Another Crazy Day.........

So, it was another crazy day at my house which I knew was going to end sometime around 9:30p tonight and it started like this:

1. wake at 4:30am to get to gym to ride for 1 1/2 hrs because putting my bike on the trainer at home is too loud and everyone would wake up. Also, because I would have no other time today to get my ride in to off I went.

2. Drove my son to the laboratory this morning at Beverly hospital for his blood draw

3. Fed kids, dressed them, packed lunches and drove them to school.

4. Headed to Boston for my sons cardiologist appointment at 9:30a. Found out his cholesterol level has now normalized and what we have been doing for diet and exercise has worked but his thyroid functions were out of wack. He needed an EKG because they heard a murmur on exam but that came back negativ.e

5. Had to rush out of the hospital to try to make it to a classmates birthday party for him in Hamilton but forgot to drop off a car seat at my sons school so my babysitter could pick him up. So off we go to Beverly first from Boston to drop off car seat and then head to party.

6. After party head home to drop off kids to go back to school to pick up other kids.

7. Go on errands with some kids to pick up cupcakes for holiday party tomorrow, get stuck in traffic, late to pick up my 4th kid from school and late for his appointment with his OT.

7a. Was supposed to help coach some beginner swimmers tonight for a few hours but the class got cancelled, soooo bummed, I really want to get my coaching license and start teaching swimming. Anyhoooooo.....

8. Go home, make dinner, pack lunches, prep Halloween outfits for school for tomorrow, bathe kids, read stories put to bed by 8:15p. Debating on making sugar cookies tonight for a halloween project for kids in one of their classrooms, have to check the cupboards to see if I have all the ingredients... Probably not.

I am sooooooo tired and my feet are killing me. I think I missed a few things in my list today ( i.e, laundry, dishes, incontinent dog duty, etc...) but now its time to collapse and go through my bills and hopefully go through my mail.

On the workout front looking forward to a nice little run tomorrow with my head getting around a hard running focused weekend, hopefully the weather will hold out on sunday for my long run.

Fartlek Run, and no I didn't just say Fart!

So my oldest son has been home sick for the past 3 days and of course that puts a damper on the old workout situation. However, I do have a bike trainer and a treadmill so all is good in my world as long as my son will cooperate.

Todays workout was a 2 mile warm up building to a nice intensive pace so starting around 8:50 and holding an 8:20, then stretch for a few minutes and then do some pick ups or strides to get my legs building the speed. Then it was 2 x 1 1/2 miles doing 200meters at a 6 minute pace and then jog for 200 meters ( .13 miles then .12 miles etc...) So on the treadmill that works out to a 9.5mph for about 44 to 45 seconds f/b jogging at a good pace, etc...

I felt great, the legs felt strong, my HR never went out of control, it just felt good. How amazing it would be to actually beable to run a 5k at that pace, I can't even imagine, I envy those with the genetics that allow their bodies to perform like that.

The only problem I had today was my little, lovely boy just wanted to play with me so he kept pacing around the treadmill, talking to me, tossing stuffed animals over my head, a few times touching the tread of the treadmill, scaring me half to death that he would hurt himself or me, he would watch my watch and gave me my countdown on how much longer I could run. Well, I got my workout in, I just hope he is healthy enough to go back to school tomorrow.

Anyway, after I finished cooling down we went upstairs so he could demolish me in chess, it is just embarrasing that my 7 year old can beat me in 4 moves, its unfair. wahhhhhhhhhhhhh

Gluten Free Diet Anyone?

So, since I was a little girl, and most of my really good friends and husband know, I've had a bit of a gas issue. Everyone told me, stop eating the green vegetables, don't eat fried or fatty foods

( which I rarely did), etc... It was always so hard to try to find a place to hide or walk away fast enough for me to, well, do my business. My husband would say, " your a lady, ladies don't do that", what, are you serious? Anyway, to make a long story short, its just gone on for a long time and I just assumed I would wait until I got a colonscopy when I'm 50, they would say, everything is fine, take Beano. Well, Beano never worked, I'm tired of being gassey all the time, I love vegetables, especially broccolli and well, working out sometimes can be an issue when you have GI issues. Try running 20 miles and figuring out what to do sometimes, it really stinks. I literally have to plan my diet for days to make sure I'm completely unloaded before a long day comes about.

Anyway, a friend of mine this weekend during our long run told me she just started her family on a gluten free diet ( for many reasons, not necessarily mine) and she has never felt better, less bloating, etc...

