Writing, Running, and Reading

The kids went back to school this morning. The Christmas vacation went by SO fast and a few more days with everyone home would have been nice. There was a decent amount of stress over the vacation with Noah being sick and in the hospital and with one of our teenagers wrecking our minivan (aka the "small cool car" for a family of 14). The teenager is 100% fine, which is all that really matters. Darn icy roads! But despite the stresses, we still had a lot of fun and a lot of quality family time, which is the most priceless gift. I so love my family!

Indoor track officially starts today (for three of my teens and for Josh, who coaches) and so does junior high wrestling for Shane, and speech and debate for Nathan, so things get busy(er) for the kids now. And I am in the middle of my second 100-mile running week and am just over a month out from race day. How did that happen?

After a week and a half of sleeping "in" until 5:30-6:00am,  it was a little rough to pull myself out of bed at 4:30 this morning, but I was glad I did.  I did 13 miles total, with a 3 mile warm up, 4x100m strides, 2x3 mile repeats with all splits in the 6:40-6:44 range and an easy half mile in between the three mile intervals, and then a three-ish mile cool down. Three mile intervals are no joke, but I felt strong and in control the whole way and it was a great workout.

I have been reading two great books which I will write more about soon. I love to read and I love to write! I also spent some time going through last year's posts on here and decided to make a list of my favorite posts from 2012.

My favorite post from January is Not Meaningless. After a comment from a reader suggesting that chasing PR's, training hard, etc. was meaningless, I wrote about why running, and chasing PR's, is important to me and who I am.

My favorite post from February is Being "Out There", where I wrote about the challenges and blessings of being a highly visible family (12 kids, multiple transracial adoptions) and having my story be public.


This one is a bit self-indulgent, but my favorite post from March was my birthday recap.

April is emotional for me every year because it is my running anniversary. My favorite post from April was when I reflected back on three years of being a runner!

Do you think runners have an extreme lifestyle? Here are my thoughts on the topic in my favorite post from May.

Want to see me running on the track? Here are some video clips and some thoughts inspired from a Sunday school lesson in my favorite post from June.

Follow along my thoughts and emotions as I run a tough track workout in my favorite post from July, "In My Head" (this was one of the most popular among readers this year too!)

No matter what life brings, there are two ways to look at life. I discuss these two points of view in my favorite post from August.

Hands down my favorite post from September was the recap of the most awesome girls' weekend ever, when Jennifer came from Florida, ran her first marathon in Pocatello, I set a new marathon PR, and a grand time was had by all. :)

In my favorite post from October, I celebrate long runs and my new sweet dog, Penny. She is one of the best things that came my way in 2012. :)

Be Bold!! This post in November was one of my favorites of the year, and I have reread it several times. It is part of my theme/mantra for 2013. Be Bold!

And last but certainly not least, my favorite post for December (and one that I got some awesome feedback on) is The Magic Secret. Want to now how to get healthy, get faster, make progress, chase your goals, make a big change, or achieve just about anything "big"? I tell you in this post.

Did you have a favorite post of mine in 2012? Was it one of these or a different one? Thanks to all who read. :) More soon!