The Holidays are upon us!

Once again, I'm surprised by the speed that the holidays are upon us. It's been awhile since I've posted so I'll try to catch up. I ran a 5K on Dec 6 and won my age group. While that sound great and I'm not knocking it, my time was certainly nothing to award. I ran it in 32+ and even though I was happy with that considering my fitness level, I'm very surprised that it was good enough for 1st. I guess that's part of getting older. The next day I ran a half marathon as a training run to get a long run in and placed 3rd in my age. (it's that age thing again) The course was very hilly and it was cold and windy and it didn't turn out to be the fun run that I thought it would be. It was a good workout and that was about it. My time was again, nothing to award but I'll take 3rd anyway. I ran 2:30 and that was my goal, I just never thought it would be good enough to place.
I've met with the running club officers, old and new a couple of times in the past couple of weeks and I certainly have my work cut out for me. Lots to do to but hopefully with every ones support we'll be able to grow the club into a strong community organization.
Work has been pretty busy so that is taking up a lot of my time and I'm having a hard time scheduling my time. I'm hoping that after the holidays, I'll be able to work a more consistent schedule and not be so scattered although some of that is just the nature of the job. I haven't figured out how to work out while I"m try as it involves extra showering and sweating and sometimes I'm just too tired to put out any more effort. I do think though that after the first of the year, I'll be a little more successful. I don't have a specific goal either and that always makes working out a Lotte more difficult to make it a priority. I'm still working on my 2009 plans. I'm thinking about doing the half in February and then a marathon in May and possibly a triathlon or biathlon. I do want to do more biking this spring and summer. I can see how much it has helped Chris and others to improve their running plus it's just fun. My ultimate goal may be the Pinehurst Tri next October and then return to my roots of ultras in 2010, hopefully injury free and full of enthusiasm.
We went to Cleveland last weekend to see Tate and his family. It was a scary drive up as once we hit Cleveland the roads turned to a sheet of ice. We saw several accidents and cars off the road. It took us about 11 hours to drive up and again to drive back. Frank did most (all on the way back) of the driving so that was great. I would have freaked out with the ice, wind, rain and then fog! We've decided that we will probably have to celebrate Christmas via UPS next year and will drive in the spring and fall.
Now for the fun part of the trips. The kids are doing great. Ada is so smart and very grown-up. She's a great big sister and it's really funny to watch Zella watch her every move. She is very alert and observant. She is also very big for 4 months. She is already wearing 9 month outfits and growing! She is very smiley and a happy baby although she is not all that fond of sleeping alone all night. She's not a fussy baby though and was really fun to be around. Sometimes she'll actually try to imitate you. She coos and really connects. She is almost ready to turn over and sit up so she is very strong. It makes me sad that we probably won't be able to see them again until April or May. Tate and Julie got us a video camera though and we'll be able to see them and talk to them so that will be a lot of fun and will help us to not miss everything.
Tate and Julie had also gotten a new Nintendo Wii game and even though I normally don't care for games (I'm much to sophisticated) I decided to try it. They had bowling and tennis to name a few. It was so much fun that we decided to get one for ourselves for Christmas! I can't believe that Frank and I actually bought something so silly. I do think it will be fun however and better than just sitting in front of the TV although I'm sure we'll still do our share of that but at least this will be a diversion. I want to get the Wii Fit board and do some of the workouts as well as the My Fitness Coach game. That would be great since we love working out so much and this will make it a little more fun! We ordered it Sunday from Cleveland and it actually appeared on our doorstep tonight! I"m not sure if we'll wait till Christmas to open it though. I've already invited the girls from the spa to come over for a post holiday party to play Wii!!!! How cool is that. Maybe we'll start inviting more friends over. When you don't drink, it just doesn't feel as natural to invite people over so with the Wii it might make it more logical. We'll see.
Frank is still not running and it's hard to see him go through what I went through for so long. It's so hard not knowing if and when you'll be able to run again and to watch your fitness level that you've worked so hard on, go down the tubes. I'm still working on getting mine back and it is coming along but I also noticed my hamstring tightening up again today so I have to be careful not to overdo it.
Well, I think that just about captures what has been going on the past couple of weeks. We're almost ready for the holidays, just a little gift wrapping to do and we're don. I'm actually working the day after Christmas so my Christmas will be a quick one this year.
Better wrap this up so I can get some sleep and get my workout in in the morning. I think I've pretty much figured out that if I don't get my workout in in the morning it doesn't get done. Hopefully in the new year, I'll be able to do a few doubles but we'll see. My plans are always a little too ambitious sometimes and I fall short. I'll work on that!!!