I am so happy to be a regular at the gym again, but am remembering now that by the time we get out the door, spend about an hour and a half at the gym, and come home and shower, half the day has gone by. Throw in random errands, nursing Carmine, and trying to keep the house clean and everyone fed, and there is precious little time left for blogging!
It's so awesome working out every day, though. I'm not losing weight any quicker than I was before - actually didn't lose anything last week - but I feel so much better - healthier, and fitter, and athletic! It's shown in my running, too - I ran 4 miles last Wednesday, and 7 miles on Saturday, and both runs were at an average 8:40 pace! My run Saturday was honestly the best run I've had in a year. It felt totally effortless, and I felt like I could have gone several more miles at that pace.
Alas, my shin (yes, the same one that gave me such trouble two years ago) is protesting, so I'm taking at least a week off from running. I might even take two weeks off.
Do I think this is a result of doing too much too soon? Yes, I do. I knew going into the half that I was risking this thing flaring up again, so I'm not surprised. I'm disappointed, but mostly just hoping that I can nip it in the bud, and keep it from developing into something really serious. And truthfully, I'd do it all over again. Maybe that makes me stupid, but getting out and running that race did so much for me, physically and emotionally, and I don't regret it one bit.
So, in the interest of moving forward, I'm just focusing on lots of cardio cross-training (elliptical trainer), and doing a lot of swimming, and lots of weights, too - getting really tired of the flabby arms : ( I'm missing the running, but I'm keeping myself busy enough with other stuff that I'm doing ok with it for now. And I'm really, really looking forward to going out this weekend for my first bike ride of the season!
The boys are, of course, doing their part to keep me busy, too. We have two soccer practices a week, and two soccer games each weekend, and in another week, we'll be adding swim class to that schedule, too. As a rule, I don't want them to do more than one activity at a time, but the swim class is too important - they're both so close to being able to swim on their own, but they need to learn once and for all, so we've got to get them in the pool asap, so we'll have a few weeks of overlap with soccer, but we'll just deal with it.
I signed them up for swim lessons at a different place this time. Last time they had them, it was at the Y, and I was not happy with the lessons at all. This time, they'll be in a class with just two other students, so the teacher will be able to give them plenty of focused attention. And, most importantly, I will not be in the water with them. That was the biggest problem with the classes at the Y - I was required to be in the water with them, so of course they wanted to just cling to me, and never really got the confidence to get out and swim by themselves.
I am fairly certain they're both going to cry and create quite a scene for the first lesson, and I know that they'll probably be terrified, and it's going to be awful for me to have to sit and watch. But given that we spend every single weekend of the summer (and many, many weekdays, too) at the beach, they HAVE to know how to swim. They're both getting so much bolder at the beach, and going out so much further, it's just essential. So hopefully this class will get them both feeling more confident and comfortable in the water.
On an entirely unrelated note, they've been asking me questions lately about God. I'm still not sure where they even heard about God, since we are not religious at all, and have never taken them to church or anything. But when I talk to them about it, I stress to them that God is something that some people believe in, and some people believe that God created the world, and some people don't believe that.
After thinking about it a little, Gabe told me that he believes that God created some things in the world, but not everything. I asked him what things, and he answered "pizza stores, baseball games, and the hospital." He also asked "If you go to heaven, do you need to bring your toothbrush?" Deep thoughts....
We're working on getting the garden planted. It's a gradual process, because I usually can't spend much more than an hour on it before having to run off to do something else (feed Carmine, make someone something to eat, pick someone up from school, hang clothes on the clothesline), but it's getting there. So far I've planted several varieties of lettuce, basil, swiss chard, cucumbers, peas, carrots, zucchini, and nasturtiums. Still to come - rhubarb, eggplant, a few more herbs (chives, cilantro), peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes.
Today's project was to mulch. We got so many weeds last year, and I loathe weeding, so I did some research, and this year, I'm doing some experimenting. On half the garden, I laid down newspaper, then covered it with straw. Actually, I used this stuff called "Mainely Mulch," which is chopped-up straw, which is far, far easier to spread around than the regular straw, and provides much better coverage, too.
The other half I'll cover with just the Mainely Mulch. If the newspaper half has fewer weeds, I'll definitely do the whole garden that way next year. But it is a lot more time-consuming, so I figured I'd experiment with it this year and see if it's worth the effort.
It's nice to see the big garden plot getting filled in, though. And Dante has been a good helper, digging holes for me, and helping me water the plants. He gets completely filthy, but he's enjoying himself, and that's all that matters : ) As we plant things, and I tell him what they are, he always responds so enthusiastically. "Cucumbers? I LOVE cucumbers! Zucchini? I LOVE zucchini!"
Gabe and Dante are both doing well with soccer, and both having a blast, which is really the most important thing : ) Gabe came so close to scoring a goal last week - and I was so proud of him that he didn't get that upset about not actually scoring - he was really pretty thrilled just to have ALMOST scored! Carmine loves watching them play, too - he sits on my lap and smiles and laughs, watching all the kids running around.
We had a great Mother's Day. I got out for my fabulous 7-mile run, the sun was shining, I woke up to my smiling baby and hugs and kisses (and stacks of homemade cards and drawings) from all my boys - it was just about perfect. We had Scott's parents over for dinner, and had a great time, and Scott bought me a nice pair of earrings, and I'm also going to get myself a Garmin 110. I like my 305, but it has so many functionalities that I never even use, and I wouldn't mind having something with a smaller profile, so this seems like a good solution - and a great Mother's Day gift!
My favorite gift, though, was my card from Gabe, which read "To Mom. I love you and I know you love me too."
Carmine is awesome. He's teething, and his bottom front tooth is almost poking through. I don't remember the other boys teething until they were 5 or 6 months old, so wasn't expecting this so early. It doesn't seem to be bothering him too much, but there are times he seems a little uncomfortable, and he's just chomping on everything! He also watches every move we make when we're eating, and I think he'll definitely be ready for solids at 5 months. Hard to believe that he's already almost 4 months old!!!!
He's still as smiley and happy as ever, and he and Dante are really going to be good pals, I think. He and Gabe will be, too, but since Dante is home with us so much more, and they're constantly together, I see them developing a pretty close relationship. Gabe just adores him, too, though. When he got off the bus yesterday, the first thing he did was run over to me so that he could hug Carmine. I had to ask him to hug me. I'm not insulted, though - Carmine is way cuter than I am!
Continuing with Weight Watchers, and I've had two weeks where I lost nothing, which was a little discouraging, but every other week I've lost about a pound, so I'm still down 6 pounds from when I started, which is great. I've got 7 more pounds to go to get to my prepregnancy weight, and I'll be very happy when I get to that point.
I do ultimately want to lose another 5 or 6 pounds, to get to the weight I was when I ran the marathon two years ago. But that'll be a bonus, and I'm not worrying about that right now. The goal now is just to get to that prepregnancy weight, and then I'll see where I'm at and whether or not I feel like I need to continue with Weight Watchers, or if I can do it on my own.
Right now what I need to do is get to bed, because we have another busy day ahead of us. Calling it a night.....
Busy is an understatement. My boyz learned how to swim cuz I took them to the pool ALL the time, and they picked it up (with some encouragement of course). The beach is a bit different though, because you never know when you are going to go from standing around to HAVING to swim. Smart idea getting the boyz ready for that.
Great work with the weight. You know its going to come off as you keep up your running gains.
Posted by: Wes | May 14, 2010 at 09:40 AM