Going the Distance

The Return of TriMommy!

2011-05-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here I am... scary that when I logged in, it said I hadn't blogged since November 10, 2010. Yowsers!

A lot has gone on since then... I officially joined a law firm - Englert Leite & Martin PL - and as of last Friday, made that my sole full-time enterprise. Many weeks of 90 hours/week made it difficult to exercise. For a week in there I tried to do 20 minutes of the 30 day shred. It did not last for 30 days. It was seriously amazing how getting up at 5 am to work everyday so you could do law firm work and then full time other work, then networking or working until the wee hours day after day left no time whatsoever for that.

In December, I had to have my gallbladder removed after a night that made my doctor wonder if I had had a heart attack or minor stroke. Turned out it was my gallbladder (and a sinus infection - great use of a brain scan). So 2 days before Christmas, out it came. Don't remember much of Christmas, but I do know the girls were happy with Santa.

HIP Kids was still going gang busters, although we did move locations to a center that LOVES having the program there and the kids were thrilled to see us. That has ended for the year as well.

And of course, you know me - I can't have enough on my plate, so I have been running for Woman of the Year for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Fundraising has been difficult in this economy, but I've really been giving my all. I can't tell total numbers (against the rules), but the two fundraisers I had this weekend (a band benefit at a club downtown and a Happy Hour with silent bucket auction) raised $914! I was thrilled!

I'm in the final push for that as well - donations shut off at noon on Friday, May 20th... if you'd like to donate to help find a cure for cancer, please do: www.ncfl.mwoy.llsevent.org/katemartin (I know - I just disclosed my "true" identity hahahaha).

I am so happy to have been fundraising for LLS, a cause near and dear to my heart, but quite honestly I am ready for this to be over. It's a little stressful wondering if you're raising enough and what else can you do and so on.

I started reading the Secret, so I'm envisioning checks or credit card charges being made to my LLS campaign as we speak (and I'm not joking). It makes a lot of sense. Just like I used to envision races or even long workouts, now I'm doing it for other parts of my life. So far, I'm really good at getting parking spots. : )

Anyway. So I started back to the workout today (I needed a recovery day from my Sunday fundraising event - 4 Sangrias later)... Mind you I haven't run or anything (other than flirting with The Shred) since October. I ran and walked 2.5 miles with a neighbor today. I was kind of happy when she told me about .15 in that we were doing a 9 minute mile pace because I was dying. Of course, the entire thing was super hard since I have not been using my body for such things in awhile. I plan on an hour of yoga in the morning tomorrow, and a 2 mile run on Thursday, followed by a jog with my neighbor from my house to the Y where we will do a spin class and then jog home.

The hardest part about getting back into exercising (and eventually triathlon) again is the fact that despite my brain knowing it's been forever since I worked out, I had thoughts like "holy sh#t - what is wrong with me? I used to be able to run forever and at a much faster pace without needing to walk like this!" But by the end of the 2.5 miles I was able to remind myself (although I had to use the "You've gone farther than this to get here, so you can run to the house for about a distance of at most a 0.25 mile) that the good news was that I was out there doing something again.

The goal for now is to get back to being able to run 3 days a week 3-4 miles each day. Yoga at least 2-3 days a week, and maybe throw the shred in on a running day as well. Then start mixing the bike in. Next thing you know I'll be either doing road races or triathlons again. Ladybug has inquired about when that next triathlon will be a few times over the last month and is still telling people that when she grows up she wants to be a veterinarian (no, she does not say animal doctor and corrects you if you do - and no, she's not 5 yet), a Mommy & a triathlete. My goal is to get her and her sister riding a bike by the end of the summer. : )

Speaking of the girls, they are about to graduate from Pre-K. I registered them for Kindergarten today after an excruciating (and yet looking back at it funny) visit to the pediatrician for their final shots and 5 year old check up so that we could get them registered at school. They love their doctor, who is working with a resident - whose 1st day was today and whose 1st appointment was you guessed it - Ladybug and Angelfish! It is always funny to me how my kids can sense when someone doesn't have a full handle on what they're doing... they were silly. When asked to sing the ABCs, part way through they purposefully started saying them out of order and singing "CAKE spells cake." I had to tell them that the doctor needed to make sure that they could go to Kindergarten so they needed to answer her the right way... they sang it right that time. Angelfish told the doctor she brushes her teeth 5 times a day and watches 10 hours of TV everyday, until I asked her if she was being silly. Ladybug said she brushes her teeth once a day - once in the mornning and once in the evening, then said 1+1 = 2, so I guess that's really 2 times. When the "regular" doctor came in, they were just fine. Reminds me of the movie Jerry Maguire - kids and dogs can smell fear.

Speaking of fear. Then it was time for shots. Hysteria. To the point that Ladybug was fighting and begging me not to let them give her shots, and then Angelfish had to be pulled out from underneath a table she was hiding under. Hysteria x 2 when it came to the finger prick for the annual bloodwork to check cholesterol and such. I asked Ladybug to tell Angelfish it really wasn't all that bad, and instead she said "Angelfish ball your fist up really hard - don't let them do it to you!" I had to get Ladybug to sit outside the room on a bench and explain that they were about to call for nurses to hold Angelfish down to get the blood drawn for Angelfish to relent and give them a finger to prick. And then she was fascinated by how they collected her blood in the tube for the test. And within 5 minutes they were both happy go lucky little kids again.

So in some ways, things have changed. And some ways things have stayed the same. 2.5 miles used to be a short easy run... but at least I'm doing it again! I loved running - need a new pair of shoes, but it felt great (despite being as hard as hades...) to be out there again.

I plan to keep it up. That full IM by 40 might still be in the action plan after all...

It's Been A While...

2010-11-30T05:32:00.000-08:00

It has been a while. I hope you all haven't given up on me. Life has been quite busy - networking, working and more working, the little ladies, and the everyday stuff. I admit fully that the thing that had to give (because something had to) was my training. Unfortunately, that meant no training.

I've been doing marathons of another sort - working or networking or doing meetings each night until 11 pm and not being able to drag myself out of bed at 5:30 to get the work outs in. But I will say that even though a bit stressful, I'm having a great time with it all.

Yet, I was constantly missing physical activity. Sure, I play some with the kids but going from triathelete to not exercising at all definitely left a hole - not just the pressure of not having gotten a workout done, but the physical need for movement AND stress relief.

So this Monday, I got out of bed at 6 am and went for a 2 miler. I figure I am starting over at this point. But amazingly, it wasn't as bad as I thought. I've retained some stamina at least. My back has been twingy (probably thanks to high heels being reintroduced into my wardrobe) so I didn't push it - I alternated running 0.25 miles with walking 0.25 miles and still made it home in less than half an hour. I definitely need new shoes - they squeaked the whole way and my knee (which only bothers me when it's time to get a new pair of shoes) twinged toward the end. It felt so good to be out and moving again. And I felt good when running. My lungs burned a little but then I just slowed the pace a tiny bit and that stopped. I didn't wear a watch so I'm not sure how long it took me, but I know it was less than half an hour... I think around 25 minutes.

This morning I got up at 5:50 and after a quick look at the internet because our phone is not working but our DSL is, I did half an hour of yoga. Oddly enough, after the yoga was done I wished I had run again. But for now, the plan is to get back to doing 5/1's in a 2 miler and then slowly add more distance. I have a feeling I can still do the 5/1's but my mind has to believe it more than my body.

It may be a little bit until I am able to figure out how to get tri training in and enough sleep and everything done, but for now I hope to get 3-4 five mile runs in a week and do yoga for 1/2 an hour on the other days with Sunday off. Of course, this morning while doing a one-legged down dog pose the thought came to me - a full IM the year I turn 40. That's 5 years from now, so we'll see but even down deep and in my dreams I'm still a triathlete.

The girls are doing great by the way... looking forward to Santa. Angelfish is definitely driven by Santa and presents - she modifies her behavior and tells us that she's thinking of Santa and whether he'd think she was being nice or naughty, and that she loves Santa Claus. Ladybug is stubborn still but she's getting better at making "good choices" instead of just insisting on her way. But she may get a little coal in her stocking to prove a point... I just can't decide if that would be too traumatizing for her or not.

We attempted to take them ice skating the other week (yes in Florida) which was more of a hassle than anything. I don't think 4 year old balance was quite good enough to endure. But I will say I was really proud of their effort. They were on the ice a good 15-30 minutes before giving up the ghost. Lots of falling but no crying. Amazingly, I did not fall despite holding the hand of a small child and attempting to keep the child up and moving without injuring them or me. It was kind of like cycling in a windstorm... I would bear down with my quads and steady my lower body while still moving but then was using my upper body to pull up on the kiddo. My lower back wasn't thrilled by the end of it all, but I think they had a good time all the same. Mr. Darcy said that he won't contemplate attempting it again until they're at least 7... so 2 1/2 years from now, stay tuned.

I hope you all are well - I have to admit that my blog reading has been nonexistent. So I have a ton to catch up with...

Love is in the Air - or at least the Love Bugs are...

2010-09-29T04:04:00.000-07:00

It is love bug season here in Orlando, and it's a rather cosmic infestation this year. The girls' daycare is evidently extremely attractive to the love bugs, as one day the entire front of the building was covered in love bugs. Over the weekend, they had even found their way into the girls' classrooms through a crack somewhere and the floor was covered with dead love bugs.

Now, I'm not sure about you all, but when you can't walk outside without getting love bugs on you it doesn't really induce me to want to run or bike. Especially bike - I envision my face having those splattered love bugs all over it like my windshield does. Yuck. And that goes double yuck when I think about the fact that those love bugs that are stuck together are in fact copulating. Double yuck.

Monday I took the girls to daycare, so that took up my morning workout time. Tuesday I did an hour of yoga, and the 2nd half hour was a difficult third eye opening sequence with planks, side planks and more that left me super sweaty... and made my tricepts and my hamstrings a little sore. I take it as a good thing. This morning, I was stressing over some stuff that I can't talk about in the blog just yet, so I got up and sent a few emails and then went for a 2 mile run. I did it in just a little under 20 minutes, which I was happy with. It's my first run since the bronchitis and I only stopped coughing sometime around last Friday. My lungs felt good, but my mind was all over the place. I figured since I haven't really run, run in about 2 months (very pathetic to see that in writing) I would start with a good solid run for 2 miles. I didn't wear a watch so I'm pretty sure my running stretches were longer than 5 minutes, especially since I hit the half mile mark before I walked a minute and then didn't walk again until after I hit the mile mark, or the 1.4 mile mark and then didn't walk until I got home. All in all I was pleased. Although I realized that I need to wear my watch and do the 5/1's because it's like a contract with myself - I know I am going to run for 5 and walk for 1. When I run without my watch, my brain likes to try to say things to me like "you can stop here and then walk to there and then run." and sometimes its after just a silly little space of distance... and it wasn't just today, it's every time I don't run with a watch. So my running watch will be my constant running companion from this point out. It had rained yesterday, and evidently the love bugs don't like rain because I had a nice love bug free run. : )

Of course, love bug season has caused some interesting discussions around our house. Ladybug has decided that she loves the love bugs. As she tells me, "Mommy, I love the love bugs and they love me too." She is very sensitive to all of God's creatures, including red ants and any other sort of bug. She was a bit distraught one day though and asked me "Do love bugs suck all the love out of your heart when they land on you?" I told her no, and asked where she heard that one. From one of her little daycare friends who I happen to know that her parents just got divorced. So I had to explain why they are called love bugs. But, since I personally am not ready to have the S-E-X discussion with my 4 year olds (mainly because Mr. Darcy would probably pass out), I left the fact that the bugs are copulating out of the discussion. I told her that they are called love bugs because the ones that are attached to each other are like people who are in love - they always want to be together. Then she asked "but what about the ones that aren't attached?" I had to think quick, so I said "those are the ones still looking for their true love." Other than saying she was sad for those love bugs because they were lonely, she was good with that. You have to be a quick thinker with these kids...

We've also been working on manners, and it must be sinking in because this weekend Angelfish was having a difficult time saying "surprise" - she kept saying "urpise." So I helped her by saying the word for her and really emphasizing the "sur" part of the word. To which she responded, "Mommy? Is it "sirprise" and "m'am prise"? Mr. Darcy and I had a nice laugh over that one and I of course explained that while it sounds similar it's two different things.

And that my friends, is all the news that is fit to print... for now!

The Verdict

2010-09-15T09:40:00.000-07:00

I had a feeling this morning what the doctor was going to say. I woke up knowing I had to take the car to get repaired and pick up the rental car since it's supposed to be in the shop until Friday (which I wonder why since my little dent is NOTHING compared to every other car I saw in the car yard today - there was one vehicle whose entire backend was in pieces on the ground behind it. I couldn't help but look and wonder at whether everyone was okay in those other collisions. Mine literally is just a pushed in corner with some missing paint on the left corner of my bumper and nothing else.). I could barely talk and my cough sounded a bit like a barking dog, and worst of all my chest felt super heavy while just breathing. The tell tale signs of bronchitis.

I got up and did what I needed to do, showing up in a Gold Chevy Impala whose engine is so quiet that I can't tell if it's on while I'm driving. It's so quiet it's a little disconcerting. It took some doing to get the car seats latched in... I had to enlist the help of the car rental employee checking the vehicle out to me. But anyway, those two little things and I was wiped out. I actually fell asleep waiting for the doctor to come in to see me, and I wasn't back there all that long. Not the greatest. Nor was it wonderful that almost each time he told me to take a deep breath I coughed hard afterwards.

So the verdict? Severe Bronchitis. How this happens just from Sunday forward I have no idea. But there it is. And so I am working on my laptop in bed today as the doctor told me that I am to rest. Working in bed is resting, right? Well, it's as close as I'm getting because I teach a seminar on Tuesday and my paralegal is out on PTO for the rest of week as of 1/2 an hour from now. No time to rest. It's bad enough I'm missing 2 events this week and my friend Belle (who I do not blame at all for her decision) has opted out of our weekend visit because it would be a very bad time for her to be sick as well - lots going on at work and such. But we'll reschedule and have lots of fun when we are both well. But no training until I am feeling better either. At this point, I'm determined to do the 1/2 Mary - even if I have to walk it!

But for now, I am drinking lots of hot mint tea, taking my Z-pack as prescribed, and the mucinex and Robitussin DM....

The Angry Coughing Froggy Lady

2010-09-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

That title is me. I am coughing and when I do it hurts in my lungs. I feel like I have an egg in my throat - even when I'm not coughing. My chest feels heavy when I'm just sitting around, you know... breathing. When I talk, I sound like a mess and am often interrupted by coughing while doing it. Turns out my doctor's office is closed today. The doctor and the PA (who are married) are out of town and have not left another doctor to see their patients in their absence. Not sure I care for that, but I do love the PA. If she were a doctor, she'd be the best doctor ever.... between her bedside manner and her knowledge and her ability to say I'm going to look into that for you, she rocks. Anyway, I talked to the doctor on the phone because I put in a call since I had left a message and it appeared that the office was closed... they should have had something that said the office was closed until tomorrow not just the office is currently closed because that sounds like it's opening up today to me. Anyway, I felt bad about bothering him when he was on vacation but I thought the office would be open or that the doctor on call would be a different doctor if the doctor was not in today. But the pain and pressure are something that needs attention. I don't mess with my lungs - my whole life I've been prone to bronchitis and have had some doozies of near pneumonia in my life, so I know what feels like I need to see a doctor and be on antibiotics... the throat thing is the part that I'm not sure about but the egg thing is not fun. He told me that the office would be open tomorrow, he was out of town, but that they would work me in tomorrow and to call again in the morning and that there is a nasty bronchitis going around, get some mucinex DM and drink lots of fluids in the meantime.

I then asked the question... can I be around people? I'm supposed to be at an event tonight with about 15 small children and about 10-20 adults. He said not to go. Stay home because I don't want to spread it around. And that dear friends is why I am angry. Not at the doctor but at the situation.

This whole getting sick thing is really inconveinent for me right now. Today, this very day, is the very first session of our HIP Kids Club. Seriously. My Co-Chair, Assistant Co-Chairs and I have worked very hard getting this program together. We've dealt with changes in administration at the center, dinners that cannot be provided the way we thought they would, hunting down speakers and food donors, and much more. Our committee has been great in that they show up excited and ready to go. This is our first week with the kids - we have 17 kids signed up, and I want to be there. I want to meet them and talk with them and see "Our Kids" for the program. I want to see how they react to our lady who is talking about the importance of breakfast - in a fun way - she's even doing a breakfast rap. I want to see it and have fun. I know there will be another session each month between now and May, but this is the FIRST one. While I am tempted to go anyway, I won't unless my Co-Chair and Assistant Co-Chairs tell me to go because they want me there - germy and all - and I'll just keep my distance from everyone.... I don't want other people to get this. It's not fun. Mr. Darcy and Ladybug had this and both ended up on antibiotics, and now Angelfish and I have it. I already told Angelfish that if her cough doesn't get better by Thursday, I'm taking her to the doctor on Friday. But if it gets as bad as mine before then, I'm taking her immediately.

This week and next are just not a good time for me to be sick. I have too much on tap. Tomorrow I have a networking event, so depending on whether the doctor says that I can go to that, I need to go. I just sound terrible, so I'm not sure if that's the best plan. Of course the doctor may tell me not to go to that too. Sigh. Thursday is Open House at the girls' school. Friday is a working lunch and a dinner party that evening (at our house no less). Saturday I'm going to Tampa to spend girl time with Belle who is now settled in her new place (while Mr. Belle is on a guys weekend). Sunday I have a meeting at 5 pm, and I have to pack because Monday and Tuesday I am in Pittsburgh for work, to return Tuesday night and head from the airport to our Junior League Council meeting. Wednesday is a Junior League event in the evening followed by a UF Law Alumni Happy Hour on Thursday. But Friday and after is much clearer sailing. So, as you can see - I just don't have time for this.

And then of course there's my 1/2 MARY TRAINING! My spirit is completely willing but this cold is getting in my way. It's bad that when I talk it makes me cough, so I'm thinking that speed sets wouldn't have been a good idea this morning. But I'm really getting annoyed. Plus, the training always helps take the stress and the pounds away!

Let's hope this is better and fast! Train hard so I can live vicariously!

Monday... Already?

2010-09-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

What is that wierd hacking noise you ask? Only some odd cold that I have. It's odd because I had a runny nose for a few hours and felt tired, and then woke up in the middle of the night after Ladybug kicked me on the hip bone and all of a sudden started hacking. Which, in combination with my cardiology appointment this morning, cancelled this morning's workout... that hacking session where I tried not to pee my pants while hacking up the giant green glob convinced me that I should take the day off.

But we had a nice weekend... not much running got done, but there's always this week. I am optimistic. Last week I got my 45 minute run in and my yoga, so that was good. Friday I drove up to Gainesville and socialized first with law students and then with law alumni and some professors from UF Law. By the end of the night my feet were killing me from my heels. I need a pair that have a shorter heel. I've deemed it so. Saturday I was up early for our law council meetings and then wandered off with my friend Lauren and my lovely Mr. Darcy who turned 36 this weekend to the football game. We won, but it wasn't pretty and it certainly wasn't looking good the first half. Second half it was like they realized they could play football afterall. And it was HOT. So hot that I sweated clear through my clothes by the end of the 1st quarter. Drank 4 bottles of water and did NOT have to pee until hours later, and poured water on my head only to have it evaporate before it even left the top of my head. It reminded me of triathlon!

After that we caught up with friends of Mr. Darcy's (Mr. Darcy had spent Saturday morning with them... I have to admit I was surprised at their sobriety - I expected intoxication) for a little bit. It was good to see the old guys Mr. Darcy hung out with in college. Then we were off in search of food. Ended up with a greasy burger and fries that for some odd reason tasted amazingly good. Felt awful afterwards, but great while eating it.

Then we drove separately to Mr. Darcy's parents and saw the girls. It was so wonderful to spend some time with the little ladies. At bed time, I was so tired that I fell asleep with them in the guest room. That Ladybug though, she's a bed hog. And she kicked me 1st in the hip and then the knee. I decided to save my joints and get up and that, dear friends is when the hacking began. Not fair.

After birthday cake and party time for our niece and Mr. Darcy (4 and 36 respectively) we headed on home. I drove the girls while they watched "Sleeping Beauty" followed by "Kung Fu Panda." Along the way Angelfish told me I was "the most stupendous Mommy ever" and Ladybug figured out a way to wrap a beaded necklace around her hands so tightly that I had to pull over to untangle them - it was like she had on handcuffs. If she didn't look so worried, I would have laughed my butt off right then and there.

Finally home, we skipped bath time and went straight to bed... okay, well, the girls went straight to their playroom and colored and we figured out ways to get them into their pajamas and then straight to bed. This morning we all tried to pry ourselves out of bed, and I discovered Mr. Darcy failed to tell me that Ladybug had homework (yes, VPK homework) due this morning. We decorated our fabric swatch with glitter and drawings in marker. Not sure if that's what the teacher was looking for in "decorate this fabric swatch with your child and return"or not, but that's what we did. Ladybug had her own ideas and didn't want my help anyway, although I successfully suggested a flower as part of her artwork. Then it was off to the cardiologist.

