Biggest Loser Gunkie

I have to admit I am a Biggest Loser Gunkie. Every Tuesday night I have to take time out to watch this show. I get annoyed when my daughters talk, or hubby or whatever. All I want to do is sit down and watch the show. I do wish it started at 8pm instead of 7pm because I am still making lunches, doing dinner dishes, picking up the house, doing laundry etc at 7pm. So I normally from 7 to 8pm I get up every commercial to get my chores done and then at 8pm I finally sit down to really enjoy the show. Yes I know that I need that new TiVo thing but that is not in the budget.

I loved last night's show because inspiring others to lose weight and get in shape is what I want to do. I did not start exercising until college, I do not know what it is like to be obese but I do know what it is like to be chubby and fat. I do know how much better I feel after a great workout. I do know how good it feels to push your body to go harder than it did last weekend.

But if I want to inspire others how do I go about it? I do have a friend who is VERY overweight - now how I can get her out and exercising too?

15 Things You Wouldn't Want to See While Running

Runner's World brings me some funny articles that I have to share with you. Check this article out.

175 Miles in 7 Weeks - Can you do it? **Edited**

**Edited** Since I have posted this I have only had one brave person willing to go for this challenge, Kristen at Green Style Mom. So if you want to do this challenge but are scared leave me a comment or email me and let's see if we can do a reduce number of miles but it still needs to be a challenge.

Tall Mom on the Run started a club at the beginning of the year that I was too scared to join. Run 1000 + miles with Tall Mom Club. You are suppose to run 1000 miles during 2010. I thought there was no way possible that I could do that but in the back of my mind I am trying but getting more and more behind every month. The cold weather this past winter has not helped either. So I am going to host my own contest to help me get back on track.

I want to run 175 miles by June 20^th. Here are the details.

1. Contest Starts Monday, May 3, 2001.

2. In order to participate you need to follow this blog and also leave me a comment before May 1^st that you want to do this.

3. Everyone who runs 175 miles by June 20, 2010 will be entered into a contest to win a $20 gift card to Amazon.

4. The first person to reach 175 miles will win a $20 gift card to Amazon.

5. You must email me your weekly totals each Monday.

175 miles in seven weeks sounds like a lot but let’s break it down.

* 25 miles per week

* 3.6 miles per day

* 5 – 5 mile runs per week

* 1 – 10 mile run, plus 3 – 3.75 mile runs per week

No matter how you look at it you can do it!

Leave a comment with your email address and let me know if you are interested! Blog about this and let’s get the word around so we can have as many participants as possible!!!

I wish I could giveaway more money to the winners and participants but this is my own money.

Trip to Kansas

Last Thursday we loaded up the car and headed to Kansas. We left Gunnison about 2:30 in the afternoon and arrived in Olathe, Kansas at 4:30 in the morning. Mikayla was excellent in the car and Lily was great as well. Lily gave us about 30 minutes of per terror but then she fell asleep. When we arrived in KC I was hoping the girls would go back to sleep but they quickly said no. So Joe got a couple of hours of sleep while I hung out with the girls and my mom. I eventually got a nap with Lily late in the day.

On Saturday I ran my half marathon and you can read about it here:

Saturday evening I had some friends over from highschool. We have re-connected through facebook and we have not seen each other in 12 plus years. It was great to sit and chat with these girls and catch up on what has been going on with their lives.

Lily decided to wear her bike helmet and refused to take it off.

Here are the girls and me. Bottom Row - Kelli, Me, Laura (the short ones) and back row, Stephanie, Kelly and Jenny (the tall ones)!

Mikayla had a blast playing with all of the kids.

On Sunday we went to the mall to get pictures of all of the cousins. This was my sister's idea and her kids were not into it. The 2 year old was not feeling good and the baby needed to eat. But we did get some family pictures.








On Sunday afternoon we headed to a local petting zoo that I use to go to as a kid. It has expanded big time! We had a blast playing on the playing ground and playing with all of the animals.

It was a very hot day - especially for us.

Because it was so nice in Kansas the girls had a blast playing outside. I could hardly keep them inside the house! The were outside riding their bikes every chance they had.

