Family life and triathlon, how do you make it work?

Hey guys,

Long time no write, its been busy here at the Furse household, lots of stuff going on and most of it not good. Let me recap the last 3 months.

After a fun/hard and decent marathon in November I had a 3 week recovery period and then it was time to get back on my bike after 5 months and start training for Ironman Texas in May. My program was for a good 5 months ( no biggie) easy to do to build to Texas. ( not!!!!)

Starting in December my kids had 17 days off for December break, its really hard to get to the pool or head outside for rides and runs when you have 4 kids that aren't of age for me to leave at home. Let's say I did the best I could and did a lot of treadmill running and trainer rides.

January- 7 yr old with emergency appendectomy- out of school for a week at same time 11yr old diagnosed with strep

10 days later in early feb during major snowstorm we had to drive 7 yr old back to ER for emergency CT scan for r/o abscess to his appendectomy site, fever 5 days, ended up going back to school for 1 day following week and then out of school that next day, double ear infection.

In short, sinus infections, stomach bug, fevers of unknown etiology, ear infections, vacations, parent teacher conferences, you get my drift, its been a long 3 months. My kids haven't been this sick ever and its been really hard to get in consistent training with being exhausted all the time and being up all night as the primary caretaker of the kids. I was able to do stuff on the trainer and on the treadmill but my swimming has suffered, sometimes only 1-2x a week have I gotten in the pool. Normally I wouldn't mind if this lasted a few weeks or even a month but 3 months isn't funny especially when you need to do a 2.4 mile swim, it just sucks.

Last week was a decent week for me with regards to working out, I actually got in 16 1/2 hours, it wasn't perfect and I had to tweak things but I got everything in except a 3rd swim again.  Well along comes this week, Sunday night my youngest started vomiting at 11pm and it didn't stop till 7am, I was exhausted my husband was exhausted, and he had a fever. Unfortunately I had to put my little guy in the car so I could drive all my kids to school and then I had to bring him with me to the car dealership because I had to fix my right front flat tire. He was so sick sitting there, I felt sooooo bad for him. At 9:30 am on Monday I get a call from my kids school saying my 11 year old hit his head twice and probably had a concussion. I had my mother in law grab my little guy ( who then proceeded to vomit in her car) and I brought my son to the ER. He was evaluated and diagnosed with a mild concussion.

The day proceeded as normal but when my 11 year old woke up in the morning yesterday his concussion symptoms remained and then he started vomiting, and vomitng and vomiting. I called the doctors office multiple times, I wasn't too sure if it was the same stomach bug that my 7yr old had or his concussion was now a subdural hematoma. After trying to give him fluids over several hours and his symptoms worsening I decided to bring him back to the ER for evaluation.

Now during this time my daughter was starting to feel bad so I sent her to bed with a bowl and hope for the best. My 7yr old was doing fine and my 9 yr old was at baseball practice. I ran over to our neighbors house to see if her daughter could watch my two kids while I brought my 11 year old to the ER. I was able to get him to the hospital and they evaluated him and drew bloodwork and put in an IV, he was severely dehydrated and needed lots of fluids. I got a call about 30minutes after I arrived at the hospital and my daughter had vomited everywhere in her room and bathroom, I think my new sitter was horrified and had her mom come over to help with cleaning her up. I felt so bad leaving her in that situation I was just hoping my daughter didn't get sick till I got home.

While Kellen was sleeping on the gurney getting fluids I was starting to get sick as well and proceeded to vomit in his emesis basin and trash can in  his room, the poor physician felt so bad she gave me zofran as well to make sure I wasn't going to pass out either.

It was a long night in the furse household, we didn't get back till 12:30am and my son, daughter and myself were still not feeling great this morning. Alas, another day and no workout and not getting to the pool.

Life is life and family always comes first, its been a tough past 3 1/2 months for us and I'm hoping there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It's so hard to try to do everything, manage the kids, the house, being a class parent, training and trying to stay fit and do ironman or anything longer than an olympic, its just becoming a job trying to manage getting in workouts. I'm not burnt out from training, I actually love the training when I can get it in, I was just hoping that Texas would be a good race for me, that I would actually go in healthy and trained correctly. My coach has been amazing and has made lots of adjustments to my schedule and has been very patient but I have to say my situation isn't ideal.

Texas is coming in 5 weeks, I have hopefully 2-3 weeks that I can get in some solid work to make me feel okay but I'm not too sure how this race is going to pan out for me. My swim most likely won't be my normal swim time ( which will bum me out), the bike hopefully will be okay and hopefully I'll be okay on the run if I pace/watch my nutrition and ride smart. I'm just bummed that its played out this way. Such is life, we move on. We;ll see what happens.

How was your day?

