Friday

Oh Friends, How did it get to be Friday?

My bike ride for Monday was cancelled on account of rain, but I went to swim.  It monsooned, but I had no choice but to drag everyone to children's consignment to hunt for Halloween costumes.  To quiet him, I bought my four year old THE LOUDEST robot toy in the history of toydom.  It was intense and ill thought.

Our hot water heater went out on Monday morning.

On Tuesday, I got in a speed workout that went really well.

• 2 mile warm up
• 1 mile @ 7:00
• 400 meter jog
• 1 mile @ 6:40
• 400 meter jog
• 1 mile @ 6:25
• 400 meter jog
• 1 mile @ 6:40
• 800 meter cool down

Swim on Wednesday and then went to Bible study in the evening.

On Thursday, it was 45 degrees at 5:00 in the morning, but I road my bike with my bike group, met with someone about landscaping our abysmal yard, ran 6 miles, then ran errands and packed it home and sat on the couch biding my time until the children went to bed.

Today I phoned it in at swim!

Run tomorrow

Sunday

My intentions today were to make up for my missed Friday swim with a Sunday swim.  However, as per usual, things got a little dicey and I had to sacrifice my workout for a grocery store run.  AND, I will say that I didn't really fight for it.  We went to church this morning and my husband intimated that he had other plans outside of my workout, we needed milk and all of the sudden, it was 5:00 PM and the gym was closing and who cares.  

I was running with someone this weekend, who made the important point that "we aren't getting paid for this, this is just a hobby".  Those words rang true.  It was the truth.  Some days, child care and other people's plans trump my situation.  

That said, I am really hoping that my bike ride works out tomorrow.  It sort of fell apart last Thursday, and what I find is that something falls apart at least a couple of times a week.  I can't be that person trying to make up all of my missed workouts.  AS a general rule, I have 9-ish workouts a week, not counting any strength training or yoga that I do.  It's a lot.  If something falls  by the wayside, I can't get too worked up about it.  I am getting in all my runs, so "yay, for me".  Also, I can't help but feel great about getting in such a fabulous run yesterday.  It made me feel like this marathon business might work out OK!!

Daddy is the fun one

May I make a comment about how it is that I spend all this time wiping down high chairs, changing diapers, and brushing teeth, only to have my children throw a veritable ticker tape parade when my husband comes home.  Do they realize that their teeth would rot out of their heads if Daddy was in charge.  Where is the love?

Running

So two weeks ago, I had literally the worst 14 mile run of all time.  I dragged in, almost walking.  It could have been the heat, it could have been my eating, it could have been just a bad run, a really bad run.  Then last weekend, I was so demoralized and hoping for lightning that I just stayed in bed and ran a sad three or four miles at home.  THEN, this week, I worried all week about my big run.  I just worried worried worried about my 16 miler.  I knew that I would fall behind the group, feel like I couldn't make it, and just peter out.

My run, however, was pretty great.  I hoofed a quick 11 miles in the hills and then tacked on another 4.5 miles (I had to stop early, because I ran out of time) and got in a really solid run.  I enjoyed running with the group and I enjoyed my time on my own.  I ate lemony Power Bar gels and it was all lovely.

Here is the shame of my run.  It is pretty snobby and I will just tell you know that I am not proud.  Our running group stopped at a local public golf course to use the bathroom, grab some water and whatnot. When we emerged from the clubhouse, there was an impala (car) with the head of a snake airbrushed on the side.  It was just so trashy looking and it did not merit comment, but I felt it necessary to snarkily inquire amongst my running group if anyone was missing their car, then took the extra time to point out the cobra.  The driver was, OF COURSE, sitting in the passenger seat and MOST LIKELY, heard every word I said.  I am officially a terrible person.  The terriblest person of all.

Speed Work

guess who didn't have to get up before 5:00 AM???

Today was bike and speed work day.  At 9:00 last night, I got a text from the other members of my bike group that they were not going to be able to make it.  It is always a rather happy affair when someone cancels on me for an athletic event that requires that I rise from the bed before 5:00 AM.  It bothered me not in the least.  It is a thrill that my biking is on the road to improvement, but sometimes I just feel like I don't have the time to improve anything.

SO, I just scooched out of bed when Baby G roused himself, made some tea and started the whirlwind that is every morning in my house.  The most amazing thing is how lost I get in taking care of everyone else, and I glide right over my basic needs.  I am the last one to get breakfast, to get my tea or coffee, to get dressed, to get to brush my teeth, and I never get to wash my face unless I am in the shower at the YMCA.

