This last week was not so easy to get through, mostly because I've just been in a mood lately. A mood where I just want to be lazy. I don't know if I am just burned out from running, or what is up with me, but it's been really difficult for me to convince myself to get out the door. I put off this week's training a few times, Monday turned into Tuesday, Tuesday turned into Wednesday, and finally I decided I needed to get on the ball. I set out for a 5 mile speed work run on Wednesday at the track on base, but it was so hot and I just was not feeling it. It ended up turning into a 2 mile short run with a lot of walking. Which I guess is okay, considering I skipped my 2 miler on Monday. Then Thursday I moved back indoors to the treadmill and was able to get in the speed work. I felt so much better after it. I felt like I was back. Saturday I set out for 6 miles on base, but those 6 miles quickly turned into 3 miles with a lot of walking. It just seems like this is becoming a pattern, and I don't know how to get out of my funk. I just want to run and feel good about running again. Alas, I still got in 10 miles this week, 3 shy of the 13 I was supposed to get in. Hopefully this week I can find my motivation again!
Week 2, Day 1: 2.04 miles, 23:24, av pace 11:28 min/mi
Week 2, Day 2: 5.28 miles, 54:00, av pace: 10:13 min/mi
Week 2, Day 3: 3.02 miles, 34:11, av pace: 11:18 min/mi
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
A New Training Plan Commences
With the Navy Ten Nautical Miler 8 weeks away, I decided to start a new training plan last week. My goal is to run the 11.5 miles in 2 hours or less. I'm really hoping I am able to do it. So with my new determination, I made up my new training plan with the help of Runner's World Smart Coach and set off. I'm really hoping the weather on this race day is better than the day of the half and that I am able to run more of the race with less walk breaks.
This first week was fairly easy. It was a nice change compared to my half training, especially in that my longest run for this plan will only be 9 miles as opposed to the 12 my last plan had me do. I also like that it has me doing some really short "easy" runs, even though I usually don't like doing anything less than 3 miles, I think this will keep me on track and make me realize that not every run has to be fast and hard. Last Monday I did the 2 miler around our neighborhood loop, which meant I got a bunch of hill training in there too! I made the mistake of doing it at about 11 am in 78 degree weather, which wasn't the best idea, but alas, I refuse to wake up early just to run in the "cooler" morning temps. Wednesday's tempo run I ended up doing on the treadmill at the gym, it was a little cooler out and it was still pretty early, so I just bit the bullet and survived the dreadmill. Saturday I did my 6 miler on base at the park, it was a nice 74 degrees and sunny, a beautiful day for a run! It was great and really felt good!
I've moved my schedule back a day this week given that I didn't do today's 2 miler, but I will be doing it tomorrow and then doing my speed work on Thursday and the long run on Saturday, I'm looking forward to another great week!
Week 1, Day 1: 2.01 miles, 20:29, av pace: 10:10 min/mi
Week 1, Day 2: 5 miles, 48:47, av pace: 9:45 min/mi
Week 1, Day 3: 6.01 miles, 1:00:29, av pace: 10:03 min/mi
This first week was fairly easy. It was a nice change compared to my half training, especially in that my longest run for this plan will only be 9 miles as opposed to the 12 my last plan had me do. I also like that it has me doing some really short "easy" runs, even though I usually don't like doing anything less than 3 miles, I think this will keep me on track and make me realize that not every run has to be fast and hard. Last Monday I did the 2 miler around our neighborhood loop, which meant I got a bunch of hill training in there too! I made the mistake of doing it at about 11 am in 78 degree weather, which wasn't the best idea, but alas, I refuse to wake up early just to run in the "cooler" morning temps. Wednesday's tempo run I ended up doing on the treadmill at the gym, it was a little cooler out and it was still pretty early, so I just bit the bullet and survived the dreadmill. Saturday I did my 6 miler on base at the park, it was a nice 74 degrees and sunny, a beautiful day for a run! It was great and really felt good!
I've moved my schedule back a day this week given that I didn't do today's 2 miler, but I will be doing it tomorrow and then doing my speed work on Thursday and the long run on Saturday, I'm looking forward to another great week!
