polar bear treadmill fall

I have frequently posted this on my facebook and find it extremely funny. Today I was breaking down the polar bears form on the treadmill, initially very straight up, then he got into an aggressive forward lean, then emotions took over and all form was lost. I bet more than one of you out there has experienced form breakage like this on some of your runs.

crazy kids

today was a day that unfortunately only got 1 out of the 3 workouts in and had to deal with a few meetings and some crazy kids. the above cartoons continue to show how much my children love each other and me. Enjoy.

Frustration, venting, etc....

I think every few months I write a similar blog and bitch about being unsupported and trying to do everything I possibly can to meet everyone's standards and everyones expectations of me and also trying to pursue my goals of being a good mom, wife, friend, coach and athlete. I often fail to meet anyones expectations, I usually meet about 1/2 of them and I get constantly criticized for wanting to workout and needing to workout almost on a daily basis. People have often stated to me, " stop bitching about being behind on your chores or food shopping, etc, if you just didn't work out so much you would have plenty of time to yourself and be done with everything you need"

Well, in response to those several people, I say, " SCREW YOU". I'm tired of people telling me that, its not that I don't have time, for goodness sake I get up at 4:30am to do most of workouts so I have time during the day for my family and to do everything I need to do, however, that being said, if my family would cooperate and put laundry in the basket and not on the floor, dishes in the dishwasher instead of the sink all the time, if they could actually hang a coat, put shoes away, actually help make dinner or maybe offer to grocery shop or fix a lightbulb or doing anything around the house that didn't involve personal gratification for themselves I think I wouldn't complain so much. Its hard to feel like you cleaned the same shit over and over again, it gets real old.

Now, after saying that a friend of mine said, " WEll, have you put your foot down, no TV if they don't do this, no dinner if they don't do that, etc..." Well, actually been there and done that. I've left dishes in a sink for a week and no-one did anything about it, laundry not done except my own and the kids and instead of offering to help someone just says, " how come I don't have any more laundry", " Why isn't there dinner cooked tonight", etc.....

I'm not saying I"m perfect, actually I'm far from it, I have lots to learn but I do try to make life easy for everyone surrounding me, probably to my detriment and its biting me in the ass and its hard to change people I have spoiled over the years. That being said, isn't it just common sense to just ask someone if they need help? Isn't it just common decency when your even a child when you see someone still working at 10p at night that maybe you might ask if they need anything?

These are just a few things I complain about they certainly aren't life threatening, I probably shouldn't bitch about them when there is so much other stuff going on around the world so far worse than I could ever dream of, however, its hard when you feel unsupported, its hard when you feel like you are all alone when you have these thoughts.

Its also hard to want to be the best athlete you can be and have no real support in that area, not caring about me getting in what I need to get in to do that, not appreciating that I try to not sacrifice family time for my workouts but there are times I need to and it comes with a load a complaints from everyone. I know I want to be the best mom and wife and all that stuff but I also want to do something that makes me happy, why is it so hard to do it, why do I have to work so hard to fit it all in? It gets really frustrating sometimes.

Ok, end of venting, life is just real busy right now and I want to do so many things that I can't and I'm sad sometimes. I know life does not revolve around me and I'm ok with that but sometimes I just need to vent about it.

Testing and the ABCs

This past week was a tough one, I did a 10 mile road race, my swim time trial and my bike power test, along with everything else and all my other training thrown into the mix. As noted in my previous blog I did fairly well on the Black Cat 10 miler, 8:19 pace, so its a start and I'm happy with that.

On thursday I had to do a 1000 pull TT in the pool after a good warm up. Of course I screwed it up and instead of using a buoy I used my paddles. I finished the 1000 in 14:19, coach told me to add 3 sec per 100 using the paddles, so if I do that it comes out to 14:49, well, it doesn't completely suck, still lots of work to do in the pool and based on only 1-2 sessions a week I'll take that time.

On saturday I had my bike power test, after a good warm up of 40 minutes it was 4 x 5 minutes with only 1 1/2 minutes of recovery in between. The goal was to start each interval at my low end of V02 max and then build by 10-15 watts for each minute, that was for set 1+2, then to take my average wattage from the first two sets and start there for my 3rd and build and then go all out for #4. Well, my total average was 246.5watts for the whole 20 minutes. The breakdown was, 245, 247, 245, 250. Not bad, I'll take it.

Anyway, I'm still pretty tired coming off the bike, I'm trying to keep my cadence up around 88-93 so I'm still working on this area. I have a terrific new training partner who I've started working with that has similar training times as me and we know how to push each other so I'm really greatful, thanks Maris.

Anyway, things are working itself along and the season is just around the corner, its crazy. I'm getting excited.