Today, however I did need to get in a speed workout after I dropped the boys off at school.  Getting everyone to school went off without a hitch.  I didn't forget anyone's lunch or have any major problems once I got to nursery school.  I was able to glide seamlessly from the nursery school parking lot to the gym.  Once there, I jogged two miles on the treadmill, then ran one mile at 7 minutes, a next mile at 6:40.  The third mile, I started at a 6:30 pace, but then had to back it down to 6:45.  I just wasn't feeling it.  I did a 400 meter sprint to shut down my speed session and a 400 meter jog in between each of my miles.  I jogged a bit of time after that and headed home afterwards where I took a shower in the sanctity of my own home.

 I have not been alone in my own home in 10 months.  It was an amazing experience.  I enjoyed it for all of two seconds before I had to leap in the shower and hurriedly get ready to attend a meeting at work.

Good times

Gone Girl

Have I told you that I read Gone Girl.  It was one of those books that you read in three days.  You can't put it down.  It's not like it is the most well written book that I have ever read, but it was riveting.  I literally spent the three days (whilst I suffered with the swimmer's ear) shaking the baby off my leg and reading compulsively.  Whatever state you think your marriage is in, this was worse.  It was so much worse.  Everyone crazy, everyone awful, no one likable.  Though the book was really interesting and I whipped through it in three days, the hardest part was that there was no one to like or root for, at all.  Read it though, you may be the only one who hasn't.

Cold

Aaahhh, the sneezy day, the runny nose, the inability, nay refusal to quit.  Today there were many things to fit in: a run, a pilates class, Bible study, a trip to the bank, a trip to the grocery, and a trip to REI to investigate bike gloves.  I had the hours from 9:15 to 2:15 to get it all done, and as per usual, it did not go down as planned.  Though I had packed everything the night before and packed the car for nursery school so as to minimize any wasted morning time, it did not work out in my favor.  I somehow managed to leave the baby's lunch in the fridge, and I missed Bible study while I was sprint driving back to the house and then back to nursery school to get the forgotten lunch.

I got my run in, though it was slow and cold medicine laden, then I sprinted off to meet friends at a pilates class.  I did make it to the grocery store and the bank, but a brief conversation in the parking lot with other pilates class members cost me my trip to REI.  Now, I could have not tried to cram so much into the precious amount of time allotted me while my children are in nursery school, BUT that is the disease of having children in nursery school.  There is no other time where you can drive about without someone wailing away in the back seat, without having to unstrap everyone out of their carseats which makes the small errand take hours, or without having to fill sippy cups and snack bags for even the briefest of car trips.

It sounds silly, but the joy of dropping everyone off merrily at nursery school and having five hours where errands can be ran and happiness can be had is exhilarating.  I wish myself more luck on Thursday!!

Granola

Fabulous Raw Granola

Servings: 

 about 8

Well guess who got creative in the kitchen........ me! I combined a few recipes to come up with some very yummy, easy, Raw Granola:)~ This is my favorite Raw concoction. I played with it for awhile and the final product is crisp, crunchy and super yummy! It requires a little bit of prep before hand but you'll be glad you waited because it's delicious! I soaked then dehydrated all of my nuts before I combined the mixture. This required it to be in the dehydrator for less time for the final product.

Ingredients: 

Dry Ingredients:

1/2 cup sunflower seeds, soaked, drained and dried
3 cups of almonds, walnuts and pumpkin seeds or a mix of all to equal 3 cups, soaked, drained and dried
2/3 cup quaker oatmeal
1/2 cup raisins, currants, and chocolate chips

Binding Ingredients:

1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp. Agave Nectar
3 Tbsp. coconut oil warmed to liquid in warm water or in the sun
1 tsp. natural vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preparation: 

Pulse the sunflower seeds, and almonds, walnuts or pecans 10 times in food processor fitted with the "s" blade. Add the buckwheat groats, coconut, and all of the binding ingredients then pulse just until it comes together. If you like it chunkier, pulse the dry ingredients then transfer to a bowl and stir in the binding ingredients.

Spread in a thin layer on a cookie sheet and place in the oven at 200 degrees for four or more hours until crisp like granola!

So delicious.  I think if I made it again, I could make in completely raw.  

Back On

After a couple of days like I pulled this weekend, I really had no choice but to make good today.  Last night, I was in bed at 8:30 and I slept soundly until 4:42 AM.  I normally sleep until 4:45 AM, but this morning, one of the men from my bike group texted at 4:42 AM that he couldn't make it.  This text popped through on my phone alarm and woke me up three minutes early, WHICH I RESENTED.  Anyway, I dutifully got out of bed and met the other members of the bike group and rode 17 miles super fast.  It is getting cold, and my next investment needs to be some sort of set of gloves that covers my fingers.  Can I fit in a trip to REI tomorrow?

