Wednesday: Swim and Tracy Anderson

Ooooh, Wednesday, second verse same as the first.  Baby G continues to wake in the night, I continue to be exhausted, yet be unable to stay at home and recover as it would only be worse to stay at home.  At least at swim, I can drop both children in the swim nursery and I can stick my head underwater and think about something besides who is going to spit up on me next.

Once at the gym, Baby G refuse to take a nap, so I found myself (yet again!!!) in the locker room, breast feeding away.  G finally went down to nap and I was able to get into the pool 30 minutes late.  I was abot to get in about 2500 meters of the workout and that is about all I can say.

I determined to address my abs tonight with Tracy Anderson.  Attempting my first jog stroller run with Little G tomorrow.

yay!!

Tuesday: Mark Miller Dashes my Dreams of a Lazy Marathon

I do not know if you have noticed that I am only running three days a week in preparation for the Boston Marathon.  I have my whole checkerboard workout schedule that ensures that I am running no back to back days.  I am being uber careful to avoid injury and get my sleep.

Monday evening, I had everything ready, I set my alarm at an ear splitting decibel and prepared to get to the track early so that I could ask Mark a few questions.  As my luck would have it, however, Baby G has stopped sleeping through the night as he is growing and honestly my body must be producing gallons of breast milk every day, but that is another conversation.

So, though I had a 5:00 AM wake up call, I was up to feed Baby G at 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM.  It was bitter and I really did not feel I was in my right mind.  I thought about skipping track workout all together, but here is the rub.  It is not as if staying home would have bought me any sleep.  Baby G went back down to sleep at 5:15 AMish and my older would have been up a bit before 6:00 AM.  It was a lose/ lose situation.  If I wanted more sleep, the best option would be to get in my car and drive to track practice and sleep in my car in the parking lot like a vagrant.

While my husband is as helpful as is possible, I find that if I am in my home, someone is always yelling "mommy".  Mommy seems to be able to do it better for whatever reason.  Maybe, if I became super irresponsible and undependable, everyone would quit calling my name.  ANYWAY, all that to say that I went to track practice.

At track practice, I got in a mile warm up, before hopping on my chance to talk to Mark Miller.  I explained my whole situation to him: newborn, Boston Marathon, running three days a week, blah, blah, blah.  No doubt, I was not very concise and I blathered on about all sorts of things that poor Mark Miller does not give a rats about, but he was a kind listener.  After hearing my whole deal, he said these words to me which I did not want to hear: you can run three days a week.  You will be able to run the marathon, but you will not improve and you will be lucky to maintain you time.  You have to add in some more runs.

With those sad words, I betook myself to the track in my lululemon tights and began the workout.  Workout as follows:

• mile warm up
• 800 meters of stride outs
• 8 x 400 meters @ 1:30
• jog 400 meters in between.  I actually jogged 200 meters in between in an effort to finish the workout
• mile cool down

This ended up being 5.5 miles for me.  I was thrilled, but let me just tell you that I spent the rest of the day gimping around just exhausted.  I refused to even think about running any more than I am.  I am going to think about that tomorrow, Scarlett O'Hara style.  

Monday: Swim

Bitterness and Woe

Post Glowing Green Smoothie Breakfast

Coffee

Round 2!

Ooooh, today felt like a disaster from the get go.  I was up in the middle of the night with the baby, my older son woke up at 5:00 AM and turned on all the lights in the house.  He woke up the baby and it started a seriously sad course of events.

Then I got a call that my regular pool was closed, so no lap swimming.  I took a breath, gulped some coffee, and loaded us up with the intention of heading to the YMCA so that I could swim there.  Oh, but then, I got a text from my swim coach.  My regular pool had opened at the last minute and so we changed our course to head to the usual pool.

At home, I repeatedly tried to get the baby down for a morning nap (and failed) and I think my older son ate cheese puffs for breakfast.  The baby also refused to nap in the car and then the baby refused to nap in the gym nursery.  SO, instead of swimming, I found myself in the locker room breast feeding in my bathing suit.  Then, I pushed Little G in the stroller for 20 minutes until he fell asleep.

Then I was able to hit the pool. I swam 2500 meters as fast as I could and sprinted home to force everyone down for a nap, so that I could catch my breath before little swim team.

In bed early for track practice tomorrow.

Saturday: Fourth Boston Training Run

Bitterly getting ready to run

My hair looks kind of great for bedhead!!

Pile of Running Gear

Tea and Apple.  Forgot to defrost my glowing green smoothie

Feigning a good attitude

So last night, I was in bed at 9:15 PM in anticipation of my alarm going off at 5:15 AM (boo) to meet my running group at 6:30 AM.  Getting into bed at 9:15 PM requires a lot of preparation for the morning.  I readied my older son's Ovaltine chocolate milk sippy cup in the event that he got up at the same time that I did.  That way I could give him his chocolate milk and scoot him back to bed or to watch Curious George or whatever is his MO at that point.  I readied bottles of breast milk for my infant son.  I dragged out several options for my running garb as what I wear is always a game day decision.  I charged my Garmin. I set up my green tea and all my food options.  I found Chocolate Mint Gu at REI.  It is rare and seasonal and tastes like an Andes Mint.  It rocks my world.

Now, after reading a bit, I went straight to sleep which was great, but I woke up at 3:00 AM to go the bathroom.  After I got back in bed, I had nightmare after nightmare about showing up to run without something that I desperately needed.  Finally, at 5:00 AM I heard the baby chatting to himself in the nursery and I went ahead and fed him before getting dressed and starting the car.

I have to say that this morning, as cold as it was, as poorly rested as I felt, I had nothing but negative things to say about people like myself who find it necessary to prove something by dragging themselves out of bed to run 20 miles at unreasonable hours of the morning when the rest of the intelligent world is sleeping.

