The Dance

At my house, we have a dance that must be done when the spouse was right about something (preferably something stupid). Please pause for a moment now and wait while I do the "Doug was right" dance. And, the "Colin was right" dance because he said the same thing.

You can see the photo of my trusty steed, with the new seat and toe-cages. The brakes and gears also work now. The seat had been recovered with some very durable and stylish duct tape.

Anyway, I was excited to get my bike training started yesterday. Doug said that I was a fool to use this bike for my training and/or race. We lowered the seat on his bike, but I'm still too short for it even though it is a much better road machine. So, with the "I am woman, hear me roar" and "I'm not going out like some kind of punk bitch" attitude, I rode this bike 13 miles yesterday - to see if I could do it. I did it, but there was not a lot of fun going on. Run speed and swim ease do not translate into bike power. I suck at biking and the cars are very scary. Top speed: 32.1 mph.

Here is a summary of my week's training:

Sun: 3.58 miles at 9:46 pace

Mon: 6.14 miles at 8:19 pace

Tues: 4.5 miles at 8:49 pace

Wed: rest

Thurs: 5.42 miles at 8.28 pace

Fri: 1 mile swim in approx 40 mins

Sat: 13 mile bike in 1 hr, 12 mins

I have mostly abandoned the triathlon training book in favor of Doug's plan (6 days per week of activity - 2x per sport or sport/combo).

Putting it Out There

I registered for a triathlon this week. It is a sprint length race, which means 400 yd swim, 13 mile bike, and 5K run. Any women who would like to join me, follow the link to sign up. Nothing against you men - it's just a women's race. I think it would be fine to race with men - this race is just convenient to my house and fits in my schedule.

I swam my first actual laps since 2002 (when I last had a gym membership) yesterday. 1600/1650 yards - it took me about 40 minutes, including cap/google application, adjustment to water temperature and getting into the fence. Next time I'll take a watch so I can get some baseline times. Since this was my first effort, I didn't worry about the time. Wow, I'm sore today. It is hard to tell if the soreness is from the swimming or the climbing (I have permission), though.

When Nat and I went to the seminar about triathlons, this woman was the last (and best) speaker. She is a professional triathlete and was all kinds of fun. If you ever get a chance to hear her talk about her sport, do it. Go to her blog archive and read about the Florida ironman race. Holy cow, this woman rocks!

Beach Attire

Or, what to do while you hang out with small children all day.

I've been checking out the bathing suits of all of the people who walk by while Dagny and I play in the sand here. I was hoping to develop some kind of theory on what kinds of suits look good on different kinds of bodies. So, no -I can't report any great theories here. The number of different body shapes is too vast.

However, I have identified some easy "don't" rules:

1. Big circles or dots on bathing suits are bad. They don't look good on anyone, even college girls.
2. Writing on your bottom is bad.
3. Suits (even if they are metallic) that are close to your skin color are always unattractive.
4. More of us need to spend more time picking suits that actually "suit" us instead of falling back on whatever is at Target or Lands End.
5. You can tell when the boobs aren't real

Also, I'm becoming an un-fan of the tankini. It seems like the bathing suit equivalent of a baggy sweatshirt or yoga pants and flip flops. Why even bother with a two piece? Doug and I are working on me being less frumpy (a personal "what not to wear") so I'm looking at this a lot. I'm not saying everyone should wear a string bikini (myself included) but there is something to be said for a nice Speedo tank.

New Reading Material and Gearing Up

So, I finished reading the Triathlon Training in 4 Hours a Week book. The 4 hours a week thing is a bit of a lie, if your goal is more than just finishing, but still it was very good. Packed with inspiring stories. Wes recommended it and I can second his recommendation. Doug poo-poohed the idea of a book for sprint training, but I was glad to have some of the mysteries solved for me.

All that remains is to (1) sign up for a race, (2) pick up my bike from the bike store so that I can ride it, and (3) start some swimming. The bike store guy and I decided to tune up the bike, put on some toe clips and a new seat but that it is not worth putting slicks on my bike for a sprint race. It would cost $60 per tire and the whole bike is probably not worth that much at this point. Regardless, it was really fun to ride again (it's been 10 years). I'm going to look at the knobby tires as the biking equivalent of a drag suit. Then, if I do OK at this first race and decide to continue, we can evaluate a new (to me) bike.

The girls are LOVING the beach. Dagny is so tired that she is napping before lunctime and Annika is chilling in front of "The Little Mermaid." We will be back outside for more fun in the sun after lunch.

Can You Hear Me Now?

See if the comments appear now . . .

Gratuitous Photos

At the left is Annika the day she came down for breakfast with sparkly jewels from her "decorate-your-own-treasure-box" set on her face and in her hair. Someone gave us the set for her birthday and she had a great time decorating. Who knew that the jewels would come off and retain enough stick to be placed on the face and hair. We keep finding them everywhere now.

Next is a cool pergola/fire pit that Doug built at one of his houses. He has some cool ideas, doesn't he? Can't you just see a bunch of folks out there grilling with beers or party drinks while their kids run wild in the grass?

Here is Annika in her fairy princess dress, heels, fire department hat (made at school), part of my Daphne outfit and butterfly wings. She came downstairs one afternoon and insisted that we memorialize the beauty. But it had to be from the back so that you could see the wings - because the wings are the best part. I just love how her braids curl up at the ends - just like Pippi Longstocking. Annika's hair is so curly that not even braids can contain its curl-iciousness.



Last, but not least is Dagny with her purse. I bought this for her first birthday and she still loves it (and all purses). She is a girly girl. Thank you to cousin Sophie for the beautiful orange dress.

In other news, we've been busy here! The washing mashine broke last week so I've been shuttling back and for to my parents' house (thank goodness they moved into the neighborhood) to try to keep up. Annika's two pull-up leakage accidents didn't help, either. According to our repairman, our old Maytag was a piece of junk - and it died just like the one owned by the first commenter in the linked blog. We could have fixed it, but for $300-400 and it was likely to break again in a year. So, I have a beautiful new washing machine. This was not what I wanted to spend a load of money on this month, but at least I'm back in laundry action. And, it's cool to watch the clothes spin around in the suds like we used to do at Grammy's house when I was little. A big fat kiss to Best Buy for delivering on Sunday!

Also, I have found a great park for running. It is called the Leita Thompson Memorial Park (top left on the map). The City of Roswell has cut trails into some very hilly and beautiful wild land. This city is worth the taxes for this park alone. There are coyotes, apparently, so I wouldn't run there at dusk or sunrise and you'd be an idiot to do it in the dark, but WOW is it fun! It is like the trails at the creek in our neighborhood when I was a kid (minus the storm sewer outlet pipe, offensive odor and frequently appearing underpants) - green leaves as far as your eye can see. You can put your arms out like an airplane and just fly down the hills. And it is ridiculously hilly. The first time I ran there, I thought I would do a leisurely six miles - I did 6 miles at a 10 minute per mile pace, but my heart rate was in the 170s most of the run. Those hills kicked my ass. I nearly threw up a couple of times, had to stop for water, nearly quit more than three times, and bit it at one point. A kind gentleman, who was walking with those trekking poles, stopped to be sure I was OK (I was), but I had a blast! I left the trail feeling 10 feet tall and sexy like superman. Plus, a war wound! How cool is that?

I Placed!

3rd place! - Check it out!

Natalie would have won, as I suspected.

Can't Run at This Pace Very Long

The girls spent the night with my parents last night so Doug and I went on a date. Yes, a real meal with no highchairs, bibs or sippy cups. We had a great meal with some terrific wine. I highly recommend this restaurant. We went to the Buckhead location (next to Nava) but they also have one at Perimeter. Then, we met some friends for drinks. Doug was watching out for me since I was nervous about my race and got me tonic water with lime, my favorite masquerade cocktail. I was also trying to hydrate because I might have the tummy bug that Dagny had last weekend and that poor Annika is still fighting.

Anyway, the hydrating was also because Nat talked me into running a race this morning. That's right - the Big Peach 5K in Brookhaven. It was, as advertised, a beautiful green course through east Brookhaven. I had a great time - met two nice ladies (in line for the potties and for the start) and was home before they gave out any awards. I can't find the race results online, if they will even be posted, but here are my stats:

22:44 gun time
22:25 Garmin time

The McMillan race calculator predicted I would finish at 24:01 so I was aiming for anything under 24. A girl has gotta hope! I seeded myself badly and dodged folks for the first mile - but my first mile split was 6:54.