Here are my ABCs:
Age: 42

Bed size:-King

Chore you dislike: unloading the dishwasher and putting away laundry- when you do as much as I do you would understand

Dog: Just put him to sleep, hopefully getting a new one in the spring

Essential start of the day: tea or coffee, water and brushing my teeth

Favorite color: royal blue

Gold or silver: neither but if I had to choose silver

Height: 5'5:

Instruments you play: I played the flute for years

Job title: Mom, wife, coach, Nurse Practitioner

Kids: 4- 3 boys and 1 girl

Live: Beverly Mass

Mom's name: Linda

Nickname: Donna D

Overnight hospital stay: birth of 4 babies and an ACL repair

Pet peeves: not flushing the toilet, not replacing the toilet paper roll when done, not sending thank you notes

Quote from a movie: " Its in the hole"- Caddyshack, " You can't handle the truth"- A few Good men, " Baby Fish mouth, exercist baby"- When Harry Met Sally. " It's not over, was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Germans? Quiet, he's on a roll"- Animal House

Righty or lefty: righty

Siblings: 1 brother older by 15 months

Time you wake up: 6am during the week, 4a-5:30am on the weekends

Underwear: I'm very picky about what kind I wear, I hate wedgies

Vegetables I don't like: beets

What makes you run late: I try to fit everything in every minute of the day, I over estimate or I should say, underestimate how long it will take to get somewhere- it makes me late.

Xrays: knees, mouth, breasts

Yummy food you make: chicken pot pie, vegetable chili, carrot ginger soup, grilled swordfish

Zoo animal favorites: I love all the cats, Lions, Cheetahs, pumas, tigers, etc.. I think they are absolutely beautiful. Its amazing how an animal can be so beautiful and deadly at the same time.

Black Cat 10 miler

So today was a good day, not a PR but a good day. I haven't run an open road race in over 2 years so I thought since I'm trying to rebuild my run and get stronger on this front I needed to add some road races into the mix. Unfortunately, in the fall I was suffering from severe plantar fascitis and I couldn't do the trail marathon I wanted to do and my running really didn't start building until late november, early December. I have only done a handful of speed sessions and a few tempos, otherwise most of my runs have been at a extensive/intensive pace ( 8:45-9:05 pace). AFter my plantar fascitis resolved my right hamstring started aching again and acting weird ( tight) so with all the bad weather we were having and the black ice and large snow banks I have spent a significant amount of time running on a treadmill and not outside. As you runners know that is not ideal and ones legs need the wear and tear of the road to really get your groove on. However, that being said its what I could do and I made the best of it and worked as hard as I could without tweaking my hamstring and getting hurt further.

So with that being said I went into today with not a ton of expectations except that I wanted to run, I wanted to feel strong and I wanted to pace myself in a way that I could go faster if I wanted in the last few miles. Well, since my Garmin bit the big one last night and my friend got sick so I didn't bring my Ipod I went solo into the race accept my ironman watch to check my splits ( which I only did 3x). The weather was perfect, a bit chilly to begin with, slight drizzle a bit windy and then a brief glimpse of the sun. The course was great, some flats, some gradual inclines and some good hills thrown into the mix to make you honest ( not too big though). I was thinking if I hit an Average of 8:20-8:30 and felt good I was doing something, well, I did an 8:19 average with the last two miles being around 8:05's, so their must of been a few miles that I must of dropped a bit below 8:20, oh well. I knew at mile 8 I was still feeling good and I had some speed left so I just picked up my cadence and started to run without completely going out of my zone. i watched my form, tried to get good extension out of my legs, took in my gel and my water and finished strong in 1:23. Now, this isn't a PR for me but it isn't too far off from it and given my running at this point and in March I am very encouraged that I am getting back and that a sub 8 min 1/2 marathon is coming my way this year. My goal is also to make my open running time very close to my triathlon run time, so I'm going to work with coach a lot this season on this.

Anyway, 7/85 in my age division, not bad. Congrats to all my friends who ran today, Brooke, Erica, Kim, Betsy, Pete, Sharon and thanks to B&S fitness, Brandi, Steve, Ashley, Jeremee,Greg, Emily for doing a great job with the first Annual Black Cat. Way to go.

Utah 2011.mov

Click here to view this video

Ski Utah and other little things...

We had so much fun in Utah skiing this february vacation, the kids are really motoring down the hills with good form, they are able to ski both powder and groomed trails, its just fun. But I will say it was hard to find lifts that would accomodate all 6 of us so we always had to split up, that was fine but it was always fun to find the big ones.

The boys are fearless creatures, flying down the mountain, Shea is conservative but she can go down anything, and CAde, well, not much turning going on just a speed demon bombing down the mountain, we still have to keep a good eye on him, the problem is I can't catch him, he goes too fast on the groomers so Phil has to do that. Anyway, it was great to get away and enjoy the outdoors and be outside even in the cold for 7+ hours a day. I was able to keep my workout schedule on track except they had no pool to really swim in, they had an outdoor pool with a temperature of 95 degrees, so I'm a bit behind on the swim front, we'll get it back. Anyway, still trying to catch up on mail, laundry and house cleaning on top of the kids sports and my workouts, it can be crazy but I wouldn't have it any other way.