When I was in college, I had this Adidas poster in my dorm room that was a picture of a man training for a marathon.  It said something to the effect of this:  I used to think people that trained for marathons were crazy, then I started running marathons, then I said I would never get up early to train for a marathon, now I am up at 5:00 AM to train for a marathon and it's snowing.

Anyway, if that poster was hanging anywhere in my home it would be solely for serving the purpose of a dart board.  That Adidas poster just seems like smug crazy talk.  If I could make my own Adidas poster to hang in my house now, featuring myself, it would say this:  I am breast feeding and tired and I am still, for some daffy reason, hauling myself out of bed to run with a group of people whom I feel probably take this marathoning business too seriously.  I may have some sort of mental disorder. Tomfoolery.

Anyway, I arrived on time, I ran 20.5 miles.  I was initially freezing, then I was way too hot.  I peeled off some layers and sent them home with another running who was heading home early.  I was then too cold.  Then I was too hot by the time we finished.  I arrived home so that my husband could bike.  I hit the YMCA for a yoga/pilates class and have been pretty much parked somewhere between a nap and the couch ever since.

Thursday and Friday: Run, Swim and I Have totally Left My Abs in the Lurch This Week

This is me all the time right now.  Yawning!!

Have I spoken of the betrayal that I feel when Little G (the most fabulous of all four month olds) throws a curve ball into his sleep through the night routine.  Bless it.  We have been sleeping 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM for a good two weeks and now Little G is ready to party at 6:00 AM and I want that extra hour.  In fact, on Wednesday night I was betrayed to the extent that Little G woke up hungry at 11:30 PM and then was up for the day at 6:00 AM.  What gives G?

Anyway, second verse same as the first this morning.  Little G was up before Charlie Rose hit the big screen at 7:00.  You know with a full night's sleep, I am downright pretty and these piecemealed nights of sleep make me look like something Tim Burton would conjur up.

Needless to say, all this no sleeping is defeating my early morning workouts.  On Thursday morning, I slept in due to night wakefulness, then sprinted my older son to nursery school and my younger son for a checkup and shots.  I was able to get to the YMCA for a run on the treadmill, but not enough time to take the pilates class.  I actually need to go ahead and get the jog stroller cranking.  I have been reluctant to use it, but the weather will be getting warmer soon and I can run from home which will leave more time for pilates and yoga on days that I do not have to work or be involved in on of my children's something or other.

Today, after another slightly off sleep night, myself and two kids schlepped it to the gym in quickly falling temperatures.  Everyone was happy in the gym nursery and I had a nice, albeit hot swim.  My usual pool, which has temperatures of around 78 degrees, was closed for maintenance today.  SO, I swam at the indoor pool at the YMCA which is at least 85 degrees.  It is so miserably hot.  I really only swam about 2000 yards as I am running long tomorrow.

I have ignored my abs all week.  I have done no ab work at home and attended no pilates or yoga classes.  Bleh.  Hopefully, will hit the YMCA for pilates tomorrow!!

Wednesday: Swim

Workout!!!

This morning, I was up early to the sound of some serious rain.  OH, when it is raining outside it is so tempting to throw in the towel and make us all stay home.  Schlepping children in and out of the car in the rain is on my list of awful tasks, second only to cleaning up when our cat vomits.  I would prefer to change dirty diapers, honestly.

Anyway, I learned a valuable lesson last Friday when we were all trapped at the house, and I knew that it was integral that we head for swim class.  So, we all loaded into the car, traffic was rainy day terrible, and dragged ourselves to the gym.  I was only fifteen minutes late, and I actually got through the entire workout.  It was a hard workout, but I made all my intervals and was inordinately pleased that I had made it.

However, as I was swimming my last lap, the dreaded day that I KNEW was coming arrived.  Nursery Worker Glenda arrived at the end of my lap lane during cool down and signaled to me that Little G was inconsolable in the nursery.  The rule is: When Glenda says that your child is inconsolable in the nursery you stop what you are doing immediately and do the walk of shame in your wet bathing suit, past all the senior citizens doing water aerobics and onward past the treadmills full of people with grown or contented children and claim your child.  That is the rule.

SO, in a bathing suit, towel and flip flops, with my hair dripping a puddle on the nursery floor, I claimed my infant.  He was indeed inconsolable and there was nothing to do but betake our selves to the locker room and breast feed and breast feed and breast feed.  The big time bummer is that I had to sit in my pool filth and was then unable to shower and had to ride home in it.  I could feel my skin drying out like leather and my hair (newly cut and colored last night!!!!!!) crunching up with frizz and damage.  Even now, I have chlorine burn on my face and am going to have to take my makeup off with jojoba oil.

I did not get to shower until I arrived home where I reschlepped everyone into the house in the rain. Womp Womp.


Hopefully run tomorrow.

Things I MUST stop doing

I must stop driving with my everyday china coffee cups (wedgewood nantucket basket!!!!) sitting on the dashboard of my car while I drive.  I am such a creature of habit in the morning and they are the only cups from which I want to drink coffee.  They are my thing.  Anyway, as my life becomes more harried and my window of time to drink coffee in my home lessens and lessens, I continually drag my coffee cups into the car with me.

Have they ever spilled? Oh yes, friends.  They have spilled for sure.  I have not broken one yet, but I am sure it is on the horizon.

Tuesday: Speed Sessions

Glowing Green Smoothie, XL Green Tea, Vitamins!!

In the car to head home at 7:02

It clearly takes some sort of cataclysmic noise to wake me from slumber when my body wants to sleep.  Last night, I set my alarm for 5:15 AM and once again, the alarm woke my husband and my son before it woke me.  I am not sure what else to do.  It is like my bedwetting bell and pad all over again.  If I sleep with my iphone headphones in and set the alarm at top volume will it only resonate in my ears and not jerk the rest of the house from their sleep?  I need to figure that out, because this was the second week that everyone else has woken up before me, and that I have been late to speed sessions.  It is as if my body refuses to acknowledge life before 6:00 AM.