Week 1, Day 1: 2.01 miles, 20:29, av pace: 10:10 min/mi
Week 1, Day 2: 5 miles, 48:47, av pace: 9:45 min/mi
Week 1, Day 3: 6.01 miles, 1:00:29, av pace: 10:03 min/mi
Sunday, April 04, 2010
My First Tiered Cake
Well, Course 3 has now ended and I am on a cake decorating class hiatus until Michael's will offer Course 4, which I am told will most likely be sometime this summer. Course 3 however, did not go out without a bang. For our final project, we had to make a tiered cake, basically a small wedding cake. Let me just preface this by saying, I now understand why wedding cakes cost so much money, they are so very time consuming!
I spent 15 hours on this cake, and it wasn't even that big! The top tier is two 6 inch rounds, which I made with a delicious vanilla cake recipe, and then torted and filled with my own creation of raspberry buttercream. The bottom tier is two 9 inch rounds, which I made a dark chocolate marble cake, and torted and filled with a dark chocolate frosting. The white frosting you see seeping out the sides is a bit of regular vanilla buttercream that is used as a "wall" to separate the filling from the outside frosting and also keeps the filling from seeping out the sides of the cake.
The thing that took the most time was the flowers. Fondant roses are a lot of work, each one takes at least 15-20 minutes to do. The Easter Lilies weren't as bad, it took me about 2.5 hours to do, they are made of royal icing, which I already had some royal icing made up and only had to rebeat it to consistency to make the flowers. The border is a ruffle border, which I had some trouble learning how to do, but in the end I really love the way it looks! Enjoy, I know I loved my 2 slices of cake Friday afternoon!
Spring Stampede 5K And A New PR!
Friday Tony and I ran the Spring Stampede "Fun Run" 5K on base. I was a little annoyed getting there because we were almost late to the start because Tony had a meeting at work that ran late. But, when we got there they were still checking people in and the race had not started yet, which I was really happy about. After checking in and putting our new t-shirts in the car, it was time.
Everyone lined up and then we were off. I started off strong and fast at about an 8:30 min/mi pace, until I got about 0.30 miles into the race, I couldn't breathe. It was pretty hot outside, it seems we skipped over Spring and went straight into Summer being that it was 80 degrees out! The only reminder that it is indeed Spring is all the pollen in the air, and then there's me, the girl allergic to just about everything on the allergy test...needless to say, the not breathing was definitely my allergy induced asthma kicking into effect at the very time I needed to perform. I had to walk. Tony stayed with me, even though I told him numerous times that he could go on if he wanted to. This kept happening throughout the race. I'd run a little bit, then I just wouldn't be able to keep going, I'd have to stop and walk. It was really frustrating and that's when the self doubt reared it's ugly head. I was so mad at myself, at my body, at everything. I told myself I was a failure. I wasn't really and runner and who was I trying to kid?! That I would just always be the fat girl. I guess it's true that we always are are own worst critics and enemies. Not to mention this was my first time running since the half marathon, because I ended up with a pretty nasty sprain in my left foot from that race and was told to stay off it for at least 10 days.
Finally, I broke through. I was almost towards the finish line, I could see it in sight, and I knew then that I had to go, and go fast if I had any hope of getting a sub-30 time. And so I gave it my all, I sprinted in to cross the finish line and overtake 3 people in front of me. Final time: 29:05!! Not as fast as I had hoped, I really wanted to be able to get around 27 minutes, but at least it's 58 seconds faster than my last 5K, so it's a new PR!! Hopefully next time I will be better prepared, be able to train before the race, and not let the negative voices come crashing down on me. I start training for the Navy Nautical Ten Miler tomorrow and I am hoping that this will be a good race, and one that I can say I ran the whole thing!
Everyone lined up and then we were off. I started off strong and fast at about an 8:30 min/mi pace, until I got about 0.30 miles into the race, I couldn't breathe. It was pretty hot outside, it seems we skipped over Spring and went straight into Summer being that it was 80 degrees out! The only reminder that it is indeed Spring is all the pollen in the air, and then there's me, the girl allergic to just about everything on the allergy test...needless to say, the not breathing was definitely my allergy induced asthma kicking into effect at the very time I needed to perform. I had to walk. Tony stayed with me, even though I told him numerous times that he could go on if he wanted to. This kept happening throughout the race. I'd run a little bit, then I just wouldn't be able to keep going, I'd have to stop and walk. It was really frustrating and that's when the self doubt reared it's ugly head. I was so mad at myself, at my body, at everything. I told myself I was a failure. I wasn't really and runner and who was I trying to kid?! That I would just always be the fat girl. I guess it's true that we always are are own worst critics and enemies. Not to mention this was my first time running since the half marathon, because I ended up with a pretty nasty sprain in my left foot from that race and was told to stay off it for at least 10 days.
