Monday Monday

So, TODAY began for me at 3:00 AM.  The baby started crying at 3:00.  While I tried to employ my "cry it out" philosophy, Baby G eventually woke up my older son.  SO, I went to console the baby, then consoled my older son at which point IT WAS 4:00 AM.  I crawled back into my own bed at 4:30 AM. My alarm goes off at 4:45 AM to get to my bike ride.  Though I had gone to bed early, there is no time early enough to start the day at 3:00 AM.  SO, when my alarm went off at 4:45 AM, I perked up just long enough to email my bike crew that I was not going to make it.  If I had tried to make it, I would have been to sleep deprived to ride, so to speak.

I hate the "I missed my workout" guilt and I also hate being all sleep deprived grumpy and head achy, and ultimately I had both those things.  The sleep that I got from 4:45 to 6 AM was not great.  I might as well have gone on my bike ride and consigned myself to a day of exhaustion and tried to nap when the children did.  As it was, I loafed around the house drinking coffee and tending the children before loading everyone up to go to the YMCA for some lap swimming.

I swam:
1000 m freestyle
5 x 100 m @ 1:50
500 m pull
5 x 100 m @ 1:50
3 x 100 IM

It was a great swim, and I felt better afterwards.  At home, I put the children down for naps and attempted to nap myself.  The baby, however, is teething and he napped very little.  The witching hour started out very early and it was all quite frustrating.

The witching hour is a thing that I am comfortable with lasting for one to two hours.  I have psyched myself up, and I can generally make it until the baby goes to bed.  Today, however, it started quite a bit earlier as the baby really didn't nap.  It is wearing, to say the least.

I think the witching hour happens for all young children a bit before dinner time and lasts until after bath time.  If there were background music to the witching hour, I would describe it as a constant whine. If there was a dialogue to the witching hour, I would say that it is a small child asking 100 questions and a mother answering with a distracted "maybe".  The answer is not good enough, and the question is asked repeatedly, and at some point everyone wants to pull their hair out and the clock seems to inch along to bedtime at a pace that would shame a snail.

Anyway,  in terms of my marathon plan, I am relatively on track.  Will try to get in a good tempo run tomorrow, though maybe on the treadmill and in the late morning.

Only 8

So all day yesterday I was emailing my running group trying to talk everyone into running 13 miles with me.  I needed to get in 13 miles in order to follow my training plan.  Another guy in my running group is training for the flying monkey and our marathons are only two weeks apart, so we will be doing all our training together.  So, I need to just fall in line with the training plan of Wood Caldwell, my Flying Monkey friend.

My morning, however began at 4:45 AM instead of 5:45 AM with a crying baby and a much too early awakened four year old.  I had folded a load of laundry, fed everyone, gotten everyone their chocolate milk and set up cartoons before I laced up my running shoes at 6:15 AM.  It was just ridiculous.  I drank my glowing green smoothie and packed up some snacks to eat on the road. I even had time to double check my marathon plan which told me I only needed eight miles today.  EIGHT MILES.  SOOO, I still met up with my group and ran my run, but I did secretly plan to lop off the last two miles if I wasn't feeling great as I did not need the mileage anyway.  

Here is the thing.  I have been getting hungry on my runs, so this morning, I had PLENTY of time to eat plenty of food.  So, I ate two pretty huge servings of my chocolate chip oatmeal bake.  Confession:  It was really too much.  It was just a bit much, and it was one of those things that as soon as you start running you know you may have inadvisably eaten.  The whole run just felt humid and heavy.  After 8 miles, I started lagging behind the group and ran the last two miles relatively on my own.  I never got hungry, at least I can say that I never got hungry.  I did neglect to discuss with my friend Chris, how I should handle speed work and such, as I wanted to get his perspective.  SO, I need to put that on the agenda for next week.

Ahhh, next week.  When I might have an extra hour of sleep.  I feel that an extra hour of sleep would have afforded me the wherewithal to get my conversational topics in order and not make hasty food judgements.

So today, I got in 10.5 miles!! Marathon training off to a good start.

Friday: Oh Happy Day

You know, last night I went to bed with the certainty that my older son had pink eye and that I was completely run down by ROUND FIVE of mastitis in this breastfeeding cycle.  There was no doubt in my mind when I went to bed that I was looking down the barrel of a terrible day, stranded at my house with both children.  There would be nothing but bitterness and woe, diaper changing and a constant whining that would send my to lock myself in the bathroom at some point during the day.  When my older son woke up wailing at 5AM, I accepted the inevitable, sat on the couch in the dark with him, and watched some mind numbing transformer cartoons and prepared for the worst.

As dawn broke and sunlight streamed through the windows, I turned on the lights and did a second check on my son's pink eye.  Lo and Behold there was no pink eye.  It was not the tiniest bit pink, the offending eye may have just been allergic or scratched pink last night, but there were not lingering effects of the pink eye possibility.  While I did not feel physically at my best, I wanted to dance dance dance that we did not all have to stay home all day like lepers.  Pink eye makes you a leper, friend.  Pink eye makes you a leper.