I don't know if gluten is my problem but I'm willing to try and see what happens. I am going to start here for 3 weeks and see how I feel. I have always been a carboholic so it makes a lot of sense to me but we'll see. Lets cross our fingers and hope I may live a more fruitful, less gassey lifestyle for my sake and my husbands, and for anyone who has ever riden or ran behind me.

I don't think the pool has ever been a problem but I've always wondered whether or not people could hear you fart when they are standing on deck and you toot when you swim, just wondering.

Poor Sportsmanship, In Chess?

So today was my two oldest boy's, Kellen (7) and Alexander (6) first chess tournament. It was so much fun to see the two of them sitting across other children and playing this amazing and most challenging game ( especially for me). My 7 year old gets great pleasure out of telling people how he beat me in only 4 moves ( the Scholars move) of which I knew and still know nothing about, so watching them play today was really exciting. What I didn't like was watching a few children take great pleasure ( when they would beat their opponent) and taunt them and laugh, and at one point make a 6 year old cry. Are you serious, this is Chess for peat sakes and your only 6 years of age. I was looking around for both childrens parents to see if anyone would do anything as well as for their chess coach and no-one did anything. Then I finally saw one of the kids moms come stomping down and found the little boy that made her son cry and continued to yell at him ( seriously yell) until that child started to cry and had to walk away. Eventually that kid came back and apologized to the other boy but hey, what, are we at a Bruins Game.

I saw some of the worst sportsmanship at this chess tournament then I've seen at most sporting events, but what I was most proud of and happy about was that both my boys showed great sportmanship with their opponents and shaking hands at the end of their matches, win or lose and smiling and supporting their teams and friends. It's amazing that at home they kill each other and taunt each other and make each other miserable but when they are outside at an event they acted beautifully and I couldn't of been prouder.

I feel so slow!!!

Today I did a nice progressive 2 mile warm-up and followed it by some nice stride outs ( or pick ups) Today's workout consisted of 4 x 3/4 mile repeats on 5:15 with 2 minutes of walking inbetween sets. So that averages out to be a 7 minute pace. After each interval I knew I had worked hard, it took about 45 seconds for my HR to completely recover so I figured, " no problem, go on the 2 minutes this is going to be easy", well, not so, it was hard, my heart rate climbed right back up after about 3 minutes and making it to 5 1/2 wasn't terrible but I was definitely working at the high end of my heart rate. #3 was the hardest, I think I slowed down a bit but I made sure I picked it up at the end to make up for my slowing down, interval #4 not the worst but I finished it. Cooled down and did about 7 1/2 miles total. Thank god over. Why do I do this to myself?

Why can't running be easier for me? I want to be so much faster and this is so hard. Will it ever come, did I just get into running too late in life? Is 41 too old to try to get faster? I'm not disappointed in myself with today, I did my workout, its just I want to be faster, really fast, and I just don't know if I will.

Gotta Love Friends!!!!!!

I don't know if I tell my friends enough times how much I appreciate them but I soooooooooooo do. Whether its meeting for lunch and conversation or helping me with my kids, my friends are amazing.

When I was training for ironman my friends couldn't do enough for me, they would say, " what can we do to make your crazy life better", " I'll run 10 miles with you today donna", or a new friend I met last year who completely took a whole day out of his life and planned a century ride for me up in NH and then a 5 mile run after. Now, he didn't need to do that, especially since he's probably a 10hr ironman guy and he just wanted to hang and workout with people with similar goals. I still haven't forgotten that day and he remains very dear to my heart. He'll be competing in IM Cozumel in a few weeks and I'm looking forward to seeing how he does.

Theres my friend April who drove 5 hrs up to Lake Placid on the Saturday before the race just to be my Sherpa and calm my nerves because my family hadn't arrived and I was all alone, except for a few more new friends I met up there who took me under their wing and really made me feel great. Who drives 5 hrs from Boston and then Back the same day just to help a friend, I don't know. She has two little children too and a business she just started so taking that type of time away was huge. She also goes out of her way to help me with my kids ( like evaluating my kids today at the pool on their swimming, totally last minute)and then calling me later to make sure she gave me ample feed back, who does these things, MY FRIENDS DO..

