Suck It Up, Buttercup Virtual 5k

DONE!!!

John came home from Jenna's game about 7:30. I asked if I could get out and run.

He said, "The roads are covered and the subdivision is pretty slippery."

I said, "Just 3 miles?"

He said, "I wouldn't advise it."

GROAN.

Checked the radar...not TOO bad.

Poked my head out the front door...pretty quiet out there.

Walked into the living room, and he said, "You're running, aren't you?"

I thought to myself, "It IS called 'SUCK IT UP, BUTTERCUP!'" and I smiled and ran upstairs to grab my gear and change.

Not fast, but I can't remember a run feeling better.




SMILING!

3.1 miles. 35:09. Splits = 11:04, 11:39, 11:24, 10:07.

Best Laid Plans...

Well.

I've been completely derailed by a sick 5 year old.

No running this weekend - between a crazy schedule , a sick kid, and very little sleep (see: sick kid) I wasn't feeling it. So I wrote myself a pass (mistake number one) and planned for a great run on Monday.

Unfortunately, when I was dreaming about my fantastic Monday run, I was NOT dreaming about the sick kid. (DENIAL!!!! I haz it.) How on earth did I think I was going to run with an extra kid home from school? I kill me sometimes.

Fortunately, sick kid is on the mend. Anything can be cured with a bubble bath (what - you didn't know that?). I present proof:

Since I've committed to a virtual 5k (Michel's "Suck it Up, Buttercup 5k") I'll be out there later, God willing. I'm not sure how I'm going to pull that off since Jenna has a home basketball game tonight, which means we have to work it. It may put me out there in the dark at 8pm. But it'll get done.

And since they are predicting blizzard-pocolypse in the next couple days, it may very well be the last run I get until much later in the week.

We'll talk later...

Three Things Thursday: Trials, Tribulations, Triumphs

1. Trials: I am TRYING to get back on track with my workouts. Marathon training starts on 2/14 and I need to get my slacker ass to re-make this a habit. This week started out beautifully - 2 nice runs on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday was errand day and today I was hoping to get at least 4 miles in. Woke up to gorgeous January weather. We left for school and it was starting to snow. I got back from taking James to school and I was slipping and sliding all over the road. Now it looks like this: This is looking out my back window...

And this is out my front window. There's a street in there somewhere...

Which leads to...

2. Tribulations: I don't know why I can manage to run all the miles on my training plan but I have such a tough time mustering up the effort to fit in anything else. I tend to blow off anything that is NOT a run. This really hurts me - especially in all this snow. It's too slippery for me to run outside. So I'm struggling to make crosstraining and core work a habit. Today I am GOING TO GET ON THE ELLIPTICAL. Yes I am! And I'm going to do core work and hip/glute exercises.

I think I'm going to elicit my husband's ass-kicking prowess to make me do this. There might have to be another hand-written signed contract. *sigh* He loves that WAY too much. ;)

3. Triumphs: I'm stealing Michel's idea for this one, and I'm celebrating my son's progress. Yesterday when I picked him up from school, his teacher came down to talk with me. When I saw her, I groaned inside, since this usually means he's had a rotten day. But NO! She wanted to tell me about how much better he's doing, and how he's really starting to improve. He's settling in nicely and loving school! YAY!

He's also really had a great week at home. He's turned a corner, and is cooperating and not screaming NEARLY as much, and that just makes MY WHOLE LIFE better. I know we'll have difficult days ahead, but it's wonderful to see him moving in a positive direction.

Happy Birthday to my Favorite Hottie

Yesterday, my favorite person on the planet turned 40. So Saturday night, we managed a night out (despite some James-ish bumps in the road) and we had SO MUCH FUN. And even though I had to miss dinner and showed up late, I got a ride with friends so I could drive "too much tequila" boy home...

We went to Pinstripes, a local restaurant slash bowling alley slash bocce ball court. There was dinner with friends followed by some bowling.





