Why are my Days Off Never as I Think They Will Be

So, this morning was all about toting Ivan to the doctor and getting there on time and that really pretty much consumed me.  We had a pretty reasonable morning until some most unfortunate bathroom issues pulled us down and jeopardized our punctuality.  I never know what do do about significant bathrooming issues.  Do we shut down shop and cancel all appointments and let everyone's bowels rehabilitate or do we march on as planned.  We had an appointment that had been made three months ago and it seemed best to march on as planned, and it was a massive gamble.  Did my gamble pay off?

After barely making it through his appointment, Ivan had a massive bath rooming issue in the office bathroom.  Assuming everything was stable, Ivan headed to school post appointment.  All went relatively well.

G-Money, however, was not out of the woods.  So when I went to lunch with a friend and toted him along,  he pretty immediately hysterically demanded to the restaurant that he had to poop.  For this reason, common sense should have told me that we did not need to go to swim team, alas, I was clearly not functioning on all cylinders.  We headed off to swim team where I swam with George while Ivan practiced his butterfly.  After swimming for a bit, G and I got out of the pool when G told me "not look at me and not worry about it".

OF course, this was code for "i have poop running down my legs and if anyone sees it they will brown out the poop and everyone will know about it".  I literally threw a towel over G and sprinted to the bathroom where I removed his suit in a bathroom stall with a towel and threw both things in the trash never to be seen again.

Misery.  

Better Tomorrow

SuperBowl Sunday

Swim the Suck

So yesterday was like a workout bonanza that just ended up getting a little out of hand if my hunger by the time the SuperBowl rolled around was any indication.  With Boston looming in 2.5 months, I am trying to run four days a week.  After a long run like Saturday, we all try to do a recovery trail run on Sunday morning.  So, I popped up early and I actually looked forward to getting up, because I am deeply immeshed in my new favorite thing.

I am having a love affair with hot chocolate mix in the bottom of my nespresso coffee cup.  I live for it and I need to let the 5 AM sugar fix go, but I am enjoying it too much.  SO, solid 7 mile trail run, 9.5 minute miles, one rolled ankle and one hard fall and easy enough. Once home, I morphed into hard core get to church on time mode.  Did I get to shower?  No I did not, but I feel like this was cancelled out by my appropriate church attire and bit of Chanel #5.

After church, I took a nap and then and then was invited to a SuperBowl Sunday swim where we swam 4900 meters in celebration of the 49th SuperBowl.  Now that I am writing it down, it all seems a bit extreme, but it is also part of my social life problem.  I live to run trails on Sundays to catch up with my trail running friends.  I like to swim at the SportsPlex on Sunday afternoons to catch up with my swim group friends, and every once in a while everything comes together on the same day in a big way.

Needless to say that by the time I got home from swim I was in full on hunger meltdown mode and I ate a significant portion of guacamole.

Needless to say, after yesterday, today was a light day.

Ahhh Boston Training

You know, whenever I get a marathon on the calendar, I sort of look forward to the training and everything that swirls around it.  I enjoy planning the runs and running a bit longer and spending the time with my running group.  I like all of it.  This is my first marathon to train for however, where I also have busy children.  So trying to balance 20 milers with swim meets that start at 8:00 AM is more of a challenge than in years past, and there is a chance that I may learn a hard lesson during this season of marathon training.  Family First!!!


Anyway, today I got to sleep in until 6:00 AM.  Now I say that, but here is the rub.  I heard the TV at 5:00AM and I wondered fitfully what it was, but did not move from my slumber.  When I did drag myself from the bed, I realized that it was my 6 year old.  He had gotten up and begun puttering about the house in the middle of the night and when I found him he told me that he had watched Puss in Boots, THE MOVIE, two times (from the DVR, which he knows how to work) .  TWO TIMES.  He was watching an episode of Good Eats with Alton Brown when I found him.   Who does this???!!!  I thought about it and I realized who does this:  a 6 year old creature who cannot quite tell time and does not have a time telling device in his room and has not been instructed that there is a clock in the corner of the guide function of the television.  He just knew that he woke up and was not allowed to wake up Mommy and Daddy (because you can be SURE that I taught him that early on), so he thought he would watch some TV.