When I got to see the doctor, he asked me what I had been doing differently. I told him I hadn't really been running or anything in the past month or so but that I had cut out processed food from my diet as much as possible. I thought he was going to tell me something bad, but he said that my VAP test was awesome. My cholesterol was down to 113 and my particles were now large and buoyant again, and he was happy that my weight had gone down a bit too. Go ZONE! So I am charged with keeping it up, although he suggested I also go back to my exercising. I told him that was the plan since I have a 1/2 Mary in November. And then I coughed my lungs out.

Delta also messed with me today - moved my flights to visit my friend in New Hamshire to the point that it was ridiculous. At 1st they told me that I would have to take crazy flights that would make me only be there for about 1 1/2 days out of what was supposed to be a 3 day visit when we 1st scheduled it. Then they said that if I didn't like what they could give me they would give me my money back. I asked if they could just change the flights for me to add another day and they said I'd have to pay change fees and all of that. I hung up and said I'd call back. I found flights that were cheaper than what I paid for but adding a day, so I called and told them to refund my flight, they sent me to another person who did what they should have done all along. The last person waived the flight change fee because it was Delta's fault, and then refunded the $79 that was more than the flight they moved me to, and booked me on the new flight with a seat assignment. So I went from being annoyed to being happy all in one fell swoop.

Our 1st HIP Kids event is tommorrow. I'm pretty happy about that... although we still don't have an exact number for the group yet. It's supposed to be around 15, but the director of the facility could only tell the other Co-Chair that parents have been signing their children up and that she'd have to figure out the exact number for us because she didn't know. As long as kids are signing up... I had a nightmare a week or so ago that we had everything perfectly planned, but no children to attend. In the dream there were reporters and all sorts of craziness too. I doubt that will happen, but it's nice to have your subconscious soothed as well.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a speed set. I plan to do it unless the hacking gets worse.... or I get a fever. I am hoping neither of those occur. This girl needs to run!

A Nutty Few Days... but then What's New!

2010-09-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

We had a nice Labor Day weekend. I even bought some suits (work ones, not tri ones), or so I thought. I did 5 miles with a friend too. YAY!

Tuesday morning I went to do some routine bloodwork - checking to see if my cholesterol went back to happy bouncy cholesterol instead of the crunchy kind thanks to my thyroid. I decided I would stop by the tailor with my new suits. Turns out my lovely suits could not be altered. I'm not sure if I ever told you all that I'm built like a swimmer - or a line backer depending on your perspective - and always have been. I have very broad shoulders. Even back before the twins when I was a size 4/6, I always had to get at least an 8 in the suit jacket and then have it tailored in. Many times what fits in my body does NOT fit in the shoulders - the end of my shoulder usually ends up 1 inch past the seam where the sleeve begins. Well, to get the suit jacket to fit, I had to have a certain size which also made it 1 size too big in the waist, etc. But they were pieced in such a way that you couldn't shorten the sleeves OR take in the back, waist or chest. Okay, well, you could but it would cost almost as much as the jacket did to begin with. So I found out I had no suits after all and would have to take them back.

So I hatched the plan to work the day and then use my lunch at the end of the day to have a little more time to shop. Mr. Darcy would pick up the ladies. I discovered that a scaly patch of skin I had found 2 months ago was still there, and got an appointment with a determatologist for today (yay for whoever cancelled)! My Mom had basal cell carcinoma when I was younger, so I don't play games with these things. Then I set about my business and around 11:30, I get a call from daycare.

Angelfish fell while playing on the playground equipment (there's a bridge that connects two parts of the play area - she was running, tripped and fell) and split her chin right open. Two years ago she did something similar while running on tile at daycare. But this time, when I got there and saw it, I was pretty sure she split it right down to the fat layer. I rushed her to the urgent care center only to be told that I could "have an appointment for 3 pm" that day. When I asked why they were trying to make an appointment because wasn't it an urgent care center? They told me that they did appointments now. I told them that was crazy because if I wanted to wait for an appointment or for 3 hours to have my daughter who was bleeding seen, I'd go to the ER or call her pediatrician. I'm still perplexed as to how it's an urgent care center if they're giving out appointments. It would have been one thing if they had told me that there was an estimated 3 hour wait (which I asked and they said not necessarily but this is how they're doing things), but to give me an appointment?

Anyway. So I called her pediatrician and found out that they could squeeze us in at 12:20. It was 11:47. I was a woman on a mission, and we got there by 12:15. The pediatrician's office is across town. Angelfish is a complete trouper. She told me she cried at first when her boo boo happened, but the school told me that she stopped after a minute or so and asked if she could have a bandaid so she could keep playing! She didn't cry when I looked at it, and only when I asked if she was doing okay while we were in the car did she say that her chin hurt - it was throbbing. The only time she wimpered was when the doctor was looking at it and she thought she might get a shot! The kid is tough. Her pain tolerance is a little scary, actually.

Mr. Darcy took his lunch hour to bring us some lunch because Angelfish hadn't gotten to eat because she was hurt. He hung out with us and then went back to work after the appointment was over. Then due to Angelfish's incessant interest in her newly glued chin and the seri strips on top, I took the rest of the day off.

Angelfish and I played ball for a little and then went shopping. Along the way we were talking and singing and having a grand ol' time when all of a sudden I see a police car with flashing lights behind me. I glance down and low and behold I am driving 60 in a 45. I had no clue I was driving so fast and there was no one around us for miles on the road. I pull over with that feeling like you just want to vomit. But I was driving that fast, and I believe in the consequences of our actions so I was ready for the ticket. The police officer was a very nice man. I apologized to him and told him that I had been talking and singing with my daughter and did not even realize I was speeding until I saw his lights and then looked down at my spedometer. And he asked me, "So m'am. When you glanced down at your dash, how fast were you going?" I told him that I wasn't going to lie to him, I was doing 60. He said that was exactly what he clocked me at. Told me that the fines for speeding recently went up in our county and that my ticket would be $404. I almost burst into tears, but I didn't. I don't believe in the boo hooing. But I could tell that he realized that I was exasperated by the price and overwhelmed. He asked me how my driving record was. I told him it was good, but was honest and said that I had a warning for speeding several months ago because my aunt had died, I wasn't paying attention to my speed and didn't realize that the speed wasn't 65 anymore but was 55 in the spot I was at, and while I realized that didn't really substantiate my statement that I don't speed regularly I wasn't going to lie to him either. He took my driver's license and disappeared into his car. For what seemed like an eternity later, he came back. He asked me how old my daughter was - I told him she was 4 and we weren't having a very good day because she split her chin open earlier and we were off to walk around the mall since I had taken the rest of the day off of work to be with her. He then did a very, very nice thing and told me that he was going to make my day better because he was not going to give me a ticket. He told me I really needed to pay attention to my speed, and sent me on my way. I really wanted to throw up about the whole thing, that his kindness was astounding to me.

We made it to the shops, where Angelfish exclaimed at how beautiful the mall was. It really is, if you stop to look at it. She was amazing - she colored and talked to me, and even told me what she thought of what I tried on. We rode every escalator, elevator and took all the stairs we came to in the mall, but it was fun to shop with her. I ended up returning my suits and not finding anything else - the other things I liked on also had issues with being able to be tailored. So I'm without a skirt suit for the Law Alumni Council meetings, but I'll wear a pant suit and survive I'm sure. I've been reading how pant suits are a no-no for female attorneys so, I really didn't want to wear one but it was that or a suit dress, and I think the pant suit will work out better - don't want to be taken for the secretary instead (which is what the book I'm reading says happens when you don't wear a jacket over a dress). But I will survive.

We made it home in time for dinner with Mr. Darcy and Ladybug. Turns out that Holland was so worried about Angelfish that he knocked on Mr. Darcy's window as they were leaving daycare to find out how she was. Very cute! After all of that excitement I was a bit tired, so once we got the girls in bed, I fell asleep too.

This morning I headed off to the dermatologist... I had a head to toe skin inspection, and the doctor asked me "With your fair skin and light eyes, you stay out of the sun right?" To which I answered, well I'm a triathlete so no... but I use a lot of sunscreen. To which I got the response - I'm surprised you don't have a lot more skin damage. And that scaly spot? They think it's a patch of extra dry skin and gave me a cream to use on it. If it goes away, all is well. If after a month it is still there and still scaly, I go in for a biopsy. So I'm voting for the cream to make things go away. Evidently as "we age" spots like this can occur. I loved how it was related to age, and was extra glad that I made sure to do my strength work this morning so that didn't stress me out as much as it would have otherwise.

I've got a 45 minute run on tap for tomorrow, which I am looking forward to. The stress of the past few days seems to make that run all the more desirable. Along with a margarita. But I'm resisting the margarita and placing all my hopes into the run instead. Much healthier option. Plus, I won't have to clean the blender.

2 Miles and a Plan!

2010-09-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

This morning, I ran 2.1 miles (to be exact). I have to admit that I did the short run because well, I was a little bit scared. I know it's silly - the allergist said I'm fine and all that. But it was like recurring nightmares of back when I was 16 and almost died. So I decided 1st day on the open road (and yes, I'm still running by myself because this whole trying to have someone to workout when I'm able in my crazy schedule ends up with me not working out and last night I decided it was enough), I would go 2 miles. I didn't wear a heart rate monitor or a watch. I simply noted the time when I left and when I got back.

During my run, I thought that perhaps my asthma was acting up (which I think it was). But it eventually seemed to subside - I had to think hard about my breathing and slowing it and all, but it worked. I ran for longish distances (it was 2 miles after all) and then walked a little and ran. I figured it was close approximation of my 5/1s.

The nice surprise was to return home and discover I had run the 2 miles in 21:38. Beautiful! Around a 10:19 pace. You can't shake a stick at it for being out of things for about a month!

So then I turned my attention to an email I got reminding me about the Women's 1/2 Marathon in St. Pete that I'm registered to run in. And I put together my plan for the next 11 weeks. Oh yeah. I may not end up being super fast (or even beat my time from earlier this year), but I'm gonna get her done! I've got one day with yoga, 2 days with cycling, 3 days of running on the calendar. Yup, I know. There's no swimming on it. I decided that for the rest of the year I'm focusing on the run primarily and some cycling. There's some strength training in there too. Besides, Mr. Darcy is no where close to using our Y membership and he's finally admitted it, so we will be keeping the $55 per month in our pockets from now on. And the $37 from the LA Fitness got scrapped too because I only use it for the pool 1-2 times a week. I may get myself out to Lucky's on some of those bike days if I miss it too much. But for now, I'm going to focus on the 1/2 Mary. And in January I'm going to see about those triathlons again.

But in a way this is my version of cutting myself a break. I've missed my training a ton in the past month. But I'm also running around between networking and Junior League and my dayjob. And something has to give. I love Mr. Darcy and the Liliputians (Great name for a rock band if anyone is looking for one.) so I'm not going to cut into more time with them than I already am. I'm still eating healthy as can be and sticking to my zone paleo eating - although I falter every once in awhile but it's usually only once in the week at most and I attempt to balance it.

Funny thing is that I haven't been that hungry since I wasn't working out. Today I've been ravenous - 2 miles running must have kick started things. So I'm drinking a bunch of water and sticking to the zone. : )

I'm excited abotu my training plan. I'm going to do yoga tomorrow for an hour and then run on Saturday for 4 miles.... hopefully with my friend J who is doing the race with me. She and I figured that at the very least we'll finish and get that cool medal! And if I end up beating my earlier race, great!

Hullo!

2010-08-31T07:54:00.000-07:00

It is I the missing blogger. I only have a minute as I am a little busy at the moment, but I wanted to drop by and say hello, apologize for not reading blogs (I will catch up eventually), and say that I will be back soon to say more... but here are some quick blips:

The allergist said that he thinks my reaction was an unknown random event. I can exercise with my epi pen in tow and if it happens again, I'll go back in.
I did an hour of high level yoga yesterday and my shoulders are sore. Sad.
I did not work out this morning because I overslept after a glass of wine, chocolate, and cheese - oh and recovering from hitting a parked car as I was backing out at the Callahan Center. It was perfectly in the blind spot on the left side of the minivan. Talk about ruining a day. Luckily, no one was hurt, I found the vehicle's owner, and I was going slowly.
HIP Kids is really shaping up to something that I'm really proud of... we almost have everything in place and we're unveiling our program logo at the Junior League General Membership Meeting this evening!
We took Angelfish and Ladybug to Animal Kingdom this weekend. It was a blast!
It also resulted in Ladybug blurting out in the middle of church "I miss Jesus AND the dinosaurs!"
Later in the day, Angelfish told us that she misses "Miss Lili (her old teacher) and the rides at the Animal Kingdom."
Yesterday while talking on the phone with her Grammie, Ladybug told her "I'm sorry Grammie, but I am busy reading a magazine right now. It has my dentist in it." (which it did - there was an article about their pediatrician's practice and how great it is.)
Angelfish informed me this morning that "You are the bestest Mommy and I love you so much that I want you to be my Mommy forever!" I didnt' have the heart to tell her that she's stuck with me. But that really put a smile on my face.

And now it's off to the circus again...

Feeling Happy.

2010-08-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

Happy Thursday everyone!

Today I slept late. No alarm clock, and strangely it felt good. Of course, I've been burning the midnight oil as of late with things. Still wanted to work out like mad, but with us running so behind it didn't leave time for me to break the moratorium on workouts.... yet. I'm trying to be a good girl, but it's getting harder everyday.

Last night was the parent meeting for VPK. We rushed to gymnastics - the girls and I - and they wandered on to class. In the car they told me they do not want to do gymnastics anymore. Soccer they say. Really? Soccer? Yes. You all may remember that their idea of soccer was to hang out on the sideline running around the external portion of the field, refusing to play except with each other, leaving me every practice an irate parent based on behavior and a reminder that I actually cannot control my children's behavior they have to buy in to it too. Even Mr. Darcy tried to convince them that they really want to do gymnastics. But nothing could change their minds - even after having fun at class. But at the same time, I'll save the $ per month if they don't want to do it. It's expensive. Now I am plotting their next activity - I am all about keeping these kids active. I want them to avoid ever being out of shape... so I'm between pre-ballet and tap class (they LOVE to dance around the house) and karate (they love to pretend to do karate too after seeing the original "Karate Kid" with Mr. Darcy). We'll have to see which (if any) of these they have an interest in.

Once Mr. Darcy arrived at the gym, we chatted for a bit and then off I went to VPK. We weren't supposed to bring children with us, but there were plenty there.... including another set of twins! These twins are known to us too - they were on the soccer team with Angelfish and Ladybug, but they actually played a little. One will be in Angelfish's class and one will be in Ladybug's. I talked to their Mom a few minutes as well as Holland and Connor's Moms. I really like these two ladies a ton. We're going on our first "girls' night" together and I am quite excited!! We're going to have dinner and see a play... like real grown ups!

So back to VPK itself... the rules are the rules, nothing unusual. The thing that struck me though was what a good job they did in placing my girls with the right teachers. A friend's daughter had one and her Mom raves about her, and the other teacher is in with the owner's child so I figure she has to be good. Their styles are totally different. One is definitely a orderly kind of person, definite rule establisher and follower. She talked to the parents in a group with a formal discussion, and the other was more of a come up to me and have a chat type of gal. Angelfish is in with the more laid back kind of gal, which is perfect for her. You try and force her to do something because it's a rule and she gets defiant... she'll be sweet about it, but she'll do all that she can to get her way. So a softer approach works better with her. Ladybug on the other hand does not need soft. If she gets soft, she tries to take charge. So being with the rule establisher is good for her. I left feeling happy... except for the fact that they want us to bring in a 2nd pair of shoes along with 2 changes of clothes AND they're requiring them to wear sneakers.

I personally love sneakers, but my girls like to wear "dress" shoes. After fighting with them for months, we realized that as long as we put them in good supportive mary jane's it really doesn't matter. You should have seen the look on their faces when I told them they have to wear sneakers to school... not pleased. We're going to get them backpacks this weekend. Not sure they 100% need them, but at the same time it will be good to cart things back and forth from school. Ladybug has to have a family picture and a folder too. I don't even think we have a recent picture that has all 4 of us in it. Lots of pictures of the kids, but not too many with grown ups in it. We may have to just take our own picture together this weekend...

VPK thoughts make me happy.

HIP Kids. Things ironed out a bit. The food bank made it so that while we couldn't get in to pack our packs, they will have volunteers do it for us. So at least we will have packs to deliver during the month of September! YAY! Then I found a restaurant to do our 1st Family Night Dinner - I have to admit it helped that the owner of the restaurant is also a committee member and then she also had found someone to do the food for our 1st HIP Kids Club as well. So we are rolling! That made me happy too.

LLS (Leukemia & Lymphoma Society). I didn't mention much about this yet and I'm not sure of all of the details yet either. BUT, even though I can't do a TNT event because of time constraints and such, I'm going to be involved with them as a volunteer... not sure of my duties quite yet, but I'm excited! I should know more by the end of next week. I just couldn't give up the mission. I want to erradicate cancer too badly! So this too made me a happy girl!

Museum Day. Okay this isn't until September 25th, but I still got excited and happy about it when I found out about it today - Smithsonian affiliated museums across the country are providing free admission for two people on September 25th. To get your free tickets, visit: www.smithsonian.com/museum - they also have a list of participating museums across the country. I got our tickets for the Polsek Museum & Sculpture Garden - I figured the girls would enjoy that (and so would we)! YAY! Museums!

I guess I feel like in some ways things are finally coming together again. I loved living in Atlanta and didn't want to leave because we had such wonderful friends and I was involved in my community. Last year, I moved past missing Atlanta and started embracing Orlando. And now I feel like I'm getting that sense of belonging again - I'm starting to make friends and get involved again. I need the feeling of interconnectivity with my world. And working from home makes that very, very, very difficult. But now things feel better like I'm getting interconnected again.

And that makes me happy... and once I can start training again, life will be complete!

Joining the Circus

2010-08-18T07:46:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for your comments to my last post. They made me smile.

Lately, that's sometimes how I've felt. Like I was part of a crazy ol' circus. Things will settle down and then more bumps in the road appear to get me going again.

The identity theft appears to have been more of a hassle and a bit frightening than anything. No money has been taken or charged improperly at this point, and we think we're in the process of having the credit bureaus in line as well. So that is good. Knock on wood.

The allergies... well, I'm still waiting for that appointment next week. Today was torture not to work out. If I feel like this tomorrow morning, I may just have to break down and do a yoga video. Just a half hour one. Because I seriously am going through physical activity withdrawal... which makes me a little grumpy at times. This is where I step into the Big Circus Tent

HIP Kids. I love HIP Kids. My co-chair and assistant co-chairs are awesome. I feel like we're becoming friends and I really like chatting with them and seeing them.... which is a good thing because since June we've pretty much seen each other every week. No joke. We are women on a mission and all quite capable of making things happen. We've gotten our logo designed and approved by Marketing and Branding, and as of today will have our labels ordered for our food packs. We've got a great committee of women who are all signed up to plan their event for the kids, and have their theme idea and are starting to plan. We have a good speaker for our 1st Family Night. We have our ducks in a row. BUT then there are issues like the food bank telling us they can't help us at all with dinner for the Family Nights - so we're racing around trying to find a donor/someplace we can order in budget; and we had to push the 1st dinner Night back a month. The center is changing directors and we're not sure how many kids we'll have for the 1st session... let alone if the new director will want to change anything, but we're hoping to meet with her soon... it's just the fear of the unknown in light of all our hardwork! And then our good packs were supposed to start delivery on Aug. 27th. But the food bank emailed and said they delayed ordering the food in order to get a lower price so there is no food for us to pack - or distribute - oh and they can't get us in to pack our food until September 25. So if there's no food packed, that means we miss not 1 but 3 food pack deliveries. Not okay. So we're trying to work it out with them pretty much as we speak. This is the main event ring of my circus, but I do love it all the same.

Those are the main things. The little things involve things that I love and keep me busy too. Like trying to get more involved with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society because I love Team in Training and it's mission but right now cannot add a TNT event to my plate. And doctor's appointments.

Good news from the doctor's appointment... I've lost 12 pounds and the nutritionist told me that what I am doing is exactly what I need to do. She happens to be friends with 2 professional triathletes so that was cool to talk about. I'm hoping that when I go back in 6 months to check on the ol' thyroid (which is still doing fine on the medicine) I'll be even smaller than I am now.

And little Ladies. Angelfish was a sad little girl yesterday. She even broke into tears at daycare because she wanted her Mommy. So I snuggled up with her and gave kissy monster kisses (I cover her face with little noisy kisses) and tickled her and chatted. It makes me wonder if balance isn't quite being achieved between work, my extracurriculars, and family. Although today she was a happy little imp dressed in a pink frilly skirt and shirt that is white with multicolor flowers, singing about muffins and coloring before leaving for school. It could have just been the day. Funny how I'm always finding fault with myself first.