Long story short, it was EXACTLY what I needed and we had a fantastic time.

Sunday (his actual birthday) we followed it up with football and friends. John requested chili, so there was lots of that. We had fun razzing the only Packer fan in the room, but much to John's dismay, she ended up having the last laugh.

To ease the pain, there was football shaped ice cream cake. mmmmm.....

It was a crazy hectic weekend (more basement work and basketball and a slumber party tossed in there too) but it was great. I followed it up today with a new start and a new attitude. 5k felt great this morning. Here we go.

Goals For 2011

Yeah, I'm a little behind schedule. We are 3 weeks into 2011 and I'm just getting around to writing up what I want to accomplish this year. I could tell you all that I've been getting a jump start on things, but that would be a bold faced LIE. Truth is, I've been simultaneously wallowing in my pity party and working my ass off in my basement so I have a place for my brother-in-law to sleep once he moves in. Did I tell you he's moving in? He will show up on 2/11 to start his new job on Valentine's Day, leaving my poor sister as a single mom for 3+ months. We're housing him until he can no longer stand the commute, which will SUCK, but living here is FREE. Free wins.

A few pictures of our progress before moving on to goals...





I've been really thinking about what I want to accomplish this year. Some of it is just managing to maintain what I've begun. As far as my weight is concerned, I've done remarkably well in that area - My weight hasn't budged, even though my exercise has been sorely lacking. But there are a few things I'd like to do...

1. I already mentioned that I joined Tall Mom's 1000+ mile club. I really want to run MORE this year. I'm not quite ready for speed workouts yet, but I want to up my base mileage. When I told my husband this goal, he looked at me as if I had lost my mind - that's TWICE the mileage I did in 2010 - but if I do 2 marathons per the training schedule I have, and if I manage to stay injury free, this is very doable.

2. I want to lose 8 pounds this year. That will put me right at 150, which is a really good weight for me. I can do this by changing my diet up some more to include less junk food and more veggies and fruits. This will have the added benefit of helping my cholesterol improve.

3. I want to run a marathon in UNDER 6 hours. This is also very doable. And if things go well, we'll talk 5:30.

4. I want to be a better, more organized housekeeper. I suck at this. My plan is to pick 1 room a month to completely overhaul. That's manageable, in addition to keeping up better with day-to-day chores. I have a tendency to let things go til I can no longer stand it and then go crazy but do it all half-assed. If I can keep up, this will no longer happen.

5. I want to spend more one-on-one time with each of my kids. James gets a ton of me, but I need to give more to my other kids too.

6. MORE CROSSTRAINING. Seriously.

That's it for me. I plan on checking in once a month to figure out how well I'm doing. I have other things in my head, but these are the most important to me at this point. I need to step up, because my year hasn't started out so well - I have some catching up to do...

Three Things Thursday

1. I've been kind of quiet lately. My entire existence seems to be consumed by my youngest these days, and sometimes, I just can't wanna talk about it anymore. I love that kid with every fiber of my being, but lately it's been super tough being his mama. That said, I've taken every single kind comment to heart and filed them all away - thank you all so much. I'm hoping that once the school routine gets a little easier, I'll pull them back out and sort through them. I'm super interested in (and simultaneously terrified of) exploring a GFCF diet, but the fact that he ALREADY doesn't eat ANYTHING makes me shy away at this point.

2. On Monday I got out for a wonderful little run. And then it proceeded to SNOW LIKE MAD. And now, I'm neck deep in priming and painting our basement. Add shovelling to that and I'm an achy sore mess, so I'm totally counting it as strength training.

3. I joined Tall Mom's 1000+ mile club. BRING ON 2011!!!

Pam's "It's M'Burfday" and Adam's "Freeze Your Thorns Off" Virtual 5k Race Report

Let's just move on from the whining, shall we?


