I had planned to run about 10 miles Saturday morning, and then I saw that the forecast was calling for very unsettled weather all weekend. I figured I'd get out as early as possible, and hopefully avoid the thunderstorms. Didn't quite work out that way, though. I made it almost 6 miles outside, which brought me to the Y, where I stopped to refill my water bottle. And as I stepped back outside, I could hear the first rumbles of thunder.
I have no problem running in the rain, and have run through many a horrible downpour. But I don't mess around with lightning. So I went back into the gym, called Scott to let him know I was there and would need to be rescued, and asked him if it was ok if I hopped on the treadmill to finish up my run. Since Carmine was sleeping, it worked out fine for Scott to wait to come and get me, so I got on a treadmill and got going.
I was right back at the pace I had been running outside (just over 9-minute miles), and feeling great, and had gone about half a mile, when the power went out. It came back on again a minute later, and I started back up, and got in another mile and a half before the power went out again. This time it didn't come back on right away, and it was less than 10 minutes from when Scott was due to come get me, so I just headed out to the entryway to wait for him, figuring I had at least gotten in 8 miles, so that would have to be good enough.
It made for a bit of a crazy morning, but I'm glad I planned my run so that I was going by the gym, because it was a perfect place to be stranded. The storms we got were pretty nasty, and I'm very glad I wasn't stuck outside during them!
And despite the obstacles, and the fact that it was broken up into smaller segments, I had a fabulous run. I was feeling so good, and I wish I could have just run the full 10 without stopping. Another day......
Yesterday was bike ride day, and it was another good one. Almost 24 miles, at almost 18mph pace. I was riding into a pretty decent headwind for much of the first half of the ride, so it was tough, but I held a good pace anyway. And the best part is that there were no crazy thunderstorms that interrupted my workout!
Wednesday is my orthopedist appointment, where I'm going to just check in with them about my shin, and see if I need some PT. Marathon training officially began this week (!!!), and I'm going to proceed as planned unless I'm told that I can not. Hopefully that won't happen.
One thing that's actually helped already is that I bought myself a new pair of sneakers last week. Since I had used my old pair throughout my pregnancy, and then didn't wear them from November to March, I had totally lost track of how many miles they had on them, but when I went back and checked my running log, I saw that it was time for a new pair, and I definitely felt a difference when I ran in the new shoes - much less achiness in the shin. So hopefully that, combined with a little TLC, will keep any major problems at bay.
In the meantime, I set out on my run this morning planning to give it my all, and have some fun running really fast, and see what I might be able to do in this Saturday's race. It was a perfect morning for running - not too warm, and very dry - and I ended up running 3.1 miles in 24:01 - only 50 seconds slower than my 5K PR! The first mile felt great. The second mile was hard. The third mile sucked. But I did it, and I felt ok when I was done. I was glad to be done, but I felt ok. So if the weather isn't too warm and humid Saturday, I'm thinking I might be able to get a sub-24:00. Anything under 25:00 will be great, though!
This afternoon I brought the boys for their first swim class, and they both did great. Dante was freaked out about getting in the pool, but once he was in, he was absolutely fine. They were both happily sticking their faces in the water and blowing bubbles, and swimming with a pool noodle, and just generally really happy to be in the water. Watching them made me anxious to get in the pool myself - hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday I'll be jumping in for some laps!
I was trying to nurse Carmine while they were having their lesson, but he was far too distracted to eat, and just wanted to watch all the kids swimming. He's getting so easily distracted while eating now - too much going on, and he doesn't want to miss any of it! He loved watching the boys in the pool - had a huge grin on his face the entire time. I've never seen a baby smile as much as he does - it's such a wonderful sight : )
He's been doing a lot of nighttime nursing the past couple of nights, and I'm thinking he might be going through a growth spurt. It's just tough, since I got used to him only waking once a night. But I'm usually able to nurse him while laying on my side, so I can half-sleep while he's eating, so it's not too bad. Hopefully he'll go back to the once-a-night schedule soon, though!
I made ravioli for dinner tonight, and at the last minute decided to make edamame to go with it. I got the kind that was still in the pods, because I thought the boys might have fun shelling them, and they did! They needed some help, but they got a kick out of it - and they ate a ton of the stuff! They were calling it "mommy beans." I also got Gabe to eat some sugar snap peas fresh out of the garden the other day. It makes me so happy to see them eat veggies like that!
They're both very excited - as are Scott and I - that we finally got a compost bin. We've been talking about composting for a while, and Scott wanted to build a bin, but we just never seem to have the time, so we went out and bought one for $50, and it's perfect. And in the house, we have a small composting bucket that we fill up every day, and after dinner, the boys take turns bringing it out and dumping it into the big compost bin. They actually fight over whose turn it is to do the composting. They will fight over anything!
And we finally got our cloth diapers last week, and have started using them, and frankly, I can't really see why on earth we wouldn't continue using them. They're sooooo simple to use, and hardly any more work than disposables. Obviously there's the washing and drying, but I do so much laundry already, I don't even see that as an issue. And the things are so cute, I just love seeing him in them - seriously, that alone is incentive to use them! We'll still always keep some disposables in the house, but I'm already planning on ordering a bunch more cloth, so that we can use them pretty much full-time.
Tonight I decided to experiment with a later bedtime for Gabe and Dante. They've been giving us so much trouble about going to sleep, and seeing as how it's summer and it's light out so much later, I figured we'd take advantage of it, and I got them outside to play after dinner.
We stayed outside for about half an hour, and they were in bed around 7:45 (instead of their usual bedtime of 7 or 7:15). Gabe is currently still awake, but is just in bed reading quietly. Dante is sound asleep already. We'll see if this works.
It was nice to have that time outside after dinner, though, so even if they don't go to sleep right away, I might want to stick with this, because watching them run around playing is a lot more fun than going up and down the stairs telling them to go to sleep!
AMEN to that ( in reference to trying a later bedtime ) Hope it works !
Posted by: Mom and Dad | June 07, 2010 at 09:25 PM
sounds like you outsmarted the kiddos (for a change ;-)
Posted by: Wes | June 07, 2010 at 10:05 PM