That's right, 6:54. Holy shit! A new world record. The rest of the race was a slog but I'm very happy with my time (avg 7:12 min/mile). Those hill repeats suck, but are clearly working. And the best part - no knee braces. NAKED KNEES! Yes, one of my high school sweethearts once told me that I had ugly knees, but they are so beautiful with no neoprene.

In other news, our friends Jerry and Wes (and Sarah, who I follow on the internet) ran their first triathalons this morning at Lake Lanier. Jerry and Wes finished within minutes of each other. Sarah hasn't posted yet, but I'm sure she did great too. Way to go triatheletes! And, my friend Kelly is running her first half marathon in Vancouver this weekend - Go Kelly!

We Are the Champions

That's right. The beer fridge is defrosted and clean. You may now feel safe consuming beer at my house unmolested by exploding coke cans, beers that overflow upon opening or sticky coke goo. I defrosted it on the deck with our bird friends - we thought they were swallows, but an internet search was inconclusive. I had to disinfect the whole fridge because those darn birds poop a LOT.

Dagny is feeling better this afternoon and proved (yet again) that she is more stubborn than I am. She would not drink any liquids from a sippy cup after 10am this morning. Why? Who knows. I think it was because her head hurt from being dehydrated. After an ill-fated attempt at siphoning by mouth, I finally put milk (I know it isn't a clear liquid but she refused all forms of liquid except milk) in a medicine cup and she drank that. We progressed to the Dora big-girl cup with about a millimeter of liquid at the time. Maybe she was just trying to tell me that she is too big for sippy cups. And, no barf for over 24 hours. Whew!

Annika and I ran 4 miles today in the flats during Dagny's nap. Annika was going to do more bike-riding after we finished, but the neighbor kids showed up so I was chopped liver after that. No matter, it gave me time to do the fridge.

Oh, and, did you know that some red food dye is made from bugs? Cochineal is made from little bugs that are hard to raise and live on cacti. I found this out because the Vegan Lunchbox (March 26 post) mentioned not being able to use red rice sheets because apparently, vegans can't eat cochineal. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I now know what that stuff is. I refrained from commenting that most grains contain some kind of bug larva which will hatch under favorable conditions (like your pantry). Better for the nice vegan lady not to know.

Let's Make the Most of this Beautiful Day

I had big plans of taking the photos off of our camera this weekend and defrosting the beer fridge. Yes, it is a frost-fridge because it was the cheapest one they had at Sears when Doug and I were first married. Now I'm thinking we should have paid the extra $30 and gotten a frost-free but at the time a beer fridge was quite the extravagance. Anyway, when there is too much frost, the freezer gets too warm (stuff melts or never freezes) and the fridge gets too cold (exploded Coke and beer). Whatever, I have no time for defrosting anyway. It will have to wait for another day.

Annika and I had a great time this afternoon during Dagny's nap. I ran the flats (back and forth in front of our house) while pushing Annika in the jogging stroller. Annika sipped her water and gave me commentary on the scenery and the neighbors. 35 lbs of kid is a LOT to push, but we had a nice time and I did 3 miles in 9 min/mile pace. I had planned for 4 miles, but Annika wanted to run with me, so we walked and then raced between mailboxes and storm drains. Then Annika rode her bike while I helped keep cars from running over her. We talked to some neighbors and enjoyed the lovely, breezy day and admired the big puffy clouds.

The original plan had been for my Mom to come over in the morning so that I could do my long run. Unfortunately, Dagny's poop issue from last evening turned into a throw-up issue during the night so I didn't want to subject Nana to that. We've been in barf recovery mode ever since (laundry, baths, attempts to hydrate). I'm very sorry to any Publix shoppers who we infected today. I thought Dagny was fine (no fever, no more barf since the wee hours) and Annika was getting stir crazy so we went to get Saltines and Pedialyte. Unfortunately, a bag boy came and took our cart while I was loading the kids before I had time to explain about the anti-bacterial wipes that I had just purchased so that I could disinfect the cart before returning it. Then, Dagny threw up again during her nap and is running a temperature. SIGH.

But, it was a beautiful day. We had a good time playing outside and eating breakfast for dinner (Fogle family secret tummy food is Cream of Wheat). Doug and friends are having a blast in Vegas - it is 96 degrees there!

Limiting Factors

Or, Hill Repeats - Day One

In the quest to be better/stronger/faster, I've decided to add hill repeats to my running repertoire. I had been doing the run-fast-up-the-hills, walk-fast-down-the-hills routine around my loop, but felt like I wasn't pushing myself hard enough.

So, this morning, I started by jogging around my 3 mile loop until I got to the Big Hill. Then, I sprinted up the hill, circled the manhole cover at my turn-off and walked back down to the bottom (not slow - 12:30 min/mile pace). I had planned to repeat this hill four times and then complete the loop because I estimated that the hill was 1/2 of a mile and thought that it would add a mile to my 3 mile loop.

Yes, math whiz, I'm not. It made sense to my not-quite-awake mind early this morning, though. Regardless, it turns out that either the hill is not that long or that I didn't start at the actual bottom and so I finished almost right at 4 miles as planned (including walking down the hill 3x). I had to stop after 3 repeats because my heart was trying to escape through my chest at the top of repeat number 3. The legs were rubbery but held out OK.

Until I encountered the knee troubles, I thought that cardio was my limiting factor in the pursuit of fitness. Then, it was my knees. I would have thought that the leg muscles would be the limiter on hill repeats. Glover talks about how your legs should be burning when you finish your hill repeats. But for me, it's the cardio again. Who knew?

And, Doug bought us new Garmins on e-Bay last week so I know that my heartrate reached 183 on my hill repeats today. I think 185 is supposed to be my max but this place says it is 187. Doug is the master of e-Bay. It will be interesting to see how/if the knowledge of my heartrate will help my training. As my Dad would say, "hide and watch!"

In other news, the girls and I went to dinner with my Dad tonight because Doug is in Las Vegas. We had a great time with Dad, but miss Doug already.

Two Easter Perils

Easter egg dye tablets look like candy, SweeTarts, in particular. We found this out the hard way last week while Doug was dyeing the Easter eggs for Annika to decorate. Annika saw the tablets on the counter and popped the yellow one into her mouth. We had no idea until she said, "this candy tastes bad!" A quick look at the ingredients revealed sugar and food coloring, so we didn't have to call poison control. We washed Annika's mouth out with water and wiped most of the coloring off of her tongue, but the good part was the quote of the day: "Mom, I'm not dyeing!" Get it? Dyeing, dying? It's funny now, but not so much then.

Easter is all about candy. My children ate the following on Easter day:

Breakfast: Twinkies and Froot Loops
Snack: Candy from Easter baskets at home
Brunch: Whatever they wanted from the buffet, including chicken fingers, blueberry muffins, bacon and Lindt eggs.
Lunch?: More Easter candy, plus some Cheerios as a nod to health.
Dinner: Grilled cheese sandwiches, pears, bread in the shape of a bunny, Cadbury Mini Eggs (not the creme ones) and brownies.

They appear fine and have not suffered the sugar overload I thought would have occurred. You will want to know, however, that Twinkies do not last forever if you remove them from the packaging. Sponge cake does not like to air-it-out. Oh, and, I'd forgotten but I LOVE Twinkies. They are actually not that bad for you - we read the nutrition information. Sponge cake is not as bad for you as regular cake. If you want vegan twinkies, though, look here.

Not Quite One, Not Really the Other

The part-time working is going fairly well. I feel like I have enough time with and for my kids and Doug (thanks in large part to Doug's willingness to come home early to relieve the sitter and do the bulk of the cooking) but also enough time to get my work done at the office or at home. The folks who have had their calls interrupted by my kids may not feel quite the same way, but at least I'm still working on their stuff in the midst of the chaos.

At Annika's school, there is a definite bias towards the moms who don't work outside the home. No one has made any overt comments to me, there is a chilliness towards those of us who aren't there every day and who can't drop everything at a moment's notice to help chaperone a field trip. Interestingly, more and more of the moms seem to be easing back into the workforce in some way . . . but that is another story. And don't get me started on the "party" businesses. Ragsland, schmagsland. I'm not buying it.

Anyway, at work I'm still not "part of the gang" yet. I keep reminding myself that this will come with time and that I should make a move by inviting some of them to eat lunch. It's depressing sometimes to face the microwaved lunch alone - even if it is spectacular leftovers from Doug's dinner.