I also adore my friends Vicki, Cindy, Jess and Melissa and Bob who listen to me bitch about countless things ( of which I won't mention but will probably blog about some other time) and who never once said I was crazy to do the things I do, they just support me completely with no judgements. WEll, except, I don't have the best fashion sense and if my friends could take me shopping they probably would. ( no more workout clothes donna) And if I actually ever wore my hair down and blew it drew they usually would throw a party. But I digress, I just love my friends, they just get me, they get the whole me. Now I have other very supportive friends as well and I love them all for just being who they are and accepting me for who I am and being there when I need them, so sorry for not mentioning your names if I forgot.

Friends are so important and I hope I am as good of a friend to my friends as they are to me. Thank you all guys for being a part of my life, I am truly blessed with my family and my close group of friends.

Nice old man, Loud old Man!!!

So I have to tell the story of what happened at the gym yesterday. So as I described in yesterdays post I had a very hard tempo run ( for me anyway) of which I had to do 1 1/2 mile repeats holding 7:30's with a 3 minute recovery in between, I had a two mile w/u and a 2 mile c/d to do so 7 miles total.

Anyway, when I finished my last interval I put my speed down to a 6.2 and started jogging to cool down, when this very cute old man tapped me on the shoulder ( I almost fell off the treadmill because I had my ipod in and of course I didn't hear him talking to me) and he asked me, " so young lady-( gotta love him when he says young), what speed were you running at", I said, " well, I'm cooling down now, but I was holding an 8.0-8.1", so he yells really loudly to his friend who is walking three treadmills down from me, " hey fred, she was running at a 8.1), Fred says, " what?", the old man says, " an 8.0" fred says, "what?", this goes on for about 2 minutes until I really feel he is screaming in my ear and the whole gym now is looking. Now I wouldn't mind him screaming my speed if I was running a 9.0 or something but its not like I was super speedy or anything, and then the old man said to me, " I had a hard time at a 4.2 today" I just looked at him and just said, " " your 4.2 is my 8.0 and my 8 will be someones 9.0 or 10, but you know your here and your working hard and your keeping healthy and that is all that matters", he smiled at me and said, " it doesn't matter the number" and I said your absolutely right".

I was so happy yesterday that I met this man, even though he was screaming in my ear and poor Fred probably still doesn't know what the hell he was saying to him, but what he said to me was more important and that is: someone is always going to be faster and thats okay, its being happy with what your doing and feeling good about yourself that matters. Yesterday was a good day.

What is it about the Car?

So my typical morning starts when my 7 year old gets up at an ungodly hour of about 6am and proceeds to grumble and stomp and grrrrrrrrr and maybe he'll read until everyone in the house is up. I usually have them dressed and with breakfast on board by 7:30 so we can be in the car by 7:45 for school. But, everyday as I send the kids out into the garage to get into the car the fighting, the battling begins, I can't even pee when i hear, " Stop hitting me", " Get out of my seat", " Stop pinching and pulling my hair". Every morning it starts off usually okay and it ends up with me breaking up a full all out battle in the car, usually someone needs a shirt changed from whatever was thrown at them and mommy is screaming. Why is this? What is it about the car?

Another question about the car is, I have 4 of the same booster seats but each child has to sit in his seat or life is just not liveable. We will have full all out temper tantrums if they are not sitting in their specific seats. My little one happened to pee on his seat recently, as usual, I toweled it down but haven't washed it yet, my 6 year old wanted to sit in it, I told him not to, gave him the reason why, but he didn't care. Full all out screaming ensued, so I let him sit in it. Tell me that he didn't smell like pee going to school? I'm surprised the school didn't call me for to have his clothes changed. Its madness I'm telling you.

On my training front, tempo run today, hard effort, why are they so hard? I know I have to put the work into my run this off season, my swim is good and bike is coming along fairly strong but my weakness has always been my run. This is going to be really hard for me both mentally and physically to turn this around this season and I'm looking forward to it everyday. I think starting off the day battling with my kids leads me to being very successful in my workouts and getting all my adrenaline out of my body. I can tell you there is nothing better then a great workout. When I see my kids I am balanced and refocused and life is good again. Until someone cracks someone over the head, or pees on them or something, then the cycle starts all over again.....Are there any gyms open 24/7?

To "Toot" or not to "Toot" that is the Question?

So after being up several times last night because of our dog who had incontinence issues and umm, " diarrhea" issues, it brings me to my run this morning and my topic of the day.