Now making merry about the house, I made coffee and breakfast and packed up the car to go to swim.  No, I did not feel my best, but there is nothing that will make you feel better than dropping two children at the nursery and pretending that they are not your responsibility for two blessed hours.  I got in a great workout and I showered alone.  When I looked at what my day could have been, it seemed like a bit of heaven.

At home, I finished up some house chores before bundling everyone, including myself, into bed for a nap.  Nap, glorious nap!!  Once away, with a 3000 yard swim workout under my belt and a little mindless internet time to make me feel even better, I was golden.

I am relatively on track for my marathon training and tomorrow, I am running 13ish miles.  It all could have been so much worse.

Womp Womp

You know, every once in a while, you have a day where you want to set yourself on fire; a day where you wonder if you should look at boarding schools for your five year old or maybe hock all of your children's college savings into a live-in sitter.  Today was rough.  The children and I went shoe shopping for school at the mall.  There was much running about and "please don't touch that" and "please stay with Mommy".  I have to say that it took its toll on my day.  The children had to come to a work meeting with me and no one was perfectly behaved and then, I will be honest with you, I gave into stress eating.

Mother of the year here, picked up happy meals for her children then headed into work where I ate all their french fries.  My children do not even know that Happy Meals come with French Fries.  I eat them every time.  G-Money tried to cut in on my french fry therapy, and I had to shut him down with healthy apples.  Mommy needed those fries.

At home, my kale chips came out of the oven all covered with cashews and goodness and I ate every one.  THEN, I ate a full dinner of salmon and spinach and now I feel sort of sick. I felt sort of sicker when I noticed that my oldest son had the pink eye before he went to bed.  For this reason, I am pretty certain that I will be spending at least part of tomorrow at the doctor's office and not getting to go ANYWHERE.

A Great Reason to Write a Letter of Complaint

Arriving in 3 to 5 days!!!!

SO, I have to say, this is a pretty fabulous story.  Eight years ago, my brother was working at The Sunglasses Hut.  I was in graduate school and made the decision to buy my first pair of non-Target sunglasses.  With my brother's Sunglasses Hut discount, I bought a pair of sport Prada sunglasses for $149.00.  It was a massive expenditure for me.  For eight years, I babied those sunglasses.  I carried their case everywhere religiously.  I bought no other sunglasses.  I ran in them and went to the beach in them.  I used them for biking.  Over the last couple of years, the lenses have gotten a little scratched.

SO, like the squeaky wheel that I am, I wrote Luxottica, which owns the Prada sunglasses brand.  I told them how much I loved my sunglasses and how sad I was that the lenses had failed me EIGHT YEARS AFTER I PURCHASED THEM.  I asked Luxottica if they would please replace my lenses so that I could continue my love affair with my one luxury item.  Two weeks ago, I got a a letter from Luxottica saying that they could not fix my sunglasses, but that I could choose a new pair of sunglasses from amongst any of their other brands.  I could choose a new pair of Chanels, a new pair of Prada's, Tiffany sunglasses, or Bulgari.  What a thrill!!

I headed over to The Sunglasses Hut and tried on several pairs of glasses, though I pretty much knew what I was after.  I tried on a fabulous, huge pair of Chanels and decided that if I could get vouched a $400 pair of sunglasses, I clearly should AND I DID!!!

This Usually Happens

So I am day one into my marathon training AND I am off my schedule.  This is pretty typical.  A slow start into my training is pretty consistent for me, and it does not always end badly. Though it did end badly most notably in 2004 at Huntsville when I walked across the finish line.  Also, I am slated to start my speed sessions tomorrow, sort of, but I am thinking on this and it is definitely not happening tomorrow.  I am currently getting up at 4:55 AM on Mondays and Thursdays and then at whatever dark thirty time I run on Saturday mornings.  I've stopped getting up early to get to  swim at the lake on Sunday mornings, though I need to get back into it.  I only have so many early mornings to offer.  For speed work, I would have to get up at at 4:30 to get to the park by 5:00 AM sharp.  With the way the rest of my days are going, I just don't have that fourth early morning in me.  At a distant, childless and less employed time in my life, I went to 5:00 AM swim practice a handful of times.  I say 5:00 AM, but I really showed up at about 5:20 AM whining and dragging.  The rest of the class was always on time and they had swum at least a mile before I ever got my toe in the water.

I always wondered about the rest of the class.  What was up with them?  Did they get in bed at 7:30 PM, were they chronically sleep deprived, were they waiting at the door at 5:00 AM when the gym opened?  Are they all insomniacs?  If they are all getting in bed at 7:30 PM, when do they eat dinner, when was the last time they went out for drinks with friends?  What is all of it?  What is their life?