Yesterday Ladybug picked out my jewelry for the day - she actually did a good job. Today she insisted that if I was to wear pants (she wanted me to wear a dress but I wore a suit dress Monday and a skirt outfit yesterday), that I had to wear a cute pair of white capris and a turquoise tunic top. Kind of dressed up to sit in my house and work and do conference calls, but I'll look good for the mandatory VPK orientation meeting tonight.

That's right - they're starting VPK on Monday! I can't believe that they are getting to be such big kids. I definitely can see myself crying on the 1st day of Kindergarden - maybe even the 1st day of VPK. My little ladies...

Life may be a circus right now, but its my circus and to be quite honest I wouldn't trade a minute of it - other than the identity theft stuff - for the world.

Good News

2010-08-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

My childhood allergist's office called and gave me 3 names of doctors they recommended... 2 were in the same practice. So I called and I have an appointment next week!

Here's hoping that I can hang in there without exercise until then. It's making me crazy, quite honestly. What's wrong with a little run, bike, swim, or yoga? So what if it could potentially result in hives or anaphylactic shock? I mean really!

Ladybug has announced that she will be a triathlete when she grows up and she'll "work at a school telling people what to do" in addition to being a Mommy." Angelfish has declared she'll be an architect like Mr. Darcy and brought him home a picture she drew of a house. It's her very 1st design, and Mr. Darcy is bringing it to work for his desk... when he told me about it, I thought he sounded teary eyed.

The sweetness of parenthood. If only it didn't have to involve Ladybug being afraid of the dark because she says that "monsters, witches, mean cats, bad guys, werewolves, and Frankenstine" can come in her room at night - evidently they use the door, the window, and ooze through the walls and come up from the carpet. The kid has a vivid imagination - I didn't even know she knew about Frankenstine or werewolves.

So I've invented the spray to get rid of them all - water with oregano, garlic and red pepper flakes. She wanted fire but I was able to convince her that red pepper flakes are so spicy that it would be like fire in a bottle of water. She has the water bottle and can spray at will. Oh and I explained that beds come with invisible force fields to allow good kids to go in and out of their beds but to keep monsters, etc. out.

We'll see if it works. We're also bribing her - stay in bed all night every day this week and she gets a goody out of the goody bag. It worked to get her back on track with potty training after she decided she didn't want to go to the VPK class because she'd miss her teacher so she would just stop using the potty so they wouldn't let her move up.

Intelligent, creative children. A blessing and a challenge.

Allergens and Me

2010-08-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

So yesterday, I woke up. I felt pretty good, but thought to myself. "Let's not tempt fate. Just do yoga today. When all is well, then tomorrow we'll hit it hard." Uh yeah. 30 minutes of yoga then after 10 minutes of sitting. Red, itchy hives covered my cheeks. Within 30 minutes, my entire face, down my neck and my chest. I called the regular doctor who said "Why did you workout?" I reminded him that he said I could if I didn't itch. He said, "no more working out until you see your allergist." I said, "what allergist?"

It turned out he meant to (but didn't) tell me to make a follow up with my allergist, of which I am/was without one because my old one (who I went to once) is in Atlanta, and my even older one (from when I was 16) is in my hometown where I haven't lived in quite a rather long time. The doctor refused to see me saying that the Solumedrol shot he gave me was still in my system and that I could take an Atarax every 6 hours (which would have put me at 1 pm). He then told me to get in with the allergist to be seen. I couldn't because well they're specialists who are completely booked up.

When you work from home and the only other "person" in the house is your dog, your face is covered in hives and your tongue is swelling but you're not having breathing problems, it's a little disconcerting to be told to just wait and see what happens, and if you need to just use your epi pen and then go to the ER. I don't think it's a great idea to drive yourself to the ER after having given yourself a shot because you can still pass out. I almost died when I was 16 from eating onions and shrimp and then going for a run, so I don't really like to "wait and see." But that's what I did.

Mr. Darcy ended up coming home after I pretty much begged him to come home. I couldn't declare it was an emergency, but I was also freaked out by the chance of it becoming an emergency. He was willing if it was an emergency, but well I couldn't say it was an emergency because I wasn't keeling over, but still...

By the time he got home, it started subsiding. So I felt a little bit bad, although I was annoyed that I had to beg to begin with. But that's another story. Then the doctor's office called and said, "do not work out again until you have your food allergy testing done, and we made you a doctor's appointment with a different allergist."

So this morning I went to the allergist they set up the appointment with. I will not be going back there. The doctor was fine, but there were no nurses - or if the woman who helped me was a nurse then she is a bit incompetent as I had to spell pretty much every medicine and medical issue I have for her. And I had to explain what endometriosis was and what IVF was. Not to mention that there were signs in the office related to getting allergy shots and having to just wait because they were given in between scheduled appointments. And when they brought me back to weigh me, they walked me into the same room as 2 other people who were getting shots while I was in there. And the floor was dirty. I am not a neat freak by nature. I don't care 99.7% of the time if something is a little bit dirty. There are 3 exceptions: doctors offices, dentists offices and the grocery store. While the doctor seemed to know what he was talking about, I wasn't comfortable. I may be overly picky about doctors, but I've heard enough stories about (and had my own run in with) bad doctors to listen to my feelings of discomfort.

So I made an appointment for September 10th with the initial doctor they recommended but who I couldn't get an earlier appointment. The problem? I'm not supposed to exercise at ALL until I go to have my food allergies tested. Why? Because as you get older your allergies change, so while we think it's the onion flakes in the Mrs. Dash it allegedly could be something else. The other thing the allergist told me today - I am not allowed to workout EVER without a buddy. Realistically, this is not something that can happen. I can't always have someone working out with me because it's just not practical. And I don't necessarily want to wait until September 11th to be able to workout again (especially since I have a triathlon in Clermont scheduled for September 12th).

I'm contemplating going to my old doctor back in my home town if he has earlier availability. My parents still go to him. And I can't help but wonder if I can get in there earlier. And I know his floors are clean.

Talk about Itchy!

2010-08-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening, I went to the Tri Club meeting. I was in a BAD mood. I had discovered that the fraudulent address is showing up on my credit report now. I was trying to be nice, but I wasn't doing overly well. I had warned Training Buddy, and he even said, "Wow. You ARE in a bad mood." Despite my bad mood, I think I'll like the tri club once I get into going regularly. They are a pretty serious group about workouts - Friday nights around 7:30 are their swims. I am guessing that these folks don't have young children. But that is okay. I've already decided that I will go to the group workouts that I can (primarily the during the day Tuesday and Thursday workouts - a good way to use the lunch hour) and do other training on my own.

Then I came home and had meat loaf for dinner... that I used Mrs. Dash Italian Blend in... which turns out has onion flakes.

I had a night full of nightmares (very rare for me) and woke up head to toe bright red (like a had a really bad sunburn), itching like mad, hot all over, but when I scratched an itch it hurt. So logically, I took a shower thinking it could be topical and was in pain. The doctor thinks that I had the reaction to the onion flakes even though it's not typically how I react with onions and exercise. (Although I greatly prefer this type of reaction to the anaphylaxia that I usually end up with...)

The doctor said that sometimes you have a minor reaction when the amount of the allergen is small - and onion flakes is small. Got a lecture about not having an epi pen (along with a prescription for one), a shot of some sort in the bum, and then a prescription for the itching that the doctor referred to as "benedryl x 2"... I had to take a half hour nap!

Which of course means that since it's an food dependant EXERCISE induced allergy, that I am not allowed to workout today and can only workout tomorrow if I am not itching anymore... which meant I didn't get to workout with the Tri Club today. Ugh. And I'm still itching.

Here's hoping for tomorrow.

The Opposite of Good with Positive Reminders

2010-08-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

Would be BAD. And that's kind of where I'm at right now. Rather happy that I will have my 1st meeting with the Y's tri team this evening. Informational 1st and then a small workout. Not sure whether I'm going to be happy with the results of the workout as it's been 3 weeks since my last real workout (not counting yoga). But so it goes.

I am writing this in a way to remind myself about the good stuff... my Mom is still doing good; my parents are healthy in general at the moment, Mr. Darcy and the little ladies are healthy, we have jobs and a roof over our head, and food in the pantry and refrigerator.

The bad. Little frustrations all around, lack of outlet for stress, oh and someone stole Mr. Darcy's identity. Yup. Not sure if I mentioned that someone had changed the address on his credit card account, and we got that straightened out. Mr. Darcy told me I was being over dramatic when I told him, they're coming and they're going to try to steal all our money. Have I mentioned before that I have this annoying tendency of being right about things 95% of the time? (Possibly higher.) Well, it's true. And it's friggin' annoying.

They went after the bank accounts. But I have to give Bank of America props. Big props. They caught it. And our money is still where it should be... in our pockets. Not some two bit, good for nothing punk who not only has the uncommon undecency to steal Mr. Darcy's information (to the point that they called and provided personal information in a positively scary way in order to do what they did) but even worse is using the address of a church as a front to their scheme. Well, my theory is that God has a much bigger reach than I do (via the police of course - no vigilantism on my part), so if karma doesn't get them on earth they will have one heck of an after life.

But that's how I spent a good chunk of the end of last week and the weekend. Dealing with things. Police reports. Credit bureaus, etc. As did Mr. Darcy. We even filed stuff with the FTC and the Postal Inspector. And on all documents, we want to prosecute if they ever catch the MoFo. (Sorry, that's the best I can do for censoring today.)

So to say the least, I'm REALLY looking forward to getting back into working out. I've missed my training regimen. The angry side of me finds it almost an inspiration to try to get the FBI or some other type of government group to take me (if I'm not going to be too old - this 35 year old rule is really a little silly. I do triathlons. I'm not too old.) so I can do financial fraud investigations. Problem of uprooting the family every so many years is really the only deterrent at the moment.

But I am counting my blessings. Things could have been worse. The family is all safe and sound despite Mr. Darcy and I feeling a bit violated. I can hope and pray that the person gets caught, although even with the cellphone number they tried to claim was our new phone number I am doubtful they'll get caught.

My positive mind is a bit grey and cloudy. Bring on the workouts!

Good News

2010-08-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

Hello Bloggy Friends! My Mom's surgery went super well yesterday. She's not having much pain and at the follow up appointment this afternoon, they told her she looks great and is healing up already... and they removed the drain (yeah, they put one in yesterday afterall). She's talking away, doing some upholstery knitting to make a shopping bag for a friend and is her usual self. She's doing so good that I'm actually going to drive home after dinner tonight.... literally because they do not need me to do much of anything. They are pretty much feeding me, letting me sleep and I've been working all day while sitting on the sofa with Mom. So I decided to surprise the kiddies in the morning by waking them up, and to surprise Mr. Darcy in getting to see one another. YAY!

Another YAY is that the Y Tri Club starts with a "fun workout" not sure what that will entail and an informational meeting at 6:15 pm on Monday. My sinus infection appears to be gone baby gone, and I'm looking forward to getting back in the swing of things.

I'm also excited because I'm getting involved with UF Law Alumni Council... which doesn't take up a ton of time but will benefit my alma mater and let me meet other Gator Lawyers in the area. Networking and a good cause, what more could a girl like me ask for! Tee hee. I think I may be a compulsive "do gooder"...

But as a birthday gift to myself, my goal is to keep my evening calendar empty the entire week leading up to my actual birthday. I do have something on the 24th, but it's the Jack Johnson concert for which I've had tickets to for MONTHS. It's a bit of a treat for me, so I don't count that one as a meeting! Whoo hoo!

The only bad thing is the a/c in the mini-van went out on the way to the padres yesterday morning. So it will be a rather warm drive home. But I'm an endurance athlete. I can endure anything for 2 1/2 hours, right? : )

See you all on the flip side!

August is Here

2010-08-02T06:38:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it is August already - other than the weather. Temperatures in the 100s and heat indexes even higher. Wilting the moment you walk outdoors. Temperature wise it seems like August has been here for weeks, but time wise I can't believe it is here.

This week will prove itself to be a nutty one I am sure. I am in all honesty trying to figure out what to do workout wise. I missed spin this morning because 1) Ladybug was up 5 times in the night, for no other reason than she claimed she "just couldn't sleep." 2) Mr. Darcy is sick - and was sick all weekend - so I was coaxing him into seeing the doctor and attempting (unsuccessfully I might add) that he should stay home from work today. Which meant I ended up having to take the kiddos to school instead of workout. and 3) I am having nerve pain down my leg. Not sure where that came from, but there it is. I stretched my back out this morning after coming home from daycare. Today will not only be filled with laundry, but also with a full day of work... and if my nerve pain lets up a little I'm hoping to get the bike trainer out and do 45- 1 hour on it. I miss my workouts. And there's no pollen inside...

Tomorrow will be a bit crazy. I'm going to do 1/2 an hour of yoga in the morning and will start work early because I have blood work at 8:45. Then back to work, dentist appointment at 2 pm. Back to work, and then to a Junior League Committee "meeting" - HIP Happy Hour at 7pm with the committee to get to know each other and answer any questions anyone has about the committee. Then I have to pack.

Wednesday, my Mom is having her last reconstructive surgery from her breast cancer. They have to put the finishing touches on the mastectomy side and then reduce the other side to match what they reconstructed. It's supposed to be a little bit more intensive pain wise than the mastectomy itself, but without the drain (thank goodness... I handled it just fine but if you don't have to have a drain, all the better.). So Wednesday morning I drive on over as soon as the kiddos and Mr. Darcy are out the door. I'll use PTO for Wednesday, and then will work and help take care of Mom on Thursday and Friday. Friday after work I'll drive home and hopefully make it before the girls' bedtime.

And this weekend, Mr. Darcy's parents will be spending the weekend with us. They were supposed to come last weekend but with Mr. Darcy sporting a temperature ranging from 101.2 to 101.8 both Friday night and all day Saturday (it finally broke Saturday evening) and me quarantining him to our bedroom (I slept in the guest bedroom) they decided to postpone their trip until this coming weekend. Not to mention that Mr. Darcy's Mom is suffering through a bad Diverticulitis flare up.

With all this whirling around, I realized two things on the ride home from dropping off the girls at school (where Ladybug greeted her teacher who had been on vacation last week with a big hug and "I missed you so very much!" which made us both smile). One, I turn 35 this month. Sigh. Two, I am going to consider this my "recovery period" and will just get back into the swing of things with my training. I am signing up for the Y's Tri Team, so that will be good. They start with the official start of the school year, so that will be at the end of this month too. All will right itself. I am just missing my rides and runs and swims but realistically know that I need to do what I can do and not kill myself... and perhaps missing the height of the heat and pollen season might not be such a bad thing for me this year.

Which reminds me... I have to go take my medicine for this dang sinus infection. Off I go!

Crazy Times

2010-07-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all your comments on my last post! It's been a crazy week, and I think the inability to run or bike this week has helped add to my craziness. The other day I had so much energy in the evening that I ended up straightening the entire house, including my office, and then filed and painted my nails. By 10:30 pm (which it is rare for me to see on a clock), Mr. Darcy was already sound asleep and I was making myself lay down in bed to coax myself to sleep. Of course, it could be the sudafed too... luckily I'm only taking one dose in the morning...

Tuesday was "breakfast" with the Mayor. It was a wonderful meeting. He was really interested in our HIP Kids Program, and I got to say a few words about what we were doing and the sessions we had planned so far. He was happy to say that it really fit with his vision of what that area needs and that we also were adding a nutrition component which was something they didn't really have the ability to address as readily... and then he said they were going to look into whether the Community Garden had any plots available and if it did, he was going to have them set aside for the HIP Kids Program. Oh Yeah! The discussion was wonderful, but the breakfast (I ate before hand thank goodness) was a plate with muffins on it and a break room type set up for coffee. They should have said it was a Meet and Greet or a Morning Chat, not a breakfast. I had an idea of well, breakfast, eating and then chatting because they said "Come have breakfast with the Mayor." But that was the only "drawback" and it was very minor. Afterwards we had our group take a picture with the Mayor for their records and ours. I have to say, it was the highlight of the day.

Yesterday was crazy in general. At 10:30 I was given a research project that had to be done by the end of the day, and that was a bit like finding a needle in a haystack - and the haystack happened to be state and federal cases for 10 states. I really enjoy reading cases and case law and doing research, but this was a bit much. I had one search with 200 cases resulting, another with 181 results, and another with 36. I had to laugh because the 36 were ones that I had already seen in my 1st 2 searches (and luckily there were duplicates in those too). How many cases did I find that were at least close to on point (there weren't a lot that were 100% on point because the question was definitely a needle) out of all of those? 11. I finished at 6:27 right before I was supposed to have my Junior League chairs over for our meeting at 7 pm. Mr. Darcy was kind enough to pick up the kids and attempt to take them to gymnastics (which was not going on because it was the 5th week in the month), then went to the store and picked up food for dinner. He forgot that I asked him to pick up fruit, cheese and crackers too, so he headed back for the cheese and crackers while I showered (luckily I had done yoga that morning and didn't sweat TOO much) and got ready. I cut up the fruit we had in the house and made a little fruit platter. Then it was meeting time, which went well. I really like the ladies who are part of the committee leadership with me. Then we got the kids in bed and I pretty much fell asleep while watching TV with Mr. Darcy.

Today is hopefully going to be a slower paced day. I took the girls to school this morning. Ladybug was cracking me up... she wanted to have "cereal squares" (Quaker Oats Oatmeal Squares cereal) in a bag. But she originally wanted to eat them with a spoon. I told her she could but that it might be a little difficult for her... so she decided to use chopsticks. Yup. Chopsticks. She ate her cereal out of the bag by picking up one or two squares at a time with the chopsticks, and even handed a few to Angelfish on the way to school. Those kids are a hoot! And I've having lunch with a friend. And working. And hopefully resting so I can get back to my exercising!!

Yoga in the morning. I'm hoping to get the kids and Mr. Darcy out of the house early enough that I can do an hour's worth. Fingers crossed... What workouts are you all doing? (So I can live vicariously...)

Sinus Infections and Other Fun

2010-07-26T18:42:00.000-07:00

So last week I didn't feel that great. Neither did Ladybug. In fact, Ladybug spiked a temperature at school and had to stay home a bit. Come this morning she was raring to go. Meanwhile, I was worse for wear. Not only was I now having the sweats, inner ear pain, and headaches that kept me from pretty much doing anything other than yoga last week, but now my entire brain felt like it would pop.

I have breakfast with the Mayor and the Junior League Executive Board tomorrow - turns out I may have to even talk a bit about our HIP Kids program which is pretty exciting. Heck, I'm just as excited that I went and bought a suit dress and a cute chocolate brown blazer to wear over the top. I actually look like I have an hourglass figure in the dress, so of course I had to buy it.

With that in mind, it dawned on me around 10 am that perhaps I should see the doctor so I would not have to miss the breakfast. They had cancellations, so I was in by 11 am. The bad news: I have a very nasty sinus infection and now am on sudafed once a day, antibiotics twice a day, nasonex spray (2 squirts each nostril), and my regular clairnex. The good news: I've lost 11 pounds since starting my Paleo-Zone! Whoo hoo!

It definitely motivated me to skip the ice cream that Mr. Darcy has been plying with me this past week. Good thing the carton is empty.

Yoga it is for a few more days... and then I start the planned MWF run, spin, abs class, run and the TR yoga and body sculpt classes. Saturdays will be either run or bike days. If only my sinuses would cooperate!

The Whirlwind of Life

2010-07-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

And so it goes... some of you have noticed that I haven't blogged as of late. No injuries, no atrocities. Just simply and utterly busy. Some of the busy was good. Some of the busy was trying, but none of the busy was bad. It was only a moment ago that I realized it has been 2 weeks since I last posted.

So let's see if I can catch up a bit. If I can even remember that far back. I don't think I ever got to the 4x800 sprints. I think I did an hour on the trainer, followed by another day of yoga because I overslept, and then I got up early - the crack of dawn... before that actually - and ran the 1.3 miles to the Y, did the 45 minute spin class which was rather hard... doable but hard, more for the jumping from position to position, and resulting in my quads and my abs begging for mercy by 30 minutes in... then 1.3 mile run back home. And yes, somehow I ran it. I remember that my run to the Y was rather good for me. 1.3 miles in something around 24 minutes.

My parents visited that weekend and it was a good visit. We took them and the kids to my Dad's Cousin's 65th birthday party, which was a good time even if Mr. Darcy pointed out that we were one of the youngest people there (aside from our kids) to which I remember responding, "it's a 65th Birthday party, what do you expect?" It was wonderful to see some of the New Jersey family. It was not wonderful however to be asked on 2 separate occasions by 2 separate people whether I was pregnant. That spiralled a little bit of overindulgence on the cake eating... because if I'm working so hard and still look pregnant why bother right? But then the stomach pains and intestinal issues the next day took care of such behavior after that. I have to say that honestly I am highly considering a tummy tuck at some point in the next couple of years. The irony was that morning I turned to Mr. Darcy and said that really my arms look good, my legs look good and my back and butt even look good, it's just my stomach. Which I guess is why I look pregnant. Sigh.

