L
• MIN. ALTITUDE719 ft
• MAX. ALTITUDE761 ft
• TOTAL ASCENT33 ft
• TOTAL DESCENT33 ft
• WEATHERClear night

My splits were 10:08 (there was photo taking) 9:21 and 9:13

It's funny cause I had no hope for this run tonight. I have had this horrible pain in my belly for the past few days. I think it may be my bladder. I remember having this pain once I got larger with Corbin and it turned into a bladder infection. So I thought I would log maybe a mile, 2 if things went ok, and that I would keep things nice and slow. 

Yes, although I run, I do in fact listen to my body. 

However, as soon as I stepped out the door the pain disappeared and my legs felt swift. My water weight (read: vanilla wafer weight) from a few days ago has dissipated as well and my calves and ankles felt great as well. 

Swift was my run! 

But large was my belly. 30+ weeks for this pic. This is me right before heading out. This is an awesome cold weather outfit, and I throw a light weight, super bright and baggy volunteer crew shirt I got over it to cover the wobbly bits. 

Corbin drew this picture earlier today. Its me if you can't tell. 

The two pics look similar right?

The words say Love Corbin: Mom + A and Corbin. 

And I thought I would throw in a picture of dinner for good measure. 

Cause everyone loves to know what other people eat!! :)

I whipped this up right after getting home from my run. It consists of veggie sausage, carrots, mushrooms, whole wheat pasta (I rarely eat pasta, but I needed to use it up) sauteed in a sesame ginger sauce and herbage then topped with green onions. It was totally thrown together from what was sitting in the fridge and turned out delicious. 

Thank goodness...

Gobble gobble. I'm pretty sure I still have some of that peppermint bark calling my name in the fridge. 

Yum.

Are you participating in the RW holiday running streak? If so how is it going!

If not, what are YOUR running goals for the rest of the year?

Happy Wednesday! Running apps and peppermint bark

Happy Wednesday!

This morning is was COOOLD in Ohio. I woke up early to get to an appointment, and there was ice all over our windows. Our car has no heat or defrost or anything so it takes a while to de-ice on our car. 

Can you see my poor scrape job on the side windows?

Old Bessie.

 But on the BRIGHT side of things, the sun was shinning so brightly this morning! This is the sun coming up over our apartment. See that building on the right, our place is the top floor on the building. 

I left my husband in bed when I left, he had worked the late shift at work so didn't get to sleep till around 3 am. 

However!

When I looked over at the sun shinning so brightly, I see him walking out from our building. He had come to save the day and scrape my windows!

Now I know he was being nice, but I'm sure he just came out cause he thought I wouldn't scrape the windows properly and get in some horrible accident. He's been pretty paranoid since I have been pregnant but HEY! I'll never turn away the help!

On the plus side of things I got my husband to run with me this evening! This is not something that happens often, but he didn't work today. It was his first run since we did the turkey trot together (I beat him... 7 months pregnant). This man is not a runner, but he did run the Capital City half marathon with me!  (I beat him) 

:) 

I admire him every time he runs with me and treasure the runs.

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 Here are my stats from our dark chilly run 

• DISTANCE2.04 mi
• DURATION21m:14s
• AVG. SPEED10:25 min/mi
• MAX. SPEED8:57 min/mi
• CALORIES316 kcal
• HYDRATION0.08L
• MIN. ALTITUDE712 ft
• MAX. ALTITUDE745 ft
• TOTAL ASCENT0 ft
• TOTAL DESCENT0 ft
  
  

Cool app huh! I just started using it and so far I have been happy. I have never used a running app before, I usually just timed my runs and logged them on the daily mile site. I'm a no frills kind of girl. But I like this app cause I just press start and it does everything for me! (Fancy) It tells me my fastest mile, my slowest, my speed and distance, and so on. It even yells out my splits for me! I thought that was cool cause I can instantly judge how I feel based on my pace and I think that is going to help my training quite a bit this spring. 

I'm sure this is WAAY old news for most people, but I just got this spiffy new phone and it's like my world has been opened up to me!

On a physical note-

The back of my hips hurt pretty bad today, and I got this way uncomfortable pain in my lower right abdomen the whole run, so nice and slow was the way to go. 

Back at it tomorrow

Let's talk about my FAVORITE SNACK real quick.

PEPPERMINT BARK!

I can only make my own, cause it's too pricey to buy for the amount that I consume. So I bought dark chocolate (63% coco) and Ghiradehelli white. 

Smashed a bunch a peppermints in a bag (good for taking out your frustration!)

Melted and spread dark and white chocolate all over the paper

Added a little red and white love

And BAM!

This really is the best dessert. I mean, it's straight sugar, but peppermint is amazing, and so is chocolate. And this IS the only time of the year where I make it, so I'll take advantage. 

What is your favorite winter dessert?

Running at 29 weeks pregnant.