At home, my morning went off so very well.  I was able to get the car packed, everyone fed breakfast, bikes put away and swimsuits packed before 8:00 AM.  I was in the water on time and I swam 3000 meters. It was completely enjoyable and a great day.  I feel like I accomplished a lot and nothing makes me feel better than accomplishing a bunch of tasks.  I love it.

Off the Track

I love it when I say that I am "on target" and then I just blow off the track.  I had a long run scheduled for Saturday, but there was talk of storms and a few people responded to our group run email that they would be there as long as there was no lightning.  Whatever.  It is always bad when someone hints that the weather might not be great and there is the possibility, however slight, that some people might not show up.  What I have learned about myself, is that I lead the no show parade whenever there is a given out.  When my alarm went off for the run, I fed the baby and heard a few rumblings of something that could have been thunder or could have been a trash truck.  It could have been anything, and I called it quits.  I texted that I was staying home. I then crawled back in bed and slumbered fitfully until 7:00 when my four year old leapt joyously into the bed to show me a lost toy that he had found (long lost "sleep sheep").  I had some coffee, went on a very short run, took a pilates class and struggled with guilt the rest of the weekend.

I ran a midling run today, and with a bad run last weekend and virtually no run this weekend, my confidence is officially shaken.  It is a bummer, and I have done it to myself.  I coped by eating, LITERALLY, 1000 oatmeal cookies at my parents' house while I sat on the couch.  And I will just be honest with you, do not expect any sympathy from your parents when you start whining about how guilty you feel for missing your 17 mile run.  They will only look at you like you have two heads, my friends.  I will have to complain to another crowd.

Friday: On Target

So on Thursday and Friday, I have been on my mark.  I could not bike on Thursday morning because the roads were rain slick.  I did however get in my speed work on the treadmill at the YMCA.  Speed workout as follows:

2 mile warm up
4 x 1600 meter repeats
400 meter jog in between each mile
mile cool down

I did the first 1600 meter run in 7:00 minutes, the second in 6 minutes and 40 seconds, the third was in 6.5 minutes and the last was in 6:45.   I was pretty proud of myself for doing it on my own and my legs were fresh since I didn't bike in the morning.  Post run, I took a great pilates reformer class.

I actually joined the YMCA based on the reformer pilates program there.  They have around 10 reformers and really good instruction.  THEN, I learned that I had split my transverse muscle and I had to stop all ab work and that included pilates.  It was a big bummer, but I am proud to say that my diastasis split has healed from a four finger split to a 1.5 finger split.  It is pretty exciting.  SO, I carefully took a pilates class yesterday that was pretty awesome.  I did have to wear a splint around my waist to make sure that my transverse muscle was supported and prevented from opening wider.  The reformer gave some great stretches and inner thigh work, and I hope I can incorporate it more often.

This morning, since I missed my bike ride yesterday, I was on the bike at 5:30 and I actually didn't ride that well.  I realized when I got home that I have not been charting my riding each week and now that I have time to sit down and check into things, I cannot get the Garmin to sync with my new computer.  I think it is pretty normal to talk to Garmin tech support regularly, and it is certainly what happens with me on a regular basis.  At some point next week, I will be haranguing some poor Garmin technician about my Garmin.  I sometimes wonder if the Garmin techs would like to say to me, "You know, Bets, you aren't Lance Armstrong, so let's give it a rest."  They have always been just ridiculously kind.

Anyway, I also went to swim today, where I swam a about a mile and kicked about a mile.  It was great.  14 mile run tomorrow.   Hoping the best for the weather.

Foiled!!

It seems that the day after I try to go out to dinner with friends never goes quite smoothly.  Sometime I think it is that the kids know that dad is alone in the house and so the show doesn't run quite as smoothly as when I am cracking the whip.  Maybe it is because I am out a bit later, so get in bed a bit later am just not quite as well rested as I like to be.  Realistically, however, it is that my life is moving so fast that making time for dinner with friends right now is just one toke over the line for my life right now.  When I slide dinner with friends into the mix,  something else hits the fan in a big way.

Anyway, today did not go terribly, but I was snappish and my four year old had cereal for dinner.  Whatevs.

We all managed to make it to my swim class, where I got in a decent workout.  My swimmers ear healed up, but I am now stuck swimming with purple ear plugs in my ears that make me look like Frankenstein.  This is, however, better than one of my eardrums exploding because I have dirty pool water stuck in my petite ear canals.

