Me and The Boys

Little Man

We finally went ahead and got Carmine a good old-fashioned buzz cut last week, and as a stranger in the grocery store pointed out to me, he looks like "a real bruiser." I'd have to agree. But somehow he also looks even cuter, too.

He's a champion jumper and particularly loves to jump in puddles, while yelling "Carmine SPLASH!"

All of his words are coming out a little bit more clearly now, and I can understand nearly everything he says. I think people who don't know him are still only able to understand about 50% of what he says, but that's a step up from the 15% it was a few months ago.

And whether you understand him or not, he does. not. stop. talking. And he gets so excited sometimes, he can barely get the words out fast enough. And when he does finally proclaim, with great enthusiasm, whatever it is he wanted to tell me, he follows it up with a "Right, Mommy?" Of course I answer "Right, Carmine," even when I'm not entirely sure what it is he's said.

The other day, Scott was sitting at the table eating a granola bar, and Carmine walked up, leaned over, took a bite out of it, and then went on his way into the living room to play.

We've been taking advantage of Scott's iPad lately - it provides very valuable entertainment if I have to bring Carmine along to a doctor's appointment - and the other day, Carmine was playing a game, and Gabe came over to try to 'help' him, and Carmine pushed Gabe away, yelling "No, no, no, no - MINE!!" He is NOT going to be pushed around by his older brothers - he's making that abundantly clear already.

He is a force to be reckoned with when he makes his mind up about something, and we wage daily battles over many, many things. But I'm doing everything in my power to remain calm and not give in on the things that matter (holding my hand in parking lots, getting buckled into shopping carts), and letting go and not fighting over the things that don't (stopping to jump in the puddle 5 times, even though we're running late and really should get in the car and get going).

The truck obsession is still going strong, and I love when we're driving along and he shouts out from the backseat "Whoa!!!!  Carmine look BIG truck!!!" We have a whole library of truck-themed books that we read just about every single night at bedtime, too. And tonight, he was reciting part of one of those books as he sat at the dinner table.

He'll also open his books, flip through to random pages, and read what's on those pages. Clearly he's just remembering what the page says, and not actually reading, but it still impresses me that he can do that.

His new trick this week is singing the ABCs. His version goes something like "A, C, M, O, P, now sing me!"  followed by lots of clapping and yelling "YAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!"  He also likes to sing a song called "Apple Tree," which is him hopping around the room yelling "Apple tree, apple tree, apple tree, apple tree."

Gabe and Dante had a patriotic concert at school yesterday, and Carmine was the most enthusiastic audience member there. He sat in his stroller and clapped and yelled "hooray!" after every song. It was fun to see him truly enjoying watching all the kids sing. And he got especially excited when he saw Dante get up to read an introduction to one of the songs (a privilege Dante was pretty excited about, too!).

Another morning this week, I was sitting at the table reading the paper, and he climbed up into my chair and put his arms around me and said "Mommy, hug." Sweetest. Thing. Ever.

He's a funny, ferocious, loud, crazy little man, and I cannot believe how lucky we are to have him : )

Weekend Stuff, and Ode To A Pop

- I realized this morning that I have never done track workouts outside of marathon training. And I then realized that when you are not in the middle of marathon training, and haven't just run an 18- or 20-mile run two days prior, track workouts aren't nearly as awful. They still hurt, but it's much more tolerable. And I nailed, or exceeded, my goal paces for every single interval this morning - 1000s @ 6:40 pace, 800s @ 6:30 pace, 600s @ 6:35 pace, and 400s @ 6:20 pace. I am going to get that sub-21 5K - hopefully sooner rather than later!

- Finally, finally, finally dusted off the bike (it's been so long that I literally did have to dust it off) and went for a ride early Sunday morning, and it was fabulous!  Two rounds of marathon training have definitely carried over into biking, just as they have with swimming. I felt like I hadn't taken any time off at all, and rode almost 25 miles at an average 19mph pace. I was out on the road by 6am, so there was virtually no traffic, so it was wonderfully quiet and I was able to fly through the intersections - just the way I like it.

