Monday Mumblings

 

Yes.  I am still talking about the weather.  Stalking weather websites.  Blogging about the weather.  Photographing the weather.

 

All in an attempt to avoid thinking about the actual race.

 

 

 

In other news look what arrived today!  Some yummy goodies from the amazing multi-tasking Amanda at RunToTheFinish who recently moved and still made time to get her goodies from the Spring Booty Buster Challenge in the mail. 

Thanks Amanda!  I will be thinking of you during my 103.7 miles.

great!  now I'm thinking about the actual race.  I feel sick to my stomach.

 

 

Since I'm talking about every thing I might as well admit that I ran a bit more than "the plan" said I was supposed to.  But I also stuck with my squats, wall sits, planks and hand stands that I have been working on.  My wall sit and plank are both over 3 minutes now!  I'm completely excited about that.  It may seem like baby steps in cross training but for me it's like conquering a mountain. 

 

 

Have you heard about the Whole30?  Part of my distraction techniques has been to fully engross myself in this eating plan.  Which I will be starting the day after the race.  By that I mean Monday since I will not stop running until Sunday and then I might proceed to eat a small country's food supply and I will not care if dairy, grains, sugar or even alcohol is involved.  That is saying A LOT because I don't drink alcohol!

 

What do you say?  Anyone want to join me?

 

A funny story aka why I don't go commando

On Daily Mile there is a daily question.  It is usually something fun to answer so I try to participate often.  Today's question was this: 

 

 

Today's #dailymission

Whoops! Share your worst training or race day wardrobe malfunction story.

I thought the answer was funny enough to share the amusement here. 

Happy Hump Day.

One of my worst training or race day wardrobe malfunctions came more in the form of an absence of wardrobe than a lack of it's performance.

Quite a few years ago I raced canoes. 

Ones like this

Not like this

Those days were some of the most fun-filled days of my life.  I loved being on the water.  We would train in the canoe for hours and then run through the trails.  Days that were pretty much heaven on earth to me.

As we prepared for an upcoming race by putting in an extremely long training paddle, our canoe sprung a leak.  We were in the middle of no where.  We got to the bank and assessed the damage.  It was a small hole but we didn't have anything with us to apply a temporary repair so that we could finish the paddle to our pickup site.

That day there we 3 of us.  One solo canoe and on C2.  One of the guys suggested that we just plug the hole with something and paddle hard.  They needed something that wouldn't absorb water like the cotton tee shirts they were wearing and looked at me.  In those days I regularly worked out in just a sports bra and shorts. 

They wanted my shorts.

We had to portage the canoes for miles to a road and then run to the nearest house to ask to use their phone.  In the boonies there are few houses and no cell coverage.

And that was the last day I ever went commando.

Last night I posted this workout to Daily Mile which auto-feed to facebook.  I know my settings allow this to happen but sometimes I forget my "audience" is completely different between the two social medias.  After changing "the plan" to account for my tired legs which left me feeling a bit defeated, I received this comment about my run.

I took offense to it. 

I didn't have two extra hours in my day.  I chose to use two of the hours in my day for fitness/good health.  Was that wrong?  Were they somehow allotted to something else?  Like maybe the laundry?  Or playing with my kids?  Or cleaning out my car?  Those are all things I need to do.  Was it "extra" to give myself two hours of my day?

Let's see how my Sunday hours were spent.

Times as an approximation.

I woke up around 6-6:30 a.m. when the super secret spy had to slip off to work.

Tried to keep S'ghetti girl and her sleep over friend quite so that LBM could sleep in.  I spent some of this time looking up recipes for breakfast and lunch.  I spent some of it shushing the girls to be quiet.  I spent some of this time clenaing the cat box.  I spent some sipping coffee on the deck in the fog.  I guess that time was for me.  But it only worked until about 7:30.