Monday it was back to work and lots of Junior League stuff. Our 1st meeting - a meet and greet and "here's what we expect of you" chat went really well. I think people are enthusiastic about our program and getting to work with the kids, so I'm optomistic. Then it was off to Charlotte for 2 days for work. 4 planes in 2 days. Always a thrill. That Friday was the girls' annual check up where they were pronounced healthy, looking great and precocious, although Angelfish was acting a little immature which frustrated us. Then I went to dinner with friends, had some drinks and saw "Eclipse."

Saturday I woke up at 5 am and came super close to not getting out of bed... which would have been a problem since I had a triathlon at 7 am. A sprint. All I wanted to do was sleep. 2 big glasses of white sangria and a cup of coffee that had me wired until about 1 am really weren't the best for the night before race day. Luckily I had slept relatively well Thursday night.

The Moss Park race was good. I went to transition and ran into several friendly faces as the Team in Training Nations Tri Team was doing the sprint as well. Then I wandered off for the bathroom, took a dip in the lake which was rather warm (but then it was about 86 before the sun came up and humidity made it feel like a sauna anyway), listened to the pre-race talk about the swim course, and then waited for my wave - all women were in the 2nd wave.

I was determined to give it my all. My goal was to beat 1:30, but I also had the goal of not putting too much pressure on myself and having fun with it because to be quite honest the past 2 weeks had been a whirlwind and not a ton of training was had during the week leading up to the race I didn't quite meet my A goal of 1:30, but I cannot complain because with a time of 1:39:20, I still PR'd by more than 7 minutes and placed 3rd in the Athena Divison. Hardware! The other thing to point out is that my previous PR was done in the lovely weather during March while this one was done in the sweltering Summer. Not to mention the 4 plane rides, only 4 1/2 hours of sleep, and 2 cocktails (1 had me tipsy) the night before. It made me wonder what I could do if I hadn't had all of that going on. Proper rest and nutrition might have been the better idea.

So here's a quick race report. The swim, I felt pretty proud of... 750m in 15:17 or a 2:02 pace per 100m. I didn't freak out and even pushed another swimmer off of me when she tried to swim right over me. I wasn't having it. I was racing! (I just checked and compared to the last time I did the swim I was 2:02 faster!)I knew I definitely pushed myself on the swim when I ran to transition and was panting so hard that I had to sit down in order to get my shoes on because bending over made me feel like I was going to pass right out. Total transition was around 4:30 ... about 2 minutes for a 1/4 mile run from the lake to transition and then sitting on my bum for shoes and socks.

Then I was off again. The bike was great. I felt awesome on the bike. I was tearing it up. I got passed only about 4 times and was passing tons of people on the bike. It was great. My average pace was 18.4 mph. And I finished in a little over 40 minutes. Oh yeah! (Last time I did a sprint, my average pace was 14.5 mph - definite improvement!). When I got off the bike, Mr. Darcy and the girls were there. Mr. Darcy cheered and the girls looked at me like they didn't know what the heck to say or do because I was jumping off my bike. Unfortunately, I also felt like puking. Other than caffeine and alcohol perhaps trying to get out of my system, I had not other reason for wanting to puke.

Transition here felt slow but it was less then 2 minutes, which for me is one of my better transitions. Again ironic because I switched shoes sitting down and breathed in and out slowly a few times to keep the puke from rising.

Then it was off to run. Here was the problem. I know I can do better. A 13:11 pace. Looking back, I should have pushed myself much harder on the run. But I was cramping. Amazingly it wasn't necessarily my legs, which is why I think I should have pushed a lot harder. The cramp would rotate from between my clavicle and my neck, to right under my right rib cage, to my right calf. So I walked a little more than I should have and ran a bit. I should have pushed through the pain more. This is the only thing I was really annoyed with the day after, but at the same time it was sweltering and they ran out of water at mile 2, and well, I wasn't exactly in prime prep'd shape for the race to begin with. I've been running on my own around 11 minute mile paces (and sometimes less), which if I had run in the race would have probably brought me in under 1:30 and moved me to 1st on the Athena podium. But, it is what it is. And I had a bloody great time doing the race and getting 3rd (not to mention having a great time with my friends the night before)!

After the race and getting my plaque, it was home for a shower and to hang out with the girls and then we headed to a bowling party for Mr. Darcy's alumni association gathering. The girls were great thank goodness because I had a splitting headache and needed a nap. 4 pm rolled around and we headed back to the house where I promptly took a NAP!

And all between this, I have been working on a little something. A little corporation... where I can do estate planning, probate, corporate and tax law (and maybe some guardianship) on a part-time basis outside of my 9 to 5 job. Independent consulting on the parts of law that I love - the "I feel like I actually helped someone today" sorts of things - for a good friend's firm. I hadn't thought about having a part-time of counsel position on top of my full time job until Ms. J. started planting hints in my brain over the past few months and sending her law partner to me with questions about estate planning that she was attempting for folks and got those juices flowing again. Extra money is never a bad thing, and some fun legal work outside of my full time gig isn't a bad thing either. I'm not much of a risk taker when it comes to every day life stuff (other than triathlon and that stint of skydiving I did pre-children), and even though this really isn't a "risk" it sort of feels like one. It's good to get out of the box.... even if figuring out details and forming a professional corporation have been eating up a bunch of my free time (ok pretty much any waking moment that I'm not working my full time job or watching the kids).

Because of the little something, I may have to cut back on some training at first which is a bit of a bother but I'm finding that I really don't have time for every single thing. But not to fear. I have a plan. MWF of running to the Y, spin class kicking my butt possibly followed by the abs class, and then running home. TR with yoga and a total body toning class. This week was supposed to be the start and then I realized how many conference calls I had - not to mention having a hard time getting out of bed ... I am wondering if my thyroid meds need to be increased...so I am 100% committed to starting it next Monday. On the dot. I hate to say that my blogging may suffer as well, but I will do my best to blog from time to time and keep in touch with your blogs as well.

Oh, and I've joined the ranks of the evil. I have purchased a nook... with some gift cards "earned" through my world points credit card over the past year and a half. I could almost hear books screaming as I made the purchase... telling me I will be sorry and miss turning those nice paper pages of my friends the books. But then my bookshelves will thank me as they are overfull and have to be thinned out with donations to charity of books that I can part with. My nook can store 1 million books. And it has a snazzy woodcut of Edgar Allen Poe with a raven when it's off and charging. plus I can download a book at the beach. Or when I just plum finish a book and have to find a new one to read. I am going to have to pace myself. I'm already anxious for it to finish charging. Why don't they come pre-charged? I was all set to read The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest for some evening wind down, but for that charging nonsense.

But then it gave me a moment to take a break from the whirlwind that has been my life as of late, and hit some blog reading... so perhaps it did me a little favor.

Planning to Run, Back Gets in the Way but Yoga Saves the Day!

2010-07-07T07:08:00.000-07:00

I awoke this morning with lower back pain. But unlike other times when it was definitely nerve pain, this seemed to be muscle pain. Of course, it could be muscle pain caused by things not being quite in alignment. Believe me when I say I was bummed. I literally dreamt last night about doing running intervals - the plan was 4 x 800m fast with 2-3 minutes recovery between each, after a 10-15 minute warm up run and followed by a 10 minute cool down. I even had mapped out on google maps the exact 800m loop I could use (I get bored running on a track sometimes, so I thought I'd go for making the neighbors wonder what, exactly, was up with me.). My toes were literally itching to be in my running shoes. Oh I had plans.

But when my back is talking to me like it did, I have two options: 1) run anyway and see what happens; sometimes it loosens up and sometimes it sends me to the chiropractor; 2) postpone my run until tomorrow and do an hour of yoga, followed by a few minutes with the foam roller hitting all the major points from my upper back down to my calves. With a race on the schedule for 10 days from now, I decided to go with option 2. I don't want anything to get in the way of race day... even if it's not an A race. I've already had to forego one race this year and had back pain that prevented me from running the right way in another race.

I didn't pick an easy yoga set to do. In fact, it's one that I can't 100% do... but I'm getting closer. I can do all of it except for one pose in the middle of the sequence. The Crane Pose. I have a feeling that I'm not quite doing it right and that if I had a little more help, I could get it. That and I have to get my brain to believe that I can in fact balance the weight of my body via my knee/thigh area on the back of my arms which are bent in a bit of a push up sort of position (oh and my torso is sort of bent in half at the waist as well). I can get myself up onto my tip toes in this position, but can't seem to get my toes off the floor. If you want to see what I'm talking about go HERE (and where I found, in fact, I am doing it wrong.... I didn't realize you're supposed to get your knees up into your armpits. I'll have to remember that for next time...)

I'll get there eventually. Lots of strength and balancing poses this morning... the type that look easy but are harder to actually do and you really have to maintain your breathing with your movement. It was great. And at the end when we did the twisting postures for cool down, my back went click-click. And no more muscle pain.

So tomorrow I'm bringing on the run. 4 x 800m Here I come!

For some reason I am itching to make our back yard into a garden. I don't want to put in a fence because we back up to a nature preserve and I like having deer and other animals wander on through, but I want to do something - something with color and that is inviting. I know how to mow the lawn, plant shrubbery, prune bushes (even cut down trees) - you learn all that being the only child of a high school biology teacher (who spent most of his masters thesis on something about trees in West Virginia). Selecting plants and how to arrange them just so is not something I've done before on as big of a scale as this. I secretly oooh and aaaah over all the gardening articles in Southern Living every month. Somewhere I don't trust myself to jump right in and do it, but it is calling to me. Especially after the July article in Southern Living about lilies. I love lilies, and according to Southern Living, they'd like my back yard. Full sun. I think they'd back the perfect background - especially since the article said to treat them like shrubs in the planting. I'm a sucker for a garden with wispy tall things with lots of color in the back ground and then medium size plants and then shorter stuff in front. The question is how and what plants. I have a Southern Living Plant Guide book somewhere in this house. I just have to find it and enlist Mr. Darcy - not to mention asking my friend K, who in Atlanta is the plant expert. Plants, gardening and time share law. Her opinion will definitely be sought.

So don't be surprised if I end up with a marathon gardening experience pretty soon. : ) Once I get up enough courage to try my hand at it anyway. There seems to be something peaceful about being in the yard and digging in the soil to create something beautiful that is calling me.

Of course, so is work. And getting the girls to gymnastics before heading off to my Junior League Committee meeting tonight. (Not to worry Mr. Darcy is meeting me at the gym to trade off on the parenting duties - I would never just leave them there!) So I better "run"!

Fast Swim and Growing Up

2010-07-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July Weekend. The weather here was rainy and/or overcast the entire weekend, which at least meant it wasn't in the upper 90's, but was a bit problematic for outdoor outings.

After having great chat the RockStar Tri about triathlon training, especially in regards to getting faster, I fully intended to change up my workouts. Didn't get to it. But I hope to work on the schedule this week. I got mad at myself on Monday because I hadn't done any training on Saturday or Sunday. But I did do a tough trainer ride on Monday while Mr. Darcy went out for a 27 mile ride. I did a 10 minute warm up, 5x1 one legged drills (each leg of course), 10 minute recovery, 5 minutes in the big chain ring on my toughest gear standing up and pedaling, 5 minute recovery, then alternated sprinting 5x1 minute in a slightly harder gear and 1 minute recovery, and then a 10 minute cool down. I knew I was really pushing myself because the girls were asking me questions about the horrible "Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea" that Mr. Darcy bought them and I could barely talk. (I can't stand the movie, but I have to admit I like the girls' title for it "The Little Mermaid has a Baby.") So I was happy with the trainer ride, angry at myself because I didn't do more this weekend - I realized I was doing the "I don't want the girls to be upset if I go, and I don't want Mr. Darcy to have to worry about being with the kids on his own." thing. No one else's fault but my own. I didn't realize I was putting the world other than what I wanted first again until Mr. Darcy said Sunday night he wanted to go for a ride on Monday, then Monday woke up and put on his bike clothes without saying much of anything to me or the kids, and then disappeared when we weren't looking. I wasn't mad at him. I was mad at me. Why can't I do that? Well, you know what? I can.

So this morning I did. One thing I realized in talking to the RockStar is that I don't do training tests. As in ever. I don't know what I am capable speed wise of doing. That sounds funny I'm sure since I go and do stuff every day. But that's about can I get it done. I have no idea what I really am capable of. I left the house at 7:05, which included an extra 3 minutes for Angelfish who asked me if I could stay a few more minutes, had no traffic (I actually wondered if there was something I didn't know about because there were literally NO cars on the road in the neighborhood.), and got to the pool. I found a book (yes, you know me and books) that I'm now waiting for the next Barnes and Noble coupon to come out so I can get it - Swim Workouts for Triathletes. I use Barnes and Noble because I'm a member and save oodles on shipping and the prices USUALLY are the same as elsewhere, although every once in awhile they are a little more expensive. I like saving money when I spend money. Anyway. One of the sample pages happened to be a training test for Olympic Distance or IronMan Distance Triathletes. 3x300 as fast as you could - without losing form and as long as there was not a greater time differential than 15 seconds between your 1st and last. Well, I did the 3 as full out as I could. 4:10, 4:15, and 4:12. Then average the times and then divide by 3 to determine an accurate 100m time for a longer distance swim. I was happily surprised because I thought I'd only be capable of 1:32-1:36 for my 100m pace. But with this, it tells me that my average is 4:12.18 for the 300m. Divided by 3 to get the 100m pace, that's 1:24.06! Happy girl... now let's do that in open water. I didn't know I could go so fast. : )

In other news, I'm sort of realizing that I'm a "grown up" these days. I mean, I get it - I have kids, am married, have a job, etc. But I never REALLY thought of myself as a grown up. Somewhere over the past few days this has been really hitting me. Probably because I realized I will be 35 in just about a month. 35. Not old, but not young either. Hitting what's referred to as "middle age." (Although I plan on living to well beyond 70, thank you very much.) But the nice thing I realized about being a grown up is that this means I should be able to set my own rules. I've been kind of looking at things as "I'm committed to do this because I'm a parent" or because "I have a job." But in reality, yes I am a parent and I have a job that I need my paycheck from so I can send the kids to college and retire at some point, but I can set my own rules about how I do it. So I'm going to look at what is it that I really want, and how best can I go about getting it. Because as an old lady, I can set the rules of my life (I do realize there are limits to this though... I can't run off and join the Marine Jag Core without at least involving Mr. Darcy in such a decision). A positive from getting older.

Knock on wood my turning 35 won't also turn my hair grey. Mr. Darcy (who will be 36 in September) got his hair cut yesterday. It was overdue for a cut. There was a LOT of white hair there. I had noticed it earlier in the weekend and said to him that he was getting more grey hair. He didn't seem to notice it... untill he saw it on the floor at the barber. And that's when he said something. Luckily for him, it's all cut short now so you can't see it unless he's just in the sun light the right way. I can't quite do that with mine. Okay, I could, but I don't want to have the Sinead O'Connor look. It looked awesome on her, but I just don't have the right face structure for it.

I'm off to seize my destiny... HAHAHA!

Thoughts that Could Provoke a Headache

2010-07-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

I've had headaches this entire week. Every day around 4 or 7, I've gotten a headache. Wednesday it started at 3:45 pm and lasted all the way through the rest of my work day, through my Junior League Meeting (which was a long one - this planning a brand spanking new program stuff takes some doing, I tell ya), and all the way home. Not sure if it's a bad thing to take 1 aspirin and 1 execedrin migraine together, but it and sleep seemed to work (and at least I didn't take the full dose of the migraine medicine...). Yesterday it started around 7 pm. I had flashing lights but only when I closed my eyes, and sensitivity to light. I only took the aspirin (I have to take one every night with my 1000mg of niaspan since my cholesterol while good decided that with my thyroid being it's little self that now it would be the evil crunchy kind of cholesterol - at least that's the doctor's theory because you know it's all hormonal.) I woke up with a mild headache this morning, and when Mr. Darcy rubbed my back it was like needles (No, I didn't tell him that.). So what a good reason not to train right? I decided - no excuses. I'd like to drop 10 more pounds (not sure how many I've dropped because I'm not getting on a scale, but I'd definitely fitting into my size 8's again) by my birthday. August 26. I'll be 35.

I got Mr. Darcy to bring the trainer inside for me (it's a rainy grey day here), and I did 45 minutes on the trainer. (I had hoped for 60 but we had a late start to the workout due to Mr. Darcy and I not getting out of bed until a later hour of the morning.) 10 minute warm up, 5x1 one legged pedaling (both sides of course), a 5 minute recovery spin, 10 minutes at 95-100 cadence, and then a 10 minute cool down. I'm pretty sure I hit that 95-100 cadence too... the entire 10 minutes I kept having the urge to put myself in a higher gear, which is what I do when I am on the road and my cadence is 95-100. Amazingly, my headache went away during the ride and for about 30 minutes afterwards.

As soon as I got off the bike, I made my smoothie (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries, almond butter, whey protein, water and ice - yum!) and hear a commercial for some sort of treadmill with this incline that supposedly would blast the fat away. And one of the selling points was that there is a video screen that lets you run or walk or whatever through any place in the world, including the route of the Boston Marathon. A woman said, "I can run or walk anywhere I want to in the entire world - all from the privacy of my own home!" I couldn't help but think that this is what's wrong with Americans. Excuse my "french" but why the F#ck would I want to run inside while pretending to run outside? If I'm ever fast enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon, I'm not going to be satisfied by "running the course" while on my treadmill. And until that time, I shouldn't be okay with "running the course" on my treadmill. The privacy of my own home does not equate to the world outside - you know, the one with people and culture and amazing sights?

Granted, I realize that I spent the morning training session on a bike trainer inside, but that's because it was RAINING. The world is out there. You have to go find it.

And that led me to think more about what has been ailing me - and what I think might (other than the high pollen count) be causing my headaches this week. I have a source of unhappiness that I got to get away from while on vacation, and now that I'm back so is the unhappiness. The economy prevents me from doing much about it, but I'm going to keep trying. Eventually something, the right something, will be there and when it is, I'll be ready. But for now, I need to suck it up and hang in there while I try to find what I'm looking for in the world out there.

Last night, I literally dreamt about what I've been eating. I'm going to try to go almost full paleo as part of my paleo zone. Still eating in the proportions of the Zone, but I think I'm going to try to faze out dairy. I have a strange love for cottage cheese and cheese in general, but since I've been eating more paleo it's almost like I can taste salt in my low fat cheese. And only salt. Same with the deli meat - and we get the low sodium stuff. Plus, I feel like there's some sort of chemical aftertaste after I eat the deli meat. Not to mention canadian bacon. Ugh. So I'm imagining that this is going to be a little bit of a pain because I'll have to cook my meat for lunches from now on, but while I may hold on to fat free cottage cheese for a little bit longer I think I'm going to go without dairy and deli. We'll see how it goes.

I've also been contemplating what it is that has caused me to lose some of my "mojo" if you will for triathlon this year. And I think that it's a couple of things... primarily that it is not new any more, and second my kids are old enough to want their Mommy around more, or at least to notice when I'm not there, and third I LOVE being with my kids and if the world were a perfect place in which I did not have to work I would be happy home with them full time. And I've sort of noticed in my attempts to put my schedule together, I'm good at doing workouts that someone tells me to do (even if it's me), but I'm not altogether sure why the workouts are the way they are and how I need to change them to fit the fact that I can go the distance now. Sprint, Oly, HIM. I know I can do it. The question is how fast can I do it. I want to get faster. The first year was about being able to do it. The year should have been about doing it faster, but I'm realizing it part way through my year. My workouts aren't completely aligned with my goals. So I'm working on that (with the help of a RockStar and some other friends)... and I found some good articles (including one by Matt Fitzgerald) about cycling workouts. And now that I understand a little more about the cycle of training for the year, I'm going to try to plan next year better (Recovery Period, Base Building, Peak Cycles - see the Tri Bible did sink in a bik) and to tie it also to the Tri Power book. That book is awesome but I'm completely confused as to how to fit it in at this part of the year... so I'll start by planning out next year with it in place. It's as though the clouds have lifted.

I'm starting to look forward to the Moss Park Tri on the 17th. Still wierded out about the swim, but since I switched to the sprint for this one I'm feeling a little better about it. 750m with a couple hundred people should be okay for scaring off random alligators. And my race plan is just pound out everything I can on every leg. I've always "saved some in reserve for the next leg." This time, I want to kill it. I realize that I may not be as fast as I would like even with killing it since the past few weeks have been rough in getting my training in, but I want to know that I gave it my all on every leg. I aim to win Big Daddy Diesel's pukie award and to still finish with a smile on my face. DNF is not an option. The only thing that has been bothering me mentally about the race is that this is the same course I crashed on last year. So I've been working on mentally picturing that turn and me making it out of the turn in a lovely way and continuing on the ride like a bat out of hell. And I'm working on not worrying about dying on the run after doing my absolute hardest on the other legs. It will all work out!

The girls did great at the dentist yesterday morning - which functioned as my workout yesterday. Hefting Ladybug into the car and having to put her seatbelt on her while she tried to fight me off was all I managed to get in since their appointment was 1 1/2 hours long. After pitching a fit about not going for 3/4 of the way there, Ladybug declared that "Going to the dentist isn't so bad, I kind of like it!" And evidently said to one of her teachers about going to the dentist "what you have to realize is that they're giving you healthy teeth so you can be healthy!" Her teacher swore that was the exact quote. The kid cracks me up!