- Mother's Day was great - I got some time to myself, and spent a leisurely hour browsing at the garden center, and picking up the rest of the veggies for the garden, as well as some perennials for a flowerbed beside the deck. The kids ran played in the backyard with Scott while I did my planting, and it was such a warm day, we capped things off with a quick trip to the beach. My crazy boys went in the water!  Scott and I were content to stay on the sand and tell Carmine roughly 379 times to "stop throwing sand."  I figure by the time Labor Day rolls around, he'll finally listen to us and actually stop throwing the sand.

- I took the boys to a festival at URI Saturday afternoon, and a photographer from the local paper took a picture of Gabe, and asked me for his name, age, etc.  So I told Gabe that his picture might be in the paper, and he and Dante immediately started yelling about how we were going to be "famous and rich!"  I felt bad that I had to tell them that would most definitely not be the case.

- I'm in the process of finalizing plans for the afterschool running club I'm heading up, and the good news is that there are THIRTY-EIGHT kids signed up!!!!  This is clearly something these kids are interested in, and I'm so excited to finally get started. A little nervous, too, but the school's PE teacher is going to be helping out, as are a few parent volunteers, and I know once we get things rolling, it's going to be great! 

- The sentiments from the boys' Mother's Day cards were, as usual, both sweet and hilarious. Dante's card had a picture of the Titanic on it - because nothing says Mother's Day like a sinking ship and hundreds of people dying. But he did write that he loved me "because I take him places." Gabe chose to draw one image of me with hair, and one image of me bald, with the caption - "You can't be beat - It's true!  You are this (pointing to the picture with hair) and Not this (the bald picture)." I'm not sure what that means, but I'm going to take it as a compliment.

- Carmine and I were at the dry cleaner last week, and they had a bowl of lollipops, and he asked so very sweetly if he could have one, I caved and handed one over. This is only the second time he's ever had a lollipop, and the last time he had one was months ago, so he was kind of awestruck by the whole thing, and spent much more time talking about the pop than he did eating it. His pop monologue went something like this:

"Whoa!  Big pop!"  (chuckling) "Funny pop!"  "Hot pop!"  "Carmine eat pop!" "Good pop" "Mommy get pop!" 

Who knew a simple pop could inspire such poetry?

Six Things About the Boys

- Carmine is determined to keep me guessing. When he doesn't want to do something, he'll shake his head vigorously, while yelling "yeh-yeh!"  And whether he wants his shoes/coat on or off, he consistently asks for them to be put 'on.'  We seem to be perpetually living out Opposite Day.

- Always eager to take after his big brothers, he loves brushing his teeth at night. The only problem is that he can't quite reach the sink, and uses toothpaste that doesn't need to be spit out, but of course he sees Gabe and Dante spit theirs out, so he wants to do the same - and he does, regardless of where he's standing - in the middle of the bathroom, or in the hallway. The boy loves to spit.

- Gabe is becoming - or at least believes he's becoming - wise beyond his years. Dante asked him to play Chutes and Ladders this morning, and Gabe said he didn't want to, because he doesn't like to play that game anymore, and Dante reminded him that he used to love to play it. To which Gabe replied "Well, I'm growing up, Dante. Times change."

- His new catchphrase, whenever we thank him for doing something is "Oh, it was nothing."  Because that's just how cool he is.

-Dante’s class has invited all the moms in for breakfast this coming Friday morning. He’s reminded me of this at least 20 times in the past two days. I think he’s a little excited : )

- Dante has started writing yet another story, and this time it seems to be a spinoff of Captain Underpants. His version is called "Captain Poopy Under Diaper."

I knew that with three little boys, I'd be subjected to quite a bit of potty humor, but I had no idea just how bad it would get. I try to ignore as much of it as possible, but it really gets under my skin sometimes, because I just don't get why it's so hilarious to randomly insert the word poop into songs and sentences and stories. Apparently it is completely hilarious, but the humor is lost on me.