Finally, I broke through. I was almost towards the finish line, I could see it in sight, and I knew then that I had to go, and go fast if I had any hope of getting a sub-30 time. And so I gave it my all, I sprinted in to cross the finish line and overtake 3 people in front of me. Final time: 29:05!! Not as fast as I had hoped, I really wanted to be able to get around 27 minutes, but at least it's 58 seconds faster than my last 5K, so it's a new PR!! Hopefully next time I will be better prepared, be able to train before the race, and not let the negative voices come crashing down on me. I start training for the Navy Nautical Ten Miler tomorrow and I am hoping that this will be a good race, and one that I can say I ran the whole thing!
Friday, April 02, 2010
Half Marathon Photos
I just ordered our "official" ones to put in our shadow boxes, but until then enjoy the proofs!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Half Marathon Finisher/Recap
Yesterday I ran the Germantown Half Marathon, yup 13.1 miles, 10 weeks of training, numerous injuries, a shoe change in the last week, and lots of ice and Advil all culminated up to this glorious event! On Saturday, Tony, Dana and I went to check out the expo and pick up our race packets, it was a beautiful day, 70 degrees and sunny, the packets were scant, just filled with fliers advertising a bunch of 5k's and a map of the course, along with our tech tees and our bibs and timing tag. I thought they could have at least thrown in a gel or something, I mean we did pay $50 each to run the race. There were only about 5 vendors at the expo, nothing was really being given away or anything, which disappointed me. I was entranced with some of the cool gear one vendor had and thought about purchasing a little zip pouch or amphipod water bottle. But alas, all I ended up buying was a 13.1 magnet to stick on the back of my car and a chocolate Hammer Gel for Tony for the race.
Unfortunately the meterologists were all predicting rain for Sunday. I think I stalked my Weather Channel app on my BlackBerry a million times on Saturday. Saturday night I made a nice carbo loading dinner of chicken marsala, whole wheat pasta, and roasted zucchini. Shortly after dinner and watching District 9 it was time for bed so we could be up at 5:15 am. Sure enough when we got up Sunday morning it was raining, not a downpour, but a light rain. I then ate my usual pre-run breakfast of a whole wheat english muffin with some natural peanut butter on it and a tall glass of water. I was praying the rain would stop by the time we got over to the race location, but of course it didn't, and it was so cold, only about 51 degrees and dropping, but by the time we finished the race it was about 40 degrees. The parking lot was a nightmare and completely full, we drove around for another 10 minutes looking for parking. Walked through the rain, and found the port a potty lines. Our friend Dana loaned me a rain jacket windbreaker to run in, but I was still cold and wet, and this was before the race even started. By the time we got out of the port a potties, the race had already started, so the announcer was yelling for all half marathoners to go because they were going to reset the timing for the 5k. So we missed lining up in our corrals, missed the gun going off, and were 4 minutes late crossing the starting line, thankfully our chips only started timing from that point.
The rain was coming down and I was cold. I had on my gloves, but the rest of me was still chilled, even though I had on pants, a tech tee, and the windbreaker (which was zipped up), oh and a baseball cap to keep the rain off my face. The first mile we booked it. Tony wanted to take off, I kept checking my Nike+ and it was saying we were going at about an 8 min/mi pace and even sub-8 at times, I knew this was too fast so I asked him to slow down. It wasn't soon before I had to walk. Between mile 1 and 2 there was a hill, not super steep, but a gradual incline. I couldn't do it, I had to walk. Tony got annoyed with me and my walking so early, that he said he was going to go on. And so he went. I was a little perturbed because we had agreed to run the race together. The first water stop was at 1.5 miles, I definitely needed some, so I walked on through and drank my water. I saw Tony ahead of me, in fact I kept sight on him up until about mile 5, he was only about 30 seconds ahead of me. There was lots of walking though. I would run a little bit, and then I would slow down and walk for a bit, then go again. The rain was really coming down and the temperature was dropping. At the mile 4 aid station I downed my Chocolate Hammer Gel and a cup of water. Mile 5 was pretty darn long. Mile 6 had us run through a park and we crossed one of the sensor strips at the halfway point. I was thrilled just knowing I was halfway. Over the course of the race my Nike+ was overestimating by about 0.07-0.15 miles, it would tell me I had completed a mile before I got to the mile marker.