Happy Independence Day Weekend to you all - whether racing, training, or cooking out. I hope it's a great one!

Running and Bringing a Plan Together.

2010-06-30T12:17:00.000-07:00

It's hot here in ~~Hades~~ Florida. And to be quite honest, after a week of sleeping "in" to around 7:30 and playing on the beach and at the pool, spending afternoons indoors coloring, playing and watching movies (although we watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets three times because Angelfish has a crush on Harry Potter ... but she doesn't want to tell Holland because she loves him and doesn't want him to get jealous because she wants to marry Holland, not Harry Potter... yes that's all straight from her), I really did NOT want to get up this morning and run.

Not to mention that I did yoga yesterday because something non-paleo and non-zone was eaten for dinner for the girls' birthday and let's just say my body was still in rejection mode. And it was still in rejection mode this morning.

But as it would seem I run my best when I just don't want to, I went. Even as I left the house, Mr. Darcy asked me if I was going for a run. I told him I might just walk 2 or 3 miles, I'm feeling lazy but my body needs to get moving. When I exited the house, I told myself to do at least just one 5:1 and we'd see how I felt. I got to the mile mark at 10:21. I kept doing those 5:1s and got into a nice rhythm. One where I wasn't even noticing that I was running, but just taking in the scenery. It was a little eerie. Nice, but eerie. Next thing I know, I'm hitting the turn onto the 3 mile run course and I'm not even at 24 minutes yet. But I'm pretty sure that I'm past the 2nd mile point. I hit the 3 mile mark at 30:12. A 10 minute, 4 second pace - while walking 1 minute after running 5 minutes! I couldn't believe it. That's faster than I've done in just about FOREVER. And I wasn't even angry with Mr. Darcy - we know I can tear up the asphalt then.

I finished the 3.2 miles total in 34:05. I slowed down a good bit for that last 0.2 because my right calf was feeling really tight all of a sudden and I didn't want to pull it. Even so, I was still under an 11 minute mile pace.

I wonder if I do races on days I don't feel like getting out of bed if I will ROCK them... hmmm...

In other news, I am officially signed up and money paid for both the Moss Park Sprint Tri (July 7) and the Clermont Challenge (Olympic) on 9/12. Of course, I'm not sure if I should be concerned about the Clermont Challenge - they refer to the Olympic distance as "the short course." At this point, I'm the only Athena in my age group that is signed up for the race. I laughingly told Mr. Darcy that perhaps this meant I'd get some hardware. I'm sure by September several other Athenas will enter and then I'll really have my work cut out for me. And I'm hoping that Sugarloaf is not included in the short course distance for that race. I have yet to make it all the way to the top on my bike.

Thank you all for offering to help with my training plan. I am working on it and may send it to those of you who offered to see if you think it looks okay, or to get any suggestions for improving it (whether it needs more of something, or less or whatever). Big Daddy Diesel, I too have Triathlon Training in 4 hours per week, but he says to 1.5x the training if you're doing an Olympic Distance so I got a little worried. Then I realized that I was probably doing that already... so it's been helping with the planning. I also decided to set out the plan all the way to take me through my two 1/2 marathons (although I'm trying to decide if I really want to do the Wine and Dine since it's at night or whether I want to try and find another triathlon to substitute for it - for now I'm planning on the Wine and Dine) and the last 5K before the true end of my season in December. I may have to tweak it as time goes by, but I think it'll be good to have it on paper - or at least the excel spreadsheet I'm making. I'm borrowing from a few sources... Runner's World Magazine's 6 week 1/2 mary plan from a few months ago, some of Coach's old workouts for me, and the book.

I know I owe you all pictures of the cake and stories of our Disney Adventure. They'll be forthcoming in a day or two. I have a Junior League meeting tonight and not enough time to get it all up today. But I haven't forgotten!

Triathlon Training Plan

2010-06-25T04:47:00.000-07:00

This morning I could not sleep. Probably caused by the lead brick sitting in my stomach caused by birthday cake. Ugh.

So I decided I would take the opportunity to read the Triathlon Training Bible sections that I needed to put together my schedule for the next 11 weeks leading up to the Oly in Clermont. I remember now why I don't like the Triathlete's Training Bible. Chock full of awesome information, explanations as to why and how to do things a certain way... and completely unrealistic for someone who works full time and has small children to raise. While I would LOVE to be able to do bricks several times a week, it does not fit in with my time constraints. While I would love to train 7 days a week for 3 week blocks, this too does not fit within my time constraints. Nor would it bode well for my marriage or my children. Yes, I get that this may be one of the explanations of why I am a back of the packer. But as he emphasizes you need a plan that is realistic, challenging, and provides balance.

I want challenge. I want realistic. And I want balance - not just among the 3 sports but in my life. After flipping through the tome and realizing planning this way is not going to work with my life, I decided to look for the book mentioned in the Dangle a Carrot blog - Triathlete Magazine's Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide by Matt Fitzgerald. I found it on Amazon, but it says it will take 1-3 MONTHS to ship. Uh, no thanks. I will try a book store in the near future to see if I am lucky there (even if it will cost more). Or, if anyone out there would be interested in selling me a copy for about $15, I'd be happy to purchase it. : )

So for now, I'm going to hunt through some of my old workouts and cobble something together. A little frustrating to spend 2 hours and not have a real plan... although as usual I learned something more from the Triathlete's Training Bible. So perhaps it's not a complete loss.

In a bit I'll be hitting the beach and then the pool and then packing for the end of vacation. It has been nice, and the girls had a great time at their birthday party and really racked up! Lots of Dress Up stuff - Cinderella, Princess Aurora, Fairy Princess, and of course the super hero cape and mask from us (which was a big hit among all the kids at the party). Some clothes and books, and toys. They still have no clue about going to Disney, which is awesome. Right now they're looking forward to having the day off on their actual birthday at home with Mommy! Angelfish is ready to go home to our house. She announced it yesterday on our way to walk around historic St. Augustine. (We needed a day off from the beach.) I think she misses just being in her own place with her own things, and I think she may miss the dog.

Ladybug just wandered into our bedroom... so I better go see what's up. Happy Friday everyone!

The Cake is Made

2010-06-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

I have taken photos but forgot to bring the cord that will let me download them, so I will post them at a later date. But I'll at least tell the cake story as it's fresh in my mind.

Last night after dinner, we put the girls down to bed and then the cake baking began. We discovered that morning that not only was the oven in our condo a poor one, but it also must have needed to be cleaned somewhere because it STANK when it was on. My MIL was kind enough to let me bake the cake in their condo, which worked out perfectly because I forgot to bring mixing bowls and the hand mixers and their condo kitchen was WAY better stocked than ours which made my life so much easier on the cake baking front.

I mixed the mix, heated the oven, prepped the pans, and baked the cakes - a 13x9x2 and a 9x9x2. The 13x9 would make up the two bottom layers of the cake and then I had to cut two 2.5" x 4.5" pieces out of the 9x9, so I figured I'd use the extra cake as mini-cakes for the girls. I believe each person should have their own little cake on their birthday so it's not a "joint birthday" even if they were born on the same day.

I had super coated the pans with Pam Baking Spray and it worked perfectly. I barely turned the cake and it came right out once baked. I actually used my arm to guide the cake down to the surfaces I was using. Once the cakes were almost room temperature, I (with the help of my MIL's great advice) cut the cake pieces, and then Mr. Darcy and I brought everything back to our condo to do the decorating because it was almost 11 pm at this point and we wanted his parents to be able to go to bed.

Once back in our condo, I constructed the bottom layer while Mr. Darcy was busy assembling the castle turrets. Then I tried to ice. The top of base was no problem. Then the side... it started to crumble a little and I started freaking out. I was dropping the F-bomb left and right. Mr. Darcy took over from there and I can only presume that from his skills as a model builder from his college years... not to mention being used to using spackle, he made it work with as little crumbling as possible (and you can't even tell that there was crumbling... or a crack in the top layer of the base). Then we dealt with the top layer to finalize the form of the cake castle. Mr. Darcy continued icing because he didn't want me to cry if there was any crumbling. We both decided that we do NOT like Wilton's frosting (no matter if they are the leaders in cake baking) and I'm going to try to make my own if we ever decide to do this again. You put it on and then about 2 minutes later if you try to add any, then it's going to want to peel off. Not cool.

Finally the cake was iced in white. We opted to skip carving bricks into the icing because 1) it was LATE already and 2) we were afraid the icing would peel off. So I mixed together the coloring with the icing to make a nice pink color, filled a decorators bag and realized we didn't have the right tip to make large lines on the cake. Thus, small pink lining on the top of each cake layer. Not much of fake battlement, but it looks pretty. Next we inserted the turrets into the corners of the cake and the door way on the front of the cake. It looked cute. Mr. Darcy piped a little bit of a door into the archway (not like the picture, but we were happy with it... we were not able to do it anyway we didn't have the talent or experience stocked up). The cake had turned out in such a way (and the lateness of the hour) we decided not to make icing roses, but the candy flowers I had bought were perfect for the sides and the top of the cake so I was really pleased. I'm pretty sure that Mr. Darcy was pleased too because that meant I didn't think I wanted icing flowers. : ) Then we put the top of the castle (plastic) on the top, inserted the bases and tops of the turrets and so I could take a good picture - put the princesses in place. Mr. Darcy got inspired to decorate the non-cake base that the cake was on and made a little walk way out from the front door and then put the girls names next to each side of the walkway.

Professional looking cake? NO. We are not the Cake Boss or Publix Cake Decorators (those ladies and gents are simply awesome). A cute homemade cake? Yes. And in the end, that's really what I was going for. Sure, I would have loved to have a cake that looked professionally made. But we're talking about the woman who really only knows how to bake cookies and apple pie and how to cook really good Polish food. I'm great with a recipe. You give me a recipe for a meal, and I can make it happen. Other than that, I am not an accomplished chef by any stretch of the imagination. Mr. Darcy's help was definitely a life saver and the cake looks as good as it does because of him. As he put it, I had the vision and he could make it happen the best he could. I was impressed that I was good at the cake construction though. Icing skills are needed, but all in all we worked it out. I have been referring to Mr. Darcy as the Master Cake Decorator this morning now that we've gotten a little bit of sleep.

After the big cake, I constructed mini two layer cakes for the girls out of the left over cake. But icing them literally was ripping them apart, it was 1 am (quite literally) and Mr. Darcy was at the end of his patience. I gave it a try and realized that Publix would get some of our money for something like cupcakes so we could have mini-cakes for each of the little ladies because this was a mess - crumbling cake and icing that refused to stick. I thanked the Cake Gods for holding it all together for us for the big cake, and trashed everything else.

And then... I slept. Like. A. Baby. The night before I had 4 dreams about the cake, waking up each time in a nervous state. But now it is done.

We've hung out in the condo pretty much all morning, and are thinking of going into Old St. Augustine with the girls to walk around a bit. There are jellyfish in the water... Aunt Sue and Cousin Julia were stung the day before yesterday, they're washed up all over the beach, and Mr. Darcy was stung yesterday. I'd like to avoid the girls getting stung, so we're staying out of the ocean water. We've been in it a bit every day of vacation though, so I think we'll survive.

Dinner time-ish we'll have the girls' birthday party with the family. I'm looking forward to seeing the girls' faces when they see their cake... of course, I'm sort of scared of that too. My little fear that they won't like it somehow. I'll get over it though, but I have a feeling they're going to like it.

Until later...

Rest in Peace Dear Doug

2010-06-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

At 1 pm today, I checked in on my buddy Doug by looking for the newest post on the Doug's Transplant Journey website. It said that if he survives he'd have to be on dialysis for the rest of his life, but that he was looking better than the day before although not much else had changed.

I took my lunch break by going with Mr. Darcy and the girls down to swim in the pool at our condo. We had a great time! Ladybug is really taking to swimming and even was looking like a freestyler out there. Angelfish even attempted some underwater swimming too, which is a big deal for her. an hour later, we were back in the condo and I started working again. Half an hour after that, I realized I hadnt' checked my cellphone for messages that might have come in during lunch. Sure enough there was one.

The second I heard Coach's voice, I knew it could not be good. I called her back and she told me. Doug passed away sometime between 1 pm and 1:20 pm. While I can believe it, I also can't believe it.

I remember the first day I met Doug. It was at the Lake Highland High School swimming pool. One of my 1st Team in Training.sessions. He told us his story of having leukemia and going into remission. He said his goal was to complete all 4 Team in Training events at least once because he wanted to give back. He later talked about being a counselor for newly diagnosed CML patients since he'd been through it before. It was inspiring to say the least. Every time after that I chatted more and more with Doug. He was a big guy with a big heart. He always had a smile on his face, and within moments of chatting with him you'd end up with a smile on your face too. He teased everyone and you loved him for it. He loved to cycle. I'm not sure how many century rides he's done, but he tried to convince me to do one. And that's a challenge I'm going to take up at some point in the not too distant future.

When he entered the hospital for the bone marrow transplant, we were all convinced it was going to work. This is Doug after all. The mountain of confidence, trust in God, and the most positive of outlooks. He had his Purple Army behind him, and all was going to be right in the world. Things started out seemingly miraculously, and the Graft versus Host Disease struck and things were not so right in the world. We've all been praying and hoping and checking in daily. Still believing that if anyone would be given a miracle, it would be Doug.

So today, when I heard the words fall from Coach's mouth, it was hard to believe it could be true.

Doug, you touched the lives of so many and you will be missed. I am glad you are at peace, but there's a whole lot of people who are wishing that you could have been here with us. But the Good Lord has called you home. We will be thinking of and praying for your family today and in the many days ahead.

Rest in Peace.

The Joys of Packing and A Decision or Two

2010-06-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

The Joys of Packing
Friday evening, Mr. Darcy and I decided that we were just going to relax with the kids and then go to bed early and worry about packing for our trip on Saturday. Luckily I had made a massive "what to pack" list to cover everything from the birthday stuff to the chance of riding our bikes together while on vacation. That's right. I'm in St. Augustine in my bedroom using the wi fi while Mr. Darcy sleeps and I'm looking at Aerodite on the right side of the room and Mr. Darcy's yet unnamed bike on the left side.

Let's just say it was well needed recovery from the week. Mr. Darcy had his insane deadline and then was shadowed by high school students on Friday. I had crazy things going on at work, and then discover that my glowing review resulted in a whopping 1.477% raise for the year (which I guess is better than last year, which was a glowing review and 0% raise). I am thrilled to have a job in this economy, please do not misunderstand that. There are all sorts of horror stories out there... some of them from people I love and care about, so I am not looking a gift horse in the mouth.  But I was not in the best of moods.

But hanging out with the little ladies, having a grilled steak dinner prepared by Mr. Darcy, and one or two Mike's Hard Lemonades and going to bed early were the cure. This morning, the girls greeted us (well, mainly me - Mr. Darcy is still recovering the poor guy) at 7:15 am. We set to work packing their suitcases (I had them pick out their outfits and lovies for the trip since we couldn't bring all 35 or so of their stuffed animals - stuffed animals I swore they would never own more of 2 of but that's another story). And then I packed everything else we needed. Mr. Darcy set out on a 25 mile bike ride (part of my father's day present since I will be letting him sleep in tomorrow) after waking. I was quite industrious really. By the time he got back (1 hour and 45 minutes later), I only had my own clothes to pack still, a shower to take, and had done 3 of the 5 loads of laundry... load 4 was in the washer. Our mini-van hasn't been that full since we moved from Atlanta to Orlando, let me tell you.

Amazingly, I can walk around just fine despite the 214 squats I did yesterday morning. I have to admit to you though that standing up from a sitting position (although oddly enough not squatting) and bending my leg as though to sit on my heels is extremely painful. Even 1,000 mg of tylenol didn't do much for it. But it's not such a terrible pain. It reminds me of 214 glorious squats that I didn't realize I'd be able to do.

A Decision or Two
On the way to the beach, Mr. Darcy and I chatted about things.
I don't want to be so responsible in conforming to others rules that I miss out on having a better story to tell. And I often feel like I do. I get jealous of Mr. Darcy coming home from work and playing frivolously with the kids while I cook (this is not to say that he doesn't grill out if I ask him to, or pitch in when I have Junior League, etc. it's just that I do the large majority of the cooking when we are both in the house at the same time).   I work extra to try to impress or be super quick in responding, and then am sorry that I didn't get to play with the kids before having to cook dinner because now we're all hungry. Or not wearing my swim suit to the splash pad so I can frolic in the water with the little ladies because none of the other parents are doing it and then wishing I was running and splashing and laughing too. I decided to make my own rules now. No, I won't be throwing all of my responsibilities away. I'll still be a good and capable employee, but I will draw the line. I will have that drink at lunch with a friend when I feel like it, even if I have to go back to work. I won't get tipsy, but what's one drink? I will play with my kids even if I'm the nutty Mom running through the splash pad. This life is short. If we're lucky, our children grow up, leave home and start their own families, while we grow old. There will be a time when Angelfish stops coloring picture after picture for me and stops drawing a million pictures of her Mommy (just because she loves me) a day. There will be a time when Ladybug not only doesn't want me to play with her hair (which is most of the time already) but also doesn't want to cuddle up with me on the sofa to read stories. Do I want to miss these times because I was too busy following the expected? No. No I don't. So I'm going to start making my own rules.

My best friend Angela died at 34. One of the things she told me and her good friend Liz was that if she beat cancer she was never going to work another day in her job. She was going to find a way to be a writer like she always wanted. My friend Doug lies in a hospital bed after having a 2nd bone marrow transplant after the 1st one failed, his kidneys are failing and he's on dialysis through a line in his chest because they couldnt' do it in his groin because of the skin break down he is having, and he has pulmonary adema too, and the doctors have said that most likely he will not survive. Life is too damn short, and I have this nagging feeling that I'm miss too much. I'm not sure where I'm going or what I'm doing in this life of mine, but goodness knows that I'm going to listen to my heart a bit more as to what's important at that moment and that day. I'm convince that when we listen to our hearts that is where we here God talk to us and reveal a little bit of His plan... even if we don't realize it at the time.

The last decision is less weighty by far from the others. But it's triathlon related. Mr. Darcy is wholly loving his bike riding these days and it makes me so happy. Jealous because he's been getting more time on the bike than I have, but still happy that he is exercising and loving it. We're going to be finding a nice balance somehow so that I get more training in than I have been. I'm not quite sure yet how this will work, but we'll figure it out. In the 4 weeks leading up to the Moss Park Tri (after vacation), I am going to get the kinks worked out but I'm going to do Moss Park as a sprint instead of an Oly Distance. I haven't done a sprint in quite awhile, and I'm going to do my best to do it full out.... like, well, a sprint for each event. I may kill myself in the process, or blow up on the run (but at least it will just be 3.2 miles for a blow up), but I'm going to see what I can do. And then, then I will do my tri in Clermont 9 weeks later as an Oly and I'll see what I can do there.

I've brought my Triathlete's Training Bible with me to the beach. Of course, I've also brought some other reading material along too. But I'm going to set up my training schedule for the next 13-14 weeks. And then I'm going to stick to it like (to borrow this phrase from my dear departed Angela) spandex to a fat woman.

To be quite honest (as you all have seen) the past few weeks have not been very training intensive for me. The Zone and Paleo type eating I am doing has been working its magic though as I noticed my legs look thinner to me (and I double checked with Mr. Darcy and he said that they do, not to mention a pair of pants I had on yesterday were looser than the last time I wore them). But I miss my training. I miss the early morning hours where it's me and my bike on the open road, or running when as the world slowly awakes from its slumber. And I'm ready. Ready to take it all back. Ready to be a bit more selfish and less flexible, to toe the line, and see what happens. Carpe Diem and all that jazz.

I also decided I will eat my paleo zone way the rest of my days. I feel great. I ate pasta for dinner the other night and felt disgusting afterwards... and I didn't over eat. I even ate as much lean meat as I could to balance things out. And I felt, for lack of a better way to describe it, as though my insides were unclean. And it helps a great deal that on a whim while picking out clothes to bring on vacation, I tried on a pair of capri pants that 4 weeks ago I couldn't even button and looked absolutely disgusting on me, and now they fit perfectly. Fruits and veggies always have been my friends, but now they're my best friends. : )

I even brough pots and pans and the contents of our refrigerator with us to our rental beach condo. And our list for the rest of the groceries is quite paleo zone, thank you very much. Other than the resulting birthday cake of course. But I have a feeling, I'll be having a small piece and be just fine with a small piece.

And now... now I'm going to bed. And when I wake, I'm going to spend my vacation enjoying my time with my adorable children and wonderful husband. I have to work on Monday (I am back up for a seminar that is scheduled for Tuesday in DC, so it's a be available just in case sort of thing), but 8:30 to 4:30 with a full hour for lunch... and if I can access the wi fi poolside and/or on the beach, that's where you'll find me laptop and cellphone in hand. The moment it becomes 4:30, I'll officially be on vacation.