One of the hazards of being the lone female in the house, I suppose.

Vacation Week Tidbits

It may not be apparent from my last few posts, but there is more to my life than running. It's just that the weeks and days leading up to and immediately after a marathon are kind of consumed by the race. And I'm still constantly thinking about it, and analyzing it, and, yes, already thinking about what my next short-term goals are, in terms of racing.

But in between all that, there is still plenty of other stuff to keep me busy, including the antics of my three crazy little boys.

Carmine is finally saying his own name, and has started referring to himself in the third person. And of course all I can think of when he does it is the episode of Seinfeld with the character "Jimmy," who did the same thing.

He's also fully embracing the terrible twos, and our days have more than their fair share of screaming and temper tantrums, and lots of "NOOOOOOOO!!!!"  and "MINE!!!!!"

Dante has had a particularly exciting vacation week - we went to see the Titanic exhibit at Mystic Aquarium, which was awesome. He was so excited that he woke up that morning and ran into the kitchen yelling "Happy Titanic Exhibit Day!!"

And last night I took him to see Robert Ballard speak at URI - a pretty cool thing for a 6-year-old to be able to do. And I found it really interesting, too. It's great when your kids get to the ages where they're interested in are things that you also find interesting. Much cooler than having to sit through a live performance of The Wiggles.

His reading skills have really taken off now, too. It's so cool to see him be able to sit down and read an entire book. He was so proud of the fact that he could read the "Magic Treehouse" books all by himself now! 

He's also taking a cue from Gabe and writing his own sequels to the books he reads, and he wrote one the other day called "Diary of A Stupid Kid." The story was as follows - "One day I jumped off a mountain and I died." His title was very accurate, I think.

And I forgot to write the other day, but when Dante woke up on Saturday morning, he told me that he had dreamed about me winning the race. What a sweetie :  )   And when he said that, Gabe asked me "I forgot - how long is the race today? Sixty miles?"  At times, it sure felt like it was.....

I have lots to write about Gabe and our visit with the psychologist last week, but I'll save that for another post. I'm still working on processing everything and figuring out where we go from here. One thing we know for sure, though, is that we are not opting for medication at this time, and it's very helpful that Scott and I are on the same page with that.

Aside from that, we're enjoying the amazing summer-like spring, gearing up for the beginning of soccer, tennis, swim class, and a return to busy schedules. It's good timing, though, since I'm heading into a period of much less intense training.

I can't deny, though, that I did peek at my 'Run Less, Run Faster' book this morning, scoping out the training plan for a 3:35 marathon.....  

Why I Do This

I woke up feeling super grumpy today - despite the fact that it's the first day of spring, and it felt more like summer - beautiful warm breezes and blue skies.

It was just one of those days, and everyone's whining and demands requests were amplified tenfold, and I felt like the Grinch, ready to scream about the "noise, noise, noise, noise!!!!"

Thankfully they made me laugh a few times, too - Dante, when I told him he could write on our weekly calendar what he wanted to have for dinner Sunday night, and he wrote "makincheese," leading me to believe that he thinks it's called "Mac IN cheese." I’m also still laughing about one of his journal entries from a few weeks ago: “Today is Monday. Yesterday was Sunday. Tomorrow will be Tuesday.” Thrilling narrative, isn’t it?

And Gabe was talking about someone he knows who wears braces, and commented very casually "yeah, I don't think I'm going to want to wear those when I'm older."  As if it's an accessory he can choose whether or not to sport.

Carmine cracks me up almost every time I turn around, but his latest adorable thing is that he refers to Gabe as "Gee Dah-Dah," and he also refers to Dante as "Gee Dah-Dah." He spends plenty of time with both of them separately, but I guess he finds it easier to have a combo name. He does the same thing with Scott and I, referring to us both as "Mommy Daddy."  At least I have top billing!

It was a day with a lot of ups and downs, though, despite the funnies and the gorgeous weather. 