So anyway, I rolled into speed sessions late and was only able to get in one measly warm up lap.  The workout was as follows:

• 1200 meter warm up
• 6 x 800 meters @ 3:10
• 400 meter jog in between each 800
• cool-down jog to my car

Now as usual at speed sessions, I have befriend a hapless runner.  This is my usual pattern: Befriend unsuspecting runner, trick him or her with a great display of my winning personality and artful social skills to pace me so that I do not run too fast or too slow, refuse to acknowledge it when this person tries to shake me.  I will not be shaken.  I need a pace car.  

This season I have befriend the ever-so-pleasant Daniel, and I am running when he runs, slowing when he slows and speeding when he speeds.  His interval is slightly faster than mine, so he is encouraging my speed.

Great Bible study, where I found I was behind when I thought I was caught up on our lessons.  BUT, received Tim Keller's new marriage book.  AM thrilled!!!  Love affair with Tim Keller's wisdom!!

Monday: Day Off

This morning, I was up a bit late as I was up late watching the thrilling conclusion of Downton Abbey Season II.  If you are unfamiliar with Downton Abbey, I cannot explain it to you.  It is phenomenal, and you need to research it and catch up.  Because of being up late, I slept in a bit later and missed my chance to run this morning.

However, I have a running checkerboard going and this is what it is: I am trying to take a full day off in between my runs.  For instance, I ran on Saturday, so I swam on Sunday to allow myself to recover.  Since I have a speed track workout on Tuesday morning, I did not need to run today.  I will run fast tomorrow and then swim on Wednesday.  I feel that my body needs to be fully rested from running when I am going into the running workout, and that I then to have a day off from running after the run to recover.  I am determined not to get injured since I have a non-refundable plane ticket to Boston and a non-refundable hotel room AND a non-refundable limousine bus to the staring line in Hopkinton.  Getting hurt in not an option.


I knew that today was most likely going to be a day off of working out, as I was working my first double since Little G was born.  It was a full day.  I toted my pump to work, worked through one testing session, pumped in the bathroom while I returned phone calls and then worked through my next testing session.  I was a working mom, just living the life and having it all.

I picked up a salad on the way home, popped everyone in the car for swim team practice and hauled it home to a dinner of left overs.  Getting in bed early.

Sunday: Swim

Post swim!!

You know, after having a rather long run like yesterday, my only goal by the end of the day is to sit on the couch and eat take out and get a good night's sleep.  I do not feel that it is a lot to ask for under the circumstances, BUT through no fault of anyone but me, I did not get my good night's sleep.  I woke up at exactly 1:22 AM, according to the kitchen clock, suffering from acute starvation and I was too hot.

After shuffling to the kitchen and eating a pan of homemade lara bars, I was still wakeful and I laid in bed with a headlamp reading my biography of Queen Elizabeth II.  I am coming to admire her more and more and feeling that we have some things in common.  Namely our allegiance to duty and our sometime resentment of it.  

After reading two chapters about the '50's, including Prince Charles aversion to his boarding schools, the Queen's tour of America and the birth of Prince Andrew.  It is all very exciting.  I was enthralled until much to much earlier in the morning and I was not well rested by the time the baby stirred and needed to be fed.

It snowed all morning, and we were all sort of trapped at the house staring at each other.  In the afternoon, though swim class was cancelled, I was able to pop over to the gym around the corner and swim 3000 yards. Workout as follows:

• 500 swim
• 500 pull
• 500 IM (with fins)
• 500 swim
• 200 kick (with fins)
• 300 swim
• 300 pull
• 200 kick (with fins)

Made a vegetable lasagna for dinner.  Working my first full day since the baby tomorrow, so taking the pump to work!!

Watching Downton Abbey!!

Glowing Green Smoothie in Hand

confusion about proper amount of clothing

it looks cold, right??

Still No Shower, but I am finished with my run!!

I was on the ball last night.  In bed at 9:00 PM, asleep by 9:30ish.  I defrosted my Glowing Green Smoothie, I had EVERYTHING laid out: green tea, clothes, glowing green smoothie, vitamins, gu, all of it.

My alarm went off at 6:00 AM, I pumped 8 ounces of milk and set it out for my husband to feed the baby.  Then, I got dressed in my lululemon run back on track tights, a singlet, long sleeve t-shirt, vest and neon vest for morning visibility.  It was actually not that cold and I was WAY overdressed, but I will get to that later.  My new lululemon investments are rather life changing.  The tights are so great looking, stay in place and have pockets for all my supplies.

Anyway, today we were due a 13 mile run, though I only had time for 12ish as I had to race back home to get my son to a swimming lesson.  I started out rather slow and ramped it up for a pretty successful run if I do say so myself.  I felt great and rested and it was my perfect running weather.

Also, even though I am loathe to take a day off and I have no desire to take Friday's off, it might behoove me to do so.  I cannot help but connect a fabulous and fast run today to my day off yesterday.  My body was rested.  I know this, but it is so terrible to take a day off.  I am going to have to talk to Mark Miller about it.  That is all there is to it.  Mark Miller will tell me what to do, and he will be right, and I will do what he says and that is my only option.  Mark Miller is right about all things racing.

I mean, check out my details.  I was hauling some seriously fast miles today.  If that is what a day off does for me, then I have to take a day off.  I hate a day off.  The only problem with today was that I was so overdressed and by the time we hit our rest stop, I was sweltering.  In the bathroom, I was limited on my clothing change options.  I was able to take off my long sleeved t-shirt, and run sleeveless in my singlet and vest, but my vest chaffed my armpits without the long sleeve t-shirt and now I have some serious chafing under my arms.


At home, I hit the house like a torpedo and put makeup on OVER my sweaty workout face and switched out my running lululemon tights for the lululemon wunder under tights.  They are fabulous, and I LIVE in them.  I loaded kids into the car and hit the road for Swim America.  Ivan took his lesson, I hit Starbucks on the way home. I took my first shower since Wednesday morning. THEN,  I got the baby down for a nap and devoted myself to recovery yoga.