So today, the girls and I dropped some travel books off at the office for one of my co-workers. She is interested in going to Prague and I forgot the books yesterday so I thought it would be nice if I brought them today (instead of waiting for my workday tomorrow) so that she would have an additional day for planning. That, and we were going to buy some play sandals at the shoe outlet near the office. I know that it's not terribly professional to bring the kids to the office - but I was just dropping the books off. As I handed them over to one co-worker, another came out into the hall and made a joke about lording my "non-working day over them." SIGH. Such a loaded comment for me. The person who made it has no idea - I don't think it was meant to be off-putting at all.

"Hm," I said, "you think so?" "How about if you watch the kids for an hour while I go buy myself some shoes?" Ha, Ha, Ha. We had a big laugh about that. Clearly there were no takers so the mobile disasters and I left the office and motored to the shoe outlet. After Dagny removed all of the crocs and flip-flops from the extensive color-coded display, I got some cute sandals for me (pink is not my color, though) and new crocs for Dagny. She and Doug lost one of her old ones while shopping on Sunday and I haven't been able to find it at any of their destinations. A pox on the person who found that lone shoe and chose not to turn it in to the store.

One guy who was giving me job advice before I took my job mentioned that his wife had similar issues with the part-time gig. It's not necessarily the best of both worlds, I don't think.

Hodgepodge

Here is a link to a photo of Jennifer, Joe and me (R to L) on ING race morning. I'll have you know that Jennifer looked just that good after the race too. The rest of my photos (with many of Joe, too) are here.

After the urgent care clinic visit on Sunday (post-race and pre-shower, mind you) to cure the Scourge, two checkups (regular and allergy) on Tuesday, Annika had a full-blown allergy attack on Tuesday afternoon. Her face swelled up and turned red and she itched all over. I had to call the doc to see how much Benadryl was too much because enough had stopped working. At the checkups we learned that Annika's height, weight, hearing and vision are normal. She has finally broken into double-digit BMI, which is nice. I forgot about picture day that day and it will be interesting to see what a lovely photo combination the allergies and a dumbass mother make. Wouldn't you know that she gets allergic AFTER the two doctor visits.

At Annika's school Easter party, they did the Easter egg hunt and subsequent egg redistribution (just like Annie described) but the cool thing was the cake. One of the party volunteers ordered it and it was HUGE. The cake woman made the most delicious white cake with frosting and two layers. She decorated three large round tombs with brown frosting, brown dots and crosses made from pretzels. Upon further inspection, I discovered that she had also made a recessed tomb for Jesus, with a chocolate chip bar cookie "stone" covering half of it and the tomb was EMPTY. How cool is that? You would never get that stuff at public school! I tried to find instructions for making this cake online so that you could link to a photo, but no luck. There is, however, an Easter cake contest and I suspect some variation of this will win. If so, I'll post.

Doug found something cool for me on Audible this week. Audible is the site where he downloads books to listen to on his long commute. I listen too, since we share the i-tunes account but I don't have as much kid-free time in the car and our books tend to be murder mysteries or have lots of bad words. Anyway, the cool thing is called podrunner and it is a bunch of mixes for running that are centered around a certain beat-per-minute. I listened to one with Doug the other day that began and ended with the USMC cadence - "got to keep on rolling." Today's mix did not have that at the beginning and I didn't get to the end, but it was pretty good. 176 BPM is a bit fast for a recovery run, though. I did my 5K in 26:25. Unrelated to the music, I rolled my ankle on a pinecone (not looking where I was going when exiting the bathroom area) - it's swollen but clearly not broken. I think this podrunner thing would be good for outdoor tempo runs, if you are the kind of person who has to get in step with the beat. Which I am. And what is more fun than a cadence, anyway?

Play it Again, ING

I am SO signing up to run the ING half again next year. The course was beautiful and the crowds were awesome. I expect that the start and water difficulties will be ironed out before the next one - maybe they can consult the track club for some advice.

Here are my stats:

Official time: 2:00:18
Chip time: 1:54:06
Garmin: 1:54:24
pace: 8:42

The PR time was due to our friend, Joe, who ran with me and kept the pace. He kicks ass.

Here are my friends and their times - all halves, except SuperNat:

Chris: 2:15:37 (first race EVER)
Susan: 2:28:52 (my boss)
Virginia: 2:03:46 (first half - my training partner)
Joe: 1:54:06
Jason: 2:01:39
Jennifer: 2:13:12 (first half)
Nat: 3:44:15 (heatstroke and a BQ)
Wes: 2:07:45

Here is my report:

My alarm was set for 4:00am, I thought. Apparently, it was not because I woke up at 4:14 with no alarm and my watch reading the wrong time. I'd cooked my oatmeal and set out my gear the night before and Doug made the coffee while I was in the shower, so I wasn't too far behind. Joe overslept too, so he was a little late picking me up and we were late picking up my friend Jennifer. We flew down the highway, so we got on MARTA at the Medical Center Station where it would be less crowded. MARTA was a breeze, we got to Underground at 6/6:15. We applied the vasaline, changed shoes and put on my knee-braces and checked our bags. Awesome job on the bag-check, UPS.

We finally found the huge wall of porto-potties and blanched at the lines. No matter, we waited and headed for the start. There were no signs, we just followed the masses. Because of the huge crowd, we knew not to try to go in at the back. Instead we walked outside the barricades until the 5:00 marathon pace group. At that point, we started to worry that we wouldn't get into the road. We went just behind the 4:30 pace group sign, and jumped (with help from those around us) the barricades. We helped several others do the same thing. I never heard a gun or a starting whistle. The crowd just started moving and we went with. We accidentally started Garmin at the finish line mats instead of the start, but quickly switched off - hence the 20-odd second discrepancy in the times. While waiting to start, I asked Joe his pace - "I don't know, what are we doing?" So, we ran together, even though Joe is MUCH faster and a better runner.

Jennifer had her own pace and so we parted at the start. The first 2-3 miles were bobbing and weaving as dawn broke over the city. The expo article about the views in those mile was not kidding. It was gorgeous. My knees felt OK but my toes got sore from sliding to the front of my shoes when tiptoeing between the other runners. We went through Inman Park and Little Five Points at or below my goal pace (9:09). I watched for running skirts (yes, I have skirt envy)pointed them out to Joe - he's not in the market for a skirt, but maybe for a skirt-wearing runner. We went through Little Five Points, which I haven't seen since Doug and I took my sister to see Dogstar 15 years ago. Then, we went down the Freedom Parkway - I remembered to eat my Sportsbeans during this stretch and on the way back we saw Jennifer and waved. She looked happy and chipper andwas running fast. Others have complained about this section, but it was still shady when we were there and was pretty pleasant. Then we ran up through Virginia-Highlands and I started to get a little tired. I was waiting for the post-beans euphoria. Some guy was handing out bottles of cool water from a grey trashcan and we got one. Thank you guy - we shared that water for the next two miles. It hit the spot. We went around through Piedmont park and I started to fade a bit. I was still with Joe, though, and we were doing about 8:20s at this point.

Then, the hills. On the back of the map that they gave us at the expo, it showed 3 big inclines. I kept thinking that we had finished the last hill, but no - there were more. I think that map was lying. Joe stared leaving me at this point. I caught back up and gave him a punch after the last out-n-back into the cheering zone. Then, going back up the hill to Peachtree, I stared to flag. My gut grumbled ominously. I looked in vain for a potty. No dice. This is a bad situation for a girl with pelvic floor issues. I stuck my earbuds in (had been only wearing one and switching ears so I could talk to Joe) and soldiered on. I kept Joe in sight and told myself to keep moving. Several times, I wanted to walk. The devil on my left shoulder kept saying "you can walk just a few steps, it will be no problem to catch back up," while the angel on the right said "no, sister, you better catch back up NOW." At the mile 1 sign, which apparently means one mile to go, Joe said "we're at 1:53" - I was a little loopy by this point and running with my eyes closed. I thought he meant that it was 1:53, which meant no way for the two hour goal. No matter, we pressed on. Those last two miles were in the 9:15 range and were not at all fun. The crowd started counting down as we approached the mats - I made the first mat before 2 hours, but that was the start mat. Oops - so I finished at 2:00:15. We got bananas and water and made the requisite pitstop - sorry to the guy who walked into my portopotty because I forgot to lock it. I felt like ass - not at all like Superwoman. After some curbside relaxing and ice shrink-wrapped to my IT band knee, I felt better. We limped to the UPS trucks to find Jennifer. There she was, at the appointed location - chipper and bouncing with glee. She finished in great time and at the same time as the marathon finisher.