6am wake up call by 2 kids, " can I take a shower, can I take a shower". Key the sound of the door locking and the other boy screaming for 15 minutes to get out and saying, " It's my turn, its my turn"

2. Breakfast of champions, cereal, bagels, coffee you get it, all 4 up and atom no later than 6:45
3. all gear ready for the day of sports
4. Hubby leaves to coach game #1 of the day by 8am.
4.a. tech guy comes to fix internet and cable by 8am
5. 8:30a travel basketball game for 10 yr old-manchester
6. 9:30am daughter soccer, danvers
7. 10am, 6yr old basketball manchester
8. 12:30p leave for pool for 9yr old swim team practice, beverly
9. 1:15p bball game for daughter, manchester
10. 2:30pm basketball game for 9yr old that just finished swim practice
11. 3:30p-5:30pm bball skills and drills for 10 year old in Marblehead
12. 6:15p basketball game in manchester for 10 year old
13. 7:30pm basketball game in manchester for 10 year old

I'm just saying, having 4 kids under the age of 4 in diapers was much easier then trying to figure out logistically how to manage 4 very busy sports related kids.

p.s. I did manage to get in a long bike ride while my son played bball for 2hrs at the JCC in marblehead, thank goodness these places have gyms.

Sunday is a much better day.

d

Stay at home mom

In todays world and most importantly my group of friends, we are all very busy and just trying to make it through the day. Gone are the days of sitting in front of a T.V. eating bon bons, its just full all out busy. ( Yet, I don't ever remember having the time to eat bon bons and actually I don't even know what they are).
Anyhoo, I digress, when I was working full time in the hospital there were weeks I worked 40 hours and there were weeks I worked well over 90, sometimes I slept in the on call room and just got up in the morning to go to work. It was exciting when I first started having kids and staying home, being busy was just different.  After being home now for 10 years and raising 4 great kids who are still only 10,9,8 and 6, it gets old when people say to you, " What did you do all day?", " Why couldn't you just do that when it would of only taken a few seconds?". There are a million questions like that but just like it was when I worked in the hospital as a Nurse Practitioner, there were days that were so busy I couldn't take a call, never mind stopping off at the store to buy groceries or make dinner I was just soooo busy. Again, busy is just different as a stay at home mom. But why do I have to justify "busy" as a stay at home mom when I never had to "justify" how hard I worked at the hospital? Hmmmmmm.

Let me get straight to the point, I'm not complaining, yet sometimes I really want to, I love being home most of the time, I do miss work but I wouldn't change seeing my kids do everything and being in the classroom with them ever. The only thing I ask is that I get some respect for what I do, that just because I don't have a defined "job" title perse, I work really hard, just like all of us do everyday, its just different. I shouldn't have to write down on a piece of paper a list of what I did all day to prove that I was busy, I shouldn't have to account for what I did all day to justify not picking up the phone or not calling back, sometimes its just busy. My life is no different then anyone else's we all have busy lives but I just need to know that what I do is important and that it is clearly as important as any other job that someone does, again its just a different job. It's just weird that I never had to do this when I had a paying job in the hospital only as a stay at home mom. Just my 2 cents, rant over. Back to sterilizing the house.

Would love anyone's input.

Frigid 5k race report and post christmas stuff

Ok, we'll start with the cats and dogs fighting, that is what my house was like during christmas break. As you probably know ( or anyone that knows me ) I have 4 kids that are only 4 years apart in total, they love each other and they dislike each other every day, they can play well for about 1hour and then somebody has a bloody nose, scratches, whatever. Have you ever heard this, " mom, so and so did this," " Mom", he hit me, " Mom, get him off me he's trying to kill me". Well that was probably the majority of what I heard during the 17 days off my kids had for christmas. Now, they are back to school this morning, I had a little school dance I did  in front of them and then again at drop off but it wasn't too embarrasing for them. Anyway, christmas break was fun but in my opinion way too long.

What did we do during break, a little skiing, sledding, some movie watching, lots of basketball, soccer and swimming and some friend playdates. We worked on some school projects as well. But did I say they are back to school, yeahhhhhhhhhh me.

Ok, so during the 17 days it was tough to get everything in from a workout perspective. I either had to put my bike on the trainer and pop a movie in for the kids or run on the treadmill while a show was on it was hard. I only got to the pool a few times because that would require getting a sitter and believe me no-one wants to sit my 4 kids so I can go for a swim. During the afternoon and evening my kids have sports so its hard to go to the pool then and realistically I'm exhausted by the time my hubby gets home at 7p and all I really want to do is chat with him and then go to bed at 9p. Anyway, thank goodness we are still in base mode so coachie wasn't too upset at the sporadic nature of my workouts but I was getting frustrated because my only outlet to my angst is working out and I just need my endorphin rush for a little bit everyday, it just makes me a better person. Well, its back and my time is back so I can get in what I need to so hopefully I haven't lost too much fitness.