I am having a love affair with you tube yoga. I did this yoga practice today, and I feel really stretched out and the instructor was very visible and gave good form instruction.  Like I have said previously, I am three months out from a baby and I need to take care of my body as I am ramping up my mileage and my speed significantly.  If I cannot get to a class, it is such a gift to have the you tubes at my disposal.

Having a glass of wine and then getting into bed with my biography of Queen Elizabeth II.  Stay calm and carry on.

Friday: Oh Misery

Last night, my oldest was up three different times in the night and let me just tell you, I was about out of my mind with sleeplessness and inexplicably in my older son's bed when my infant woke up this morning. I never even thought about early swim.  I thought for a minute about my 8:30 AM swim class, but I just thought that I was exhausted and maybe we needed a day at home.  I had not had a day off from working out in a while and I thought in my head we would hang out in out pajamas, and that would be fun.

Clearly, I was muddled in the head, because it was the worst idea in the history of having children.  My oldest was begging to go to the gym nursery by 10:00 AM and my youngest was fussing and not napping and I had not even brushed my teeth.  The baby spit up on me 1000 times, my oldest kept climbing on the furniture and leaping to the floor so hard that the china was shaking in its cupboard.

By the time my oldest woke up from his nap, the nursery at the YMCA was closed and there was no way I was getting a swim.  All there was left to do was to take my oldest to his swim team practice.  Swim team was lovely and my three year old is always happy to be there, and I dropped my guard for a while.  I got to be fun mom and even picked up fast food on the way home since some how dinner never happened with everything else that was hitting the fan at home.  I was rewarded for my brief stint as fun mom with my oldest son dropping a milkshake on the floor of the car.  It exploded on the floorboards and at 6:00 PM, I found myself pulled over on the side of the road stifling expletives while both children wailed in the back seat.  Honestly, all you can do about a spilled milkshake is take a hose to the situation.  This one just did not end easily.

Anyway, at least I made myself take a day off of working out.  What I learned from it, however, is that I NEVER want a day off from working out.  I need that two hours away from children the way I need food and water.  Lesson learned.

13 Miles tomorrow!!

Thursday: Run and Reformer Pilates and Breast Feeding Drama

Brzezinski

I went to bed last night with the intention of getting up early and running and then coming back and getting my ducks in a row for the day.  I went to bed feeling rather under the weather and it just seemed like I should not push my luck as I am terrified of being sick at home with two children.  SO,  I had a rather uneventful morning, drinking coffee and trolling about about on Ebay while encouraging my three year old to eat breakfast and breast feeding my infant.  I spent a goodly bit of time on the phone with Garmin, griping about my 310xt and downloading new software and making sure it all works together.  

Also, I am loving the new morning show on CBS with Charlie Rose, because confession: I LOVE CHARLIE ROSE.  If you want to see someone get maybe the only pleasant and thoughtful interview ever gotten from Hunter S Thompson, look up Charlie Rose.  In my opinion, Charlie Rose is one of the last gentleman left in the new media.  He makes Matt Lauer look like a low-class hack, and I don't hate Matt Lauer.  For a morning show, the new CBS formula is pretty great and I think Charlie Rose talks to great people.  This morning, for instance Zbigniew Brzezinski was on the show.  He was Jimmy Carter's national security advisor and spoke about how American ignorance of national issues and stagnation are allowing other nations to rise at a faster rate than ourselves.  I feel I need to read his book Strategic Vision, and I might!! Thank you, Charlie Rose for making me smarter in the morning.  

Anyway, on to the rest of my day.  I dropped my older son at nursery school only to find out that we had forgotten dog and blankets, and I had to postpone my trip to the gym to go home to retrieve them by nap time.  After dog and blanket drop off, I hit the gym and took a pilates reformer class. After the reformer class, I walked past the gym nursery to see Little G, my three month old, wailing away in the arms of the competent nursery worker, Monica.  SO, I popped in and breast fed him for a bit before being frantically stopped by another nursery worker who explained I was breast feeding directly into the security cameras.  

I had three responses to this statement:

a) like I care

b) why do you position a rocking chair for breast feeding mothers directly in front of a camera

c) stop talking to me, just leave me in peace and if everyone wants to watch like I am an exhibit at a museum or a monkey at the zoo, I don't care as long as you stop talking to me.  

Anyway, post breast feeding, I was able to run a moderately fast three miles on the treadmill.  I did not have time to shower, so I had to drive home in a puddle of my own sweat.  I thieved a towel from the YMCA and thought of the dream day when I could go to the YMCA by myself and take a pilates class, run AND shower.  One day I am going to go to the YMCA and just stay all day because I can.

Maybe early swim tomorrow.  We shall see!!

Wednesday: Swim

At our house, I call the witching hour the time around dinner time, when everyone is worn out with each other and my three year old starts acting up and the baby gets grumpy and will not quite settle and I start to feel like I need to leave town or have a drink or cut all my hair off.  Something dreadful always happens; a spill, someone has a tantrum, someone falls and cries at an inordinate volume, or someone spits up all over something that can only be dry cleaned.  

Today during the witching hour, I heard myself say OUT LOUD, "Don't put your bare penis on my cowboy boot", which sounds like the title of a b-grade Texas porno.  It was, however, par for the course for something that would happen at my house during the witching hour.  My three year old had gone to the bathroom and while there, had removed all of his clothes for an as yet undisclosed reason.  He came out and pasted himself against my cowboys boot, and I immediately uttered what I did.  I then immediately felt the urge for a stiff drink or a prolonged stay in a sanatorium.  Neither option opened up to me and I just had to shoulder the burden of my children until they were both put to bed.  

