I'm back!

As Soul 2 Soul sang so many years ago: Back to life, back to reality!

My version of this song would also include Back to the 2 year old, back to convincing him to wear pants! And Back to running, back to the sweaty face!

I got back yesterday morning from my long weekend in Boston where I saw my parents and my sister and go to meet my nephew Jackson for the first time! So this post is really just an excuse to share adorable pictures of him!

He's overwhelmed by excitement! 

I had a great time hanging out with him and his moms, going out for lots of yummy meals and doing some serious shopping at Target and Stop-n-Shop! Of course I bought way too much stuff like I always do and had to load my carry on down with a giant bag of brown sugar and 4 lbs of jelly beans. The TSA woman's reaction was: "You sure got a lot of food in here!" Luckily I had looked up peanut butter and confirmed that TSA considers that a liquid so I put that in my checked bags. I'm not sure I agree but I didn't want to get it taken. When they re-scanned my bag I was standing next to Regis Philbin! He looks really old in person but he did say Hi to me.

Who needs pictures from Google images when you have such a cutie pie?

I didn't run at all when I was home and it didn't feel so bad.  A 6 day break! I think it's the longest break I've taken since I moved to Brazil! And honestly I didn't miss running at all. But that was probably because it was snowing when I landed and then it was cold! I'm so far removed from cold weather running, I've become a giant wimp about the cold. I also ate a lot of crap food that you can't get in Brazil. All of which meant I was dreading my tempo run with Coach BB this morning...And then Gus decided to get up at 4:30 am this morning! Sweeeeet! 

Love the tie!

We were supposed to do a 35 minute tempo run which means we jog down to the bottom of my beloved hill and then run at marathon race pace for 15 minutes, turn around and come back. This morning Matt needed to get to work early so we really had to hustle. As soon as the time started I took off like a crazy lady and Coach BB had to yell at me to slow down and calm down. I think it was nervous energy from not running in so long because pretty soon that little spurt caught up with me and I was struggling. Coach BB wants the runs to be conversational so that I think about that and not about the time or pace. So this time we talked about mental toughness. I had sent her this article about mental toughness in triathlons so we were talking about some of the elements of toughness that he talks about and how I can work on them. By the time we got to my beloved hill the 6 days off had caught up with me and I hunched down and started my patented shuffle shuffle shuffle up the hill. Coach BB was not happy with this turn of events which she was monitoring from about 10 steps in front of me. She (rightly) started telling me get my head up, start trying, stop saving myself, etc etc. I only perked up and did the stuff she was telling me to do when I saw the finish. Not cool and did not make Coach BB happy. The whole run left me sweaty, smelly, and feeling like I had chipotle burritos coming out my pores. But it was worth it to see and hold this little guy...

Yoga tomorrow...ommmmmmm