It was a great race. I still have some muscle soreness today, but the knees are fine. I'm definitely there next year with more hydration and hill work under my belt. Thanks Joe, for keeping the pace. 65 Roses.

Full of Nerves

Annika's teachers told our sitter that they thought she had the Scourge on Thursday. After a
nervous phone call with Doug's sister Katie (who knows everything), we've decided that she does not have pinkeye, but does have allergies. Luckily we are going to the allergist on Tuesday anyway and Katie's daughter has allergy eyes too and had been for her four year checkup last week and they recommended some drops. We've purchased the drops (the name starts with a "Z") and they are working pretty well. We did have to go to both Walgreens (they were out) and Publix with Dagny clad only in a pair of shorts, but you gotta do what you gotta do. You can just call me Britney.

The nerves are about the big race tomorrow. I went to the expo today and got my number and cool Mizuno shirt. The expo was nice and though it looked like chaos, it wasn't bad like it was yesterday. Watch for #16060 - I'll be smack dab in the middle of the pack, hopefully not hobbling.

Better

When Doug first started playing golf in our neighborhood, he took me to the parties and I didn't know anyone - those golf guys all looked the same to me. Gradually, I started to make some distinctions by associating one fact about each guy with his face - names came later. My first two facts were: (1) the bartender who made everyone feel liked and important and (2) the singing guy.

"The singing guy," you say, "that sounds bad".

But he was a marvel. The singing guy would talk the band or DJ at whatever party it was into giving him the microphone and maybe some backup music (not always) so that he could sing a love song to his wife. And he could sing! He sang ballads, like "The Way You Look Tonight" or "Unforgettable" and his wife just looked embarrassed and gave him a hug when he was done.

Later, when I came to know the singing guy by his name, I also noticed that when you asked him how he was, he always said "Better than I deserve!" with a big smile.

At the church service on Saturday, the preacher said that this was a great reminder of the Lenten season. I thought he was just strange until I had some time to meditate on the idea. Lent is a good time to remind ourselves that we are all really better than we deserve. That is the point of giving things up and foregoing meat and all of that. I know that my spouse is better for and to me than I deserve most of the time. And the kids are better than I could even hope for. How about remembering to be grateful for that and reveling in it, instead of bothering to think about how they could be doing it "better" or "my way".

We lost the singing guy last week. The preacher was speaking at his funeral. Our friend was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about six months ago. For those of you that don't know, there is not a good prognosis for that kind of cancer and though he fought the good fight, it was too strong. He was grateful and friendly to the end - sending out updates full of sunshine and any good news he could think of. It was almost as if he were keeping our spirits up, instead of the other way around.

As the preacher said, we are better for having known him, much better than we deserve. We will miss you, Cary.

Frustrated

So, I wrote a nice post while at my continuing education class on Tuesday, but it was lost in the ether when the hotspot at the Sheraton went out on me. Then, I was going to write after finishing my work on Friday but the internet at home went out. It turns out that my moden was not on "bridge mode" despite the nice Bellsouth customer service rep's assurances to the contrary. I didn't believe her anway because her grasp on the English language was tenuous at best and she kept blaming it on my router, which is brand new. Luckily, the D-Link customer service rep was (1) a speaker of English, (2) knowledgeable and (3) helpful. There were long pauses in our conversation where I thought he was reading the instructions, but when he was probably surfing the internet and lost focus with me. No matter, the internet is up. It only took ALL of Dagny's nap and the 2 hours that Annika was being punished in her room. No work was completed and no blogging done. Stupid Bellsouth.

Annika was punished because (as was revealed when Doug questioned her about it) she was having a parade with Dagny while I was on the phone with a work colleague on a business call after I told her that I was going to take the call and that she needed to be quiet. I had just thought that she was following me from room to room with the loudness to get attention. Silly me - who knew it was a parade?

On the running front, I think I've solved the problem. My shoes were old. I knew that they were getting old, but I was waiting until the new Brooks Adrenalines came to my running store. If I was to buy shoes, why not the latest technology? Because waiting for the new technology will @#?*& up your knee - That is why. Stupid. Anyway, long story short, I bought an interim pair of new Adrenalines while waiting for them to come in at my store (because they ordered them especially for me) and now I have two new pairs of shoes. They won't go bad, though, and I'll hopefully get more mileage out of them if I rotate pairs - especially in the sweaty summer months.

Sun: 5 miles with knee brace on non-IT knee at 9:45 pace. Could have gone longer if I would have had both braces.

Tues: 4 miles in the flats at unknown pace. Could have gone longer if I would have remembered to wear any knee braces. You can't re-enter the house after leaving at 5am because the alarm beeps and will wake the babies. It was a joy to run without anything though - I felt like a gazelle.

Fri: 3 miles in the flats at 9:00 pace, cut short because of potty break

Sat: 6 miles in the nasty wind with both knee braces and no tunes at 9:09 pace. This run sucked; the wind, silence, cold and bad Mexican food for dinner on Friday combined for a lot of misery. The cardio and the knees were fine though. This is my race pace for ING if I'm to hit my goal time. I think, with proper fueling, hydration, both braces and some tylenol, it might be possible. Cross your fingers.

I'm Not Trippin'

I saw a bumper sticker this morning that said "Faith is a journey - not a guilt trip." I think this was a slam on the Catholic church because there was also another church (protestant) sticker on the car.

I know that it's the conventional wisdom that the Catholic church is all about guilt. And, believe me, Catholics carry a lot of it. However, since I've been doing the regular church attendance thing while Annika is in religious classes, I've thought a lot about this guilt and whether the Church puts it on the parishoners or if the parishoners put it on themselves. The priests joke about it a lot, so it's not news to them.

Here is what I think - there is always a "better" Catholic. For folks who don't make weekly Mass, it's the regulars. For the regulars, it's the Eucharistic ministers or ushers. For those folks, it is the folks who do adoration. For those folks, it is the daily Mass attenders or the Deacons or whoever. Someone is always commenting favorably on all of the ways that you can give of yourself (time, talent, $) to the church and there are always opportunities to do it. So, it's only natural for we competitive creatures to want to be the best at any or all of these things. The failure to do so causes guilt.

So, I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. If a rational, thoughtful, adult feels guilt because he or she COULD be doing more volunteer work or giving more money or attending more activies, that is not a bad thing - especially if it impels them to do good things. I think, though, that the words "rational" and "thoughtful" are the keys, though, because a person can do only so much.

Isn't She Lovely

Annika spent Tuesday afternoon playing dress-up while Dagny napped and Doug and I played dueling laptops on the porch in the beautiful weather.

You can't see the many back-view photos that I was required to take so that I could capture the fairy wings and fireman hat at the same time.

She might be a big pain in our bottoms right now, but Annika sure is cute.

I reread my post from this morning and apologize for the negativity. My lack of getting out and running or doing exercise has got me in a funk.

Tomorrow, swim lessons. We are already talking about how tough Annika is, so cross your fingers.

Issues

When I worked at the law firm, we used to call things that sucked "issues." There were title issues, contract issues, marriage issues, job issues and personality issues. We've had some issues at our house this week.

Annika went to Grammie/Grampa's cabin for the weekend last weekend and has been a bear ever since. I don't know if being the center of attention for two whole days spoiled her for the week or if she is just having a rough spot. Sunday, general bad behavior and failure to listen or follow directions. Monday, in addition to similar behavior, refused to eat dinner then whined about being hungry/thirsty. Tuesday, hit Dagny and then lied about it after bad behavior and waking Dagny from her nap. Wednesday, refused to use the potty for me and the sitter. Peed in the car on the way to dance class.

Doug had to plug two of his tires on Tuesday. He was in the driveway with the tools and the car jacked up when I returned home from picking Annika up from school. He is good at this and gets a lot of nails in his tires at work. While on the ground, he noticed that MY tires had the metal showing. "Have you seen your tires?" he asked. Clearly not. I left work early and got new tires (4 of them) yesterday.

And my knee is still bad. Despite the mileage scheduled for this week and next week (16 and 20 miles per week, respectively, plus speed work), I've done the following: Monday, Pilates. Tues, 6 miles too fast and hurt the knee. Wed, Tae Bo. Thurs, Pilates. Sat, 4 miles at 9:30ish pace. Sun, Tae Bo. Mon, Pilates. Tues, 3.1 miles at approx 9:45 pace. Wed, tennis - I don't think this counts. Thurs, does Peachtree application count? The tapering is supposed to start next week. I think that I've already started tapering. SIGH. The good news is that my Tuesday run at the park was without a brace on my IT band knee and despite some stiffness, it didn't hurt. Or maybe the other one just distracted me.