So during my 17 days of craziness I had a 5k to do, I begged and pleaded with coach not to have me do it, I was feeling gross and fat and lazy after this unintended minimal workout phase for two weeks but he said lets just see how you do. I used a few choice words for him which I won't post  but I went yesterday to Quincy to run the Frigid 5k. Quincy is were i grew up so it was fun to go back to my old stomping ground and drive around and see familar places, it was cold but not too bad. The course was laid out to be fairly flat with about 1 long hill between 1.4-2 miles so a little over .6 miles of climbing, but then it was downhill and then flat to the finish. I believe the course was a little short but whatever. I ran the course in 22:08 they have me at 22:10, whatever, 7:10 average, my best is a 7:06 pace, avg HR was 163. I was pleased with my performance, not ecstatic but pleased given my fitness level at this point. I placed 1st in my age group, 6th overall female so that was good. My good friend Brian Hughes was there, owner of Fast Splits multisport in Newton, Mass and fellow Qt2 teammate, he came in second overall with a blistering pace of 17 minutes total, good lord and after being sick for 3 weeks.  

Anyway, I have a 5 mile road race coming up in 3 weeks and then the Hyannis Half Marathon which I seem to do every year but for some reason it kicks my butt, lets hope for better results this year. 

The 3rd Annual 12 Days of Christmas with the Furse Family

On the Twelth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

12 windows broken in my house over the year

11 basketballs in every room in my house

10 crickets that escaped from the lizard cage and I can't catch and they are driving me crazy ( die already)

9 Timeouts typically given to my children every day ( I know, I know, obviously not working- but shit man therapy is expensive)

8 ( now multiply that number by 4 which gives you 32 water bottles gone missing over the year)

7 visits to the ER this year- mostly glue no stitches, x-rays but no broken bones, strep throat, you get the drill.

6 toilets plugged in my house over the year ( don't ask me with what, 4 kids you do the math)

5 ( now you sing the tune) awful teeth my puppy has that probably need to be pulled but I'm not dealing with it because its expensive and I want him to look like he lives in the back country of West Virginia ( no offense to anyone whose from there reading this blog and if so, well howdy doooo)

4 shits my dog has taken in my car since he's been with us this year

3 visits to the schools for my kids ( but they are angels you say- ah ha, yup)

2 guinea pigs ( I mean actually 1, the other one recently died and for some reason this one keeps on living, for goodness sake its almost 6 years of age, come on really? Anyone want a senior citizen guinea pig? I'm not joking)

And finally the big finish:

1 gigantic 3 foot rubber snake put in my toilet by my 9 year old to secretly scare the shit out of me but unbeknown to him his 6 year old brother pooped in my toilet ( diarrhea actually) during the night and I didn't recognize or notice the snake, thus with the toilet over flowing I plunged the snake right out into my septic field. 

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year. Now whose bringing down those friggin lights!!!!!!!

Miles Standish Marathon 11/18/2012, race report

So after an epic injury in August 9 days before ironman Mont Tremblant, bi weekly ART appointments and trips to western massachusetts to see a special physical therapist to work on my limitations and weaknesses I have begun my journey back to health and getting back on my bike. I still haven't gotten on my bike since 9 days before ironman and in just a few short days I'll be riding him again ( all be it easy and probably for short periods, but I'll be riding again.).

Since my injury I was able to slowly get back to running and swimming was never an issue so coach Pat decided to ramp up the swimming for awhile and once I started feeling better to ramp up the running and hope to get in a fall marathon. Based on my current fitness he wanted me to aim for a race mid november so after some researching and chatting via facebook with some other Qt2 teammates they mentioned a local marathon that was being held in Plymouth mass on Novemeber 18th for the first time. There wasn't much mentioned on the website about the race, no course profile at the time, minimal knowledge about the course but none the less I signed up. Over the following few months more information came out and it mentioned the course would be hilly with some descent climbs splattered throughout, some off trail/ dirt/sand, rock for a bit ( and did I mention hills).
Water stations every 2 miles with powerade at miles 5/10/15 and 20, Gel at mile 17.  Sounded ok to me but even better I got to travel less than an hour to a race and pay only $50, couldn't beat that.

Training went well, no real issues to be had with training, I lost about 5lbs in training and I stopped drinking diet coke over the last 2 months. I've kept up with my physical therapy and I continue to get ART to my left hip and lower back twice a week. Based on my training numbers I knew I could possibly have a good race but since I've only run one marathon back in 1999 ( Chicago), in just under 5hrs, I had no real knowledge on how one would feel. Now I have done ironman Lake Placid twice but  I can't say what I did after the bike was anything about running so this was going to be interesting.