At mile 7 I got a second wind and decided to kick it up. I ran until mile 8, and at the aid station there I had my second Hammer Gel, a Vanilla Bean one this time. Somewhere around mile 9 or so I looked down at my fingers (I took the gloves off around mile 2), and my wedding rings were super tight on my super swollen finger, so I decided I needed to take them off. I had a small zippered pocket on the front of my pants, so I put them in there, but it was so hard to try to take them off and get them in there safely while trying to walk and with the rain pounding down. Plus, I freak out when I don't have them on, I always panic and think I lost them. I was a nervous wreck with them in my pocket, even though it's zippered, I was still paranoid they would somehow fall out, so I kept reaching down to check to see if I could still feel them in my pocket. Plus, my stupid left shoe kept coming untied during the second half of the race, I had to stop to retie it 3 times! Mile 9 took us through another park, and another aid station, this one I walked through and got some Gatorade. After that I got another wind and started running again. I ran for a bit and then slowed and walked until mile 10 or so. Then came the final stretch and the battle in my head. I kept telling myself, okay, when I get to mile 11 I will run the last 2 miles. Couldn't do it, I had to run and then walk some. Then when I got to 11.6, I told myself, okay time to run the last 1.5 miles. Couldn't do it. Then I said okay, just run the last mile and you can finish in 2:15:xx. I still couldn't do it. Finally, I made the deal with myself, I could run the last 0.50 miles. At that point I could see the mile marker for mile 13. I picked it up then, I pushed my Nike+ to play my "power song" which is Melissa Etheridge's "I Run For Life" and I booked it. As I rounded the curve after mile 13, I could see the finish line and Tony and Dana were standing on the corner with their finisher medals on waiting for me, I waved, they waved and cheered and Dana motioned me to keep going and run! So I kicked up even further and started sprinting, and then crossed the finish line!! Immediately a volunteer handed me my medal and I walked off to find some water. I grabbed a little water bottle and then went to find Tony and Dana. We perused the refreshment table and I grabbed 2 sandwich cookies and half a banana. My legs felt like Jello and just kept shaking. I was shivering. It was so cold and I was completely soaked. Every inch of me. My feet were sloshing in water. I felt terrible and wonderful all at the same time! My body ached, but I was just so happy and proud of myself.
After chowing down our little snacks and using the bathroom we headed for the car. We brought towels since we knew we'd be soaked. I stripped off my wet jacket and hat and shirt and dried off a bit and put on my warm sweatshirt I had left in the car. I was so worried about Tony though because he was shivering pretty violently and he didn't bring any dry clothes. We turned on the heat full blast and headed home with a quick stop at the Starbucks drive thru for some hot drinks to warm us up inside. Once home I was first to take a hot shower and relax. It felt great to warm up and be out of my wet clothes and shoes. After everyone had showers we settled in to relax and have green monsters and some other snacks/lunch and watch some TV. I also began icing my sore left foot and took two Advil. The rest of the evening was very low key with more icing, a nice dinner of filet mignon, baked potatoes, California blend veggies, and a glass of wine.
Today my foot is still sore, it's also pretty swollen, I'm still icing it and taking my Advil. If it doesn't improve by tomorrow or Wednesday I will go see my doctor. This afternoon I'm going to the spa and getting a one hour sports massage, facial, and aromatherapy foot bath. Race results were finally posted and overall I'm pretty pleased with myself. I didn't do as well as I would have liked, but I finished and surpassed my goal. My original goal was to finish in about 2:30:xx, but in my head I thought I could probably finish around 2:15:xx. Official results from my timing chip said I finished in 2:21:53. I was at the halfway point at 1:08:59 and for the first half of the race my pace was 10:32 min/mi. I slowed down for the second half of the race though and my pace was 10:50 min/mi, overall I came in 789 out of 1500, and 49th out of 66 in my age group (25-29), and 314th out of 764 for the women.
My Nike+ ended up underestimating at the end, it said I only ran 13.03 miles and I waited a couple seconds after crossing the finish line to turn it off, but overall I think it did a pretty good job of being mostly accurate.