Today I ran 5k in honor of Pam's 31st birthday and for Adam's virtual "Freeze Your Thorns Off" race. When I signed up, I had absolutely no idea what was on the docket for 1/8, but I didn't really care - I figured it'd make me get off my ass and run. Cue today, which has way too much crammed into it, and I was wondering just how I was going to smash this in.

After checking the weather last night, I knew it wasn't going to be an early morning run. Brr!!! WAY too cold for that. So I got up, got the kids breakfast, started laundry, got myself dressed and headed out the door to bring Jenna to basketball practice at 9:30. During practice I did grocery shopping, barely finishing in time to pick her up at 11:00. We got home (yay! John saved me a cup of coffee) and I got the kids lunch and did some more laundry. Now it's noon, and I figure I have JUST enough time if I go RIGHT NOW. I need to be back before 1:00 so John can take Jenna to her first basketball game of the day (I so hate tournament weekends) so I hurriedly changed into running clothes after checking the weather one last time and I headed out the door by 12:15.

The weather: a temperature of 20 degrees F (feels like 5) and 17 mph winds. It was sunny, and there was a thin layer of snow on everything - just enough to keep it interesting. I set off down the street, making the first turn of my usual loop straight into that 17 mph wind. Holy SHIT. Freeze your thorns off is right! I guess I should have busted out the balaclava.

By the end of the first mile, I knew this was just going to suck. I was tired and my legs were heavy. I had NO energy to speak of. And then I realized it - did you catch it? The thing that was missing from my morning craziness? Yeah - I forgot to eat. Anything. And my 3 cups of coffee were just not cutting it. With that, I resolved to just get through it. DFL > DNF > DNS right? I was a third of the way there.

So I managed to finish. It wasn't pretty and it wasn't fast. But truthfully, I was glad to have carved out the only ME time of my entire day, and it felt good to get out there and get it done.


The details: 3.1 miles in 34:16 for an average pace of 11:03 per mile. That's ugly, but I'll take it. Splits were 11:04, 11:22 (the whiny section), 10:54, and the 0.1 at 9:15 (please let this just be DONE already!).

Thanks Adam and Pam (Happy Birthday!!!) for forcing my ass out the door today. I can GUARANTEE that without your virtual races, it wouldn't have happened for me today, and for that I'm grateful.

Brain Dump re:James

Disclaimer - much whining ahead. Read at your own risk.

This week has been a struggle. I want to bask in the greatness that was our vacation, but I find myself all tunnel-visioned on the small difficulties throughout. Those small things all centered around James, and culminated with the Wedding Which I Was Barely Able To Attend. Add on the difficulty of starting preschool the day after returning home from vacation (and we drove all night to get here) and I'm having a tough, emotionally wrought time of it all. AND to top it all off, I feel GUILTY for feeling this way.

Suffice it to say, I am a mess.

Up until vacation, I was in a lot of denial about what James is dealing with. Sure, I thought, they're calling him "on the Autism spectrum," but I don't really think that he is. But if that's how they need to label him to get him help, I'm cool with that. Even though I don't think that's what it is.

We left, and he did great on the trip down. He did great that first day at the Magic Kingdom. Sure, he had a tough go on the monorail, but he got used to it quickly. He warmed up to the characters at dinner that night, going so far as to give Minnie Mouse a huge hug (the boy had a serious Minnie crush).

Monday, we took a rest day, since it was seriously cold outside. We managed naps, and some recharging, and some playtime.

Tuesday we did Magic Kingdom from 8 until 10:30 that night. The girls had breakfast with the Princesses and we basically went the WHOLE DAY. James did great. Not a fan of rides, but he went on the People Mover and Pirates of the Caribbean without complaint. He whined through a couple others I shoved at him, and he sat most out by John and I tag teaming. He passed out during the parade of lights, but was basically (except for eating, but that's not unusual) a super-star all day.

