The New Year always starts off with a bang for us, because January 7th is Jared’s birthday!  (And, my favorite part, for four months, Jared and I are the same age!  Then he goes back to teasing me for being older…)  We both had a full week of work, so the birthday celebration was perfectly low-key: takeout from Phil’s BBQ, family movie night, and the Detoxinista’s peanut butter cup pie.

When you have an almost-three-year-old, everyday is a (princess) party.  Plus, I try to celebrate what an incredible hubby and daddy Jared is everyday, but a birthday’s a good excuse to publicly celebrate him, which he deserves, because he’s awesome.  Truly, the best ever.

Liv won the best birthday card award with this “Frequent Farter Card:  Good for letting one rip anytime, anyplace, with anyone.”  (Not that he really needs permission…)

As far as training goes, these first two weeks of the year did not go as planned.  El Nino rainstorms, I was under the weather, Liv got sick, and we’re still battling sleep issues… ugh.  I suppose these challenges came at the “right” time, since I was supposed to be tapering.

Monday, 1/4 – 1.5 miles, untimed

Tuesday, 1/5 – REST

Wednesday, 1/6 – Progressive: 6 miles @ 8:19/mile

Thursday, 1/7 – REST

Friday, 1/8 – Tempo: 6 miles @ 7:36/mile (3 miles @ 7:08)

Saturday, 1/9 – 2 miles @ 10:00/mile + strength

Sunday, 1/10 – OFF

I woke up ready to rock my last Long Run Sunday before the Carlsbad Marathon, as well as celebrate hubby’s birthday  at a special brunch with friends, but our plans were scrapped as soon as Liv woke up crying and sick.  Poor thing.

We ended up spending the entire day at pediatric urgent care, where she was diagnosed with a UTI.  With antibiotics and a whole lot of Daniel Tiger, she’s back to her “normal,” happy, crazy self.

We’re really into stickers right now, as well as pretending this spaghetti squash is Daniel Tiger’s little sister, “Baby Margaret.”  Speaking of babies, we have a new niece, Sara, born on January 15th!

Monday, 1/11 – 8 miles @ 7:45/mile + strength

Tuesday, 1/12 – 5 miles @ 8:43/mile

Wednesday, 1/13 – 4 miles @ 8:00/mile + Stair Mill & strength

Thursday, 1/14 – 4.3 miles @ 9:50/mile

Friday, 1/15 – 3.3 miles @ 8:54/mile + 1 mile with Liv!

Saturday, 1/16 – REST

Sunday, 1/17 – Carlsbad Marathon: 26.2 miles, 3:45:10 @ 8:36/mile

I’ll be back with a race recap soon, but here are some shots from my last training run before Carlsbad:

It’s probably no surprise that I love running with Liv… but on Friday, when we were running together, I said: “Liv, you’re a running machine today!”  And she said, “I love running, because I’m a runner like you, mom.” 

Life is crazy good, guys.