Angelfish has been taking pictures of things with my camera. It's a cool perspective on things. The world from the eyes of an almost 4 year old. I may do a post of some of them when I return. I'll definitely let you know how the Disney surprise goes, and vacation in general. I'm hoping to get a ride or two in and a run or two (or maybe a walk if my legs continue to hurt from the squats), but it's harder to do on a family vacation with your husband's immediate family and their families. Especially, when he's still recovering from working a full 24 hours. But I'll be following my new primary rule - listen to your heart... at all times.

Some Friday Inspiration

2010-06-18T05:51:00.000-07:00

When we think about how "hard" things are, whether it be in every day life, in training or on race day, perhaps we should think about this young man who broke the barriers of autism to not only show how smart he is (graduating saludatarian and getting into every college and university to which he applied) but to step out of his comfort zone to deliver this wonderful speech. You may have seen it on the news recently, but it's worth a watch: Inspirational Graduation Speech

On a personally inspiring note, the 200 squat challenge will be apparently very short lived for me because... for the initial test I was able to do more than 200 squats (214 to be precise). My legs are burning at the moment, so we'll see if I am able to walk tomorrow. But yay me! Not sure it warrants the addition of the button on my blog because I didn't have to work up to it, though.

Happy Friday all!

Random Thought Thursday

2010-06-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

1. I am worried about my friend Doug. He is in the Cardiac ICU because he went into affib late last night. They think he has an infection on one of the sores on his back that may have entered his blood stream, which is bad in general but extremely bad if you just had a bone marrow transplant 2 days ago and literally have no white blood cells at the moment. If you pray, please pray. If you don't pray, please send positive thoughts in his direction and in the direction of his wife and children.

2. When I am worried, I clean. Not only did the girls and I clean up their playroom, but I cleaned the kitchen. I don't mean straighten either. I got out the granite wipes and even the glass cook top cleaner. And then I cleaned my office while the dishwasher was running. My office was next, followed by our bedroom and our bathroom.

3. I have an outfit under my desk that I bought a couple months ago. It was too tight. I am determined to get into it and to look good in it.

4. I also tend to eat when I'm worried. Discovering a bag of marshmellows in your pantry is not a good thing when you eat when worried. I only ate 2/3 of a cup of them... 25 g of carb. I wasn't quite able to eat the blocks of protein to balance that out. I felt like throwing up. Not eating carbohydrate sources other than fruits and veggies for several weeks and then eating mini marshmellows is not a good thing. I am truly surprised I didn't puke - I heaved a few times because my stomach felt so sick, but they didn't come up thank goodness. I think the protein I ate helped... and the water. I don't think I'll make that mistake again. Back to fruits and veggies only this morning! I felt disgusting (and still do).

5. I saw this quote and I couldn't agree more: Motherhood - the full on, no holds barred, adventure of a lifetime.

6. The other quote I saw that is good for both my little ladies and me... "Promise me you will always remember: you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." - Christopher Robin to Pooh. I think I might start reading Winnie the Pooh to the girls.

7. I didn't go to bed last night until after midnight. I'm completely exhausted today, but I got the girls off to school and all set for water day. I shouldn't complain though because Mr. Darcy didn't even get home from work until 6:45 am this morning. I talked to him a little after midnight before I went to bed, and then when I woke up at 5:15 this morning because I realized he wasn't there I called him at his office. The poor guy was working his tail off. He thought he'd be home by 3:30 am, but definitely didn't make it at home.

8. As you might have guessed that meant no bike ride this morning. But, after getting the girls ready and taking them to school, I put clean sheets on the guest bed, clean towels in the guest bedroom, finished up a little something for my Junior League Committee, emptied the dishwasher, and wrote a note to an old law school friend who I saw just got a new position. No too shabby.

9. I am now down to 14 items on my To Do List. It's progress.

10. I think for my lunch hour today, I may take a nap!

A Wednesday Morning Mind Dump

2010-06-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up and I didn't feel like training. My brain didn't want to go, my body didn't want to go, but I didn't care. I put on my running gear and told myself I was going to go 4 miles. I told my brain that I would even walk most of it if I felt too tired, but that no matter what I was going 4 miles.

Then I got the little ladies out of bed. They had slept in the same bed, but they don't like sleeping with someone touching them so Angelfish (it was her bed) had her head on the pillow and Ladybug was sleeping with her head at the opposite end of the bed where she had pulled up the comforter for air. I'm guessing they had a little slumber party because it was hard getting them out of bed this morning. Last night Ladybug was trying to convince me that we should go to Disney in "either July or August, or even June." I kept it together and told her that we'd have to talk about it with Daddy. I told her that it was already the middle of June and next week we'd be at the beach, but that we'd talk to Daddy about going in July or August. Tee hee. She is going to be sooo excited when we wake her up that Sunday morning and tell them we're going to Disney!

They got dressed nicely, ate nicely and I headed out for a run because they were running rather late. Yes, the 4 miler. You know your brain is giving you a hard time about things when you're having to tell yourself things like "the faster you run, the faster the 4 miles will go" and "you can run for 5 minutes, what's 5 minutes - nothing!" And it starts pretty much the moment you started the run. It was nice not to think much of anything while I was running though. I enjoy just being outside with the sound of my breathing and my feet hitting the pavement. But it's hot out! When I left at 7:30 am, it was 84 degrees with a heat index of 94. Not to mention muggy, which makes it a little harder for me to breathe. Summer is definitely upon us!

Despite having to coax myself along, I did my 5/1s and ended up at the 3.2 mile mark in 35:00, a 10:56 minute mile pace. One of my fastest in a while. It was plain crazy to me. But I hit that mark and knew I needed to walk a bit... my legs felt good, my lungs felt good, I had a little bit of a cramp near my collarbone but I was able to breathe through it while running, BUT I could feel that I was so hot my face had to be beet red and I was starting to get goosebumps, which I know is a sign of starting to overheat. And my brain was telling me to walk, and I didn't have the gumption to tell it to be quiet. So I walked for about 0.7 miles (and it wasn't an overly brisk pace) and then ran the last 0.1 mile home. Even with the walking I did the 4 miles in 48:46, or a 12:12 mile pace. So even though I was not feeling it today and got a bit overheated, it turned out to be a good run/walk. (Out of curiosity I took my temperature when I got home and it was 101.3... so my core got rather hot.) But the heat is definitely ridiculous. I'm thinking I'll get on the bike tomorrow morning as long as I don't have to take the kids to school (Mr. Darcy worked until 10:30 last night, so I don't expect him home tonight until 3:30 am or so since his deadline is tomorrow). If I have to take the kids to school, then I'm definitely riding on Friday. I'd like to get in a nice 25 mile ride. And I'm going to be sure to do better about drinking water all day today. I didn't drink nearly as much as I should have yesterday.

I wasn't thrilled with what my brain did on the run, although it may have been talking to me about the heat some. And when I got home I opened up my email to find my horoscope for the day which said, "Duties that normally excite you and stimulate your curiosity could exhaust you, leaving you wondering if you have chosen an unwise life path. However, you may simply be feeling stress from recent challenges or long periods of exertion. This can be a positive time to seek out a quiet sanctuary where you can temporarily escape the pressures of the modern world and concentrate solely on cleansing your inner landscape." I couldn't help but wonder if they were talking about my runnning/triathlon training because that's what norally excites me and stimulates my curiosity, but definitely has exhausted me today. So I'm going to try for some quiet time at some point today - perhaps a nice 1/2 yoga session before I run off to get the girls from daycare at the end of the work day.

Last night I ended up having to take the girls with me to buy the last of their presents. They really like the birthday cards I got them (they practically helped pick them out). And despite their seeing me buy things from the store, they really didn't ask any questions. We also sent my Dad's fathers day presents, so that was good. They entertained me and each other on the way home with "jokes" but they don't quite get the idea of how jokes really work yet. One would ask a question like you do to start out a joke, and the other would make up answers until the 1st one said yes or gave them the answer. They aren't always funny in themselves, but the thought processes was what made me laugh. Here are a few examples that of their jokes last night:

Angelfish: Why did the chicken cross the road?
Ladybug: To play on the playground!
Angelfish: No.
Ladybug: To go swimming!
Angelfish: No.
Ladybug: To go on a walk!
Angelfish: YES!

Ladybug: Why were the other numbers afraid of 10?
Angelfish: Because it was big and scary?
Ladybug: No.
Angelfish: Because it was not nice?
Ladybug: No.
Angelfish: Because it was night time?
Ladybug: No. Because it was a monster number!

Angelfish: Why did Donald Duck cross the road?
Ladybug: To see Daisy?
Angelfish: No.
Ladybug: to go to school?
Angelfish. No. To eat chicken nuggets for Amanda and Megan's Birthday! (I laughed at this because I figured it was a hint...)

Then we got home and had breakfast for dinner. Eggs, fruit, and toast for the girls too. Yummy! The girls even cleaned their bedroom for me. Of course, it sort of consisted of throwing toys into the play room that were in their room, but they know tonight we'll be cleaning the play room too. Once the little ladies were in bed, I wrapped the last of the presents, finished up the laundry and played on Facebook.

I sometimes think getting ready for these condo type of vacations where you have to bring so much with you is more hassle than it's worth, but I'm sure we'll have a great time when we're there. My To Do List was over 35 items at one point, and now it's down to about 24. So I'm making progress. I plan on more progress this evening after the girls' gymnastics. I got in the new triathlon magazine for the month, so I'll be reading that during their class. Last week it was Running magazine. This week it's Triathlon and I'll bring National Geographic just in case I read faster than I anticipate. Of course, I usually read slowly at gymnastics because I love watching the girls do their routines!

I did discover something today though that I'm worried about with Angelfish and will have to talk to the pediatrician about at her annual appointment in a few weeks... other than the speech issue (where she's running everything together and you can understand her when she's trying to talk quickly and also her failure to use the letter s at the beginning of words most of the time)... she cannot jump up and down on one leg. She can jump up and down on both legs, but not on one. By the age of 4, the academy of pediatrics says that they should be able to do this for 5 seconds. She can jump on one leg once, but not more than once - she can't string them together. Hopefully I am worrying for nothing on both accounts.

Anyway, now that I've dumped out my brain for the morning, it's off for more work!

Nuun and Spibelt Giveaway at Barefoot Angie B's

2010-06-15T19:06:00.000-07:00

There's a cool giveaway over at Barefoot Angie B's... Nuun and a Spibelt. As a Nuun Lover. Hmm. That sounds kind of wierd. I like the product, not Nuns. Don't get me wrong, Nuns are lovely people, but I'm not a Nun Lover... just a Nuun lover. Okay, well you get the point. Check out the Giveaway here: http://barefoot-angieb.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-first-barefoot-running-year.html

200 Situp, 100 Pushups, and the New Challenge

2010-06-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

Last night we stayed up late. Mr. Darcy helped me with the laundry while I wrapped Father's Day presents, some of the girls' birthday presents, sent out some cards that needed to be mailed this past weekend, put together the sasquetchuan list of items to pack, and then fell into bed at 11 am. So, naturally, we completely overslept. And it was so muggy outside that despite being dressed in my running clothes, I really really did not want to run in the humid soup outside. But the bike wasn't really calling either. I fear that I am getting lazy on my workouts. At the moment, I have a feeling that it's because 1) I stayed up too late and 2) I know vacation is right around the corner. I get lazy in general, but I'm fighting the good fight and plan to get on either my bike or on a run in the morning... even if I have to go to the Y and use the dreadmill to do it.

After pulling ourselves out of bed, we got the girls up and moving, breakfast in everyone's bellies, and finally after Ladybug had 2 wardrobe changes, 1 meltdown, and a partridge in a pear tree while Angelfish and I sang "Do you know the muffin girl, the muffin girl, the muffin girl do you know the muffin girl who lives on XXXYYY?" And she realized that she was, in fact, the muffin girl and was delighted. I also got them revved up for their birthday since I wrapped presents last night. Ladybug asked me what they were and I told her it was a surprise and then later she reminded me not to tell them what their presents were since it was a surprise. Angelfish wants to know where I hid them because she wants to "look at them."

Finally, everyone was in the car with sufficient quantities of milk, and in Ladybug's case a cup of oatmeal since she was late coming to the party. Angelfish had a bag of cereal despite eating 4 mini muffins. I love that she refers to Kashi Go Lean as "my cereal." I figure if she's eating cereal, at least it has protein and whole grains for carbs. Then they all headed out. Mr. Darcy will work late tonight, but I can't complain because he came home on time last night after all. Plus, he folded and put away laundry last night. : ) Of course, I had to take out the trash because Mr. Darcy realized as he was pulling out of the driveway that it's trash day... what he failed to tell me when he asked if I would put the trash out was that the handle on the trash can is broken. And our trash can has only one handle... or that there were 3 very smelly bags of trash that do not fit in the disgusting putrid smelling trash can. I almost vomited from the smell. Admittedly, I am sensitive to smell... in fact, running past Publix when they are baking something sugary can make me want to throw up too. Or worse, one race we had to run past a fast food joint and the smell of the grease literally made me dry heave. But I got the trash to the street just fine, despite having to tip the trash can forward while walking backward holding the lid and the side of the can. I had visions of trash spilling everywhere, but luckily they were just visions.

So I went inside and realized. It is Tuesday. Tuesday is pushup and crunch day. But this Tuesday it was on because it was final test Tuesday. 100 Pushups and 200 situps. Oh Yeah. After repeating to myself about 10 times that I could do this, that I've been doing my pushups and situps according to plan, I decided to go with the Pushup Test first. I figured that if my abs were worn out, I wouldn't be able to hold myself in plank let alone actually do the pushups. I counted in 10's, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 20 and so on. It sounds less difficult in your head. By 70 my arms were hurting. But I told myself that I only had 30 more and kept pushing. For me, this is quite the feat with pushups. And admittedly the pushups started getting ugly when I hit 80. My back was still straight and I wasn't sagging, but I also wasn't going as far down as to almost touch the top of a slim pillow if it was underneath me. But I made it to 100! Granted I collapsed on the floor the second I got back up out of the 100th pushup, but I did it!! I think I may repeat the program though so I can get even stronger. I feel like I can do even better though, plus my arms are still needing some work and I rather like the pushups versus going to the gym to do weights. Of course, that may have to wait a few days since my arms are having major lactic acid build up at the moment. Surprisingly my chest and back are fine.

In my euphoria with my big grin across my face, I thought of the sit up challenge. I realized that really I had one more week to do crunches before I had to do the 200 sit up challenge, but after about a 10 minute recovery from the pushups, I decided that I was going to try the challenge today and if I didn't make it to 200, I'd so the last week of the situp challenge. Situps/Crunches are much easier for me than pushups ever are and mentally they are not daunting to me, so I went for it. Again, counting in 10's... I'm actually not 100% positive whether I did 200 or 210 because when I got to 180, I couldn't remember if it was really 180 or 170, so I decided it was 170 and did 30 more crunches. I did tell myself only 30 more, only 20 more and only 10 more because it helped me keep track. I may have been able to do more even, but with as tight as my upper abs in particular feel at the moment, I'm glad I stopped at 200.

So what's next you ask? Well, other than getting my butt out on my bike and running and perhaps even swimming, when I was looking at the Challenge websites, I noticed there is a 200 squat challenge. All I could think was "next up!" So I'll be starting the squat challenge soon. I can't decide if I want to at least do the initial test this week and then start while on vacation or the week after or to just wait until I get back. I have a feeling I'll end up doing the initial test this week because now I'm curious as to how many squats I can do. Want to join me? Here's the website for this one: http://www.twohundredsquats.com/index.html

And now for your viewing pleasure... Mr. Darcy's bike! Still nameless, but he's asked me to bring our bikes to the beach so we can try to get his parents to watch the girls for an hour or two and let us ride together. So I'm pretty excited about that. Whether it will happen may be another story, but we will at least bring the bikes to St. Augustine (and I already plan to bring my running shoes for either walks or jogs along the beach). Anyway, without further ado...

I think that if this was my bike, I'd name it Nitro. Not really sure why. It just says Nitro to me. But, it's up to Mr. Darcy to decide. I'm going to let him ride for a few more weeks before I broach the subject of naming the bike. He's still laughing over bike porn.

The Weekend

2010-06-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I just have to share this as I have designated this week to be the week of my 100 pushup challenge test. Probably tomorrow morning. I pre-warn you that I may or may not have to repeat a week and try again. But still. At this very moment, outside my window a man is doing pushups. This man is not known to me at all. Evidently he lives in the neighborhood and road up on a bright canary yellow hybrid, wiped his face off with his shirt (that he is not wearing), and did pushups (he's finished now) - about 20 of them. With his ankles crossed. For some reason, this amused me and I just had to share. I guess it's sort of like the day the girls rode by my window on their horses. You just don't see that everyday.

Friday was a bit of a stressful morning. In my stress laden state, the only thing that made sense was to simply clean the house in a frenzy and then set out on a 2 mile run. I should have probably done 3, but it was just too late in the morning already (due to the house cleaning). And as it was, it probably turned out to be a good thing that I didn't run the full 3 because my lovely asthma which I only get when the pollen count is abysmal kicked in nicely. The run was a good one though. In my stressed state, I didn't put on my heart rate monitor or my watch or even my road ID or a hat for that matter. I just went. I ran when I wanted to and walked when I wanted to, and some how made it back to the house in about 22 minutes. I did not run fast. I just jogged the entire 1st mile, then walked a minute or two - not tired in the least but just feeling like walking. It was hot. I was drenched. But I felt better afterwards. I didn't feel like my head was going to explode any longer. I did deal with a tight chest from the asthma for the rest of the day. I'm stubborn and didn't use my inhaler because I wasn't "wheezing."

Saturday was a little stressful too. Primarily because I couldn't seem to get Mr. Darcy out of the house to do our errands and the kids were wanting to run wild in the stores and it was hot and we were spending money... the cause of my stress. But then it was okay at times too. I didn't get my ride in because I was up early with the girls and we ended up making Mr. Darcy's father's day presents and we didn't end up finishing our errands until 7 pm and I had a horrible headache. At some point on Saturday though, I had a really funny laugh. Mr. Darcy was talking about his bike and I said, "I need to take some pictures of your bike. I promised that I would post some bike porn for everyone." And that was when I knew Mr. Darcy has not crossed the threshhold to become a true cyclist yet because he said "Bike Porn? I don't have to pose naked with the bike or anything here, right. I mean I don't know that I'm comfortable with this. Have you posted bike porn of your bike." As I was trying to keep my water from shooting out of my nose in my hysterics, I explained that no one wants to see a picture of him naked with his bike and that I would most likely get major complaints if I indeed posted such a thing. I explained the concept of bike porn in all it's G rated glory. To which he responded, "Oh."

Sunday Mr. Darcy had his 25 mile ride with the Team in Training Group. He excitedly told me about how they got up to 32 miles per hour at one point on a downhill, yet they averaged about 14 mph for the entire ride. Mr. Darcy said how much easier it is to ride the distance on the road bike and that he loved it. So that made me happy. Jealous that I didn't get to be on my bike this weekend, but happy for him. While he was out doing that, I was hanging out with the girls and doing 5 loads of laundry. I still have 2 more to fold and I have a feeling Mr. Darcy forgot to transfer one of the wet loads into the dryer like I had asked, so I'll have to rewash and then dry and fold that one. Then we napped and went next door to our neighbors, and had a lovely time with them. Ladybug attacked their pool like no tomorrow and was jumping in and practically swimming - not just doggy paddling, but swimming freestyle almost - by the end of it. Angelfish was happy to float around in her swim ring instead. Now if only Ladybug could figure out how to remember to come up with air without ripping off my swim suit or grabbing the side of the pool in such a death grip that her fingers were abraded. A good time was had by all, although the pollen count was HIGH.

So high that this morning all 4 of us woke up with stuffy noses and itchy eyes. My eyes were so itchy that they hurt so I took out my contacts. Not to mention that my back was stiff (probably from stress) this morning. So, I decided that an hour of yoga would be the best bet since I was so congested and stuffy and ick. So 1/2 an hour on yoga for distance runners and 1/2 an hour of yoga for the lungs. I felt alot better afterwards.

Of course, we will be vacationing next week and Mr. Darcy has a project deadline (meaning very late evenings) this week, so my to do list for the week is a bit ridiculous. I don't think I'm going to go for a vacation with the girls' birthday party as part of the vacation again. I am going to have to pack up alot of my kitchen baking and cook wear, not to mention paper plates and such, presents, etc. in addition to everything else you need for a beach vacation for two 4 year olds, and 2 adults. Ay Caramba! But in the end, I hope it will all be worth it. I told the girls this weekend that we couldn't get the cake from Publix for their birthday. They asked why and I told them it was too expensive, but I told them I was going to bake their birthday cake this year and it would be just fine. Ladybug's response was, "Okay, Mommy. That's fine, but I'd really like it if it could have the princesses on it. They're really beautiful." I told her that I would just have to see what I could do, and Mr. Darcy tried not to laugh his bottom off in front of them. Now let's just hope that I'm able to make this cake and am not running down to Publix at the last minute because everything is a disaster. I will definitely take pictures of the cake I make - pretty or ugly.

I haven't forgotten about pictures of Mr. Darcy's new bike... I just have to charge the camera battery 1st because both of the cameras batteries are DEAD. So, as soon as I can, the pictures will be on line!