Wednesday we did Epcot. We started late so everyone could sleep in a bit, and I'm not sure if that made it better or worse. He was pissed off from the get-go, and sat out of every ride (except Nemo, which he SCREAMED through). He still tolerated the running around of the day, but was completely done with all rides.

The ride phobia continued into Thursday when we hit up Hollywood Studios. I took him into Playhouse Disney (which he watches almost daily) thinking he'd love it and he screamed and thrashed until John took him out. Repeat for the Fantasia light show. Lost his mind. Kind of sensory overload for him. We had to take him out of that one too.

By the time we hit St. Pete beach, everyone was verging on cranky. Not surprising at all. James lasted about an hour into rehearsal dinner, which was about what I expected, and we had a great time at the beach on New Year's morning. When it came time for the wedding though, James was having none of it. He screamed (and for the record, James has never cried or whined quietly, he full on scary movie screams with full body thrashing. it's very intense.) until I took him out (it hadn't yet begun - he WOULD NOT sit down). So I had to leave my kids with my friend and missed the entire ceremony. I cried. It was heartbreaking for me, on so many levels. I managed to find a spot where I could see it, even if I couldn't hear it, but I was still so sad. Sad for me. Sad for James. John felt so bad for me, but couldn't help (he was a groomsman). Cue the reception, where James was fine during dinner, but as soon as the music started, he needed to get out. so I sat outside the ballroom doors for the entire reception. My beautiful daughter took over so I could have one dance with John, but that's all I got.

Coming home, I dreaded school, but James was really excited about it. I was glad to have John there for the first drop off, which was predictably difficult. I cried again (seriously - I need to stop!) until John told me, "There's no crying in Home Depot!" It has gotten progressively better, until this morning, where I Lost My Shit. Mostly because he did. But again, we made it there, and looking back on it, it was hard, but no harder than I could have expected it would be.

I happened upon a Diary of a Mom sometime back. Jess is the wife of one of my Daily Mile friends, Luau, and writes eloquently about life with an autistic child and autism advocacy. Yesterday, this post had me sobbing (not surprising lately, is it?). I swear I could almost have written it. It snapped me out of my denial and into my reality. And now I'm not sure what to do with all of that.

So now what? I'm not sure. But if you're still reading, thanks for listening. It helps me just to spew all of this at you. Maybe I'll figure it out tomorrow on my run...

First Things First...

The very first thing we did at 8am Monday morning after pulling into town, before we went home even, was to stop at the post office to pick up the mail we had held while we were gone. I am a mail whore - I LOVE getting the mail - and I knew that I wouldn't want to leave once I set foot inside our door.

A lovely surprise was waiting for me! A box, courtesy of my bloggy secret Santa, Adrienne, who blogs at Life of the Non Race Runner.

After tearing into it (c'mon - you didn't expect me to WAIT did you?) I found this pretty package:

and this very sweet card:

and inside? My new favorite running shirt, which I was FORCED to try out this morning. It is seriously SO CUTE:

Post first 2 and a half miles in a MONTH! ACK!

Thank you SO MUCH Adrienne! I love it! And thanks to Jill for organizing this fun...

Happy New Year!

We are back! And we survived! We did so much, and we had a really great time. As a result, I am exhausted. So I'll leave you with a few pictures, and I promise to bore you with trip details until you are sick of hearing about it, but first I have lots of unpacking and laundry to do, and Christmas to take down...

Santa showed up Christmas Eve morning - he must have known we were leaving!

It started out really cold...but we made the best of it. We saw lots of characters...



we played (yes, that's dinosaur mini golf - right out our window! our place was great...)



We saw amazing light displays and parades...


Well some of us did - some of us didn't quite make it...


About halfway in, the weather got a LOT nicer. Which was good, since we headed to the beach!



We had a lovely time at the wedding - it was a gorgeous day for it.

I'm looking forward to catching back up with everyone, but I have to say that it was really nice to be relatively unplugged for a while. And James started preschool today, so I have lots and lots to talk about. But first - the cleaning...