After my swim class, my son had a swim lesson and then we all hurtled home for lunch, naps, dinner preparation, housekeeping, and soccer preparation.  I will admit that I was able to sneak into my bed while the children were napping and get in a nap myself.  It was lovely and it made me feel better about my life in general.

In the afternoon, we went to soccer clinic where my son began learning the basics of the game of soccer.  After dinner and strong arming everyone into bed, I sat down to work on my transverse muscle.  I have lamented my split transverse muscle for months and it is actually closing up and my mummy tummy seems to be on the mend.

Bike ride cancelled for tomorrow as the rain will make the roads treacherous.

Labor Day

Yesterday was really just naps and swimmer's ear and irritability.  It was not much to make a note of, for serious.

Today, however, was rather notable.  My four year old and I popped out of bed and headed in to run the Franklin Classic.  Here was the plan:

1) Pack the jog stroller
2) Four year old rides in the jog stroller while I push during the 5k
3) Park the jog stroller
4) Run the fun run with my four year old

In my head, before the run, the plan had several potential flaws:

1) My four year old does not love to sit in the jog stroller any more
2) He might insist on getting out of the jog stroller OR try to leap from the jog stroller while it was moving
3) There was the possibility of someone not wanting to run the fun run once we got there
4) There was the possibility of someone starting the fun run, THEN stopping in the middle and having to be carried back to where ever the jog stroller was now parked.

None of my anticipated flaws actually happened.  Here is what really happened and what I learned about myself.

1) No one should be allowed to push a jog stroller in a road race.  I easily hit 400 people in the heel with the jog stroller.  I was careening around sidewalks and orange cones with my child yelling "whoa, whoa, whoa" the whole way.  I was a hazard.  No two ways about it.  If you see me registered in your race with a jog stroller, go complain to the officials until they kick me out.

2) Most of the people that I hit where wearing ipod earbuds (which I always wear when I can), so when I yelled "whoa" or "excuse me" they could not hear me, then I surged forward and hit them in the heel.  It was not intentional, it was just a comedy of errors.  Probably earbuds and jog strollers are a bad combination.

3) Since the sidewalks were off limits for road racers, I thought I could safely race my jog stroller on the sidewalk (though clearly breaking the rules) and not hit anyone.  However, there were always a few rouge runners on the sidewalks, and when I ran blind around a corner, I would hit someone.

Lesson learned.  Jog strollers are treacherous.  One year (several years ago), I ran a local race, The Boulevard Bolt and I heard that someone was impaled by a jog stroller.  This was just a rumor and maybe it didn't actually happen, BUT at the time I sort of rolled my eyes about the idea of something so silly.  BUT, having been the maniaical pusher of a careening jog stroller, I can see it.  I am lucky that no one required medical attention from my uncoordinated pushing.  Maybe they did, and I just kept running and didn't notice.

Beware of jog strollers.  It is my Labor Day advice.

Long Run

I got in bed last night at 8:25 PM last night.  I was determined to get the sleep situation handled before my alarm went off at 5:45 AM.  However,  the night did not go that great.  Baby G is teething and we have a few bad nights a week.  Last night was epic.  There were wake ups upon wake ups upon wake ups.  Lots of wailing.  Why Baby G??  Why will you do such a thing on the even of a 15 mile training run?

After a long night, the alarm indeed went off at 5:45 AM.  It was a bummer.  Stone Cold.  After I got dressed and staggered into the kitchen for my Glowing Green Smoothie and Green Tea, who should arrive on the scene but my four year old wide awake before 6:00 AM.  Love it.  I mixed up his Ovaltine, set up the cartoons and headed to meet my running group.  Once I walked out the door, I realized that the run was going to be rough.  The temperature was high and the humidity was like a sauna even at 6:00 AM.

The run went well for 9 miles, and then there were three miles of barely making it and then three miles of gimping shamefully.  It was embarrassing.  I really haven't felt that bad since I ran Boston this year and it made me sort of worried that I can't handle anything but perfect conditions.  I am only marathon golden when it is 50 degrees and West Coast arid.  Bit then maybe that's my thing, and that's all I've got.   I might not be mentally tough.

Another piece of the puzzle, is that I have swimmer's ear.  It has been brewing since Wednesday, and I hoping that a good dose of the vinegar/ rubbing alcohol ear wash can resolve things without antibiotics.  Surely that isn't making my run terrible.  It's my ear, not my legs.

Better next week.