Now THAT is Creative

So, have I mentioned that I'm not creative?

Doug is a much more creative and adventurous cook and Annika can draw circles around me. And, Corinne, she can knit a billion things 40 times faster than me and with less mistakes and more importantly, she knows how to fix the mistakes.

But this woman, takes the cake. . . or the muffin, if you will. The link is courtesy of my sister, Emily. She is pursuing graduate school in psychology, with an emphasis on sex disorders.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

So, this was the third hard week of training in a row. I was even having delusions of marathon possibility (not this year, but ever). Instead of relaxing and enjoying the easy running, I pushed through that tempo run on Tuesday (8-ish min pace because of the 9s last week) and hurt my knee. No, not the IT Band knee, the original bad knee. Dumbass.

It's feeling better now, and I may even get to run this weekend so I'm not worried about my race except that I might not be as fast as I could have been. Sigh, sometimes it's one step forward, two steps back.

And, in other news, if work asks you to come in on your off-day for a 30 minute meeting, the answer should be no. Otherwise, your whole week is shot to hell because the day off that you were going to get to make up for the extra workday will be lost to a meeting (cancelled) and the original 30 minute meeting will be moved to 5pm - on Friday.

Didja Know?

Did you know that Thursdays are free beer glass night at Taco Mac? The food is iffy and the bathrooms are ugly, but the beer is lovely and I just noticed what a great collection of glasses we have. Just imagine if we remembered to take them home every time!

Dagny actually stood still for me to take her photo this morning. She was in a very good mood. I'm about to go and get her up for lunch. She was setting up a tea party on the little table with her milk and cups at each place. Then, a poo happened and she had to get a change and a rest. We thought today was service officer day at school and borrowed the police uniform from cousin Clay. Thanks Katie and Clay! I'll have to wash it tomorrow so that Annika can wear it again on the right day. Sometimes, all of these clothing instructions (color day, costume day, pajama day) are irritating. The fire truck will be appearing at school so that will be cause for big excitement, though. As you can see, Dagny is learning to use her spoon very well. She likes ice cream the best but dry cereal is fine too.

Not So Very Smart

So, in the beautiful weather this afternoon I took Annika and Dagny up the street to play with their cousins. In the whirlwind of getting ready for the outing (filling water, using the bathroom, etc), Doug suggested that Annika drive her jeep. We bought this for her for Christmas from a friend whose daughter had outgrown it. Against my better judgment (because Doug made me feel like an asshole), I made the "if a car is coming at you, you must stop" rule and off we went.

Because it was too scary for me to strap Dagny into the car with Annika, I pushed her in the push-n-ride car with it tilted into a wheelie so that her feet didn't catch on the pavement. So, we had the first near miss crossing the street in front of our house. Annika panicked while I was trying to explain where to drive (against the curb, facing traffic) and stopped in the middle of the road. I (still holding Dagny in wheelie-position) grabbed the bar of the car and yanked her over to the curb out of the way of the oncoming car. We will be lucky if her neck isn't sore. Sigh. After another discussion of where to drive, we were off. I think that those 0.4 miles were the longest of my life.

Did I mention that the jeep has two speeds? Low, which is a crawl, and fast, which is faster than I can walk. So I walked then jogged, walked then jogged. We made it to Katie's house without wrecking and fun was had by all. Annika only had one time-out and it was only because she ran the car into me. Much better than running into her cousins or sister, and she didn't do it intentionally. She is just a bad driver (just like Mom!). Katie offered to drive us home (to get the car later) but I sucked it up, put the car in low speed for the downhill and off we went. Annika hates low speed. I let her put in back in fast when we got to the flat parts.

Upon our return (not too much the worse for wear), Doug said "why didn't you just put Dagny in the car." I explained the terror of Annika driving Dagny and that I couldn't walk fast enough to keep up. He said that I should have put Dagny in and jogged alongside, with the idea of grabbing the car if Annika made a driving error. Maybe next trip. In the meantime, I'm going to get an adult beverage and try to calm down.

In other news, Annika's pants (size 4-T) are too short. She has actually been eating for the past two days, so we thought a growth spurt was upon us and 'lo it appears to have already happened.

Still other news: my parents have moved into the neighborhood. I think Dad is enjoying it already, but hopefully Mom will warm up on the idea soon. Dagny and Annika LOVE to drop by for visits or grocery errands.

Running: Tuesday was an 8 mile tempo run. Tempo-schmempo. I ran at the park and Garmin was worthless. He kept stopping while I was still running. I think I ran almost 8 miles at about a 9 minute/mile pace. Thursday was the hill sprints with walking in between - 3.37 miles at a 9:15 combined pace. Saturday was an 8.34 mile long run at 9:20 pace - it was my first non-park run and I did OK to end up back at the front of our subdivision (it's all downhill from there) at close to the 8 mile goal. Probably I should have eaten something before I did this run because it was pre-breakfast but I had to get back by 7 for Doug to leave for his tournament, so I chalked it up to fat-burning training. I'm STILL craving salt, though. Maybe I'll have gatorade next time. Anyone noticing a trend on the pacing? Yep, it was the week of 9 - that wasn't the plan, but oh well.

The Scourge

Now that I'm the mother of toddler and preschooler, I'm coming around to the idea that pinkeye is the new scourge. I know that you can give it to yourself and that toddlers are most likely to do it because of the frequent finger/nose + finger/eye contact, but frequently (like the throw-up virus), it seems like folks send their kids out sick so that they spread their crud to everyone else.

Yesterday, Doug's sister called me at work to tell me that one of the other moms in Annika's class reported that 3 kids in the class have pinkeye (3 out of 13). Yikes! Annika's eyes were goopy yesterday morning but didn't look red. After a warning email to Doug, 2 hours of worrying about my own itchy eyes and one trip to the ladies room to wash hands and check the mirror, I realized that maybe it's just spring. That, and I saw a sign at the eye doctor's office on the way home that said something about allergies. Me being crazy and paranoid is nothing new.

However, I took Annika to her first swim lesson today. She whined and acted like she was going to drown (she was not - they put a floatie on her at the beginning so that she wouldn't sink) - it was very embarrassing, but hilarious. Wow, are we ever going to have to work on toughening her up, though. What a wuss. Anyway - back to the story, while we were waiting to begin the lesson, one of the teachers showed up late to work. The other instructors had been whispering about him prior to his arrival because he was late. His right eye was swollen shut and he said that it hurt to even open it. That's right - pinkeye. No one said that out loud, and the guy said he would do his lessons with goggles on, but they sent him home.

Whew!

I was very worried about the scene I was about to make about how my kid was not getting in the pool with oozy eye boy.

Skubetzelis

The photos are apropos of nothing. I was trying to capture Dagny and Annika while they were all dressed up in their pretty dresses the other day, but had only limited success. Above, my friends Michelle, Corinne and Beth during the Christmas knitting night with cracker crowns.

Then, Annika showing me her beautiful dress and smile. I think it was on Valentines Day. I took photos of Dagny too, but hers were blurry because she is so fast. So, I put in a Christmas on of her instead. Same dress, though, so just imagine her taller with more hair.
The Skubetzelis is a Lithuanian word which means klutz (we think, but possibly with stupid and some bad words involved). We don't mean it as stupid or with cursing, though, it's just that Annika is currently so clumsy that the words "klutz" or "clumsy" do not cover it adequately. Yesterday, she fell off of her chair at least three times, flipped a grocery cart over on herself and crashed on the floor while walking or dancing more times than I counted. This, after hitting her lip on the kitchen counter on Saturday. She must be having a growth spurt. Poor thing, she is all bruised and battered.

In other news, on Tues - 4 mile tempo run at 8:53 pace, very slow and sluggish. Thurs, 3.32 mile hill sprints/walks at combined 8:56 pace. Sun, 10 miles at 9:24 pace. That was my longest run of my training so far (and farther than any run for my Disney race). I'm sore today, but was not in any appreciable pain yesterday. Next time, I'll make a better route and station some water or gatorade so that I don't have to avail myself of the QuickTrip. Doug told me to run somewhere else and he was right, again.