It was harder today, because I was not running on a full night's sleep.  The baby had been up in the night, my three year old had been up in the night and when all was said and done, I could not go back to sleep and had essentially been awake since four-ish.  The baby then slept until 8:30 AM meaning that we were very late in getting to my swim class, but I am learning to take this in stride.  I swam 2000 meters of my swim coach's workout with the class and then just hit another 1000 on my own after class ended.  It worked out fine and sometimes my days are just like that.  

At home, I ran everyone about to afternoon activities and was home by 4:00 PM to make lentil stew for dinner.  It is full of fresh basil and everyone loves it!! 

Feeling under the weather, but hopefully it is from lack of sleep.  Hitting the sack early and hoping for an early run tomorrow, but am not ruling out a day off.  Hopefully a pilates class as well!!

Tuesday: Speed Sessions and Pilates

Is it really only Tuesday?  Monday alone felt like a solid week.  What I neglected to inform you of on Monday was that we had a rather significant issue while my older son was at swim team in the afternoon.  After drinking an enormous quantity of juice in the car, my older son continually had to go to the restroom. After taking him to the bathroom at the pool while dragging the stroller and all of our swim gear to the bathroom multiple times, I made the TERRIBLE mistake of telling him that he could just pee in the pool.  It was an egregious error on my part, and I know this.  But, trying to drag two children with multiple gear and a stroller to a pool bathroom, opening doors, helping with pulling up and down, quieting the baby, herding the elder is most unfortunate.

ANYWAY, after hauling us back and forth to the bathroom several times, I just made the mistake of telling my son that he could pee in the pool.  He looked at me like I had handed him a winning lottery ticket, and I was not really sure why, but he did.  Approximately 20 minutes later, I understood the source of his glee.  He was sitting on the side of the pool, completely exposed, peeing in an arc into the pool as he sat beside his swim team compatriots.  His coach had to dodge to miss the stream.  I was mortified, and then I had to stop myself from laughing, and then I was trying so hard to stop myself from laughing that I began laughing hysterically like you do when you really shouldn't.  Other than the pool urination, swim team is going really well.

Last night, after settling everyone in bed and thinking about my track workout, it occurred to me that track practice could end up being cancelled, as it was snowing when I went to bed.  Upon crawling out of bed at 5:15 AM, and hoping that the weather would be terrible and I could sleep in; of course it was not.  SO, I dragged myself off to the track for a four mile interval workout with a mile warm up and jog to the car cool down.

I ran each mile on a seven minute interval and chastised myself for not getting there earlier for a better warm-up.  Now, I have ramped up my mileage and speed considerably in preparation for the Boston Marathon, which is a recipe for injury.  I had a baby three months ago, and I have had to make myself a promise that I will take care of my body as well as I can.  This means a copious amount of yoga and stretching and core strengthening and a day off in between every run in an effort to keep myself healthy.
SO, I made a pilates appointment and betook myself to the YMCA.  Right now, it feels as if I am living only to breast feed, work out and work and iron and do the laundry.  Actually, it feels like I am living to do a whole lot of things when I really think about it.

Anyway, it was Valentine's Day and I have eaten my weight in chocolate and trimmed a lovely dozen roses to put in a vase.  I had a little drama at nursery school this morning, but have no time to tell you about it now as I just realized that I had to do some ironing.  IRONING!!!!

Monday: Swim and Tracy Anderson and Yoga

Today felt like a dead sprint until right now.  I popped out of the bed at 6:45 this morning (the baby slept all night) and did Tracy Anderson Ab work and yoga while Ivan watched cartoons.  Post workout, I started the coffee maker, nursed the baby, made the beds, packed the car for swim class and nursery, and hit the gym.

It is so cold here.  I felt like Jack London or an Eskimo making my way in the cold, with naught but my Lululemon technical pants to keep me warm.  I was able to swim about 2500 yards in the pool, as I had to get out early so that I could SPRINT from the gym to my older son's Valentine's Day festival.  There was heart hockey, find the heart, jump in the balls, heart shaped pancakes, and hershey kisses.  I have eaten a truly rude amount of chocolate today, as I seem to be the only one who is really interested.

Once someone had  been dragged from his Valentine's Day festival with threats and bitterness, we all made our way home for naps.   Post nap, we hit the road for swim team at the YMCA and dragged ourselves home for baths, bed and the two hour Downton Abbey special.

Hitting the sack

Sunday: Yoga and Pilates

I cannot even remember the last time I slept late or slept in or got adequate sleep.  It is just not something that happens to me anymore and realistically, it may not be something that ever happens to me again.  This morning, I dragged myself from bed to the joyous sound of a crying baby.  Every bone in my body creaked and pained after yesterday's run.  I have been wearing the same tank top for three days, and I smelled like spit up before I ever started breast feeding this morning.  

Anyway, I was not going to go to swim today as I had a sip and see to attend this afternoon, so I started some coffee this morning and I hopped right out of bed and searched youtube for a yoga practice and a pilates practice.  I was able to workout for about 45 minutes, getting in some really good stretching before Little G demanded attention and my older son needed an ovaltine refill.  

I started the coffee maker, dragged us to church in bone-chilling temperatures and killed time on the ebay once at home.  My sip and see in the afternoon was so much fun.  I had champagne and fancy cookies and I honestly at enough asparagus wrapped prosciutto to gorge a hippopotamus.  I wore a party skirt and my grandmother's earrings, and none of my children attended.  It was heaven!!

Saturday: Fourth Boston Training Run

SO, I have not blogged since Tuesday.  Where did the time go?  Wednesday was pretty lovely, I had a great swim, longer than usual at 3600 yards, and I managed to get my older son to his Swim Class on time.

On Thursday, things got dicey.  I tried to get up early to run at the gym around the corner like last Thursday when I was fabulous.  I got up, and the other members of my household launched a full on "don't leave the house" attack.  My husband was worried about me getting back to the house in time for him to get ready for work, my oldest son woke up crying and my youngest began to squirm about.  It all ended in me hitting the YMCA, taking a yoga class and then sprinting three miles on the treadmill, forgetting to take clean clothes to change into and not realizing it until after I had showered.  For this reason, I shopped frantically at the Publix with clean hair and gross sweaty clothes from my treadmill run.  For dinner, I had a date with my fabulous friends for a grownup dinner and it was uber-fun.  I had a salad and a glass of wine and wore fancy shoes.  It was heaven.