Well, let me tell you, I marched straight out and bought a digital clock that I set beside his bed, and we had a tutorial about 6:00 AM.  No one gets out of bed or turns on a television or lights until the digital clock says 6 AM.  That is the new rule.  I did not know we needed it, but apparently we do.  So we have had a lot of discussion and practice and hopefully we will have a full night's sleep tonight.   I think what I experienced early this morning is maybe the hardest part of parenting: the things you have to catch on the fly, the unexpected stuff that you have to think through while you are tired.  I hope our discussion worked and tomorrow will be a brighter day.

Today, our 6 year old was the walking dead.  He had watched Puss in Boots TWICE when I found him at 5:00 AM, so that means he was up at 2 AM.  Aaaah, Lovers, 2 AM is only for the sleeping.  And 2 AM wakeup means 1:00 PM nap time, no matter how incensed you are that six is too old for naps.

Anyway, because of the unfortunate earlier than intended wake up for me and an 18 mile run to boot, I was a train wreck of sleep deprivation.  I climbed into bed when the children went down for a nap and slept for THREE HOURS.  Oh Goodness, I will never be able to go to sleep tonight.  Somehow, everyone tiptoed around me and let me sleep for way too long.  I guess that after we get over this early morning hump with my 6 year old, I will have to teach him how to only let Mummy have one sleep cycle of approximately 1.5 hours so that we can preserve the 8 hour night.

Trail run tomorrow and Superbowl swim.  It is going to be a fabulous day

Iris and Will are Cooler than Me

You know, I get it.  I'm 38 and I don't do a lot of cool things anymore outside of making creative lunches for my kids and trying not sound sound redundant in the reports that I write for work.  Though many times their lunches are not creative and my reports are quite redundant.  Those two previous sentences may be the most boring things that have ever typed from the ends of my fingers.  Good grief!!

Anyway, last night my husband was keen to attend a lecture given by two hikers who had crossed The Continental Divide.  The Continental Divide Trail goes from Mexico to Canada, crosses 5 states and is only 70 percent completed.  So 30 percent of the time, you are just wandering about with a compass hoping for the best.  The lecture started at 7:30 and my husband and I wanted to make a night of it and grab a quick dinner beforehand and I will just let you know that I planned an outfit.  That is how excited I was about my evening.

So, I had gotten a babysitter a week in advance and planned my whole day around having everything perfect so that our new babysitter had the minimum of work to do when she arrived at the house.  I needed her to focus all her efforts on bedtime to that the children would be asleep by the time we got home.  I threatened everyone within an inch of their lives if they did not go straight to bed and I hopped into the car with my most fabulous scarf, boots and a silver cross body bag.  Dinner went well until our first call from the babysitter.  She told the boys to go to bed and they said they did not want to go.  This seemed to me a solvable problem as she was bigger and had more authority, but I will stop all this as I am boring myself and will just say to you that we had received five phone calls by the time we arrived at the much anticipated lecture and I was so worn down that I just felt like we needed to go home.  Nothing like sitting through an event that you had really looked forward to attending while the phone buzzes with calls from the babysitter and your ability to listen and involve yourself is tainted if not ruined.

Anyway, while I am clearly not cool even if I was wearing a great scarf and a fabulous cross body bag, Iris and Will, the speakers were so cool that I could feel the breeze in the back row where we had to sit so that frequent calls from the babysitter did not annoy the VERY SERIOUS hikers who were in attendance.  Literally, we were the only people there without previously earned trail names.  Trail names are things you earn on serious hikes and mine would be "Bitter Mummy" just so you know.

Anyway, Iris and Will met on Instagram two years ago, and Will had apparently already done the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Coast Trail.  They quit their jobs and decided to take 6 months to do this hike. They assembled these massive boxes of food that they mailed to remote post offices to be picked up when they arrived.  They camped by the side of the road, got some sort of awful water poisoning from drinking out of reservoirs, hitchhiked to a doctor's office and then hitchhiked to a Walmart TWO HOURS AWAY to pick up antibiotics.  They talked about trail magic and people who helped them when they ran out of water.  Iris went through 6 pairs of shoes and even carried mascara in her pack. They hiked 80 miles most days, and had no cell phone reception and relied heavily on a compass. They went to sleep after the campfire burned out and slept late in their tents every morning. It was a tale of wonder which we did not get to hear the end of, because we had to leave and settle things with the babysitter and the children.  That is just the way it went.