I don't say this often - almost never, in fact - but this morning when I woke up and thought about the fact that I had to go for a run, I cringed. It was the last thing in the world I wanted to do. Shocking, right?

I wasn't even staring down a crazy workout, either. Since I put in a pretty intense effort in New Bedford, I planned on a nice easy recovery run today - something I'd normally welcome, particularly in the midst of marathon training, when 'easy runs' are few and far between.

And the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Warm, but slightly overcast, so it wouldn't get too hot.

You'd think I would have been at least mildly excited to get out there and get some miles in. But you'd be wrong. 

Once again, marathon training has sucked the joy out of my running. Or so I thought.

Then I forced myself outside, turned on my Garmin and my iPod, and got moving.

The first mile felt awfully creaky and awkward.

The second mile felt less creaky and awkward, but I was still just kind of getting through it,  and not enjoying it.

Then I turned the corner and headed along the ocean, and along the stretch of road that I'll be running as I finish up the .2 of 26.2 miles in just a few weeks, and as I looked over at where the finish line will be, I felt a rush of excitement, thinking about all the emotions that will be racing through my mind as I finally cross that finish line - the first among them being pure joy. 

Oh yeah. There IS a reason I'm doing this.

Suddenly my stride seemed quicker, my legs felt lighter, and so did my heart.

Suddenly I found myself wishing that it wasn't an easy recovery run. I wanted to run further and faster.

I didn't feel discouraged and depressed anymore - I felt anxious and excited. I'm so ready. I want to run this race!

I still have one more 20-miler to complete this weekend, and several more track workouts and tempo runs, but I feel pretty sure that they're just the icing on the cake.

The real work is done, and I'll put it all into practice very soon. Not soon enough, but very soon.

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

That was my theme for yesterday's track workout. 20 x 400. Twenty. Times. 400. At 5K pace.

I'll admit I was scared, but I've been scared about other track workouts, too, and didn't let it stop me, and I sure wasn't going to this time, either.

As I have been for most of my track workouts this training cycle, I went back to my neighborhood loop. The people who live in that neighborhood must think I'm a total freak, running in circles for upwards of an hour. But I have to say, I've found it slightly less torturous than running in circles around the track, so I don't care if I'm making a spectacle of myself - it's working, so I'm sticking with it.

The first 10 repeats weren't horrible. They were hard, sure, but I got through them ok.

I somehow had this crazy thought that being halfway done would make me feel better. Um, nope. Ten through 15 were increasingly difficult, and I was feeling really defeated.

Then I reminded myself that I was in the middle of a really, really intense workout - something I never could have even attempted a few years ago - and although it was tough, I was getting it done! 

I got through repeats 15, 16, and 17 on the loop, but then had to head back toward the gym - this was a really long workout, and I was simply running out of time, so I'd have to do the final three repeats on the road - which, unfortunately, would mean running one of them on an incline.

I wasn't looking forward to that, but I just sucked it up and got it done. The final 2 400s were definitely slower than 5K pace, but I was fine with that. At that point, frankly, I was happy just to still be standing. My legs were jell-o, and my lungs were ready to burst.

Mission accomplished, though - and another epic workout completed on the road to what will hopefully be a nice PR in Gansett.

Since I'm running the New Bedford Half this weekend, I'm going to take it easy on my tempo run this week. I think I'll run the first 2 miles easy, do 4 miles at tempo pace, and then run the final 2 easy.

As I ran my repeats the other day, I was in shorts and a tank top, enjoying more glorious early spring weather here in the Northeast. It actually almost felt hot, and I was reminded of how much tougher workouts like that are going to feel when the weather really warms up.

For now, though, it's perfect - dry, sunny days with temperatures in the 50s and low 60s. It's been a fabulous winter for marathon training, and I'm hoping it ends up being a fabulous day to run a marathon in 4 1/2 weeks.

It's also been spectacular weather for keeping the kids active - nearly every day we're outside for at least an hour after school. Gabe and Dante love it, of course, and Carmine - I've never seen a kid who's so happy to play outside. He's constantly asking to go "atside, atside, atside," and I'm happy to oblige.