On Friday, I had all my ducks in a row for early swim and when I got my bathing suit on, the baby woke up, then my older son woke up, the baby went back to sleep and at 10:00 AM I was still in my bathing suit and I NEVER WENT SWIMMING.  It was the WORST.  It was a grumpy day.

BUT TODAY, in temperatures that were in the teens, I ran 22 miserable miles.  It snowed horizontally into driving wind.  I had on four layers AND new insulated tights.  I never got warm and my fingers are cold, dry and achy even now.  The best I can say about this run is that it is over.  I ran so slowly and every mile just felt brutal.  Normally, under such wintery circumstances, I would have called it quits early.  This particular run was a full out and back, however. I ran from one end of town to the other and there was no way to cut it off early.  By the time I was 11 miles out, there was nothing to do but run 11 miles back.  Maybe next week will be better.

Getting in bed early!!

Book Report: Books I have Read Since Finishing Undaunted Courage

So, I read Undaunted Courage after Baby G was born and really enjoyed it.  Early on, after having a baby, when I am up at all hours of the night, and I cannot work out for six weeks, and we cannot go to many places because the baby has not been vaccinated and I am so exhausted that I not fit to drive and the sound of the television is like a knife to my sleep deprived temples, I do a whole lot of reading.

I read The Art of Racing in the Rain, Sarah's Key, Case Histories, 1000 White Women and Unbroken.  


The Art of Racing in the Rain was sort of sweet.

Sarah's Key was the saddest.  Too sad.

Case Histories was so good.  So Scottish detective and the PBS miniseries is fabulous as well!!  I recommend it!!

1000 White Women was readable.

Unbroken was just stunning!!

I cannot now do reports on all of them, but I am reading such a great biography of Elizabeth II, that it will get me back on the book report train!!

Tuesday: Speed Sessions and If I Have Mastitis Again I am Going to Set Myself on Fire

So last night I was in bed at 9:00 PM like a champion.  I set my alarm clock for 5:15 AM, worked a bit of a crossword puzzle (like I do), and was asleep before 9:30 PM.  I was dismayed, however, to wake up at 3:00 AM.  I fed Baby G, and then, of course, could not go back to sleep.  So, I checked my email, pumped (just because I had the time and really need a bit more milk in the bank) and then decided to get up and get my hot tea and glowing green smoothie going.  I put on all my warm weather running clothes and started defrosting the car.  It was absolutely freezing outside, at a breezy 31 degrees when I left the house.

Now, I will say that I recently invested in the Lululemon Run: Stay on Course tight, and it is super fabulous.  It has a wind cutting component as well as tech fleece.  The waist band is high so you never have any part of your stomach exposed to the cold, and it has reflective strips and lots of compact pockets.  My other pair of winter running tights were the ones my parents bought me in college, and they had a hole in the knee and no wind cutting fabric.  Today was my first training run in the new tights, and while they were a splurge, I must say that they were well worth the expenditure.  They felt great. Also, they stayed in place the entire workout.  I never had to tug at them; not once.

Today was the first day of speed sessions and our coach, Mark Miller (the great!!) gave a brief lecture about running slow most of the time and running fast one day a week.  It is always so eye opening to hear this type of logic, as it is so counterintuitive to the way I operate.  I feel like I need to go long and hard all the time, but in reality this only hurts your performance on game day.  So, as I am training for Boston, I am dedicating myself to slower Saturday runs and fast Speed Session runs.

When I trained for Boston in 2010, I tried to do hard, fast long runs on Saturdays and it was so demoralizing.  Some weeks, I performed well and other weeks, I fell apart or quit early in complete dejection.  SO, I am going to jog it this year and not worry about anything except Tuesday morning Speed Sessions.  I am taking all my advice from Mark Miller.

After Mark finished his lecture, we all readied ourselves for a two-mile time trial, the speed of which determines how fast we will train during out speed sessions.  I ran my two miles in 12:58, which actually seemed rather unimpressive to me.  I feel like I ran my 2010 time trial speed session faster, BUT WAIT!!!  I just went and checked my records and I actually ran my 2010 time trial in 13:03.  I improved.  Who would have thought it.  I am just amazed.  Is it in spite of the baby or because of the baby??  Ahhhh, babies.

Now, whilst at the speed session, I ran a two mile warm up, then we moved to an 800 fast pace run, before doing some kinetic stretches (I think they are called), where we do all these things that make us look like Tennessee Walking Horses.  I never see the use of kinetic stretching, but I am such a believer in Mark Miller, that I will do it.

Now, because of my husband's work schedule and the great difficulty of getting ready for work with a wily three year old and a newborn, I had to run right off the track after my time trial.  There was no time for a cool down except a jog to the car.  Overall, the speed session was a great success, and the time worked out, so it looks as if I can keep going!!

Once in the house, I turned on the coffee maker and started feeding the baby and getting everyone ready for their day which is when I noticed a hardness.

It was a huge bummer as this is the fourth time in this breast feeding cycle that I have gotten mastitis.  It is the way Baby G nurses and apparently this is just going to keep happening.  It is the last thing that I have the time or patience for.  Ideally, this whole mastitis awfulness will resolve itself in the night and tomorrow will be free and clear of mastitis.

Monday: Swim and Tracy Anderson

Swim Workout

Swim Gear and Snacks

SO, I was only up once last night to feed the baby and I still sort of felt like I had been hit by a truck when I dragged myself out of bed.  I think a night like Saturday night, when everyone wakes up at odd hours and then I cannot go back to sleep, just stays with you.  Though I received all the necessary sleep last night, I was just puffy eyed and tired today.  I think it is just the I have a new baby, and I am trying to do way too much disease from which I suffer.

