Steilacoom!

Clicking on the collage will enlarge it :)

Snow drama.

The week started out normal... nice "winter" weather. Monday was the traditional easy 7 mile day, followed by Tuesday's double and workout. Wednesday Brie came over for a longer run and caramel macchiatos that we like to refer to as our "recovery drink."  Everything seemed to be going off without a hitch as I headed into my highest mileage week of my life. Annnndd then Wednesday night came.

And I felt the transformation beginning.

As the temperature began to drop from the average upper 40's we were use too, my positivity began dropping as well. When the rose trees froze from the three inches of snow that fell, my desire to be outside fell to record lows. Now, not saying that winter and I have ever been besties... But even being a midwestern girl from birth, and knowing what a real winter was like, my heart shamefully began to alter toward the crazy Washingtonite theory of an apocalyptic movement with every ominous snow flake. ("Snowocalyps" is one of the many terms used on the daily news every time we so much as get a frost.)

The negativity reached its peak as Brie and I laced up for our mid week threshold workout, (for me, thirty minutes in the 5:30s after a thirty minute warm up, followed by a fifteen minute cool down... 14-15 miles on the day) and we stepped out into crunchy, frozen, blistering conditions... Well, compared to the normal mild winters of the Pacific Northwest. In my head I was cursing every giant snowflake and frozen gust of wind impeding my ability to run at any decent speed.

And thats when I knew. I had turned into the stock-up-on-food-don't-leave-your-house-death-is-inevitable-the-end-of-the-world-has-come crazies that were residents of this great state. I had transformed...

It was a rough transformation. The 100 minute long run capping of a 80 mile week actually seemed fairly easy compared to the self inflicted stress each time we planned to hit the snowy trail. The rational side of me is sure I have just acquired a lil' diva from marrying into Lacey Connell's family. I will just compensate by becoming one of the girls that wears her Uggs a few months too long and flies off to Hawaii any chance they get... 1st chance, next Saturday at 9:35 a.m. Hallelujah!

-Ash

Getting Started

This is a view from a route we run on overlook the Pudget Sound
and the Olympic Mountains.

Sup Everybody,
Well Asher came up with the idea so I cant claim it, but we thought it would be cool to stroke up a blog so the fam and friends would be more informed of everything we have going on. This is mostly due to the fact that  I am no good at keeping in touch nearly as much as I would like to.


So to get started, things are great here in Washington. I am a Platoon Leader for a Mobile Gun System Platoon, basically I command a Platoon that operates the Army's version of an ATV that has a tank cannon on top. It is very new and pretty effective (well new for the army, it was created in the early-mid 2000's). 


My Platoon is part of an Infantry Company inside an Infantry Battalion. So being an Armor officer is somewhat of a novelty to all the other officers I am around. The job of a PL is a unique one... I wear many hats, I am very much all things to many people. I do everything from planning company level weapons firing ranges, to designing and setting up all the orders for a battalion t-shirt and enlisting my soldiers in professional development training schools. My all encompassing task is a daily focus on my soldiers and to make sure they are being developed as men, husbands, soldiers, and citizens. It may not sound like much but there is never a dull moment, much less, a down moment.


So that's work.

This is our Coach Matt (Right) and one of our training
buddies Dan, they are both teacher in Tacoma
and Matt coaches at his HS as well.

My major focus for this season is qualifying for the World Military Track and Field Championships. I am going to focus on the 1500/mile this year instead of the 800, so that will be new. To qualify for the championships I will need to run about a 4:05 mile. I am running a 1200 meter race at the University of Washington on the March 5. That will be a good fitness check for me as we go forward.


And that's running.


Married life is great Asher and I went to our first marriage enhancement conference yesterday and we had an uuuuuuuhhhh eeeeerrrrr, good time, hahaha... No in all actuality it was good, it just wasn't what Asher and I expected. We were told it would be at a lodge and that they were some professional speakers coming in. But it turns out we were in a living room and watched a video of a speaker. Once we got past all that, we were able to take away some good things. So all in all for an Army created conference, it wasn't all bad.


Ash and I are learning a lot and figuring out how to balance the hectic life my job creates as well as the exhausted life that running 80+ miles a week creates for both of us, and somehow finding "US" time in all of that, it normally comes in the form of watching GLEE reruns.......Awesome.


That's Married life.

This is Asher and another training partner Brie
stretching out after our 100minute long run

So that is officially my first post. Ill do my best to keep updates flowing and I'll do my best to put up some pictures.


-dh