Yesterday I was playing catch with him. I was standing just about a foot away from him and tossing him the ball, and granted, I wasn't throwing from far away, but I was still impressed that he was catching it!  And every time he'd catch the ball, he'd laugh hysterically and then throw it back to me.

I thought he'd stop laughing after the first few times - that maybe the novelty would wear off. But he just kept right on laughing, as if playing catch were the funniest thing in the entire world. Ah, to be two years old......

Carmine, Gabe, Dante, and Me

Despite the fact that his name is made up of two of his favorite words, I still can't get Carmine to say it. He'll say "car," and he'll say "mine," but he simply cannot (or will not) put them together.

Whenever he sees a store sign with big letters (like Stop & Shop or Kohl's), he points and says "T, I, O." Never any other letters. Always "T, I, O."

Scott and I were commenting the other day that we feel like we're living with a little German boy, because Carmine adds "en" to almost every word he says. "Big truck-en." "Ride bike-en." "Read book-en." "Sittin' couch-en."

He also repeats things over and over and over and over and over again until you acknowledge him. And he even gets somewhat frantic about it. In the car the other day, he was asking for his cup, and he just kept repeating "cup please, cup please, cup please, cup please, cup please, cup please," and had no intention of stopping saying it. It's like a record that's skipping, and in order to move the needle and stop the skipping, you need to let him know that you heard him.

There is no way he is ever going to go unnoticed. He's going to make sure of that.

He has developed a very sweet habit of saying "thank you" whenever you give him something, which is fabulous. And it's really cute, too, because he actually says it like 'doot doot.' A good habit to have, though!

Gabe had kind of a rough week at school, but I'm not surprised, since Scott was gone all week on a business trip. He doesn't have to travel for work very often, and it's almost never extended travel like this, which is a good thing, because taking care of all three of these guys by myself is no easy task.

But I think his absence stressed Gabe out a little, and he was acting up a bit at school. Nothing that got him into real trouble, but his behavioral chart for the week definitely showed that something was up, and he was a little out of sorts. I keep trying to tell him that if he's feeling upset or bothered by something, he needs to talk to someone about it, so that he isn't keeping all that stuff bottled up inside. But that's something he struggles with, and he probably always will.

Dante was a little nutty all week, too. His acting out, though, consists more of just crazy, bouncing off the walls type of stuff. And he did get a couple of notes home this week, too - just for silly, goofing around behavior - so I know he was a little upset about Scott being gone, too.

Lucky for all of us, Scott's on his way home as I type this, and has no trips planned for a while!

Our week went pretty well, though, and the highlight was our trip to the local ice cream shop yesterday afternoon for their opening day. It was warm - close to 60 - but windy, and getting chilly after we finally got our cones and headed outside to eat them. We had to wait in line a good 15 minutes, but it was worth it. No ice cream for me, of course, but the boys thoroughly enjoyed theirs. Carmine especially liked his 'cha-cha chip.'

On the running front, I'm so, so happy it's a cutback week. My long run this weekend is only 12 miles, which seems like a walk in the park compared to the past two weeks' 18- and 22-milers. I won't even have to bring any water or fuel with me for a 12-miler! 

Then next weekend the half, then my final 20-miler, and then TAPER!!!!! 

That light at the end of the tunnel keeps getting brighter and brighter!

Because 20 Miles Wasn't Quite Enough

So I last blogged about how my motivation was lacking, and I was feeling uninspired and tired of training. Not a great way to be feeling when I was facing my second 20-mile training run.

I knew it had to get done, though, so I got myself as prepared as I could, both mentally and physically.

I opted to go this one alone, even though I could have met up with the running club at the halfway point. I just wanted to run at my own pace, and not be concerned with being at a certain spot at a particular time to meet people. I had a few new songs on my iPod, and all my fuel and water ready to go, so out I went.