Still other news, we made our adult dinner on Saturday and had the fancy wine that I bought Doug for Valentines Day. We are still wondering whether we don't appreciate wine enough to like the expensive stuff or if it was simply not a good choice. It seems to me that we are far less likely to be disappointed in a bottle of wine if we only paid $14 for it - we expect less, but are surprised when it is (frequently) better than that. And the $5.49 Valpolicello at Trader Joes -delicious.

Now That's Action

Today the House passed a resolution (non-binding) which says that they disapprove of President Bush's direction in Iraq. In case you've not heard of this, read a story on MSNBC here.

Regardless of your position on the war in Iraq or President Bush, doesn't a non-binding resolution saying that they don't like his plan seem dumb? I remember listening to a Representative (don't recall his name - he's not from GA) say on NPR on the day after the State of the Union address that he really needed to "DO SOMETHING" about this new plan and that his action would be to propose a non-binding resolution. What kind of action is that? Who doesn't know how their Representative feels about this issue? Or their Senator? What is the point of a non-binding resolution but to send a big F-you to the Executive Branch? And that helps our country, how? Doesn't the Congress send the President a big F-you every day anyway? Seems like it to me.

Why do they waste our tax dollars this way? I think these folks have a bit too much time on their hands and might need some real jobs.

I'm "off" from my paying job today and Annika was supposed to go away with Doug's folks for the weekend. We had big plans for running this afternoon and an adult dinner, with wine. Instead, Annika threw up on the rug in the den. She seems fine, though, so that is good - but if anyone knows how to get vomit out of the fringe of a rug, please let me know.

The Food Wars

Mike just posted about the food issues going on at their house. Annika has developed the delightful habit of sitting with her food in her mouth (un- or partially-chewed) when she is supposed to be eating. Sometimes she even adds little gagging sounds to increase our fun. The offending food doesn't have to be anything that she doesn't like (onions, peppers, anything good) - sometime it is something as yummy as applesauce or bananas.

Last night, we had a meal of Chinese food that we got at Trader Joes - Shu Mai and Chicken Lemongrass sticks (which are a lot like taquitos with lemon flavoring) and honey glazed baby carrots (not from Trader Joes, but from Doug's imagination). No dice. After 10 minutes at the table with her first bite of Shu Mai in her mouth, Doug sent Annika to "The Chair" to chew it up and swallow with the instructions that she couldn't return to the table until she finished. She sat there for an hour while Doug and I had a delightful dinner and shared a bottle of wine and conversation. Dagny screamed a lot because Annika was missing and because she wasn't hungry either, but we can talk louder than she can scream. Apparently, the pile of Chik-Fil-A nuggets that they had for lunch at Annika's Valentines party filled them up so that they weren't interested in dinner (except for Dagny's cheerios). Too bad, they missed out.

Just wait until Annika figures out that she can spit out the food that is sitting in her mouth.

It's Going Around

On the eve of our big race - the 10K Peachtree qualifier, I woke at 12:52am to find Doug awake. "I've been throwing up all night and I have a fever," he said. Food poisoning or the roto-virus? We don't know, but he is still in bed with his ginger ale. He will have to race another day. The girls and I are going to relax the rest of the day and try to stay quiet.

I picked up our babysitter (bless her) and went to the race with Joe and Virginia and we had a lovely run, except for the ridiculous cold. Running is not so much fun when the temperature is in the 20s. However, I got my qualifying time for the Peachtree and a new fastest mile record. Here is the weekly report:

My training plan said to run 6x400s, a 6 mile tempo run and a 6 mile long run. I was a little off because of the work/run time crunch, but the results were generally good.

Mon: 4 mile tempo run at 8:45 avg pace. Cold and no fun.
Wed: overslept because the dog got up at 3:30 to pee - no run
Thurs: dog got up at 4, so I ran early - 3.31 miles hill sprints, walking down the hills at a combined 9:00 pace. I was sluggish because of not enough sleep and not wanting to overdo prior to Saturday's race
Sat: Race day - according to Garmin, I went 6.4 miles at an average 7:47 pace with mile 6 being the fastest at 7:24. That is my fastest recorded mile ever. Thank you, Joe and Virginia, for the encouragement and pacing. According to the race clock, I finished in 49:54 and Garmin said 49:55 so I don't know where the extra 0.2 miles came from.

Day Off

Today is one of my days off from my office work. In a fit of feeling sorry for myself, I was going to list all of the zillion errands we've done today. Other than the scone from Starbucks, the half-bag of veggie chips (sweet potato, taro, beet-colored sweet potato and something else I've never heard of) and the two trips to the running store, none of it was terribly fun. However, I've done this before on the blog - another Friday when we ran ourselves ragged and got me down. Maybe it would be better if I just didn't try to cram so much stuff into one day.

So, now I'm going to get my work computer and my i-pod and sit on my bed with Annika. She is having "quiet time" today. The days of her taking naps are finished but we are both a little worn down this week so maybe I'll work or maybe it will wait until tomorrow. But at least I've got the laundry going.

The Patience of a Chopping Block

Dagny is finally learning some words. They are mostly not intelligible to regular humans, though, so she gets very frustrated when we can't understand what she is saying. So frustrated that she balls her hands into fists, turns red, shakes and bangs her head on the floor - which hurts, apparently, and that only makes her more angry. We may have some discipline issues later, I'm thinking.

The word of the week is milk - sounds like meyouk.

Inquiring minds: BMI - 20.4-8, BF 20%

TMI

For those of you who don't frequent any online forums that use "internet-speak," TMI means too much information. Usually that means that someone is about to talk about their sex life or their poop or vomit. I will leave all of those things to your imagination. It may also be used in IMing, but I don't know how to do that so I can't comment.

Thank you, Dorothy, for reminding me that I was supposed to have done a 15 month check-up for Dagny. So, belatedly, here are the stats:

Height: 32 inches (80th percentile and exactly the same as Annika at this age)
Weight: 22lb, 11oz (38th percentile, down from 57th at the last visit - I thought she was looking thinner. That's almost 3lbs more than Annika at this age)
Head: 18.5 inches (69th percentile - still a pea, but not as much as Annika)

It's very interesting to see how little their body shapes resemble each other - Annika is thin and slight and Dagny is sturdy. When I was little/adolescent, my Grammy told me (to make me feel better about not being thin) that I was sturdy. Oooh, I hated being sturdy at the time, but now it makes me happy. I hear/read "sturdy" and I think "kick-ass."

In other news, Doug bought us a new scale because ours was getting a little erratic. Doug was having 8 lb weight shifts in 24 hr periods. I said it just needed a battery, but now we own a body composition monitor which tells us our weight, % bodyfat and % water. How's that for TMI?

Party at My House!

Doug is going to the hockey game tonight with some friends and after I learned that the running will not fit into my schedule this afternoon, I thought to myself - cool! What are we going to DO? Just as if it were my parents leaving me alone for the evening.

So, chick movies? drinking the mom-and-dad-not-homes? breakfast for dinner? everyone sleeping in my room? prank calls? bras in the fridge?

Who knows, the world is our oyster. Dagny and I will hit the Trader Joes while Annika is at school to see what we should get for dinner because, let's face it, Doug usually makes our dinner. Maybe this won't be so much fun after all.

Not So Deep

So, I wrote a whole post about the nature of intelligence - based on Doug and my observations of the "Top Chef" season finale and the seminar that I attended at work this week. Alas, my two little friends called me out of the office and my post was lost. Regardless, I was rooting for Sam and when he didn't make the finale - for Marcel.

In other news, I discovered this week that the guy at my favorite running store is also using (loosely) the same running plan that Virginia and I are using. His race isn't until April, though, so he is much looser than we are. Anyway, this week we were to do 3x1600s, a 5 mile tempo run and a 10 mile long run. I was so excited about my tempo run that I almost posted about it on Tuesday - see what a little hubris gets you . . .

Tues: 6.18 mile tempo run at the park at an 8:10 pace. This is the best run that I have had since June or July. I actually ran my comfortable running pace - it was so uplifting. After 3 miles, my knee stiffened and I revised my plan to only go for 4 miles. Then at 4 miles, it felt OK so I just kept going. Thank you, Doug, for coming home early so that I could run in the afternoon.

Thurs: 3.01 mile hill/speed run (sprint up, walk down) at an 8:54 pace. I got to leave work early this day (thanks again, Doug), so I ran in the afternoon. I was truly sucking it at the end - felt like my lungs were trying to heave out of my throat to get some 0xygen. And, since others were awake, I had to run on the side of the road instead of the middle. Still, an improvement over last week. My plan to go 4 miles was abandoned due to the aforementioned sucking.

