Another Christmas is in the books, and it was another fabulous one. Tons of family time, tons of presents, tons of food, and tons of fun.
Carmine was totally into the present-opening this year, but not because he really 'got' the concept - he just liked the chaos of everyone tearing paper and exclaiming "oooh!" and "wow!"
Scott took a really funny video of the unwrapping insanity at Grammy and Grampy's house on Christmas Eve, and it is absolutely hysterical to watch Carmine jumping up and down screaming and waving pieces of wrapping paper in the air. Every time I watch it, I almost fall off my chair laughing. He is nothing if not enthusiastic - even when he has no idea what all the enthusiasm is about.
He did finally catch on to the unwrapping thing on Christmas morning, though, and tore into his presents very eagerly. And then when we celebrated Dante's birthday 3 days later, he wanted to tear into Dante's presents, too. He'll get his own turn in just a few more weeks, when we celebrate his second birthday. He'll be a pro by then. And he'll be TWO! Yikes! How did that happen???!!!
And our 'little' Dante is six years old, which I still can't quite wrap my head around. He had a fun birthday. His cousins were here visiting the day before, and then on his actual birthday, he spent the whole afternoon with Scott and Gabe - going out to lunch, playing Blizzard Bingo at the library (each time you got Bingo, you won ice cream toppings, which you then, of course, enjoyed with some ice cream), then going to see a movie, then coming home to have his birthday dinner of cheeseburgers and french fries, with brownie cupcakes for dessert. A lucky birthday boy, I'd say.
One of their favorite activities of the past week (aside from playing games on the new Wii that Santa brought them) was the Kids Fit class they took at the local CrossFit gym. It was Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning, and they absolutely loved it! They did obstacle courses, sprints, box jumps, burpees, pullups, squats, and pushups. They were seriously working out, and having so much fun doing it - it was so perfect. They're going to be offering it again, and I'll definitely be signing the boys up again. A great activity, especially for the winter months.
Despite that, and three mornings a week at Kids Gym at the Y, and a good amount of time playing outside (as we enjoyed more unseasonably warm weather), they were bouncing off the walls All. Week. Long. I honestly don't know if I've ever seen them quite this hyper. We've had a really fun week, but I know it's going to be really good for all of us to be back on our regular schedule again - and back to eating normal, healthy foods again, too!
Marathon training is officially underway, and I'm up to 16 miles for my long run, have done a couple of hill workouts, completed an amazingly great tempo run, and did my first track workout this morning. It hurt - I had forgotten just how tough those workouts are - but as always, I felt so unbelievably accomplished when I was done.
My 16-miler on Saturday, on the other hand, left me feeling nothing but awful. It was cool and drizzly when I set out, but I didn't think it was that cold, so I just wore a tank top with a long-sleeve technical shirt over it, and capris. I had gloves on to keep my hands warm, but I wasn't really dressed too warmly, because I figured I'd warm up pretty quickly once I got going.
I did warm up, but the rain also picked up quite a bit, and although it wasn't pouring, it was a very steady rain. I don't think it would have been an issue if I had only been going out for an hour or so, but I was out in that mess for a full 2 hours and 20 minutes, and it took its toll.
The first few miles were rough. I was kind of dreading the run, and I had left the house later than I usually do, due to Gabe's basketball game in the morning, so it all just felt 'off,' and I had a hard time getting going.
I finally hit my stride around mile 4, though, and had a few miles where I felt great, despite the cold and wet conditions. I stopped for a Gu around mile 7, and was feeling pretty good.
Then I turned toward the ocean, and the temperature dropped noticably. The air was much more damp and bone-chilling, especially since I was already pretty well soaked. And I was almost to the halfway point, which is always tough mentally for me, as I struggle between celebrating that I'm halfway there and bemoaning that I still have 8 more miles to go.
I kept at it, though - and was keeping up a great pace, too - even a little faster than I had planned on running. My plan had been to stick to between 8:50 and 9:00, but I was holding an 8:45 pace pretty comfortably, so I stuck with it.
But even though my legs were holding up ok, my mind was not. I was getting increasingly cold and uncomfortable, and more than once, I thought to myself that if it wasn't Carmine's nap time, I would be finding a phone and calling Scott to come pick me up.
I was also cursing myself for not dressing better. I should have worn something that was at least somewhat water resistant. It wasn't really all that cold, but since I was soaking wet, the cold was really getting to me.
I knew the only way to get out of it, though, was to keep moving one foot in front of the other, so that's what I did.
As I got closer and closer to home, I was feeling more and more awful. In addition to being cold and wet, the long-run aches and pains were now settling into my muscles and joints - and, I think, were also amplified by the cold. I was quickly approaching full-on misery.
And did I mention that the final few miles approaching my house are mostly uphill?
I honestly don't know how I ran those last few miles. It was awful, and I was so, so glad when it was over.
But a few more things needed to happen before I started to feel better. First, I needed to warm up. As soon as I stopped moving, I started shivering, and didn't stop for a long time. I don't know if I was actually hypothermic, but it felt like I was dangerously close.
I got into a hot shower and then put on several layers of warm dry clothes, and Scott helped me get together a steaming hot cup of tea and some toast and scrambled eggs, which was all I could even think about eating - and even that didn't go over so well with my stomach, which was feeling rather unsettled.
Finally, about an hour later, I had stopped shivering and shaking and was able to eat my toast and eggs, drink a bunch of water, and also scarf down a huge bowl of cereal, after which I started to feel more human again.
Very, very valuable lesson learned - rain + slightly chilly temperatures requires some sort of waterproof or water resistant shell. I'm confident that if I had not gotten so wet, I would not have felt so cold, and could have avoided feeling like I had a 60-minute flu after I got home.
Since I have never done runs of this distance in the winter, there was bound to be some trial and error - hopefully that's the worst of the error part of the equation!
I still stand by my belief that winter training is better than summer training (hate running in sticky, humid air), but this weekend provided very clear evidence that winter training is going to present its own set of challenges - and we haven't even had any snow yet!
Challenges are meant to be overcome, though, and I have to just keep focused on my goal. I'm aiming to finish Gansett under 3:40. I'd love to get as close to 3:35 as possible, but I'll be thrilled with anything under 3:40, especially since I'm going to be running it just 6 months after Hartford! (Note to self - never again will I run two marathons just six months apart).
That's my first goal for 2012. Second goal is to break 21 minutes in a 5K. My PR right now is 21:57. I hope to shave at least a few seconds off that when I run the Super 5K next month, and then post-Gansett, I'll really be focusing on improving my speed at shorter distances.
Then in the fall, I'm aiming to finish a half-marathon in 1:42. Lots of time to get ready for that goal - and it'll be nice to have a somewhat less grueling training schedule during the summer (i.e., training runs in the 13- to 15-mile range, rather than the 15- to 20-mile range).
So many fun things ahead, in running and in life - it's hard not to be excited about the start of a brand new year!
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