As always, I felt like I was going out a little too fast, and worked really hard to moderate my pace in the early miles. I really wanted to work on pacing myself well for this run, as I was kind of hoping to turn it into a 22-miler instead of a 20-miler, and I knew that starting too fast would make that incredibly difficult.

I was somewhat successful. Some of my early miles were still a little on the fast side (sub-8:30 pace), but for the most part, I was able to keep them between 8:30 and 8:40. I followed the first loop of the Gansett course, and again marveled at how blissfully flat it is.

I also marveled at how awesome it is to be able to train on the course. It's nice when you can do that for shorter races, but it's such a huge bonus to be able to do it for a marathon. And this isn't the first time I've run these roads, either - they were a large part of my training for Hartford, so I was already pretty familiar with them, and now I could practically run them blindfolded.

The first loop is 16 miles, and I finished that up feeling pretty good. I was definitely feeling like I had run 16 miles, but I also felt like I wanted to go ahead and push for the extra 2.

In addition to the psychological benefit of knowing that I had run more than 20 miles in training, I also wanted to have the experience of running a loop course. The second loop is only 10 miles, but those 10 miles are on the same territory you've covered the first time around, and that's something I struggle with mentally, and something I've only done a handful of times, so I thought a little practice with it would be helpful. 

Heading out on that second loop, I actually felt great at first - I was back to running with the ocean at my side, and I knew I was now really getting closer to being done. But that little boost was quickly quashed, as the fatigue really started to set in and my muscles and joints began protesting.

From mile 17 to mile 22, there was a battle being waged, and it got particularly ugly at about the 20.5-mile mark. Everything from the neck down was screaming 'stop, stop, stop!' but the thought that kept going through my head was 'Just. Keep. Moving.'

I also thought about all the work I've already put in, and how far I've come, and how amazing it's going to feel to cross the finish line in a few weeks.

And, yet another advantage to training on the course - as I finished up those 22 miles, I ran down the street and right across where that finish line is going to be set up. There was nobody there to cheer me on, and no clock with giant red numbers displaying my time, but in my head, those things were there, and I ran that final mile with a huge smile on my face (and at an 8:00 pace, to boot!!!!).

As I hobbled back to my car, I was kind of awestruck at what I had just done. 22 miles at an 8:30 pace. I know I've run 20 miles many times at this point, and I've run 26.2 miles twice, but there's something about hitting that 'longest training run ever' milestone that really hit home for me.

Tacking on those extra two miles made me feel almost as if I had run a marathon. Two extra miles doesn't make that much of a difference, but then again, it kind of does, when those two miles are the difference between 20 and 22.

I am thankful, as always, to have an amazingly supportive husband who let me do a whole lot of nothing for the rest of the day, because I really needed it.

Now it's on to Tuesday track and Thursday tempo, and then a wonderfully short-ish long run next week (only 12 miles!).

And in between all that, of course, there's laundry to be done, lunches to make, homework to assist with, and fights to referee. And three hilarious little boys to keep me alternately laughing hysterically and tearing my hair out in frustration.

Today's conversation in the car was about whether Indiana was near Asia, and how Russia is the biggest country in the United States.

And never one to be left out, Carmine spent the whole ride explaining how everyone in the car was sitting on their bum. "Mommy sittin' bum. Gabe sittin' bum. Dante sittin' bum."

Last week Gabe came out with a gem about some cough medicine we gave him before bed. It was berry-flavored, but according to him, it tasted "like raw bacon." Where he learned what raw bacon tastes like (or why that was the comparison that popped into his head at that moment!), I'll never know.....

Carmine wins the prize for the best anectdote this week, though. I had set up some train tracks for him to play with one day while I was busy cleaning, and as I finished up cleaning the bathroom and walked back into our bedroom, I saw that he had completely dismantled the tracks and they were scattered all over the room. So I asked him why he had taken the tracks apart.

He shook his head vigorously and, while standing there holding his stuffed Mickey Mouse, replied "No, no. Mickey broke tracks."

Way too smart for his own good.