Unfortunately the meterologists were all predicting rain for Sunday. I think I stalked my Weather Channel app on my BlackBerry a million times on Saturday. Saturday night I made a nice carbo loading dinner of chicken marsala, whole wheat pasta, and roasted zucchini. Shortly after dinner and watching District 9 it was time for bed so we could be up at 5:15 am. Sure enough when we got up Sunday morning it was raining, not a downpour, but a light rain. I then ate my usual pre-run breakfast of a whole wheat english muffin with some natural peanut butter on it and a tall glass of water. I was praying the rain would stop by the time we got over to the race location, but of course it didn't, and it was so cold, only about 51 degrees and dropping, but by the time we finished the race it was about 40 degrees. The parking lot was a nightmare and completely full, we drove around for another 10 minutes looking for parking. Walked through the rain, and found the port a potty lines. Our friend Dana loaned me a rain jacket windbreaker to run in, but I was still cold and wet, and this was before the race even started. By the time we got out of the port a potties, the race had already started, so the announcer was yelling for all half marathoners to go because they were going to reset the timing for the 5k. So we missed lining up in our corrals, missed the gun going off, and were 4 minutes late crossing the starting line, thankfully our chips only started timing from that point.
The rain was coming down and I was cold. I had on my gloves, but the rest of me was still chilled, even though I had on pants, a tech tee, and the windbreaker (which was zipped up), oh and a baseball cap to keep the rain off my face. The first mile we booked it. Tony wanted to take off, I kept checking my Nike+ and it was saying we were going at about an 8 min/mi pace and even sub-8 at times, I knew this was too fast so I asked him to slow down. It wasn't soon before I had to walk. Between mile 1 and 2 there was a hill, not super steep, but a gradual incline. I couldn't do it, I had to walk. Tony got annoyed with me and my walking so early, that he said he was going to go on. And so he went. I was a little perturbed because we had agreed to run the race together. The first water stop was at 1.5 miles, I definitely needed some, so I walked on through and drank my water. I saw Tony ahead of me, in fact I kept sight on him up until about mile 5, he was only about 30 seconds ahead of me. There was lots of walking though. I would run a little bit, and then I would slow down and walk for a bit, then go again. The rain was really coming down and the temperature was dropping. At the mile 4 aid station I downed my Chocolate Hammer Gel and a cup of water. Mile 5 was pretty darn long. Mile 6 had us run through a park and we crossed one of the sensor strips at the halfway point. I was thrilled just knowing I was halfway. Over the course of the race my Nike+ was overestimating by about 0.07-0.15 miles, it would tell me I had completed a mile before I got to the mile marker.
At mile 7 I got a second wind and decided to kick it up. I ran until mile 8, and at the aid station there I had my second Hammer Gel, a Vanilla Bean one this time. Somewhere around mile 9 or so I looked down at my fingers (I took the gloves off around mile 2), and my wedding rings were super tight on my super swollen finger, so I decided I needed to take them off. I had a small zippered pocket on the front of my pants, so I put them in there, but it was so hard to try to take them off and get them in there safely while trying to walk and with the rain pounding down. Plus, I freak out when I don't have them on, I always panic and think I lost them. I was a nervous wreck with them in my pocket, even though it's zippered, I was still paranoid they would somehow fall out, so I kept reaching down to check to see if I could still feel them in my pocket. Plus, my stupid left shoe kept coming untied during the second half of the race, I had to stop to retie it 3 times! Mile 9 took us through another park, and another aid station, this one I walked through and got some Gatorade. After that I got another wind and started running again. I ran for a bit and then slowed and walked until mile 10 or so. Then came the final stretch and the battle in my head. I kept telling myself, okay, when I get to mile 11 I will run the last 2 miles. Couldn't do it, I had to run and then walk some. Then when I got to 11.6, I told myself, okay time to run the last 1.5 miles. Couldn't do it. Then I said okay, just run the last mile and you can finish in 2:15:xx. I still couldn't do it. Finally, I made the deal with myself, I could run the last 0.50 miles. At that point I could see the mile marker for mile 13. I picked it up then, I pushed my Nike+ to play my "power song" which is Melissa Etheridge's "I Run For Life" and I booked it. As I rounded the curve after mile 13, I could see the finish line and Tony and Dana were standing on the corner with their finisher medals on waiting for me, I waved, they waved and cheered and Dana motioned me to keep going and run! So I kicked up even further and started sprinting, and then crossed the finish line!! Immediately a volunteer handed me my medal and I walked off to find some water. I grabbed a little water bottle and then went to find Tony and Dana. We perused the refreshment table and I grabbed 2 sandwich cookies and half a banana. My legs felt like Jello and just kept shaking. I was shivering. It was so cold and I was completely soaked. Every inch of me. My feet were sloshing in water. I felt terrible and wonderful all at the same time! My body ached, but I was just so happy and proud of myself.