I drove down to the race with my new friend John Young who is just an amazing person and a true inspiration when it comes to how to live life to the fullest. He is a challenged athlete who has taken himself from 193lbs a few years ago to a svelte ( i think he said 160) and he is the first short statured person to ever do an olympic/ 70.3 triathlon and I think marathon. Just amazing.  We left real early in the morning so John could start in the early group at 7am. I felt honored to be apart of John's first marathon, it was a special moment in the morning we he set off.

Anyhoo, the morning was no biggie, there was no big hupla, just a group of runners getting off a bus, sitting around on the ground waiting to get started. It was about 500-600 runners and relay runners ready to go by 8am. The timer yelled go at 8am and we were off. Before setting off I did bump into some Qt2 peeps, Jessie, Rich and Russert and we all wished each other luck. Of course none of us knew what lied ahead of us.

Quick and to the point: The course was up and down, up and down, up and down. My calves, quads and hamstrings felt the burn towards the end, it was a brutal course. I wish I could say there was some flat areas but since there wasn't much I won't. The course besides being hard was nice, minimal traffic throughout the majority of the course since it was inside miles standish state park, cranberry bogs, little ponds, trees, volunteers were out and with the really runners we definitely had packets of areas were there were lots of people cheering for us and for such a small marathon that was nice.

If I had one thing negative to say about the race it would be that where we had to park to take the shuttle buses to the race start was about 1/2 mile away from the finish and after completing a marathon in the cold and having to have to walk all the way back to my car really sucked, and I was alone, at times I didn't think I was going to make it my legs hurt so bad. Other than that the race was very nice and if your interested in doing a very hilly, low maintenance marathon, local and cheap this would be a good one.

Anyway, 3:55:40, 8:55 pace via my Garmin, a 53 minute PR from my Chicago marathon in 1999. I am very happy with the performance, I don't have any negative things about how I performed, my nutrition was spot on, heart rate was spot on and I was able to get my HR up the last mile ( not hard to do when your going uphill again.). Anyway, it was great to end the year on a positive note and looking forward to the next season. Thanks coach Pat for believing in me and knowing that I could be a runner, it means a lot.

Apologies are hard

Having a child apologize for a wrong can sometimes be a challenge but I feel it is so important to teach these life lessons for our kids. The short of it was:

Last night we were invited to go to a friends house who also has 4 kids to go trick or treating with a group of parents and other kids. All of the kids know each other and are friends and of course the parents are good friends. We started out with a walk/run to the elementary school for pizza and glow sticks and then out to the crazy neighborhood for trick or treating. AFter 1 1/2 hours of glorious fun we went back to my friends house for a light dinner and some candy trading amongst the kids. Everything was going well when I started noticing my 9 yr old getting a little out of control, candy and being so overstimulated for this one is not a good combination, I was counting the minutes that we had left before something would happen. I had to speak to him several times to settle him down he was just so excited.
Anyhoo, a parent came out to talk to me to tell me that he was throwing candy on the lawn and not listening to her, I went out to speak to him and he stopped, however I knew something wasn't right. Low and behold come to find out when we were about to leave the candy that my son was throwing on the lawn happened to be the hostesses sons bag of treats. The little boy had no candy left in his bag and he was really upset. When I approached my son he told me that he didn't realize that it was the boys candy and thought it was a bowl left out for trick or treaters, I said, " did it matter" you were throwing candy that wasn't yours. I had my child go back to the little boy and give him some of his candy, actually two big handfuls and then my daughter graciously gave him two big handfuls as well, I was hoping that we could replenish most of the bag that he lost. The little boy seemed ok with the gesture and we apologized and went home.  For the next hour my son had a major temper tantrum regarding losing his candy, not understanding why he had to give up his hard earned candy that he walked for almost 2 hrs for, it was awful.  He just didn't get it. However, he was exhausted, he was coming down from a major sugar high, it was just time to go to bed.

AFter a very long day for me, 8 hrs in the classroom, and 5hours of halloween trick or treating and tantrums I just needed to go to bed. I didn't want to talk about it and realized that we would discuss it in the morning.  In the morning we discussed it a bit and I said we needed to come up with a plan, that he really needed to understand what he did and why it was important to give the little boy the candy.  After school he said he thought about what we talked about and realized that what he did was wrong. He realized that if he ended up with no candy he would of behaved 1 million times worse then anyone else in that situation and by giving him the candy it was the right thing to do. We both decided that he needed to write him an apology note and bring it to him this evening. After several minutes of standing by the car and being afraid to go to the door, he walked and knocked on the door and asked to speak to the little boy. After apologizing and handing him his own hand written note they both high fived and started to laugh. At that moment he knew he did the right thing. He came to the car excited and said, " Momma, did you see him high five me, he is happy now mommy".

It was a hard lesson for him but I think he understood in the end what he did wrong. I am so proud of him for coming to the realization ( all be much later than I hoped but he still got there) and apologizing in person.  Life lessons are hard, I wouldn't want to be 9 again if you paid me. Anyway, lets hope everyone is happy in the end.