On Monday we headed to a place called Monkey Business that had slides, tunnels, a bouncy house, toys, art and crafts and anything else you could image for the kids to play on and tire themselves out on. Since it was a Monday morning they place was not busy at all and and the kids and adults had fun playing with everything. We headed home late Monday morning and were glad to be home. We had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Olathe Half Marathon - The Story

I am sorry for not updating everyone on my Olathe Half Marathon sooner. We are getting ready to list our house so my evenings have been full of unpackings, de-cluttering and of course normal evening chores.

I ran the half marathon last Saturday. My time was 2 hours and 22 minutes with an overall pace of 10:44. It was great and easy. This was also the biggest race I have ever been apart of. All of the races I have done until this one have been only a couple hundred of people. Sometimes I have even placed in my age group, because I was one of the few in my age group. That is going to happen less often since I turned 30 and there are plenty of women 30-40 year old runners. Back to how many people there were I first started in a group faster than I should have been so everyone quickly passed me but I fell into a comfortable pace that I knew I could handle.

One thing about Kansas is that it is humid. I wore capri running pants. I wanted to wear shorts but since Gunnison is cold I have not done a long run in shorts or my running skirt so I went with what I knew would work. At one point I was sweating a lot. I sweat a little bit in Gunnison, but I was sweating more than I ever do in Gunnison.

Around mile 4ish I had to pee and there was a aid station coming up but the line for the porta potty was 4 people deep and I did not want to wait, so I headed into some trees. It saved me some time.

At mile 7 I was getting hungry. Due to driving late at night and go, go, go the next day with family I was really tired the night before and the race started at 7am. I got up at 5am - good thing for moms because when the alarm clock went off at 5am I turned it off so it would not wake Joe up and fell back asleep. The point of my story is that I did wake up super early and I really did not want to eat my normal ceral and peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I had the cereal but no sandwich. At mile 9 they had run out of gatorade but I also saw a women I worked with at McDonald's back in highschool!

I was able to fuel up at the next aid station. Around mile 10 I was getting sore in my hips and I even walked a little bit and stretched some. Finally at mile 11 I told myself that I only had 2 miles left so let's do it. I picked up the pace as much as possible and crossed the finish line strong.

One thing that I do love about finishing is that Mikayla comes out from the crowd and we run across the finish line hand in hand.

Lily and my nephew, Jake, waiting for me to finish.

My sister, Sara, and her husband, Josh looking for me.

Here is my sister, Sara, and me and the girls. My sister ran her first 5K. She ran it at a pace of 10:55, and finished around 34 minutes. She did great.


Instead of me eating the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Lily did.

I had a great time, I saw parts of Olathe that I never saw as a kid. I would do this race again.

Olathe Half Marathon

I ran the half marathon in Olathe, KS and it was MUCH easier than running the Salida Half Marathon and just easy in general I finished in 2 hours and 22 minutes, 12 minutes faster than the Salida Half marathon. My average pace was 10:44! 15 seconds than my goal pace of 11 minutes per mile.

We are leaving Kansas to go home tomorrow and I will post more info and pictures later this week.

15 Miles

I did it! I ran 15 miles yesterday. I am slowly getting to my marathon goal and I will get there but it takes time. So far 15 miles is the farthest I have ever run and I ran it strong! I felt great for the first 8 miles. Each mile just sailed by and I was still ready to keep going. The last 3 miles were tough though. I had wind the whole time I was running but I kept changing my route up so that I was never going straight into the wind for more than a mile at a time or I had houses around me to help block it. But the last 3 miles I had to run straight into it to get home. Those last three miles were slow, hard and tough. Without the wind I think I would have finished stronger and much faster. It took me 2 hours and 51 minutes with an average pace 11:24.

I might do a couple of small 2 miles runs this week (super slow and easy) and on Saturday I have my half marathon back in Kansas. I am hoping for an average pace of 11 minutes per mile. So we will see. Wish me luck with the race and the drive. I am not looking forward to driving 13 hours with Lily - but hopefully since part of it will be at night she will sleep!

March Miles

I ran a total of 78.94 miles during the month of March for a grand total of 187.44 miles for 2010. I thought that was pretty good until I did the math and if I want to hit 1000 miles 12/31/2010 I am short 60 miles. I got some work to do in the next few months to catch up.