Back To School, Back To Running, Back To PT

Gabe came downstairs Monday morning and asked sleepily "So what are we doing today?"  I felt bad having to tell him that it was Monday, and he was going back to school. He still loves school, but he does seem to be getting to the age where he enjoys the breaks and complains a little about having to get back to reality.

Dante was raring to go, though, and when they got home from school Monday afternoon, he wouldn't stop talking. Not that that's anything unusual for him, but his nonstop chatter was even more pronounced than usual.

Carmine, after just two days of having me all to himself again, became completely possessive last night - when Gabe tried to sit next to me on the couch, Carmine (who was sitting on the other end of the couch) jumped up, launched himself over Gabe and onto my lap, yelling "NO!  MY MOMMY!"  Luckily Gabe just thought the whole thing was hysterical.

Carmine and I are also back to our gym routine, which he's happy about. He runs around the house as we're getting ready, yelling "gym, gym, gym, gym!"

I'm happy about it, too. Only working out a few times last week was a nice little respite for me, and one I think I really needed, but it's been nice to get back to our regularly scheduled programming : ) 

The week off from running seems to have been just what the doctor ordered, too. (knock on wood) My 18-mile run Sunday went great. I ran 7.5 miles to the beach, met up with some women from the running club, ran 5 miles with them, and then ran the final 5.5 by myself.

Having company for the middle of the run was a great way to break it up. It was a little tough getting those final miles done alone, after having company for that long stretch, but I put my iPod back on and that helped keep me moving. Finished in 2 hours and 35 minutes, for an average 8:40 pace - very pleased!

Good news - the arch pain that I had been experiencing is gone completely. Such a relief.

However, after I ran Sunday - not during the run, only after - I felt some pain on the top of my right foot. It wasn't severe, but it was definitely noticeable, and I was a little concerned. But I was scheduled to go to PT Monday morning anyway, so I just iced it a bit and hoped for the best. And as the day went on, it was gradually feeling better.

My PT visit was just a check-in on my left shin. It hasn't really been bothering me, but I've been popping into PT periodically since I started to ramp up my mileage, to make sure that it doesn't start to give me any trouble. But since that's been feeling completely fine, we worked on the right foot yesterday instead.

It was already feeling loads better, but she did some massage and stretching and some cold laser treatment, and did a few tests, and said it seemed like just some tendon/muscle inflammation, and that it didn't seem like something that should become a big issue.

Happily, she seems to have been right. It feels great now, even after my 8-mile run this morning. Hopefully another catastrophe averted.

These little aches and pains and almost-injuries that have been cropping up are definitely a sign, I think, that I am pushing my body to its limits. And if I wasn't training for a race, I'd back off for a few weeks.

But - fingers crossed - I think if I continue my periodic PT visits, and stay on top of my stretching (and icing, when necessary), I can get through these last few weeks of training without a major mishap.

I also know, though, that I'm not going to try to train through something and risk getting really, really hurt. No race is worth that. I have a lot of fun races planned for this summer, and I want to be able to run them all! So I will continue to train, but I will also continue to listen very carefully to what my body is telling me, and if I surpass the limits I'm currently pushing it to, I will take breaks as needed.

I feel so much less stress about this race than I did about Hartford - it's really refreshing. I want to do well, and I'm working hard to try to meet my goals, but I'm not putting myself under a ton of pressure. I invested so much energy and emotion into my Hartford training - I just don't have it in me to do that this time around.

I'll still push myself, and I'll still get nervous butterflies when I think about race day, but I'm not going to feel terribly disappointed if a training run doesn't go the way I want it to - which is the perfect segue to today's tempo run.

My tempo runs have been the highlight of this training program - the run I looked forward to every week, and the run that's consistently been a huge confidence booster for me.

Today, not so much. I've been doing these 8-mile runs the past few weeks at paces I never imagined possible - 7:24, 7:25, and one week, 7:16!  I was feeling invincible, unstoppable.... 

But today, I fought for every single one of those 8 miles. I felt creaky and sore from the start. As I warmed up, I started to feel better, but I still struggled. And my mile splits showed it - a few were below 7:20, but most were 7:30 or above, and I finished with an average pace of 7:30.