Anyway, I did get up at 4:45 yesterday and take a spin class and then ran afterwards.  Today, I again got up at 4:45 and had a great swim!!  18 miler tomorrow to train for Boston!!!

Someone Looks Like Mummy Feels

Yes Mr. Sloan, I too feel the same!

Who got back in the saddle today??  This girl!!  I arrived at the pool at 5:25 AM only ten minutes late.  Many pats on the back have I given to myself.  Many times have I mentioned to various people in unrelated phone conversations that I worked out at 5:15 AM (which is the time that I should be in pool.  no need to mention that I am NEVER EVER punctual).

Things went pretty well following my early morning workout.  Everyone got to school on time and three year old G-Money and I got to story time at the library at a respectable time.  We checked out many books with ridiculous titles (Walter Kitty, for example). We ran many errands before I began to suffer the unavoidable consequences of the early morning workout.

Irritability and nap desperation hit me hard at about 2:00.  I was able to rest for a about half an hour before the frenetic firedrill of evening sports began swirling about us.  At 3:40 PM, I generally have to start running about the house rolling out orders like a drill sergeant while my children look at me in confusion as if it is the first time that they have every heard of a swim team.  It is ridiculous.  They ask me all sorts of questions, like "when does swim team start?", "where is swim team?" and "when will we be home?".  The answers to all of these questions are the same as they were in September when we started this mayhem, so it is a constant enigma that my children always respond to my innocuous "hop in the car for swim team, boys!" with suspicion.  Herding them into the car takes so much effort and stuffing of bags and snacks into the car that by the time I hit the driver's seat I am craving something that we Americans just can't have behind the wheel and it makes me feel terrible about everything.  After getting everyone to the pool, into the pool, goggles located, spare goggles located since the favorite goggles have been lost, and found place to sit, I am one spark short of a toaster.  The noise reverberating off the walls and the million times that I am splashed make life rather unbearable.

BUT, a great triumph that I had two hours to myself before the sun came up.  At 5:00 this morning, I was sane.

It Is Time

Who is up at 5AM??  This Girl!!!

Oh goodness, my three year old is halfway potty trained and I have a bit of free time in the evenings, and there are lots of goings on.  The biggest going on that I would say I am trying to incorporate into my life right now is the 5 AM workout.  Did I do it today?  No, I did not.  Am I going to do it tomorrow?  Not a bit.  However, I have done it the past 5 mornings, and it has been going on since September.

I usually take Mondays off from any sort of workout, and tomorrow, I have a day off so can work out a run in the middle of the day while the children are at school.  And, I will say that the 5AM workout puts a damper on life as I know it.  It is a re-envisioning of life.  It is going to bed at 8:45 and trying to figure out where your next nap is.

Sometimes I think that what the 5AM workout really means is that I am old or that I've given up.  Maybe in some way I was hanging on to the me in college that liked to stay up and watch David Letterman.  Those days might come back.  At present, however, there isn't really anything to stay up late for and there is A LOT to be said for riding to the gym and home from the gym in silence without my children yammering at me or each other for the entirety of the trip (I have great children; I really do).  I drink a solitary cup of coffee from the nespresso machine that I traded my neighbor for my juicer, and I put a bit of hot chocolate mix that I pilfered from my husbands camping food supply.  It is all rather lovely in the dark.

In fact, when I think in retrospect, what wasn't lovely was staying up rather late and being wailed out of bed by one of my two children tattling or fighting or sprinting into our bedroom and leaping into the middle of my deep morning sleep.  Staggering into the kitchen for coffee that I already wished was a stiffer sort of drink after the wake-up I had received and running about the house throwing the children into the car and hurling my messy self out the door in workout clothes was all more than slightly stressful.  This whole organized early morning workout works well for me.  I get back to the house and the children are up and drinking their Ovaltines.  I get nicely dressed and organized for school.