Mr. Darcy's New Ride

2010-06-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

It dawned on me that I did not mention that Mr. Darcy has officially gotten himself a new bike! It is used, but nice looking. The previous owner told Mr. Darcy that he had about 2,000 miles on it and purchased another bike that he rides more often because... it's a tri-bike. Mr. Darcy contacted him on ebay and arranged to ride the bike meeting part way between his office and the seller's home. He said it felt good to him and everything seemed to work well. We'll take it into the LBS for a once over. They won't be happy that he didn't buy from them, but at least they'll still get the bike maintenance charges and the extras that we all buy.

It is a 2005 Felt F-70 with Shimano 105 shifters and derailleur, mostly aluminum with a carbon seat post. It also came with a fully functional Cateye computer (the guy has one for his other bike too), an upgraded seat (that Mr. Darcy asserts is comfortable... lets hope that lasts), new tires (that the guy said were worth $100), and a bottle cage. Mr. Darcy is quite excited and will be picking up his prize tomorrow after work. Bike porn to follow.

One moment at a time...

2010-06-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

Mr. Darcy ended up working until 3:30 am last night and is NOT going to West Palm Beach after all. The poor guy. I called him in his office at 10:30 and asked, when do you think you'll be home and he said "I hope it will be soon, but this is taking much longer than I expected you might not want to try to wait up." So I didn't. I fell asleep. Soundly. Until I heard the dog excitedly whimpering and footsteps and I said "Hello?" And Mr. Darcy responded, right as I looked at the clock that said, "3:32." I asked him how in the world was he supposed to get up and drive safely to West Palm Beach... and he said, "I'm not and I'm going in late to work, but can you still take the kids to daycare?"

So I did. The girls were a lot of fun this morning. Angelfish told me, "I have some ideas, Mommy." "Like what, sweetie?" "I think we should have happiness, laughter and goodness. And I'm not going to let anyone change my ideas." "Honey, if you keep that way of thinking your whole life, you will be a very happy girl." And then she wandered off to use the potty. Deep thinking from my almost 4 year old. Next up was Ladybug who was all business and asked why we don't get blueberry waffles anymore and had me explain what a flood was and why it ruined the blueberry waffle eggo plant and "How are we supposed to grow up now?" all while eating a whole grain eggo waffle just fine and dandy. It was all I could do not to laugh.

I didn't make it to the pool or on a run. I did my pushups and sit ups though. I also thought it was "water day" at school which is where in the summer they have the parents bring their children on Thursdays to school in their bathing suits and beach shoes to run and play in the sprinklers and hoses since it gets super hot early in the day. You also have to bring a towel and a change of clothes. The girls were all set for water day... but water day doesn't start until NEXT Thursday. DOH! So, I spent time helping them change their clothes while they cried. I finally told them, "I made a mistake and misremembered when water day started. I'm sure you can put this in the book of why I was the most terrible mother ever." That got them both to stop crying and ask "why are you a terrible mother?" So I told them, "I am NOT a terrible mother. In fact, I'm a great Mommy. I do the best I can everyday with what I have and I love you two very much, and that makes me a great Mom." They then changed their clothes nicely, told me that I was not a bad Mommy and that they loved me and that it was okay that I made a mistake. Ladybug also told me she knew that Mommy's and Daddy's make mistakes because we yell sometimes. I told her we yell because we get frustrated when she or her sister make the wrong choices over and over and we know that they can make the right choices, and that we get so frustrated we get upset, but that we try our best and that's all we can do. She was okay with that. The funny part is that we do not yell at them all that often, but I guess it makes an effect on her when we do.

On the way home from daycare, I stopped and got Mr. Darcy a bagel with egg, ham and cheese and a coffee from the bakery. I got one for me too, but only ate about 1/4 of the bagel... but all of the egg, ham and cheese. I have to say my body isn't really fond of breads and crackers anymore - or fries for that matter. Last night we took Mr. Darcy some chik-fil-a for dinner. I ordered a salad with grilled chicken and a side of fruit. Ladybug wanted fruit with her nuggets and Angelfish said she wanted fries. Well, I accidentally gave Ladybug's kids meal with the fruit and milk (our kids do NOT drink soda) to Angelfish and she was munching away on the fruit so I had Ladybug trade the fries (which she had just announced she did not want) with Angelfish... who ate one fry and said "Mommy, I want fruit." So I gave her my fruit (and had a very proud Mommy moment that my girls were picking the healthier options even if I had just given them deep fried chicken in a moment of "we're out of groceries and I didnt' make it to the store and it's 6:30 pm and right after gymnastics" terror). I ate a couple of her fries and realized that to me they tasted disgusting. Mr. Darcy thought all the fried items were wonderful, so I know it was just me. The bagel was only eh. So I'm pretty sure my body likes this whole no processed food thing I'm doing.

Mr. Darcy asked me at lunchtime (he still hadn't left for work yet but was headed out the door) if I had been on a scale lately. I told him no, nor did I intend to. He told me I look like I've lost a good bit of weight because the outfit I had on was looser than he's seen in it awhile and it looked really good. So that made me happy too.

I had a hair appointment during my lunch hour, so I won't make it to the grocery until after my Committee meeting this evening... although I may stop in to quickly pick up a zone bar on my way to the meeting. But I'm dreaming of cherries. Yum. The meeting tonight may be contentious, but we shall see what happens. Maybe if I dont' need a drink after the meeting, I'll try to get in that elusive 3 mile run from the other day. Right now, I'm just taking one moment at a time...

A Lovely Day for a Ride on the Trainer

2010-06-09T06:57:00.000-07:00

The weather outside is gorgeous - hot as hades and humid as all get out, but definitely one of those blue sky dreams that I love.

I didn't get to my 3 miler yesterday because Mr. Darcy had to be somewhere all the way across town at 8 am so I took the little ladies to daycare. I was all dressed for the run. The big plan was to do it after dropping the girls off but before beginning work. No such luck. I think the girls think it's a treat when I take them to daycare, which makes me rather happy but also makes it very difficult to get them out of the house. When we did make it into the car, they really cracked me up. They each had selected a stuffed animal to bring with them to school, or as they call them, their "animal friends." Angelfish chose her blue fox (who looks more like a cartoony type of fox than a real fox) aptly named "Foxie" and and Ladybug had picked "Bunny" (a pink bunny who has been her snuggly for daycare since she was 11 months old). There they sat pretending to play hide and seek with each other AND their animal friends while strapped into their car seats. Angelfish even does a special voice for Foxie when she has conversations with her or for what Foxie says to Ladybug (or anyone else for that matter). It's quite cute. While I wish I had found the time for my 3 mile run, I'm glad I didn't have to miss out on the car ride.

But today, it made me antsy for my bike ride. On such a glorious day, I was raring to go and then I remembered... I had a trainer workout. I let the dog out before getting the kids up and realized it was a bit hot and muggy already. So I decided the trainer wasn't such a bad option afterall.

After getting the girls ready and ignoring Ladybug while she had a tantrum about how the bow on the back of her dress was tied, spending a little bit of time with Angelfish while she ate her muffins (the girl loves muffins), and Mr. Darcy showing me a video of soldiers surprising their loved ones upon returning home (within 5 seconds of the start I was crying), we got everyone into the car and off they went. Mr. Darcy may or may not be going on a business trip today. I'm not even sure if he took a suitcase with him when he left. He said that he doesn't see the point of going when all he is doing is sitting next to someone while they work on a program called Revit so that they can ask him questions if they come up. He feels like he can do that over the phone, but I can see the benefit for the person in having Mr. Darcy show the use of revit not just tell it. He had a meeting at UCF and then is going into the office and then will determine fully (with the parties involved) whether to go to West Palm Beach or not.

Anyway, once they were off, I put in the movie "Becoming Jane" - if you're a Jane Austen fan, you'll love the movie. It's fiction but based on some recently discovered letters that indicated that Jane Austen had fallen madly in love with a man but was unable to marry him. Great stuff, wonderful acting, and I love the way the scenes are set up. So I spent my hour on the bike watching the movie while doing a 10 minute warm up with a cadence of 90, 5 x 1 minute one legged pedaling (for each leg), 10 minutes at a cadence of 90, 2x5 minutes in a hard gear (my leg muscles were really tight after these) with 2 minutes recovery in between, 2x5 minutesat a cadence of 100, with 1 minute recovery in between, and 6 minute cool down. It took me right to the part of the movie where the Judge (her boyfriend's uncle) refuses to give consent to her marriage.

It was interesting because while I was watching, there's a point where they were trying to get her to accept the proposal of a Lord with quite a bit of money and her father says to her, "There is nothing that breaks the spirit like poverty." And I couldn't help but think of the kids at the Callahan Center. But I kept pedaling.

I have work (of course), a bit of laundry to finish up, the house needs to be straightened (somewhere it looks like I've been the only one picking up after myself... and the girls have been a bit of whirling dirvishes leaving toys in their wake), we're pretty much out of groceries (somehow we never made it to the grocery this weekend), and the girls have gymnastics after "school." So, I have a feeling I'll be a bit busy! I'm thinking laundry and house straightening during my lunch hour. I'd rather go to yoga at the Y for my lunch hour, but no such luck today. Not much else is "afoot" around here.

We're counting down the days until vacation (10, should you be curious), and the girls are counting down the days until their birthday. We're having their birthday the Friday of our vacation, so I have 10 days to purchase the needed baking items (I've found a way to come close to the same dimensions of the cake instructions without the need to purchase a $20 1/2 sheet cake pan... yay!) and 15 days to figure out how to make roses out of icing. I've watched about 5 U Tube videos on the topic, but I need to find a way to physically try it out. I even learned a new word "torting" and it's not legal related (as in torts), but means cutting an existing cake into thin layers and then either icing or filling the space between the new found layers. I can honestly say that I am glad that this cake will NOT entail such a thing. I'm thinking I need an updated To Do List...

The Wierd and Winding Road of My Monday Brain

2010-06-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

The past few days have been interesting.

I really enjoyed the training that Junior League put on. I enjoyed even more the 2 1/2 hour conversation in 103 degree heat that I had with a new friend. Miss D. is pretty cool and we had the best time chatting. We only discovered how long we'd been talking when Kim called because she was in Borders and was wondering if I was there too. 6 pm! So I was off to dinner hoping that I didn't stink to high heaven because I had been sweating like mad all the while we were talking. Yummy sushi for dinner and a Bonsai to drink (yum! Plum wine with a shot of saki in it.) Then Sex in the City 2. I never really watched the series to begin with but it was a very "Girls Night" type of movie. It was awful. SPOILER ALERT: there is a definite schism with reality in the movie. If I were to kiss another man, Mr. Darcy certainly would not bring me a 3 carat black diamond ring to wear as "punishment." He might bring me a set of divorce papers, but not a diamond.

The next morning I woke up exhausted. It took me forever to fall asleep the night before and then I was up at 6:55 with the girls. TriMommy on 5 hours of sleep is not a pretty picture. But somewhere in there I got all my ideas together and emailed my committee with them - I'm a co-chair and there are 2 assistant chairs as well. Evidently I am a wild child, an incendiary thinker because I seem to have annoyed at least one assistant chair with my ideas because I am exceeding the scope of what she thought we would be doing at the Center. But let me tell you, I do not think that talking about nutrition for 9 months to a group of 10-13 year old kids is the way to make a meaningful program. Sure we're feeding hungry kids with take home back packs and hosting potentially 4 "Family Nights" where we'll have dinner for them as well. But to talk only about eating healthy and exercising in an area where 76% of children live in poverty, 47% of their parents do not have a HS Diploma or a GED, the area has the highest rate of reported child abuse and neglect in the county, and the median household income is $13,613 is not what these children need. Yes, they need to talk about nutrition, but the need kitchen safety, personal safety, confidence builders, something to show them that with hard work they can go to college and get out of poverty, and I dare say it safe sex and that inappropriate touching is not okay. An apple is around $1 in my neighborhood and so is a packet of ramen noodles. The ramen noodles feeds 2 people. The apple? These kids don't need me to read them a Richard Scary story about food choices and then feed them Ants on a Log (celery with peanut butter and raisins on top). Okay, maybe a little of that. But they need more than that. Their parents often work 2 jobs, so were going to have them come to a Family Night and give them yoga lessons? No. These parents need to know a bit about what we've been doing with their kids, how they can buy healthy foods and make healthy meals on a shoe string budget. Most of these parents ride the bus and don't have a car. They shop in the neighborhood conveinence stores because it's close to home. I feel like if we provide them more education we can help them maybe someday get out of poverty. We have a health, hunger and poverty initiative. It doesn't make me sleep better at night to give some kids a piece of fruit every day, some packs with a small amount of food in them every 2 weeks, and then a quarterly dinner with their folks, and some chats about eat this not that. Well, a little bit better because at least they are being fed. But I feel like we're missing the boat. All that does is give them food and a chat on health. It addresses health and hunger that way, and I guess poverty because these kids are poor. But how do you get out of poverty? Education, staying off drugs and alcohol, and NOT getting pregnant as a teenager are the Big 3. Me telling them how to make a healthy snack and that they should brush their teeth is not getting them out of poverty. And I'm sure they'd love to eat healthier, but when healthy food is so much more expensive than non-healthy food and the budget is super tight does what we tell them really matter? Not to mention we already have a program that is all about healthy eating.

So that's my "fight" at the moment. I'm not a conflict oriented person. I like things to go smoothly and often act as a consensus builder, but there are some things that I stand my ground about... and they are those things that matter. And I feel like this matters. I've seen these kids. These kids aren't statistics. They're smart, they're growing, and they need direction in a directionless atmosphere. These kids live in a situation where they know the smell of pot, what a crack pipe looks like and who does drugs by the 2nd grade. There is rampant teenage pregnancy, starting as early as 11. I can't give them all a chance all by myself, but we can maybe plant a seed somewhere in them that can grow to help them out of poverty.

All I can think of today is this situation. It's already driving me a little nutty, and we're not having our meeting until Thursday. Sigh. A few phrases come to mind, like "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime."

But other than that, all is well. I did a 2250 swim today. I felt great - super strong in the water. Drills and then half of a ladder - 400, 300, 200, 100, 50 all out. The funny bit was that I did my 50 all out, but evidently I had more because it seemed like I could have gone farther at that pace... and it was super fast (for me). Who knows... maybe one of these days I'll bust out a killer time on race day too. : )

Lots of work at work. Mr. Darcy is grumping a bit because every Tuesday except the 1st Tuesday of the month will be dedicated to Junior League stuff. But, I don't have sorority stuff anymore. I don't have Team in Training practices anymore. Just work, training and Junior League. You'd think that would make him happy. I think he's kind of jealous, actually, and that is what the real issue is. He hasn't found that something where he's been able to make friends and have fun while doing it. Not for lack of encouragement on my part. For me, it's a necessity to have something. I work out of our house on a job that is primarily done via email. Phone calls are rare. Then I get the kids after work and bring them home, cook dinner, play and eat, and take care of the chores. I need external interaction. I'm a social person. You close me up for too long and I become angry and irritable. Take me when I'm like that to a crowded place and in 15 minutes, I'm happier. So, while I'm sorry that Tuesday evenings will be engaged otherwise and Mr. Darcy doesn't care for it all that much, I'm not sorry. It's my only chance to interact with others and possibly have the chance to make a difference in a small little corner of the world with my evidently incendiary and shocking ideas.

On the radio this morning they asked the question, if you were to die today is there anything that you wouldn't want people to know or discover. Perhaps I live a rather boring life, but there's nothing that I can think of that I wouldn't want people to know or discover about me. It did make me want to get my skydiving videos put on DVD though... I would want the girls to see those. To see their Mommy, the lady who is saying "please stop that - I don't want you to get hurt" jumping out of an airplane and loving every blasted moment.

My friend Doug is not doing well at all. He is not responding at all, has terrible sores on his skin and his skin is weeping, he's back on blood pressure medicine and the doctor has said that he is a worst case scenario. He's seen people come back, but it's extremely rare. I hurts me to think of his lovely wife and children and the pain they must be going through seeing Doug like this. It hurts not to know the right words to say or the right thing to do or how to make it better. His leukemia had started poking through the 2nd medicine too. He needed the transplant. And it's also the transplant that caused all these problems. It is hard to wrap your mind around. I still believe in miracles. Now it's just up to God to perform one if he sees it fit. That's another difficult thing to wrap your mind around.

I'll have alot to think about on my 3 mile run tomorrow. Or is it to run away from? Either way, running seems to help. So until tommorrow. Tell the ones you love that you love them, and thanks for reading my blog. It is nice to have bloggy friends out there!

Saturday Morning Check In...

2010-06-05T04:07:00.000-07:00

I have an all day Junior League Training from 8 am until I think 5, and then I'm going to dinner and a movie with my friends Jen and Kim and two other ladies that I'm becoming friendly with. But I wanted to make sure to get up early enough to at least do my pushups and situps. Today was Day 3 of week 5 for pushups and day 3 of week 4 for situps, with an exhaustion test at the end. I have to admit that to save a few minutes of time so I could blog before running out, I did my exhaustion test at the last set for each because it's where you're supposed to do a max.

Well, I really surprised myself with how well I did! For the Pushups, after doing 2 sets of 20, 24, 20, then a set of 22, I maxed out at 65. I may have been able to do more but my brain got in the way and was telling me things like "oh my God! 60!" But, I did fall down after the 65th pushup. For the situps, I maxed out at 130, but I definitely could have done more - I just want to make sure I'm not in excruciating pain for later in the day. Nothing says "make friends and influence people" like abs that don't let you sit up straight because you're hurting. And the 160 was after doing a set of 45, 50, 45, 45.

I am feeling stronger. I had to laugh though because I was thinking about the fact that I can do so many situps and realized that I don't have that 6 pac as "promised" by the website. I do have looser twin skin, and I've got the definition down the sides of my twin belly and near my hips. At one point while doing pushups I thought that maybe a tummy tuck isn't a bad thing. My stomach skin hangs down while I do pushups while meanwhile my abs are tight (I know they are because I tense them when I do pushups to help keep me in plank). But then I wouldn't trade having my children for a flat belly... so I'll stick with my situp and pushup challenges!

Funny part is now I feel like I want to go on a run... but I need to shower and get out the door!

Good luck to all racers today! I love reading the race reports!

And the winner is...

2010-06-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

the 4 mile run!

I woke up this morning and Mr. Darcy asked me, "So, what's your morning look like?" And I wanted to respond "the inside of my eyelids." I really cannot pull off going to bed at 11 pm anymore. Call me old, or whatever, but beyond 10 pm is just asking a bit much of me. (But you can tell my thyroid is working because when it wasn't anything beyond 8:45 was near impossible.) I didn't feel like swimming. I didn't feel like running. I felt like laying in bed. And I told Mr. Darcy that, and then I said, "so I'll probably run. I just have to step out the door to do that one, and really it's the 1st 2 minutes that are the hardest."

Then I got out of bed and realized that my hamstrings were sore. I find some cosmic irony in the fact that my hamstrings are sore from yoga. Even though I know that yoga is about strength and balance and mental stillness, it always amazes me when I get sore from it. I think of it as active relaxation. But then I guess you could say that about all of my physical activity. I'm blaming the repeats of head, heart earth followed by chair position and backward bends. Oh and quite possibly all those forward folds. I stretched a little and put on my running gear.

Next was getting the Little Ladies out of bed and ready for school. I had a zone bar on the way in to their room as my pre workout snack. Ladybug evidently could smell it on my breath and wanted some. I told her I finished it and she asked if she could have one for breakfast. I was thrilled quite frankly. It's healthier than her usual option of a whole grain waffle. And it's part of my sneaky plan to get the girls eating Zone! Mr. Darcy said he'll eat more in the Zone but that he wants to keep his breads and such. So no Paleo zone for him, but then he's the reason why my children love carbohydrates - I'm convinced it's in their blood somehow. Even more exciting, at least at first, was that Angelfish opted to share the Zone bar with Ladybug instead of eat muffins! Of course, she ended up eating a couple of muffins too... the child LOVES her muffins. Which might as well say she loves her sugar. But at least she eats cheese and fruit and lean meat... we're still working on the veggies... the rest of the time.

So anyway, out the door, kisses and hugs given, and they're off. And so was I. I decided that since my hamstrings were hurting a little that I would plan on 4 miles but if I needed to I could shorten to 3. (Like I ever let myself shorten the run unless I'm in excruciating pain... but I still fall for it everytime.) I also decided that I would take it easy because sore hamstrings can be easier to pull, and if I pull a hammie I'm out for awhile. I did it once in high school during winter running season. 2 months later I could run again. Not the type of "rest" I'm looking for, thank you very much.

It was/is very humid this morning but yet a little cooler because of the cloudiness. You can almost feel the air (not a breeze, the air) on your skin it's that humid. Or as the girls like to say "It's sweaty out." But I took it easy and ran along doing 5/1s. 1st mile in just a little over 11 minutes. My hamstrings, particularly the left one, were talking to me but nothing major. By mile 2 my left hamstring had a couple of things to say that might not have been particularly friendly, but I ignored it. I laughed as I went up the hill because it dawned on me that I have never hit that hill where it was my walk minute. Never. It's not that big of a hill, but it was just something that entered my brain.