Sat: 4.02 miles at a 9:38 pace. I had planned to go 8 miles this morning at a 10:00 pace - set my Garmin and everything. My knee was stiff and I nearly quit after the first mile. Fought through it and kept running through miles 2 and 3. Then I had to go potty and decided that 4 was it. I was very depressed at my knee crapping out like that, but when Doug told me the temp when I came inside (24-26 degrees F), maybe that was a good enough excuse. I'll have to meet with my pal Billy in the morning as penance/punishment/make-up, though.

Beauty

So, I drove to Savannah for work last week. That's right, 8.5 hours in the car for a 40 minute meeting and lunch. But, the meeting went well and they didn't need much of my legal expertise during the discussions (always a good thing), so it was a successful day. Along the way, I noticed how beautiful Georgia is. You don't always think about it, as you pass all of the piney woods and kaolin mines on I-95 and I-16, but this state is lovely. And Savannah - even the slums are gorgeous. If you ever have reason to visit the federal building in Savannah, please note that they do not have a lobby or bathroom that you may access without the presence of the party you plan to meet. No good after a 4.5 hour drive. There is, however, a lovely coffee/dessert shop just down the street (Walnut St, I think) that had good coffee, yummy scones, delicious-looking sandwiches, clean potties and all manner of chocolate, including chocolate thongs. I did not point these out to my colleagues when we returned for them to use the facilities, but I did buy a chocolate bar with chiles and nibs in it for Doug. No dice for him, but I have really enjoyed it. Yum. Please also note that if visiting Savannah, you need to take change for the parking meters or buy some stuff at the aforementioned coffee place so that you have enough to cover your time.

In other news, our training program called for Virigina and me to run 4x800 speed repeats, a 4 mile tempo run and an 8 mile long run this week. Viriginia and I found this program independently and are following it loosely to train for the ING race. I am following it more loosely than Virginia since it's not my first half (loved writing that, by the way) and my knee is still touchy. So, here is what I did this past week:

Tues: 4.02 mile tempo run in the flats at a 9:11 pace. This was not a hard run. I've not done any tempo runs since August, so I was pleased to get the four miles without my knee crapping out.
Thurs: 3 miles of hill repeats (sprint up, walk down) at a combined 9:18 pace. This was very difficult because it was cold, the hills are hard and I had a lot of phlegm. I was definitely sucking it at the end.
Sun: 6 miles at a 10:00 pace at the park (the flat one, not the Rec). Not hard, I probably could have run further but I didn't want to hurt the knee.

Pretty good, if I do say so myself. I've not been looking much at the training program because I'm so far off of it - especially the tempo part. To train based on my regular 5K pace, my tempo run should be at an 8:27 pace. I didn't even do the math for the speed work, and cross-training, forget about it! I'm off to a good start for this week, though, so hopefully the next post will be all about that.

Also, a friend of mine just found out that her baby may have a heart problem. They don't know how serious the problem is yet, and the baby won't be born until spring, but say a prayer for them please.

P says pppp

It's P week at Annika's school this week. For that reason, they are wearing pajamas to school today, having popcorn and a movie for snacktime and a pizza party for lunch. For breakfast, we even had pancakes. I'm out, though, and can't think of any other "p"s to have for dinner except peas. Any ideas?

In other news, I finally came through on my promise to Dorothy and gave blood yesterday. They were having a drive in the office park at work. The participation was low, but overwhelmingly female. You would think that the men would be more likely to give, but not this day. It had been 8 years (I had signed up to donate one other time, but had to cancel when I got pregnant with Dagny) since my last donation, so I am surprised at how punk I feel today despite not feeling light-headed at all yesterday (usually I do). Maybe it is a consequence of getting old. If you want to give, here is the site to make an appointment. You can search by your zip code for a convenient location and make an appointment online.

Patience is a Virtue

Patience is a Virtue. One of Mike's sisters mentioned this in a comment over at Hollandsenieuwe. My mom used to tell us this (in the really annoying sing-songy voice) when I was a kid and boy, did we hate it.

So right now, I don't have any patience. I knew that something would fall through the cracks when I started my permanent job (that's right - the temporary, part-time gig turned into a permanent, more-hours but still not-full-time gig). When I started the temp project, birthday cards fell off my plate. Until last year, every cousin, aunt, uncle, other relative or friend got a birthday card on or near (except for Tara, whose birthday has always confused me) their special day - and most got a handwritten "message" from Annika. No more, after July of 2006 we terminated the cards because I never got around to buying any in August and we just slid downhill from there.

Anyway, despite Doug's herculean efforts around the house (relieving the sitter in the afternoon, cooking outrageously good dinners, helping me pack lunches), I find myself losing my marbles on an increasingly frequent basis. I'm going to have to work hard to find something else to lose so that the patience can stay on my plate and I won't yell at Annika because she has antagonized Dagny for the seventeenth time of the morning or just not gotten dressed when asked.

This short temper could be related to my crappy training. Natalie asked how my training for the ING half-marathon was going - in a word: badly. I don't know how long one is supposed to "recover" from a half-marathon, but I'm pretty sure that I've exceeded that time and have moved on over into either complete sloth or just re-injury. Because I ran my race at my training pace, took Tylenol and fueled as Joe recommended, it was not challenging cardio-vascularly and I didn't feel used-up at the end. However, my knee was toast. I have only run 7 miles each of the last two weeks (hopefully more this week because I have a date to run with Virginia this afternoon). That darn IT band just doesn't want to cooperate with my plans.

However, on Thursday I was able to run the loop around our block by running the uphills and walking the downhills. Since I haven't done any speed or hill runs since September, the loop was a challenge - I was actually sore! Maybe today will be the beginning of something good.

Now, if I could just find something else to "lose". . .

Speaking of which, I just noticed that I lost both Jason and Camille from the sites list during my change -you guys are clearly not paying attention either!

Oops!

I just noticed that I had accidentally dropped Corinne off of the blogs list. She is back now. Rest easy.

In other news, while I cleaned up after dinner today my amazing husband made chicken salad for me and the girls to take for lunch tomorrow. From Paula Dean's recipe that he looked up on the internet.

Walt Disney Half Marathon Race Report + photos

At long last, here is my race report with photos of the girls from our visit to Disney World last weekend. The first is Dagny wearing Annika's Minnie hat. Then, Annika inside the mouth of one of the sharks from the Nemo ride at Epcot. This was originally an informative ride about the ocean, but now it is an informative ride with Nemo and friends. Dagny and Annika LOVED it. At the end was a cool play area (where the shark is) filled with cool shark facts and children. Next, Annika with her face painted as "princess kitty" - her choice. She wore the face paint for two days until it wore off (after we were home).



Last, Dagny gets to know (or pounds, whichever) Eyeore at the Crystal Palace restaurant. If you go to Disney World, this place is great for lunch because (1) the food is good, (2) they have the Pooh characters, and (3) it is very close to the baby center, which has clean changing tables for use and baby supplies for purchase.

Lest you be disappointed at the lack of running photos, the following links show me at the race finish and post-finish with my medal (not beautiful - I'm not Miss Photogenic). Please note that in the finishing photo, you can clearly see the reason that our friend missed me at the finish (Doug was off placating Dagny, who had lost her marbles).

On race morning (Saturday), I woke at 2:58am. It was two minutes before I planned to get up, but 10 minutes before the alarms. I took some Tylenol and started my coffee in the coffeemaker and my oatmeal in the hotpot. After showering, coffee, and as much oatmeal with soymilk as I could manage, I got dressed and left - without waking Doug. I was to meet our friend Joe at 3:50 so that he could drive me to the race. He volunteered to do this so that he could scope it out for his marathon on Sunday. Alas, we left one important part out of our plan - WHERE to meet. He wasn't in his room and I had no phone. After a moment of adrenaline panic, I banged on our door and woke Doug up so that he could call Joe on his cellphone. Bless him, Doug called Joe for me and we were on our way!