Regardless of my evening, I still made it to swim on time.  Baby G however, refused to go to sleep as is his usual M.O. in the car and was wide awake and irritable when we arrived at the gym.  Also, I committed the GRAVE error of forgetting Sleep Sheep.  Sleep Sheep is our constant companion.  It is this stuffed sheep with velcro on his head that you attach to the baby carrier and he emits this earsplitting white noise.  It is integral for getting Baby G to sleep.  If he has Sleep Sheep, he will sleep upwards of two or three hours.  Without Sleep Sheep, it is a dicey game.  Today, I lost the game.

While I got to swim on time, I spent 20 minutes in the locker room breast feeding in my bathing suit.  Then the baby was awake the whole time, missed morning nap and condemned me to a day of wonky baby scheduling.

AND, when I got into the pool, I was hopelessly behind on the workout and just got in and swam a straight 500 in an effort to get in some decent yardage before joining the rest of the class.  I ended up getting in quite a bit of the workout and ended at about 3000 yards.  At home, I did a bit of Tracy Anderson, cooked breakfast (oatmeal bake), dinner (white bean chicken chili) and my glowing green smoothies for the week.

Tomorrow, I am starting my speed sessions, and I am just hoping to goodness that I can manage to drag myself out of bed and arrive at the track and then back at home on time.  I hope it all works out.

Saturday and Sunday: Third Boston Training Run

Lately my running compatriots have been hitting the road at 7ish.  This is right up my alley, as I start to feel VERY SORRY for myself when I have to get up before 6:00 AM.  When I am up at these dark thirty hours, I am pitiful and exercise becomes this brutal task master as opposed to something I do recreationally because I enjoy it.  So, I love it that the late sleepers are calling the shots.

This particular Saturday, the baby woke up right before 6:00 AM, I fed him, hooked myself up to the breast pump and hunched depressively in the nursing chair hooked up like a dairy cow and plotting my revenge of selling the dastardly breast pump on ebay.  When will that day come?

Anyway, after feeding the baby, I took my vitamins, mixed my glowing green smoothie in the blender, brewed some green tea and loaded up the car with all sorts of rain gear, as rain was imminent.  Now, when I stepped outside, it was rather balmy.  I felt that even if it rained, it could not be that hard or that cold.  BUT, this is typical of my adopted ignorance about weather situations.  When I got to the park, I left my rain coat in the car, I almost left my jacket in the car, I packed up a package of Power Bar Energy Blast Gel Filled Chews (which I LOVE, by the way.  I sometimes eat them just for kicks.), and congratulated myself on a lovely day to run.  Six miles in however, I was taken down hard by driving rain.  It rained a bit, then rained harder and harder and harder.  The rain was cold, I was soaked to the skin and increasingly bitter.  My shoes filled with water and were weighted and sloshing.  My hands were cold and exposed and by the time I arrived at my car, they were swollen with cold.

Because of my weather ignorance, I had not packed a towel, so when I got in the car, I was just sitting on wet leather.  I had trouble getting the key in the ignition, my jacket and hat off, all the things that require the dexterity of your fingers.  I shivered my way home with about 12 miles under my belt.

Of course, when I walked in the door, everything was hitting the fan.  The baby was wailing and refusing to take a bottle, one of my three year old's socks had gotten sucked into the filter of the dryer and shorted it out, my three year old was naked, and the phone was ringing.  SO, I shimmied out of wet clothes into a bathrobe, nursed the baby, climbed into the shower and crossed my fingers that my husband would be able to do something about the dryer situation.

After realizing that my husband was in a serious snit about the dryer and that it was too rainy to play outside, I pulled myself together and loaded everyone up and hit the YMCA.  I took a Yoga/ Pilates fusion class and let my older son play in the play area and my younger son sleep in the nursery.  It was good times.

We had Indian food for dinner and I got in bed early in hopes of having a great night's sleep, but it was not to be.  My older son woke up twice in the night, my three month old woke up at 5:00 AM and then I could not go back to sleep.  I finally just gave up, started the coffee and resigned myself to the type of day that a limited amount of sleep grants you.  I grumpily toted my older son to church.  I grumpily ate all the frosting off a cupcake, I grumpily loaded up the car and went to swim class.  It was all grumpiness from my quarter.

At swim, I got in about 2500 meters.  Swimming again tomorrow and hoping the baby sleeps through the night.

Bleh

Friday: Swim and Tracy Anderson

Oh I so did not go to 5 AM swim this morning.  The baby coughed a bit, then was up at 2:00 AM and when I got back in bed at 3:00 AM, the thought of getting up one hour later to go to swim was just ridiculous.  RIDICULOUS.  I feel that I will try again next week.  I do have a three month old, and I will have to make some concessions.

Last night, I sort of had in my head that the baby would sleep through the night, I would swim early and arrive home before anyone woke up, then I would drink a hefty amount of coffee, and THEN I would leisurely load the kids up at 10:00 AM.  We would amble over to the YMCA, and I would take a pilates class and a yoga class.  Like I said, this may indeed happen next week, just not today.

Instead of 5 AM swim, I loaded everyone up for the swim nursery at 8:30 AM swim.  It was pretty great, as my three year old was thrilled to be there and my 3 month old just slept the entire time.  It was a real swim nursery luxury.  I got in 3100 yards, and had a great swim.  We stopped on the way home to let my older son play on a playground.

I got in some intense Tracy Anderson ab work during nap time and then cleaned out my closet and put a few things up for sale on ebay.  It was a pretty leisurely Friday.  Nothing ambitious.

I spent an inordinate amount of time griping about my post pregnancy stomach with my sister, looked hopelessly at summer bathing suits, and had a full on confrontation with a tub of Nutella.