29 weeks pregnant!!

It's a baby bump! This is me Monday before heading out for a 5 miler. I posted this pic the other day, but I thought I would post it again. As of right now I have gained 17 lbs in my pregnancy. But man I have been getting HUNGRIER! Some days it's pretty normal eating, and some days I want to eat everything in sight. I am trying to keep things pretty healthy these days because of the increased calorie load, however there were no holds on buy on get one pizza from whole foods yesterday. You wanna see 3 people kill some pizza take us to whole foods on buy one get one free Tuesdays!!


Running has been great lately. I can't tell what changed, but something did. A lot of things have happened in the past few weeks that would make my running change, I don't care to figure out what it was exactly, just thankful for the change.

We moved-
Between the new scenery of new routes and a flat surface I feel very energized when I head out. My old city was full of hills hills hills, not mountain hills or anything, but plenty of em. I was getting pretty burnt out on my old routes and I am happy they are gone.

The weather!- We have definitely had some cold days. A few down right freezing ones a few weeks ago, but other then that the weather here has been warm, in the 50's, 60s the past few days. The outfit above is what I wore on Monday December 3rd and I was sweating!

Im in a good spot in my pregnancy. My weight is building slowly, which is keeping my muscles strong  and growing with my weight gain. Besides some minor hip pain when running, I don't seem to be having too many weird aches or pains. I'm not overly tired or feeling overly large, and if I run early (pre-luch) everything seems to go ok with my tummy and as long as I keep my runs under 5 I don't often have to pee when I run.

I am also participating in the Runners World Holiday Running Streak. You are supposed to run a least 1 mile every day between Thanksgiving and New Years. I have never done this before, I am usually HORRIBLE at consistency, usually only running 3, maybe 4, days per week. Every since I have been running (most) every day, I feel stronger. Its crazy!

My runs have actually improved by 1 min/mile suddenly in the past few weeks. I have been averaging a 9:30 min/mile, sometimes much faster. With my weight gain Im sure this is great for my legs and I'm excited to see where I'm at after the baby is born!

22 weeks pregnant and running (still!)

Running has been great. I haven't been running long or far, 4-5 miles usually, 3x per week, but I am getting more consistent and I feel great while doing it.

Quick baby bump update:
I am 22 weeks right now. As I mentioned in the last post, 2 weeks ago we found out we are having a BOY!! and we are naming him Patrick Benjamin Cordova. Patrick is my dad (who passed away 4 years ago)'s name and Benjamin is Abraham's dad, who is very much alive, so he gets second place. :) I have gained a whopping 10 lbs (feels like 31!) and my appetite is steadily increasing, but I am trying to keep it healthy for now. I plan on gaining about 10 lbs between thanksgiving and Christmas so I need to plan for that. Patrick moves a ton, and is slowly breaking my hips, something I am trying to combat through exercise and a maternity belt. We will see how it goes. Overall we are so excited and ready to meet our little guy.

Yesterday I went for a run at a park called Battelle Darby Creek MetroPark. Ohio has some of the most beautiful metro parks (for what they are and whats around them, they are amazing). This one I had never been to before, but I wanted to go running before picking my husband up from work and heading to Corbin's t-ball pizza party (you know, so I could eat more pizza) and this park was pretty close by. I was able to head out early and by pass traffic, and ended up what I thought was the entrance to the park. It was definitely an entrance, but the wrong side. The HILLY side. This pic is me standing at the bottom of the first hill. Oh well.

So I started running. I ran on the straightaways, jog-trudged up the hills, and waddled on the down hills. They were so steep! I looked at a trail map, realized I had no clue where I was, and started running again. I quickly looped the hills and ended up at the bottom of this hill again. Humph. So I turned the other way and started along. EVENTUALLY I found the parking lot I should have parked at and as I passed the path seemed to level out and suddenly there were runners everywhere! I must have missed the memo. After another 30 min or so I found another trail map. Looking down at it I realized quickly that they were just copies of each other and the YOU ARE HERE dot was the same as the last. I decided to not worry much about it, looped around a little longer, and turned to run back to my side of the parking lot. The weather couldn't have been better. 65, sunny, I felt great. 50 minutes total. About 4.5 mi.

I wore my maternity belt, as I have been on my runs. I don't know if it helps, but it feels good to wear as it kind of squeezes my hips in a little. I don't know who the model is that wears it, because it does not look like that on me. I'm not a big girl by any means, but I do have a little wiggle in the middle, and this belt likes to squeeze all the wiggle and give me what I like to call my baby muffin top. :( I'll write more on that later.

But over all running has been awesome. The more pregnant I get the more I just want to run. I have a feeling all the hormones and the lack of alcohol have made a little beast develop inside me, and this is how it will be tamed. I am improving my time, distance, and consistency. But I am by no means pushing myself, I just do what feels good for that day. My hips still hurt like a mug though.