Still a VERY good pace for a tempo run, but far short of the amazing times I've been posting lately.

But I'm completely ok with that. I did what I could, and I gave it my all, and that's what my all was today. And sometimes, you have to just cut yourself a little slack.

All Systems Go

My foot held up very well during and after a 7-mile run Wednesday morning, so I'll be heading out for my planned 18 tomorrow. I'm still a bit nervous, but hopeful that I'll be ok and can make it through these last weeks of training.

As I write that, and as I updated my Facebook status today, I realized that there are only 7 weeks until I run this marathon!  My training for Hartford seemed to last forever, but this round of training has flown by. I got a huge rush of nervous butterflies when I thought about how soon I'll be out there on the course.

In some ways, I think having the issues with my foot was kind of a blessing in disguise. I would never have chosen to take a week off from training without it, but not running for a week has made me so eager to get out there and run 18 miles tomorrow, and get back to speedwork and tempo runs next week.

And since I wasn't running this week, and it was vacation week with the boys, I ended up having a very light week, workout-wise. Sure, I could have brought them to the gym with me every day, but I kind of felt like I needed a week where I wasn't working out 5 or 6 days, and it was nice to not have our days revolve around my gym time. We were free to do whatever we felt like, whenever we felt like it, and having some lazy mornings was a really, really nice change of pace for all of us.

I still got in a great workout Monday, and did my run Wednesday morning, but that was it. And yes, I do feel a little lazy and icky as a result, but I also feel like it was good for me. I needed a little break, mentally and physically - and I'm definitely ready to get back to it next week!

Vacation week with the boys has been a blast - helped in large part by the fact that the great non-winter of 2011/12 has continued, and we were able to spend large portions of each day outside.

We had a fabulous day roaming the grounds at Mystic Seaport Wednesday, and were able to stop at a playground on the way home to burn off even more energy.  Yesterday we spent the ENTIRE afternoon outside. It was glorious. A bit windy, but nearly 60 degrees!  I was a little bummed that Carmine didn't take a nap, since he didn't have one the day before, either, but it was so great to see him running around the yard chasing after his big brothers, so it was a good tradeoff : )

Our experience with Carmine has been so different from Gabe and Dante in so many ways, but right now most noticeably in that Carmine is talking so much more than either of them were at this age. When Gabe was two, he only had a handful of words, and wasn't even close to putting together sentences, and Dante was about the same.

Carmine, on the other hand - there isn't much that he can't say, and he puts together three- and four-word sentences already!  It's so fun, and such a new experience for us - I just get such a kick out of talking with him.

He still has his funny mispronunciations - blanket is "buh-buh," apple juice is "at choo," pillow is "puh-puh," Gabe is "Gee," Dante is "dah-dah," finger is "feh-feh," and poop is "poot."  He also learned a while ago what a wedgie is, and likes to walk around pulling at the seat of his pants saying "weh-wee, weh-wee."    

But more often than not, it's very, very clear what he's saying, and he so often makes me giggle. Grammy got him some Buzz Lightyear toys for his birthday, and I noticed that instead of just calling him "Buzz," he calls him "Buzz Woody." And every time he sits down now, he informs me that he's  "sittin', bum," I guess because I'm always telling him to sit down on his bum. And there's nothing cuter than seeing him hop up on the couch, pat the cushion next to him, and say "Mommy, come sittin."

And I have no idea if it's impressive for his age or not, but I'm personally kind of impressed that he sort of knows some numbers already. He can't count, but if you say a string of numbers, he'll chime in with "one, two, three," so he gets that those are numbers and they're related. He likes to play rockets, too - he'll countdown "Five, two, blastoff!" 

Our biggest source of pride, though, is the fact that at least 65% of the time, he can now nicely say "hep pee" (help please) instead of just screaming when he wants something. That other 35%, with all the screaming, is still somewhat frustrating, but progress is progress. Baby steps, as they say.....