I want to do a 15 mile run this weekend because next weekend I am doing the Olathe Half Marathon. So after this weekend no more running, except maybe a mile here or there.

Then during May there is a local 25K and 50K trail run. I want to do the 25K (about 15 miles). after that I will focus on a local marathon the happens in September or October - plenty of time to get ready!

Healthy Chili Recipe

I just posted a easy and super healthy chili recipe on my food blog here.

Enjoy and happy eating!

Running Rules of Thumb

I get emails from Runner's World Magazine. I came across this article and laughed because it really is true. I really like number 10 the best. I am a runner.

Running Rules of Thumb

1. If you see a porta potty with no line, use it. Even if you don't need to.

2. If you have to ask yourself, Does this driver see me? The answer is no.

3. If you have to ask yourself, Are these shorts too short? The answer is yes.

4. 1 glazed doughnut = 2 miles

5. You rarely regret the runs you do; you almost always regret the runs you skip.

6. Not everyone who looks fast really is, and not everyone who looks slow really is.

7. Nobody has ever watched Chariots of Fire from beginning to end. Not even the people who made it.

8. You can never have too many safety pins on your gym bag.

9. Running any given route in the rain makes you feel 50 percent more hard-core than covering the same route on a sunny day.

10. If you care even a little about being called a jogger versus a runner, you're a runner.

Slow, Easy, Great Run

Yesterday on my lunch hour I was able to get in a trail run! Yea!! I was so excited and it was so warm (30 degrees and climbing). I only ran into a few spots of mud. Another thing I did was turn off of the Ipod and let myself get carried away in daydreams as I ran. I use to do this a lot more but lately my runs have been all about, miles, pace, speed intervals, hill, etc.... I haven't just run in a long time and it was so perfect and wonderful. My pace was very slow but still it was great.

Baking Cooking Baking

This weekend I spent many hours in my kitchen and loving it. I made heathly foods for my family.

I made:

Turkey Chilli
Applesauce
Yogurt
Banana Pudding (ok this one is not heathly)
Whole Wheat Corn Bread with ground flax seed
Chicken and Veggie Soup
Whole Wheat Banana Bread with ground flax seed
Whole Wheat Bread
Whole Wheat Sour Dough Bread Bowls

If you want the recipes, leave me a comment and I will post them on my food blog.

Run When You Can

In order to make ends meat I have three jobs. I work a full time job as a paralegal, I am a bookkeeper for a property management company and I also clean for the same property management company. The nice thing about doing the books and the cleaning is that I can do it on my own time. Sometimes I use my lunch hour to do the books or a part of a cleaning job.

That is what happened on Tuesday this week. I really wanted to get some running in so I did it in three different segements. Durning my lunch hour I managed to run a 1/2 mile on my way from work to a cleaning job, did most of the cleaning job, then managed to run another 1 mile or so and finally made it back to work on time. Then after work I did another 2.5 miles and was able to finish the day with a total of 4.1 miles. I don't breaking my runs up but sometimes as a busy working momyou just have to adjust your schedule to get some running time in. I did remember how much I use to love running after work, but with kid that is next to impossible for me. Luckily on most days I can run a full hour on my lunch break.

Today I do plan on running to a house, spraying the oven down, finishing my run and then after the kids are in bed heading back to that house to finish cleaning it. Now if only all of this cleaning would help me lose a pound or two I would be set!

Trails - Not Quite Yet

I run because I love hiking.

Ever since I was a little kid I have loved going for a hike. I was always up for a nature walk, a walk around a lake or park or whatever. If it is was in the woods, on a trail, I was there. As I started working out more and more I started running because running is a good way to burn a lot of calories quickly. I eventually started trail running and that was when I fell in love with the sport. I only run to trail run. I HATE running on the roads. Give me a trail and I am as happy as as can be.

Where I work it is a short run to a recreational area with trails everywhere. They are slowly melting and slowly drying out - but not quite enough for a great run. I headed there for my lunch run yesterday and it started off great. I had a huge smile on because it was so fun. Initially the mud was fun too. But the mud and then the snow got old so I headed out to a dirt road and eventually back to work. It was slow going and I only ran a little over 4 miles at lunch today but it was FUN!

