Easter and Inspiration

First, I must start this post with a few Easter pictures:

 coloring eggs

 silly jilly - wearing an Easter bucket on her head

 oops!  can't dye those eggs --- 2 people dropped them while trying to place them in the cup ... Can you guess who dropped them?

 mmmmm - hollow chocolate bunny!

 don't think I'll get a job at a bakery!  my attempt at our traditional bunny cake (my mom started this bunny cake tradition when we were little).  I made 2 this year because Graham's teacher had to have emergency surgery on Friday and I offered to make them Easter dinner.  So I doubled our dinner and shared with her family. 

Easter dinner - TO GO :)

I've mentioned this before - but I've been working with a group of ladies at my gym who are training for a 5k in May.  It all started one morning with a discussion after my 5am spinning class - a couple girls had some questions about getting into running.  One morning, while out on a run myself - I cam up with the idea of hosting a 5k and info sessions about running.  There are so many stories I could share here - these ladies are such an inspiration to me.  I love when they tell me that they've run further than they ever thought they could or they are running faster than they ever thought they could or that they are walking less and running more each week during their training.

Some notes people have sent me:
"Thanks you also for putting this 5k together! I never thought I would do something like this and it has been so encouraging! Loving the program and all your great tips!"

" I ran all 7 of my 400's between 2:07 and 2:12. I can't believe I can do this!! Thank you SO much for all of your help."

 "Did track work today... I was going to totally ditch it and run a quick 4 route somewhere. Glad I didn't. Felt good:). Thanks for teaching me how to do it ."

A few pictures from my training runs this week:  10 mile brick run after 2.5 hours of biking on my trainer in the basement --- felt really good .... less than 2 weeks until our Saturday/Sunday marathon weekend!  

 10 mile Tempo run on Thursday - thinking about adjusting my marathon pace goal for the Wisconsin Marathon on May 3.  My original goal was 3:15 overall (7:26 per mile pace) - but I feel like I might be able to push this pace a little faster.....we'll see how I feel on race day :)

 officially saying GOODBYE to WINTER!  Boots in the TRASH!!

On Sunday, I had another 2.5 hour ride on the trainer and a 10 mile run.  This wasn't a brick run but it was about 75 degrees out ---- and my first daffodil!  Didn't realize until Monday morning how tough these 2 workouts were this weekend. 

 Took the kids to the first home track meet of the season last Thursday.  Brought back so many memories of my high school track running days so I had to throw in this throw-back photo of my 3200 meter relay team --- we STILL hold the record at my high school!  

Super excited about this All World Athlete status from IRONMAN.  I placed in the top 10% of my Age Group for my Ironman and half-Ironman races in 2013.  Definitely keeps me motivated for my races in 2014!!