7:30 cuddle with LBM

7:40 LBM off to terrorize his sister and friend

7:41 in kitchen, cooking breakfast while LBM ran back and forth between me and his sister

8:00 while upstairs dealing with a sibling squabble, gathered laundry to start wash

8:15 found laundry in dryer, started to fold

8:30 realized I had been in the middle of breakfast, went back to kitchen

8:31 - 9:00 cooked, wash dishes

9:01 went to find kids, discovered (their) mess in living room, started cleaning it up

9:15  realized their breakfast was getting cold, went back to finding kids

9:20 found kids outside, got them in to wash up for breakfast

9:25 finally kids eat breakfast (no I didn't eat.  I didn't want any breakfast.  I cooked for them)

(sausage in pancakes on sticks with warm syrup, hashbrowns, fruit, cereal, milk and juice)

10:00 - 10:10 kids finish up and leave table, yell at kids to come back and clear table and clean up

10:15 - 10:25 wash more dishes, clean kitchen

10:30 S'ghetti girls' sleep over friend's gram there for pickup, girls beg for more time, talk sleep over friend's gram into a little more time

10:45 look up recipe for whipped cream icing, the super secret spy's favorite.

11:00  remember that I have to get the laundry done before we leave for PA, back up stairs

11:15 flip-flopped laundry, notice kid's bathroom is a wreck start cleaning it, LBM back and forth with complaints of non-inclusion in the playing fun

11:30 back down stairs, txt from the super secret spy about when he'll be home for lunch, more cooking, icing cake

12:15 super secret spy home, gather kids, sing happy birthday, lunch, cake and ice cream

12:45 have the kids gather S'ghetti girl's sleep over friend's things and we take her home

1:00  back up stairs, finish laundry, fold more, pack, load car, up the stairs, down the stairs 15x

1:30 final check of the house, bathroom visits, and on the road

because I want to drive 3 and a half hours

after gas stop, food stop we are finally back in PA

5:00 LBM fell asleep on the drive, unload car, unpack

5:20  LBM awake but grouchy, cuddle him on the couch while S'ghetti girl shows me her latest duct tape creations

6:00 clothes changed, movie set, snack for kids, kids playing, on the treadmill

2 hours and 22 minutes later

I had watched Vampire Diaries, negotiated sibling quarrels, retrieved unreachable toys, hugged upset little bug men, oohed and ahhhed over 3 new duct tape creations and traveled in one place for 16.5 miles.

8:23 peeled out of soaking wet running clothes and took a super fast shower

8:30  kid time: talked with the oldest and his girlfriend, played and read with LBM and
S'ghetti girl, helped the two little ones get ready for bed

9:40 S'ghetti girl in bed, LBM and I hang out and go through mail from the weekend, I try to cuddle/read/play quietly in his room to get him to go to sleep

in his own bed

but give in.

10:30ish LBM and I go to bed

10:45 finally get LBM to lay still and be quiet.

10:46 sleep

Was that 2 hours extra?

Did I somehow not give enough time to everyone else in my life?

Why do I feel guilty over that 2 hours simply because of that comment?

Should I stop feeding DailyMile entries to Facebook?

Am I just being too sensitive?

Maybe I'm still just a little tired.

5 Things Friday ~ Let's not kid ourselves Edition

I am not silly enough to think that I actually have 301 followers.  But that is what Blogger is telling me.  On the verge of Google Friend Connect going away I am happy that new people are finding me interesting or amusing enough to hang out with.  I know most of the "followers" don't come around anymore but I still want to celebrate you, faithful reader, who comes back time and time again.  To read about how I am still running every day and still praying to get into that 100 mile race.  Still running the same races as last year (hopefully a little faster). 

You don't want to miss out on anything exciting so remember to subscribe via email to make sure you get all the latest posts.

I move up another spot on THE wait list! 

It does make me feel a little bit bad that in hoping to get into the Massanutten Mountain  Trail 100.  I am really hoping that 71 other people either hurt themselves, don't believe in themselves and simply can't keep up with the training.  Let's not pretend any different, as bad as that is, I am hoping those 71 others hurry up and do it soon!

It was report card day.  That is either a day of joy or a day of misery.  As I am the mother of a rock star, it was a day of joy for her and pride for me. 

But I am no any different than most parents.  I can remember how my folks did it to me too.

The Scene:  S'ghetti hands me her report card.  Face beaming.

Me:  That's great honey!  Look at those grades. 

S'ghetti:  I improved my math grade and got 99% in science again!  I am going to be a chemist...