So my run, an easy, extensively paced run, 6 miles, rolling terrain, nothing special, felt a bit harder today then normal, avg pace today of 8:22 so not too terrible, but I digress, back to the real issue of this post. So, as I'm running I'm feeling a bit rumbly in my tummy, and I'm thinking to myself, hmmm, do I toot and risk maybe a little somethin, somethin in my cute little jogging skirt, which by the way was black so I was safe on that front, or do I not toot and keep running and feeling quite uncomfortable. I had to think about it for awhile and said, screw it, so I tooted, phew, just plain old gas, nothing major, just needed to make it home. Now this has happened to me on much longer runs where it can pose a more major problem, I at least was heading home today. Something to think about, any thoughts?......

The Daily Grind

4am-daughter wandering hallway aimlessly-thank goodness made it to bathroom to pee. Started talking to one of her stuffed animals then fell asleep.

6:15am-rest of the crew wakes up and immediatley starts demanding my attention

7am-all 4 kids dressed, breakfast on table, fighting commences. No flying cheerios thank goodness. have to tell kids they can't go outside to play soccer, rest of neighborhood is asleep

8:15am-kids in car, drop off 1 at one school, 3 at another. Have 2 1/2 hrs of freedom-woo hoo.

8:45am-at the gym for a 1hr 15 min bike and 1hr of pilates

11:15am-grocery store-full food shop, can we say, $300, WTF!!!!

11:55am-pick up 3 yr old at preschool

12noon-make lunch for the little man, put away groceries, start making homemade chili for the hubby and pumpkin bread for my daughters class. Marinate Salmon for dinner

1p-laundry and dishes and general clean up

2:30p-drive to pick up kids from 2 different schools

3:30p- drop daughter off at dancing, drag others to swim team

4p-drop son off at Y for swim team-drive back to Cummings Center to pick daughter up

5P-get home, pack up the kids for soccer practice-shove any food down their throats

6:30-hubby shows up at soccer field, drives oldest to piano lessons from 7-7:30

7P-get home feed everyone dinner, make homemade chocholate cookies, clean up dishes

8:30p-kids in bed-read stories, rub backs

I really need a glass of wine, don't have any, very tired but at least no-one tried to kill each other today, I call that a successful day.

New Perspective

So this weekend provided me with some new perspective with regards to my triathlon training and racing. In short, I went to Scituate yesterday to do the first annual Scituate Duathlon, I've never done one before so I thought this would be a good experience for me, plus it was my last race of the season. Well, lets just say, I had a bike flat on the way to the race start, it took me about 15 minutes to change but I did it, so things weren't starting out like I wanted but I was still in good spirits. I brought my bike over to the bike service people at the race just so they could make sure I did my job right, they gave me a big okay and so I racked my bike, did a subpar warm-up given what little time I had left and headed for the start.

I was in the last group of people to go off and the first portion of this race was a 2 mile decent course with a lot wind but otherwise not too challenging, I felt my HR go up fairly quickly and thats due probably to my subpar warm-up so my time I knew was going to fall short but given that I started feeling really good towards the end of the run was getting me pretty pumped up for the bike. I get into transition, grab my helmet and shoes and I'm off. Well, right after I crossed the timing matt and mounted my bike I flatted again, same thing, rear wheel. I was so pissed, I must of missed something in my tire, a piece of glass something. I didn't have a spare tire so I went over to the same bike people and they rechecked my tire, nothing, replaced the tube, so after about 20 minutes I decided to forget about my race and head home. As I approached my car after biking 2 miles I noticed a huge bulge on the outside of my rear tire, of which, I flatted again, #3. Anyway, after bringing to the bike shop they found that it was a defective tire that they put on last week which most likely caused the flats, sucks for me.

Heres my point in telling this story, I needed to leave my husband with my 4 screaming kids to drive to scituate to race/not race and go through all this crap for almost nothing, its another race for me that ends up with me complaining about my performance or that something went wrong, I'm getting pretty sick of this and I'm getting pissed. Training and racing has helped me become more focused as a person and a parent and keeps me balanced in my life but times like these really throw me for a loop and I ask myself, " is this worth it?". Well, to me yes, but maybe not my husband and kids sometimes, but in the end, I know there will be lots of races for me in the future and hopefully these experiences will help me grow as a person as well as a an athlete. I do know that I am pretty confident in changing a flat at this point and I'm a girl who wears grease pretty well and if I can become more confident with all my defeats as well as my successes, isn't that teaching my kids something better about how to live life, I think so.