We had had a tub of Nutella in the house that I "bought for my son" for about a week.  I told myself that I bought it to spread on his whole wheat toast to encourage him to eat a fuller breakfast.  This was a pretty serious lie to tell myself however.  I truly bought the Nutella for me and have been having a spoonful or so, every once in a while for the whole week.  Today, I broke down and dumped a couple of spoonfuls into my smoothie and at 4:00 PM, I just got out a spoon and finished off the whole thing.  I was vanquished by a jar of sugared chocolate.

What did I expect?  If I do not have the self discipline to get to swim for the early practice, why did I think I could withstand the supernatural powers of a jar of Nutella and why did I then further punish myself by looking at swimsuits online.  It is a sick spiral of sadness, and I have to stop it for the love of Mike.

Something I Make Every Week: Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

Tonight's Dinner!!

I developed this recipe on my own and it rocks my world.  We have it once a week and everyone loves it.  It is pretty easy and requires minimal ingredients.  I adore it and would serve it to company, if I am ever fit for that again. Without further ado:

Spaghetti Squash Lasgna

• 1 spaghetti squash
• three cups fresh baby spinach leaves
• 1/3 cup or so veganaise
• 1 and 1/2 cups of grated sheep's milk cheese
• 1 and 1/2 cups of pasta sauce

1. So, bake the spaghetti squash in the oven for at 350 for about an hour

2. Then, slice off the ends, cut it in half, remove the pulp and scrape out the spaghetti part into a bowl.  

3. In your food processor, toss in 1/3 cup of veganaise, the spinach and 1/2 cup of cheese.  Pulse the food processor until the spinach is diced, but not pureed.

4.  In the bottom of a 9 x 9 baking pan, spread some of the pasta sauce, pack the spaghetti squash on top of that, layer some more pasta sauce, then the spinach mixture, then some more of the pasta sauce and then top with a cup of cheese.

5. Bake in the oven at 350 for about 40ish minutes or until the cheese is melty and the lasagna is heated all the way through.  

Thursday: I WON

Ah HAH!!!!  I have won a small battle.  The battle of the get up early to get in my workout.  I was up at six, at the gym by 6:10, and home by 7:00 AM before the baby ever woke up.  Indeed I was.  I only dead sprinted three miles on the treadmill, but it was a real accomplishment.  It made me realize that it could be done, and we could all still function.

It has given me so much confidence, in fact, that I am contemplating hitting the pool for a full swim workout tomorrow morning, but we will have to see.  It requires getting up a full hour earlier, I think, and I am not sure about the tao of Little G tonight.  Last night we had a 2 AM night feeding, and then sleep until 7:30 AM.  This was really pretty lovely.  I was out of the shower with my beloved hot rollers in my hair straight shooting coffee like a champ by the time I started breast feeding.

Now, the downside of all this is that my alarm woke up my older son.  He followed me into the kitchen in his footy pajamas looking like Cindy Lou Hoo and whimpering pitifully about wanting to go with me, wanting to be picked up and wanting some chocolate milk.  My blood pressure began slowly creeping up as I could not seem to comfort him quickly enough to get out the door to get to the gym and back before my other son woke up, and then woke up my husband.  Let me just tell you, everything would have hit the fan at that point.  Day over before it started.

I need to do something about this alarm situation.  Like maybe invest in some sort of silent electroshock apparatus.  Deep sleeping has always been an issue with me, and the opposite is true of my older son.  The slightest thing wakes him up.  The cat walking in the room, the start of a light rainfall, the slight opening of his door to make sure he is OK in bed are all things that must sound like sonic booms to his three year old ears for all the wakefulness it has caused.

For me, if the alarm is not set at an earsplitting volume, I will sleep through it.  When I was a committed bed wetter as a child, my parents bought this bell and pad system that sounded an alarm whenever I wet the bed.  I always slept through it.  The rest of the house knew that I had wet the bed, but I was sleeping blissfully in a puddle.  For this reason, my alarm is loud, and I need to figure out a better plan.  Tonight, I am going to try sleeping with my phone in my hand and put in on vibrate.   Will that wake me up? Slipping seamlessly out of the house is integral to making the dark thirty workout happen.

I need to look into alternate alarm systems.

Anyway, great run this morning, busy day popping into my office to work, nice evening sitting on the front porch reading my new biography of Queen Elizabeth.  Much ponderance over my post-baby stomach.  More discussion of that tomorrow.

Wednesday: Swim and Tracy Anderson

Me, spelunking!!

You know,  I think the most difficult part of having a new baby is how a new baby fakes you out on a regular basis.  You think, "OK, we are now sleeping through the night, I am going to make some plans", then the baby stops sleeping through the night.  Your plans to hit the gym early are cancelled, because there is no way to drag yourself out of bed on the paltry amount of sleep the baby allowed your body.

You think, "OK, the baby is doing well in the nursery, I will get to have a great workout" and then some clearly inept (because at this point, I cannot blame myself or my child.  There is too much blaming of members of our household already.) nursery worker comes to break it to me that the baby has melted down beyond the pale of nursery worker tolerance and I must come immediately.  For whatever reason, this baby will not take a bottle.  He only wants two specific spigots for milk, and they are on my chest.  Is he really my child, I will generally take food from wherever there is a handout.  I am not picky.

This morning, I thought that I would at least get up earlyish to show my body that it could be done, but the baby insisted on staying up until all hours, then waking from time to time from the hours of 2:00 AM until 6:00 AM.  It was brutal and I staggered out of bed at 7:00 AM, which meant that we were all dragging and I arrived on the pool deck this morning both late and feeling defeated.  In fact, I am defeated.

While I was only at swim class for an hour, I did get in a pleasant 2600 yards.  This is nothing stellar, but it is an accomplishment under the circumstances.  At home, we toted my older son off to Swim America before coming home and muddling my way through the witching hours that take place from before dinner until after bedtime. A little Tracy Anderson and I am off to bed.  Hopefully up early to get in my first pre-dawn workout.  Will it happen?  I would say that there is a 50/50 chance.