She continues but I'm now comparing the first 9 weeks to the second.  And as if nearly straight As wasn't good enough (which it is), I open my mouth and start saying how "we" con improve in a few places.

DUH!

I don't pretend to be the best mom but even I should have known that all her hard work simply needed praise in that moment.  The "extra work" in those other areas could have waited for a later time.

I secretly registered for another 50k.  This one at the end of February.  It was only $19.85 to register.  But I'm not fooling anyone with fact that I will have to tell Hubbs that I need to do a "little" 31 mile training run...and it might require a hotel stay. 

click HERE

If you want to join me. 

After 628 days of streaking you might think that those runs are so ingrained that I hardly think about them.  Well, you'd be right.  So much so that I am sometimes guilty of not thinking about how far I have already ran in a given week.  I simply run my "usual" run each night.  So I am not kidding when I say I haven't remembered to that an actual cutback week in about 8 weeks.  And that is only if you count dropping down 4 miles as a step back.

If you don't use DailyMile then the 55 and 12 might look odd.  That's the week that went from December to January so DM split it.

Since we will be traveling this weekend, I think I might actually be successful in stepping back!

I know my body will thank me even if my mind disagrees.

Are you thinking about "follower" with GFC going away?

Waiting it out for any races this year or did you get into everything you wanted?

Did you kids enjoy a joy-filled or misery-filled report card day?



Have you ever secretly registered for a race?

How many miles or what percentage do you use to call it a "step back" week in your training?

No Secret

This past week was epic for miles.  Notice I didn't say for running because to be epic my running would have needed to be in the woods or under the stars.  This past week outside miles were few and far between.  I make no secret of the fact that many of my miles are now on the mind numbing treadmill.  The glamorous life of married single parenting with a strong willed mini-human to battle.  But it might be a secret to LBM that he will be back in the jogger snuggled under a heating pad before too long.  Now that will be a different kind of  will power training for me!

Do you see that little pink bar.  I left it there so you all can go over and congratulate Marlene

at Mission to a(nother) Marathon.  Do you see those running, swimming and biking miles.

That girl is hard core!!

Its been no secret that I am drooling over INKnBURN's designs and want to look killer for the 100 and a couple sweet training "races" leading up to it.  But I also know it's the season of giving so I'll share this link again.

It's the final day to enter the INKnBURN giveaway that Heather @ Run Faster Mommy is hosting.  I so want to win this!  Then I could host a giveaway for all your guys.  Because I just know that after my rave review (I of course already know I would love their stuff), they would be dying to give me more free stuff to giveaway to you!

LBM spilled all his secrets to Santa

Three Things Thursday

Army Sons leaves in 3 more days.  He is not eager to go but I think he is eager to have this final bit of training done and move forward with his future plans.  We have enjoyed getting to share so many holiday tradtions with him home.  It was wonderful to have him seamlessly back into our daily routine.  He was a very missed cog in our little family machine.  The upside is if things go well we may get to see him again at the beginning of February.  I'll be praying for that. 

My little kids have been so enjoying their time off school and pre-school together.  It is so nice to see them playing together.  Although there is a 7 year age gap they behave as if they were born a year apart.  (I should have known this to be true since there is an 11 year gap between Army son and S'ghetti girl)

The most wonderful thing is to see S'ghetti girl really taking pride in "working" with LBM to teach him things.  And LBM being so defensive of his big sister when she gets into trouble.  I have worried that the age differences would keep them from having what my sisters and I share but after having them all together again and seeing how they pick on, comfort, harass, help, listen to, ignore eachother I know that the years between them haven't changed a thing; a brother and sister will always be there for each other.

And no three things post would be complete without a running related topic:

I added a widget to my blog.  Did you notice?  I did.

I noticed that it was telling me that I only have 66 days until the first of my two March Ultras.

Seneca Creek ~ March 5th and the HAT Run ~ March 19th

With Army son home the past two week have flown by and two weeks is 14 days.

14 days is 21.2% of 66 days which means that the next 14 days will go by just as fast and then I'll only have 52 days and then only 38 days and then only 24...

How can something I want to happen make me so crazy nervous before it happens?

Today is Day # 235

"Find your happy pace" ~ One More Mile