Another word on speed sessions, and this is the most damaging bit of all.  I was running with my running group on Saturday when Chris, who is a great runner, said that I might not need to do speed work.  He said, and I quote, "You don't really need to do the speed work.  Just come out on Saturdays and run like you've beed running."  I love/hate it when people say things like this to me, because it does not take a lot of encouragement for me to slack.  I enjoy myself some athletic slacking, and though I sometimes feel guilty about it (though rarely), I really enjoy my sleep.  I only get bummed about my slacking when it all goes wrong at the race.

I dearly wish that I only needed four hours of sleep a night, because I would get in all my workouts and have super clean cabinets.  AS it is, I was up early this morning, I road my bike and came home to find that everyone else was still asleep, which meant I was able to pop back out for a run and then get back in to get everyone else started. This is my lull period at work, so while things are slow, I have one thousand dull house chores that are not worth talking about.  I did all these, then literally passed out at 2:00 PM when the kids were napping and I am going back to bed right now.

What is worth talking about is that I am using all my dull household chore time to break in my new fabulous loafers.  SO, today while I cleaned out the refrigerator, emptied the dishwasher and made the beds, my feet pinched.  It is a first world problem that I have a dishwasher and new loafers, so I'll stop complaining.

Marathon Training Plan I think

I may figure out something different about my Sundays, but this is it for now. December 8th approacheth!! Week # Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 1 8/20 Bike-17m Swim - 3000 8/21 Speedwork 8/22 Swim - 3000 8/23 Bike-17m 8 mile run 8/24 Swim 8/25 8 mile run 8/26 2 8/27 Bike-17m Swim - 3000 8/28 speedwork 8/29 Swim 3000 8/30 Bike – 17 miles 8 mile run 8/31 Swim – 3000 yards 9/1 13 mile run 9/2 3 9/3 Bike-17m Swim - 3000 9/4 speedwork 9/5 swim – 3000 meters 9/6 Bike – 17 Miles 8 mile run 9/7 Swim – 3000 yards 9/8 14 mile run 9/9 4 9/10 Bike-17m Swim - 3000 9/11 speedwork 9/12 Swim – 3000 meters 9/13 Bike– 17 miles 8 mile run 9/14 Swim 3000 yards 9/15 10 mile run 9/16 5 9/17 Bike-17m Swim - 3000 9/18 speedwork 9/19 Swim – 3000 meters 9/20 Bike – 17 miles 8 mile run 9/21 swim 3000 yards 9/22 16 mile run 9/23 6 9/24 Bike-17m Swim-3000 9/25 speedwork 9/26 Swim-3000 yards 9/27 Bike-17 miles 8 mile run 9/28 swim-3000 yards 9/29 17 mile run 9/30 7 10/1 Bike-17 m Swim-3000 10/2 speedwork 10/3 Swim-3000 yards 10/4 bike -17 miles 8 mile run 10/5 swim-3000 yards 10/6 Half-Marathon 10/7 8 10/8 Bike-17 miles Swim-3000 10/9 speedwork 10/10 swim-3000 yards 10/11 bike-17 miles 8 mile run 10/12 swim-3000 yards 10/13 19 mile run 10/14 9 10/15 bike-17 miles Swim-3000 yards 10/16 speedwork 10/17 Swim-3000 yards 10/18 bike-17 miles 8 mile run 10/19 swim 3000 yards 10/20 20 mile run 10/21 10 10/22 bike 17 miles swim 3000 yards 10/23 speedwork 10/24 swim-3000 yards 10/25 bike – 17 miles 8 mile run 10/26 Swim - 3000 10/27 12 mile run 10/28 11 10/29 bike 17 miles swim 3000 yards 10/30 speedwork 10/31 swim – 3000 yards 11/1 bike -17 miles 8 mile run 11/2 swim 3000 yards 11/3 20 mile run 11/4 12 11/5 bike 17 miles swim 3000 yards 11/6 speedwork 11/7 swim-3000 yards 11/8 bike-17 miles 8 mile run 11/9 swim 3000 yards 11/10 12 mile run 11/11 13 11/12 bike 17 miles swim 3000 yards 11/13 speedwork 11/14 swim 3000 yards 11/15 bike-17 miles 8 mile run 11/16 swim 3000 yards 11/17 20 mile run 11/18 14 11/19 bike 17 miles swim 3000 11/20 speedwork 11/21 swim 3000 yards 11/22 bike-17 miles 8 mile run 11/23 bike-17 miles 8 mile run 11/24 12 mile run 11/25 15 11/26 Swim-2000 yards 11/27 ½ speedwork 11/28 swim - 1600 11/29 Bike 17 11/30 swim - 1600 12/1 8 mile run 12/2 16 12/3 swim -2000 yards or bike 17 miles 12/4 run distance of speedwork, but don’t do speedwork 12/5 swim 1600 12/6 day off or whatever 12/7 – light jog 12/8 Marathon