Why Why Why

Please take a minute to read this article on msnbc.com

Now that you have read it - why, why, why on earth would someone strive to be the fattest women on earth????? What is wrong with her? What is going on inside that sick little mind? Also, great example she is for her daughter.

I also loved the part where, even through she cannot walk around like you and I because of how fat she is, she claims to be healthy. If you cannot walk due to your weight, you are NOT healthy.

I just don't get it.

HGTV 2010 Dream Home

Does anyone recognize this picture? If so, it is probably because you entered the HGTV 2010 Dream Home Giveaway. I was entering every single day and I was determined that I was going to win. I was going to change my blog to New Mexico Mama and unlike every other dream home winner we were going to live there. I love the idea of New Mexico, especially after dealing with the cold, cold winters of Gunnison.

Well, since my blog's name is still Colorado Mama it was not meant to be and someone else one. I was hoping until the last minute that they would show up in our driveway or at work to tell us we won.

Still, how cool would it have been to live in this house. Wide, open beautiful views of the mountain, mild winters, the parents and in-laws have their own space, 6 miles of trails around the neighborhood, and a big city less than an hour away. Perfect! Maybe we will have to move to the area anyway!

Half Marathon - Check

Today I went over to Salida and ran the Run Through Time Half Marathon. At the starting area I was upset because my Ipod was not working. I am thinking someone (Mikayla) hit too many buttons on the computer last night and deleted the songs of it.

I started the race with a friend of mine. She was just going to do the 2 mile fun run, but it was nice to have her the first first mile. Then the real work began. The entire 6.5 miles were uphill. We climb about 2000 feet in elevation. This was no easy run and many of us were walking it. I thought to myself quite a few times, this is suppose to be a running race not a walking race. Around mile 4 I found a new wind and the hills were not as big and I was able to run quite a bit more. My average pace to the turnaround was a whopping 13 minutes per mile!

Once I hit the turnaround the fun started because it was all downhill. What I tell myself many times is that what goes up, must come down. For the first 3 or 4 miles I was averaging 9 to 9:30 minutes per mile. Around mile 10 I was starting to feel the miles and the pounding. My legs were hurting, I was feeling some blisters (I am still breaking in my new shoes) and at this point I really wanted my Ipod. I needed some good heart pounding songs to get me through the pain. But instead I had the beautiful scenery to look at. I was in pine trees, looking over Salida and these huge 14ers' were towering above them with snow on top. (Sorry no picture since everyone forgot the camera).

I finished in 2 hours and 34 minutes. My average pace on the uphill was 13 minutes per mile and on the downhill was 10:30 minutes per mile. Overall was 11:38 pace. I am hoping for my next half marathon in Olathe, KS to have a pace of 11 minutes per mile or faster. It is in Kansas so no hills or very minor hills for this one.

Half Marathon

Tomorrow bright and early I am headed over to Salida, Colorado (about 1.5 hours away) for their Run Through Time. This was a last minute decision and my friend, Sherri, is coming with me to do the 2 mile race. It will be fun, WARM, and on fire roads that I have never run before. I can't wait - wish me luck!

I'm Ready for Some Trail Running

I am getting sick and tired of running the good ol' streets of Gunnison. Gunnison is not a very big town so I have probably run every street in town at least once, if not 10 times this past winter. The trails are calling me but yet they are not ready to be run on. I tried today. I got to the closet trail to work and I had three different ways to go, I choose to go straight up this HUGE hill because the was the only way that was snow free. Big mistake because the hill was so big I ended up walking most of it and then I had more snow on top, so much that I could not run I walked it. I finally wound my way down and then I found a short 0.20 trail with NO snow! It was so much fun and I LOVED it. Well then I was done and had to do some more boring miles on the road and in the wind.

Winter I am OVER you and snow - I want you MELTED NOW!!

Unfortunately I have at least one month, maybe 2 more to go because all of the trails are ready to really be run on.

Asics Gel Trail Sensor 2 - Update

Well, I figured out how to wear the shoes without pain. I re-did the laces and skipped an inner lacing and that seems to have solved the problem. I can wear them with no pain. I have not taken them on a run yet because I just figured this out on Monday. I will give the "new" shoes a trial run tomorrow to see how the new lacing works.