After chowing down our little snacks and using the bathroom we headed for the car. We brought towels since we knew we'd be soaked. I stripped off my wet jacket and hat and shirt and dried off a bit and put on my warm sweatshirt I had left in the car. I was so worried about Tony though because he was shivering pretty violently and he didn't bring any dry clothes. We turned on the heat full blast and headed home with a quick stop at the Starbucks drive thru for some hot drinks to warm us up inside. Once home I was first to take a hot shower and relax. It felt great to warm up and be out of my wet clothes and shoes. After everyone had showers we settled in to relax and have green monsters and some other snacks/lunch and watch some TV. I also began icing my sore left foot and took two Advil. The rest of the evening was very low key with more icing, a nice dinner of filet mignon, baked potatoes, California blend veggies, and a glass of wine.
Today my foot is still sore, it's also pretty swollen, I'm still icing it and taking my Advil. If it doesn't improve by tomorrow or Wednesday I will go see my doctor. This afternoon I'm going to the spa and getting a one hour sports massage, facial, and aromatherapy foot bath. Race results were finally posted and overall I'm pretty pleased with myself. I didn't do as well as I would have liked, but I finished and surpassed my goal. My original goal was to finish in about 2:30:xx, but in my head I thought I could probably finish around 2:15:xx. Official results from my timing chip said I finished in 2:21:53. I was at the halfway point at 1:08:59 and for the first half of the race my pace was 10:32 min/mi. I slowed down for the second half of the race though and my pace was 10:50 min/mi, overall I came in 789 out of 1500, and 49th out of 66 in my age group (25-29), and 314th out of 764 for the women.
My Nike+ ended up underestimating at the end, it said I only ran 13.03 miles and I waited a couple seconds after crossing the finish line to turn it off, but overall I think it did a pretty good job of being mostly accurate.
Even though this race was pretty miserable given the weather, I still love the runner's high and the sense of accomplishment afterwards. I'm feeling pretty hardcore today knowing that I ran in those conditions yesterday. Next race is April 2nd, it's an easy 5k on base and I am hoping to run it in sub-30. Thank you all for all your support and encouragement on my journey, it has really touched and inspired me to keep going and do the very best I can and I couldn't have done it without you!!
Friday, March 19, 2010
My First Fondant Cake
This week in Course 3 we learned how to work with fondant. I admit, prior to yesterday I was very nervous to do anything involving fondant. I also thought it would taste bad. I'm glad to say I was wrong on both counts. I took the easy way out and used the premade fondant from Wilton that I purchased at Michael's, but I was pleasantly surprised with the tiny taste I had, it was pretty marshmallow tasting and still fairly sweet. Working with the fondant was much easier as well, the trick is working it enough so that it become pliable.
This was probably my second favorite cake I've made, my number one favorite is still my flower basket cake, but this one was fairly easy and just in a different realm than working with buttercream. Today is my mother in law's birthday and our friend Dana's birthday. As luck would have it, Dana is staying with us this weekend as she prepares to move to D.C., so we will be cutting this cake tonight with her in celebration! Since I knew she would be with us and we'd have it as her birthday cake, I asked her what flavor she would like me to make, so the inside is my perfect red velvet with cream cheese filling. I can't wait to get a taste of all of it together tonight!
This was probably my second favorite cake I've made, my number one favorite is still my flower basket cake, but this one was fairly easy and just in a different realm than working with buttercream. Today is my mother in law's birthday and our friend Dana's birthday. As luck would have it, Dana is staying with us this weekend as she prepares to move to D.C., so we will be cutting this cake tonight with her in celebration! Since I knew she would be with us and we'd have it as her birthday cake, I asked her what flavor she would like me to make, so the inside is my perfect red velvet with cream cheese filling. I can't wait to get a taste of all of it together tonight!