The fire drill of getting out of the house in the morning is not completely eradicated, but it is better I think.

I don't think that I will have to get up at 5AM forever.  I think, however, that right now, not schlepping children to the gym in the middle of the morning is the most productive thing I can do for the productivity of my days.  I am assuming that one day when my children are older and in school and have different activities that I don't have to be involved in intricately at all times I can work out with a later set of sleepers.  


Here is my 5AM schedule:

Sunday:  Trail Run - 6:20
Monday: day off
Tuesday: Spin and Run and weights
Wednesday: Swim
Thursday: Spin and Run and weights
Friday: Swim
Saturday: Long Run

New Shoes: Practically Perfect in Every Way-New Balance Fresh Foam

Tasteful Gray with a pop of color: totally on trend

Do you ever have that feeling that you need a shoes that will take you from the trail to the road and back to the trail and maybe a bit in-between with colors that aren't so obnoxious and a footbed that is light yet substantial? Then I would encourage you to grab a pair of New Balance Fresh Foam trail shoes that will go the distance.

One of the hottest Saturdays of the summer went very well on and off the trail!!  I met up at 6:00 AM for a four mile loop.  Met back at the trail head to hit the road for a 6 mile loop, then ran into old friends and power walked another mile and a half.

It was my inaugural run in a new set of shoes and I covered it all, the trail, the road and the power walk.  They stood the test.

Confession:  They stood the test so well, that I am wearing them on the plane tomorrow with turned up boyfriend jeans, a white t-shirt and a leather jacket.  The gray is so chic!!

#seemyrun #freshfoamtrail

Sadness: 11 miles in the YMCA Parking Lot in Old Shoes

So here is the thing:  I had to get in a long run.  Normally this happens on Saturday, but it was necessary to change up my routine so that I could get in a long swim on Saturday.

NOW IT GETS COMPLICATED.  I wake up at 4:45 multiple mornings a week, and I had a messy allergy day that involved medication and for all these reasons, I knew that I was going to be unable to wake up at 4:45 and run until 7:15.  I knew this was no going to happen.  Now, my older son was in kindergarten but I still had the two year old with me for the day.  He was not going to stay in the jog stroller for the long run, it was sweltering outside and I just don't do more than three miles with the jog stroller, nor does my two year old for that matter.  SO, my options were running thin.  I decided that the YMCA was going to have to make it happen for me and they did, albeit I feel we all did it begrudgingly.

SO, after dropping my youngest at the nursery, I ran a long 6 miles on a treadmill that had spotty television reception and sound that faded in and out while I watched Kelly Rippa interview Kerri Russell about the second installment of Planet of the Apes, which is a film that I probably will not see.  All in all, very dissatisfying.

But it gets worse.

After 6 miles on the treadmill, I was worn thin with my indoor workout.  The YMCA has a policy that if your child is in the nursery, you can run in the parking lot, but not leave the premises, lest some emergency unfold with your child.  I get it, I can't just leave my child at the YMCA and go galavanting off into the sunset while somewhere in the distance chariots of fire plays and my hair blows in the wind.  So it was, that I ran in the parking lot.  I told myself before I started that a lap around the parking lot was probably like half a mile and the run would not be that bad.  HOWEVER, like so many things I have told myself over the years, this turned out to be an exaggeration concerning the former and a lie concerning the latter.

A lap around the parking lot turned out to be 1/8 of a mile, the temperature in the blacktop parking lot was just unbearably hot and it felt like much more of a death march than a five mile run.  It was just terrible, and it will go down in the history of my exercise routine as one of my more foolish endeavors.

I remember reading an article in the New Yorker about a man with one leg who climbed Everest and the article, brief and somewhat scornful, begged the question "why"?  "Why" in terms of the danger, the risk to other climbers, the arduous nature of the trip; but it was a triumph in the face of a particular man's life tragedy and I don't know that it is for the New Yorker to ask the question "Why".    I feel, however, that it is within everyone's purview to ask me the question "why".

And I will say that I should have just let it go.  Lesson learned.  I should have been more flexible and thought of a different routine or just taken a nap and eaten a cookie.  Aahhh, long run.  Why did I let you guilt me into the silliest run I ever ran?

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.