Race morning was warm and damp. Florida is quite humid. Disney does not skimp on any aspect of their race, so I was able to take care of "business" no less than three times before we even got to the starting area at 5:30am. I also ate some more Tylenol before the start (Doug's advice). The start of my race was on the road just beyond the Epcot parking lots. The wheelchair racers started first, then the fast folks (wave A) and then my group (wave B). Wave C brought up the rear. I thought that I was in the middle of the wave, but perhaps was at the back. Mickey, Donald and Goofy started the race for us and shot fireworks for each starting group. It was slow going at the beginning and shortly before the mile 1 mark, the folks next to me dropped to a walk because we were essentially running in place. After we ramped down to World Drive, the crush eased a bit and we were able to get to a better pace. Miles 2 and 3 passed without significant speed as we all plodded along in the dark. I realized how slow the first miles had been and gave up all hope of keeping to my 10 min per mile goal pace. As we ran, I found and chatted with Brittany Brown from Kansas, who I had met as we stood in line to get our numbers at the Expo on Friday. Go Brittany! At each mile volunteers dispensed water and gatorade in appropriately colored cups and there were portopotties.

As we approached the Transportation and Ticket Center (could have been Magic Kingdom), there were cheerleaders chanting and clapping for us and then two divergent paths with music (country and rock). The sun was starting to rise at this point, but I still didn't need my visor yet. Joe had advised me to fuel after 40-50 minutes of activity. He trained hard for his marathon and read a lot about fueling. Because of my knee, I hadn't done any training runs long enough to require fueling and really if the point of exercise is to burn calories, why would I consume extra ones (other than beer?). Seriously, other than water, I had consumed nothing while running. So, because the local Target has Sports Beans (made by Jelly Belly) and Joe said that they weren't horrible, I packed those in the key pocket of my shorts. As we came into the Magic Kingdom, I busted out the beans - because of the danger of hurling, Joe advised consuming water at the stops before and after eating them. Because of the humidity and my lack of experience at this distance, I consumed water everywhere. I munched on my delicious jelly beans as we ran through Tomorrowland, past Space Mountain (and the real potties), the Teacups, and the Carousel. I stopped eating to pass through Cinderella's castle (they take photos there, you know) and finished them up on the way out through Frontierland. At this point, the race volunteers were handing out bananas. I almost passed them, but ate a few bites of one as I ran just in case the beans were too "hot" for my tummy. The beans might be harder to consume if one were running at a faster pace - for a first-time racer, they were perfect. I wasted a whole mile concentrating on eating my beans one by one without dropping any.

The sun was fully up by this time and I realized that I was making better time as we passed miles 6, 7 and 8 out of the Kingdom, past the Grand Floridian and the golf course. This guy said that this was the difficult part of the race because of the boring scenery, but I loved it - so green and relaxing. Also, as I exited the Kingdom, Annika appeared in my headphones, yelling "Go, Mommy, Go!" Doug had secretly taped her with several different uplifting messages and uploaded them to my i-pod. I laughed out loud and then got misty. What a great husband. He also put my tunes in a good order, which I didn't realize and messed up because I started with Whitesnake instead of Christina Aguilera. Anyway, after mile 7, I decided that a potty-break was in order so I waited until the mile 8 marker since it was over halfway and past any distance that I had ever run before. At mile 8 there were two potties facing the road and about 8 facing away. I ran to the "away" ones and there was NO line. Marvelous.

Lighter and with a spring in my step, I continued down the road, listening to my tunes, taking my earphones out to listen to the marching bands and the steel drum band and the DJs who liked the road. It was so much fun. I didn't stop smiling the whole time. At mile 8, prior to the potty break, my left foot started to hurt. I thought perhaps my shoes were askew and tried to stretch it as I ran. The knee was OK - a little stiff but nothing bad. I decided that I could start running faster. Miles 8-10 passed without incident, though I did figure out that the Team-in-Training coaches were running ahead on every mile and then waiting for their peeps to come by before sprinting ahead again - those TNT folks and their spectators were great. I made a mental note to require all friends running in the ING race to wear matching shirts (a joiner, I TOLD you). At mile 10, I figured that I was close enough to the finish to run at racing speed. I tried to keep up with this beautiful woman (dark green singlet, dark skin, single long braid, a very tall, good-looking man passed her in mile 10/11 and gave her a kiss) because she was running so well. She passed me, though, on the flat part of the highway as we went over the overpass. Because we were on the highway for the last 3 miles, there was a big crown in the road. Inclines of all kinds seem to make my knee hurt, so I ran a lot in the grass. There was less pounding there too, seemed like. Anyway, there was another food stop at mile 12/13 where volunteers dispensed Cliff Shot Bloks. These were sour apple flavor and smelled heavenly. However, it was nearly mile 13 - who needs calories there? Not me. I sprinted past the beautiful woman in the green shirt, into Epcot, around the Christmas tree and straight to the finish. I had the best time. It was so much fun - I couldn't stop smiling all day. This was the perfect first half-marathon. No water/fuel/potty worries, plenty of music, cheering, distraction - so much fun! I definitely would do this race again, if finances permit, but I would save the park visiting until after the race and after the other kids are back in school to avoid the crowds.

New Look

I'm a joiner. I admit it. Any group that I think might be fun or exciting, I'm in - tennis team, track club, golf group, casserole ministry, mom's group(s), alumni association, etc.

So, after Anne and Dorothy updated their layouts with the new Google Blogger, I had to do the same. I like blue better than green anyway. It makes me happier.

I lost some of my links when I made the layout change so if you think there is a cool blog or link that I should show, let me know.

Qwack, Qwack, Qwack

So, during one of the many Christmas festivities last month, my sister related a story to me of how Annika told her that her eyes were cracking. "Ha!" we taunted, "your eyes are cracking!"

Yesterday, Annika told me the same thing. "Mommy, why are your eyes red?" she asked. "Because they are tired," I replied. "I think they are cracking" she chirped, "like eggs."

Please note that each instance of the letters "r" or "l" is either silent or sounds like a "w" - "Mommy, why are youw eyes wed? I fink they awe cwacking."

Garmin's Results

For my half-marathon at Walt Disney World, here are Garmin's results by Mile number, in minutes and seconds. Clearly I should have moved towards the front of my corral, but perhaps the slow start allowed me to finish as easily as I did:

1. 11:48
2. 10:47
3. 10:52
4. 10:28
5. 10:05
6. 10:08
7. 9:31
8. 9:56
9. 10:10
10. 9:53
11. 9:15
12. 8:51
13. 8:25
14. this wasn't actually a mile, but 0.41 miles in 2:53

I'm not sure why Garmin thinks I went farther than 13.1 miles. It could be that I forgot to press stop at the finish or did it late - I don't know. Please note the negative splittage is marred only by my visit to the porto-potty in mile 9. Stopping at all but one of the previous 9 water stops made this necessary - it was humid, folks! I'll post a full race report later (maybe later in the week) with some photos of the girls at Disney.

Results

Displaying 1 to 1 of 1
Unofficial Race Results

STEPHANIE BACHMAN Bib #28120 Age 34 F
START
5K
10K
15K
FINISH
6:15:22 AM EST
34:54
1:07:12
1:39:13
2:13:15
TIME
Chip Time: 2:13:15
Clock: 2:28:01
Pace: 10:09
Placement
Overall: 2683
Gender: 1039
Division: 165

Questions? Please contact ChampionChip USA

So, you probably can't understand any of that, so I'll explain. I started my very first half marathon (DisneyWorld 2007) on Saturday at 6:15:22 am. At the 5K mark, my chip said that my time was 34:54, at the 10K mark I was at 1:07:12, at 15K I was at 1:39:13 and finished at 2:13:15. My pace was 10:09 minutes per mile and you can see the placement.

What you can't see is that the Disney Half is a lot like the Peachtree Road Race. There are a zillion people. For the first 3-4 miles, traffic was very congested but after that I was able to find places to run. I'll post my mile splits later, but I had a great race. I stopped for 10 of the 12 water breaks and one potty break plus the slow start and still finished in a decent (if not record-breaking) time. It was really fun and I am so looking forward to the ING Georgia half in March.

The Best Party

So, Doug and I are not much for New Year's Eve parties. We had one here the year after Annika was born, which was fun but usually we do something low-key and frequently don't make to the ball drop before falling asleep.

Last night was no exception. We invited some local friends (and by local, I mean 5 miles or less) over, with kids for tapas and beverages. The kids got sparkling apple juice (not a hit), macaroni and cheese and little cheese pizzas. Sara brought a delicious cookie cake and we had Bellinis. Doug kept refilling my glass so I might have been over-served, but it was a lovely evening. We did a haphazard clean-up after everyone left and were asleep by 9:30pm. Gotta love the bring-the-kids party. We will be having a lot more of those.

New Year's goals/resolutions:

(1) Have more patience for my children.
(2) Have more empathy for my family.
(3) Run more races.
(4) Faster.