At the bottom of the hill is where you have to make the decision - cut it short to 3 miles or keep running for the 4. So as I knew I would, I told myself, go for the 4. You need to keep up your running progress and besides if things get bad enough, you can walk it home. It was like my left hamstring was listening because it got mad at me. I ignored it and kept running my 5/1, and told it that if it really wanted me to I could do 4/1s once I got to the 3 mile mark. My brain answered "or even 3/1s" to which I told it "No. 4/1s" It's like a toddler lives in my head when I'm tired and I have to convince the toddler to be quiet and let me do what I've got to do. But today the toddler listened.

I'm running along and I get hooted at. By a guy in a silver Cherokee with Semper Fi and Marine emblems on the back. Uh, yeah. I like being told I look good as much as the next girl, but having it shouted at me out of a car window while I'm running and you're driving and hanging your head out the window looking back at me is not me idea of a compliment. I am not a piece of meat. I had a friend once who liked it when men hollered at her. I find it rude and it ticks me off. So then I started thinking about that and just chugging along. And my hamstring decided to cut me a break. Sure it was still sore, but it was whispering now instead of getting all feisty. I think it knew that I was not giving in at that point.

I hit the corner where I know I have a little bit under 1 mile left right at 36 minutes. I thought, well, I guess I said I was going to take it easy today and just kept running. I thought about how it would be nice to finish my 4 miles in under 48 minutes because I've been enjoying the idea of my average running pace being under 12 minutes. Even if some days it's high in the 11 minute range. I would love to get down to 10 minute miles. Of course, ultimately 8 minute miles would be lovely, but I am also in no rush to get there. I don't like pain when I run, so it's going to take some time just to get down to 10 minute miles. For me, the joy is in running and being out there doing it and I'm not so obsessed (except on race day) with how fast I go. At the same time I like getting faster. I just need to embrace the pain. I know it. And I'm getting there.

By this time it was 41 minutes in, my walking minute when it dawned on me that based on the distance I have left I can get this done in less than 48 minutes if I at least keep the pace I had right before I walked. My hammies were still reminding me of their existence, but I told them that they could handle it. So I ran it on in.

47:13, or essentially an 11:48 minute mile pace. Under 12 minutes, so I was happy with that even if it wasn't by much. Especially since I could feel myself holding back a bit because of my vocal hammies. I felt good at the end. Sweaty and hot, but good. I had more distance in me, but I had to get to work. But I will have a date with my foam roller this evening. The hammies demand it.

A quick funny. Last night we're eating dinner at the table and all of a sudden Angelfish falls off her chair. Out of the blue. I asked if she was okay and from the floor we hear her little voice, "I'm okay!" Then Mr. Darcy asks her, "what happened?" to which she responds in an exasperated little tone, "Well, Daddy I fell down!" A little while later I asked Ladybug what her favorite thought about our coming vacation at the beach was and she answered "the birthday cake!" She also added that she was looking forward to building sandcastles too. Angelfish said she can't wait to jump the waves in the ocean. And I said that I'm looking forward to a week of just being with my girls and my hubby with no work. Only a few more weeks - for me to learn how to make a cake... my SIL gave me some pointers, but told me that she wasn't sure that even she would attempt the cake I was attempting. But if you go, you might as well go big right??

A Thursday to Amaze Many A Thursday

2010-06-03T14:43:00.000-07:00

Today has been a crazy one.. thus the late post. We slept in a little bit by accident this morning. Never a good start. While I could have gotten up and left to go to the pool, I didn't even realize what time it was as I was doing Day 2 of Week 5 of the Pushup Challenge and Day 2 of Week 4 of the situp challenge all while 1) trying to convince Angelfish that she and Foxie would be less likely to be hurt if they didn't lay under me while I did my pushups (although it was funny that she put herself in plank position and put Foxie - a stuffed blue fox - under her like she was under me); 2) giving Angelfish breakfast; 3) talking to Ladybug about the fact that she should not order her father around or lecture him, even if he did forget that he had taken Bunny into the play room and said he hadn't touched it; 4) trying to convince Ladybug that it was time for her to get dressed, and we meant now. Talking while doing pushups is difficult. The last 2 sets of crunches I had to do with Bunny resting on my belly while Ladybug did her own version of sit ups - lifting her butt up and saying her arms were getting tired (but I didn't complain because it was cute AND she was fully dressed).

Then we piled the children in Mr. Darcy's vehicle and off they went. I walked into the living room and saw there was no way I could get my swim in... it would put me there in time to swim for about 10 minutes before needing to turn around and go home. SOOO... today was yoga day. A full hour of yoga. Leg and spine flexibility and strength and confidence poses. It was better than wasting the hour in the car, and while not as strenuous as my 2000m swim would have been, Warrior 3 is not a pose to be triffled with. Balance and strength.

Then it was work. The second I started, I was off and running. All the way up to lunch with Mr. Darcy... which we ate fast so we could also hit Party City for stuff for the girls' birthday... plates, cups, etc. for the family party and some fun things for their friends who are joining us for Disney. We figured it was a big deal for them to be able to go with us, so we wanted something more than the usual party favors. Mr. Darcy made sure that the stuff for the boys wasn't too girlie, and was smart enough to remind me that bubbles at Disney might not be the best idea. Then I was off and running again to get home in time for a conference call - which turned out to have been moved again while I was at lunch. And then boom, one after another about 10 or more emails all on the same topic came flooding into my in box. My computer must have been saving them up instead of letting them come in one at a time for some reason, so I was late to the discussion. Big research project on a law that is new and that it looks like from my cursory reviews of the various state attorney general's websites no one seems to either 1) know about it or 2) if they know about it, they're not letting anyone else know what they're doing. That and 3 other things took up my afternoon.

Mr. Darcy was able to come home early during a torrential downpour but I pretty much have ignored him because I've been working, and then as my only socialization of the day (other than with him and two 4 year olds) I visited blog land and decided I'd just write a quick note. Oh and I ordered the autograph books for our Disney visit for the ladies. Mr. Darcy convinced me that paying $4 additional for less pages but that would let us put pictures next to the autographs was really what we should do. My miser that lives inside my brain is questioning this because I know I can use scrapbooking corners to stick photos on pages without a sleeve, and 100 pages is a lot more than 24 pages, but the books have been ordered and so it is done.

I also sent an email a moment ago to my sister-in-law for cake baking tips. She is a cake maker and decorator extraordinaire. She makes amazing cakes. For my first attempt this is the bite I have taken...

I am really excited about making the girls' birthday cake, but at the same time I am a bit fearful of how it will turn out. Luckily, Mr. Darcy has a masters in architecture so we should be able to figure out how to construct this... especially once the cake kit comes in. I've asked my SIL for advice on what tools I need as well as whether it's true that you can use a snipped corner of a zip lock bag as easily as the real icing bag (or whatever it is called). I can cook, but cakes... Heck, I can do a HIM so I can do this... right??

So as soon as the items we ordered for gifts come in, I am done with the birthday planning. Just a few weeks and it will be Birthday implementing.

And tomorrow I will be happy running - my 4 miler that is... unless I decide to swim instead. You never know with me. You just never know.

National Running Day...

2010-06-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

It's Today! I had no clue or I would have given you all a head's up. I only found out after my tempo run this morning when responding to my sister-in-law on facebook and saw Coach was a fan of National Running Day. I clicked on the link and it turns out that National Running Day is today. So if you haven't had a chance, get out and run today!

After last night's dinner "guest" and waking up stressed, I wasn't overly enthusiastic about my run this morning. I realized though that I woke up stressed because of the bike situation with Mr. Darcy. I am fine with spending money on a bike that has components I believe in, but I am not okay with it when I'm not. I am more comfortable spending more money than less money and getting a good (but not over the top) bike. And I guess I felt like Mr. Darcy wasn't taking my advice regarding the bike situation. But he has assured me that he is listening and that he understands what I am saying, but that at the same time he doesn't want to spend money and then not end up using the bike other than for the Century Ride. But he says that he's enjoying getting out and riding so far... of course, he's only doing 5 - 10 miles a day at the moment. But at least he's enjoying it. So I'm still left wondering what it would cost to put 105 shifters and casette on the Fuji. But he's also found a Felt F-70 on ebay that is 4 years old, was used for 2 seasons for racing and training and then some training here and there since then. It is his size and it has 105 shifters and cassette. He's supposed to arrange to ride the bike with the seller before the end of the auction or if the bike doesn't sell, after the auction. I'm not sure which. I've pretty much decided that I want Mr. Darcy to definitely ride more bikes - so far the only ones he's been on are the Fuji and the Trek (but the Trek was on a trainer) - and I don't want to settle for components I'm not thrilled with. So I think we're agreed that he's going to take his time and not rush into buying anything, but that he'll still rent the bike for his weekend ride.

Ladybug has helped me in the past two days realize that my children may be a little bit spoiled. Angelfish seems to be greatful for all that we give her, but Ladybug seems not to like the idea of not getting exactly what she wants. For example, when we went to the zoo this weekend she threw a fit because we brought lunch and she wanted to order lunch from the "restaurant." And then this morning she asked for a bagel for breakfast. We told her we didn't have any bagels, but would she like a waffle with peanut butter on it or a breakfast bar? Her response was to ask Mr. Darcy to stop at "the coffee shop to get her a bagel." When we told her no, she demanded to know why not. I explained to her that she was acting like a spoiled child because she has so many wonderful things and food options and she isn't accepting of what she has. I told her that when I was growing up, my parents didn't take me to Disney, Sea World, the Zoo, the splash pad, or anywhere else, and I didn't get to do gymnastics. In fact, when I was growing up, I didn't have many toys either. I had books and a library card, and I was allowed to play in the backyard or at our neighbor's house down the street, and that was it. Ladybug asked me why and I told her because Nanna and Poppop didn't have the money to pay for all those things. I got to do swim team, but only as long as I kept my grades really high, and I wasn't allowed to do swim team and piano lessons... thus the end of piano lesson's in 4th grade. It's a catch 22, really. I want them to have a better life than I did (and I had it good - not a lot of material things, but parents who loved me and spent time with me), to get to experience what the world has to offer, but I also don't want them to be spoiled brats who just expect everything to be given to them. So I'm going to have to think about turning activities into a reward system some how that won't be too torturous for me (meaning if one gets to go, I'm usually the one to stay home with the one that didn't do what she was supposed to do and I miss out on the fun). Although, we're not planning on changing their birthday plans at all... I think everyone (young, middle aged, or old) should get spoiled on their birthday because it's a celebration of their continuing life!

Last night Ladybug did a great job cleaning up the mess she and her sister made and she got to pick a prize from the goodie bag - all we had to do was ask her to clean up and she did it. Meanwhile Angelfish kept playing and didn't pick up anything. So Mr. Darcy wanted to make a point, and Angelfish cried for a good 5 minutes and was angry at Ladybug because she was rewarded. So I had to talk to her about making decisions - good or bad - and having to live with the consequences and how she cannot be upset with Ladybug for making a good decision but only with herself for making a bad one.

So I had all this to noodle on my tempo run... except the tempo run kicked my butt so hard that I didnt' have the ability to noodle much more than okay 2 minutes walking/jogging until the next sprint. My chest was already a little bit tight when I started out on the 10 minute warm up in Zone 2... high humidity, a hot morning and of course allergy induced asthma seemed to be a little against me this morning. My HR was pushing 158 during the warm up a time or two so I had to walk a few seconds here or there. And then I did my sprints... 5x1 minute in Zone 4, with 2 minutes of recovery in between. With these I had to walk the 1st 45 seconds just to get out of Zone 4, then I walked another 45 seconds to get my HR sufficiently lower, and then I jogged for 30 seconds before the next sprint. Then immediately following that, I had 5x1 minute sprints in Zone 5, with 2 minutes recovery in between. This was hard. My lungs hurt for these, but I pushed myself through them anyway. I had to walk anywhere from 1 minute to 1 minute 10 seconds just to get out of Zone 4 after finishing out the minute of running in Zone 5. And I pretty much just walked the 2nd minute recovery to make sure I could keep on going. By my last 1 minute sprint in Zone 5, I was having to tell myself to run harder and faster because my lungs were hurting and my legs were starting to call me nasty names from 30 seconds in and really got nasty by the 55 second mark, but I made myself keep going. Which might be why it took me 1 minute and 30 seconds just for my HR monitor to stop beeping at me afterwards. So I walked 3 minutes instead of 2, and then I ran for 3:30 before my HR was up in Zone 4 again. So I walked 1:30, and then jogged very slowly for almost 4 minutes before my HR was up again. So then I walked a bit, jogged 30 seconds and then gave up the jogging for the remaining little bit. I ended up being farther from the house (by 0.15 miles) than I thought I would be, so I took a little extra walking to really get my heart rate down.

When I got in the house, I headed straight for water and the Nuun. That 2 minutes letting the Nuun dissolve was like agony. I. Just. Wanted. A. Drink. I guzzled down my Nuun water (that made me think of Holy Water for some reason...Catholic upbringing anyone?) and headed to the bathroom. I was definitely heated. My face was bright purple. I turn red when I run normally because well, I'm of eastern european descent and we do that, but this was almost PURPLE. When I peed, it was hot. That was a first for me. Even the hot water in the shower felt cool. I was sweating like mad just standing still. Drying my hair felt cooling and I was still sweating. So I made a nice "shake" out of water, ice cubes, frozen blueberries, frozen blackberries, some whey protein, and a little bit of almond butter. All that frozen stuff finally did the trick!

I decided that while I don't really "like" tempo runs, I love what they are supposed to do for me - which is make me faster. In calculated how far I went in 50 minutes, and it was 4.75 miles. That's pretty darn good for walking as much as I did and the very slow jogging that took place when I wasn't sprinting. If only I can get to a point where the sprinting pace was my real pace. Of course, I guess that's the point isn't it?

So I, unwittingly, sorted out my stress and took part in National Running Day.

On a different note, if you could send prayers or positive thoughts the way of my friend Doug, I would appreciate it. He is not doing well since his bone marrow transplant. Last week he had a small heart attack and is in ICU because they suspected sepsis. The blood test have come back negative for any infectious diseases and the heart doctor says that the heart attack was a minor one and that his heart is still strong. But they can't figure out why he is still not responding to people, not opening his eyes, moaning and rambling about stuff but you can’t really understand him. He’s still very sick. This has to be frightening for his family (I know it is for his friends), and at this point the power of positive thoughts and prayers really is the only thing I can think of to do. The same day I found out that Doug had his little heart attack, I also got a letter saying that I am a potential match for a patient that may need a transplant, but that the patient isn't ready for that step yet so I may hear from them at some point in the future. I can't help but think that whomever that patient is, I really hope they don't get to the point that they need me. I'll give what I can, but I hope they don't need it. I know Doug would much rather be participating in National Running Day than going through what he's going through right now.

One Way to Lose Your Appetite...

2010-06-01T17:03:00.000-07:00

This afternoon after work, Mr. Darcy, the girls and I went down to my LBS. I feel sorry for the LBS guys because Mr. Darcy takes a long time to make decisions about things and he's kind of putting them through the paces. Today he road all 3 bikes he thinks he's interested in and decided he's going to rent the one with the Tiagra shifters. He didn't like the bike that had the SRAM shifters because of how you have to shift - push in to make the gear harder and push really far in to make the gear lighter. I'm trying to figure out how much it will cost to have the Tiagra shifters replaced with at least 105s since Fuji doesn't seem to offer Ultegra anymore on the model he's looking at. But I know the mechanics can replace it.

Anyway, Mr. Darcy is going to rent a bike for the day over the weekend and see what he really thinks. But he won't even buy bike gloves or shorts until he buys the bike. Kind of crazy, but then women and men's brains work differently.

I was after 6 pm when we finished up and the girls were chanting (quite literally) that they were hungry. So we went next door to the Chipotle. I ordered a salad with meat, salsa and cheese. Mr. Darcy ordered his beef bol. The girls got chicken quesadillas. I ate about 1/4 of my salad when I saw scurrying. In. my. salad. What type of bug it was, I have no idea. It wasn't a fly or a spider, but it was brown and it was at least 1/4 of an inch long with a round body and a round head and 4 legs. Amazingly, I did not gag. I did freak out a bit, but not enough to cause a scene. Mr. Darcy took my bowl up to the register. At first they offered me a new salad, but I couldn't even fathom eating another salad out of the same bowl that the critter had come from to begin with. Mr. Darcy couldn't eat his food either. Only Angelfish seemed not to mind, but objected to the spicy chicken. The manager came out and agreed to return the money we spent. But when we got home, no one wanted to eat a thing. The thought of that bug crawling through my salad made both my stomach and Mr. Darcy's turn. So he headed out for his 5 mile bike ride, which the girls played in their play room.

I originally had decided that I wasn't going to have anymore alcohol until my birthday in late August, but I decided my alcohol ban would have to start tomorrow because the only thing I was okay with was wine and cheese and a little lunch meat. So there you have it. A nice way to ruin an appetite. UGH.

Tuesday - No Bike for Mr. Darcy, but a Lovely Ride for me!

2010-06-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

Mr. Darcy is still without a bike. Sunday we ended up having a play date with Holland and his sister Helena and his sweet parents. It was a ton of fun! The kids played in the splash pad until they got hungry for lunch and then we all ate lunch together. The guest of honor - a local squirrel - was quite a hit with the kids. They were both frightened and enamored with it - all at the same time. I wondered what Holland's parents thought of my lunch... the kids & Mr. Darcy had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and fruit, but I gave up peanut butter (and am in love with almond butter instead... but only in v. small quantities) and bread and am eating deli meat only on occasion with my paleo version of eating zone style. So I had cheese - 3 oz. of it, cherries, and mixed greens. The kids and Mr. Darcy drank juice and I drank water. I've tried to get the kids and Mr. Darcy on to paleo and zone eating, and it works quite well at dinner and snacks (at least with the girls) but the other 2 main meals of the day I'm having difficulties. But I will keep trying!

Monday we woke up and headed to the zoo. We got to see a giraffe up close and personal... she was trying to get people to feed her. It was cool for the kids to get to see her (and I was pretty excited too) and we got to talk about her tongue being black, etc. We also saw baby marmosets, and a baby spider monkey. Afterwards we tried to go to the bike shop, but it was closed. So we headed home and took naps. Then we tried to go to the pool but it rained the second we stepped out of the car. So we watched "Anastasia" while Mr. Darcy went to the grocery.... and picked up a frushetta pizza and chocolate chip mint ice cream.

So dinner was not exactly paleo or zone. But (and hopefully this isn't too much TMI) I can tell my body doesn't like the times that I don't eat on the paleo diet. Let's just say my intestines are rejecting the non-paleo stuff.... as quickly as possible. Which makes me wonder if I have some sort of wheat allergy that I wasn't aware of because I was eating whole grain stuff all the time. My Mom is allergic to gluten and has a similar reaction as to what I'm having when she eats it. She also blows up like a ballon if she eats it too often - bloating wise. It's all a mystery, but I have to say that I don't really miss the wheat products. I'm thrilled to eat my fruits and veggies! I'm still getting used to the idea that 1 serving of veggies is WAY MORE than I thought it was before - like 2 entire pepppers and 3 cups of broccoli. But, I eat a nice bit of fruit too, which is much smaller doses to get to carbs. I think overall the paleo and zone this working. I know it's only been 2 weeks, but I tried on a pair of pants this weekend that was super tight 2 weekends ago and now it's still a little tight but nothing like 2 weeks ago. Plus, Mr. Darcy was sitting with me at the dinner table this weekend and told me that my arms look thinner to him... which of course may have something to do with the pushup challenge too. And I feel good everyday. So I am definitely going to continue eating my paleo zone version I've concocted. I haven't stepped on a scale, but I don't really plan to either.

Last night before bed, I knew that I had to get on my bike today. It was like my legs were itching for it. I hadn't gotten my workouts from Coach at that point, so I decided I'd do 15-20 miles in the neighborhood since I don't like the idea of riding alone on the open/closed road. I'll come around to it eventually, but right now I don't like the idea of it. So this morning I dressed for a bike ride and saw right before I left that Coach had a 15 mile ride on tap for me for Friday. I decided that I was doing the ride today. My bike was calling me. I've been on the trainer a bit, but not the road. And you could tell - I had to pump up the air in my tires big time. Not to mention take the race sticker off of my helmet... which I may have ridden in without remembering it was there a previous time. It felt so great to be riding. A little annoying with all the stop signs and yielding to traffic and such, which slowed me to 12 mph at times. And really annoying on my last loop when this guy was literally following his daughter as she rode her bike... he was driving slower than I was pedaling and I really had to slow down. Less than 10 mph on a flat. And I couldn't go around him because cars kept going in the opposite direction. If she's on a bike, you must trust her to ride to school, so why follow her part way? But there were great stretches of the long roads and the short ones too where I just got into aero and went. I didn't try to burn it up (especially since I have a 50 minute tempo run on tap for the morning), but on those nice stretches of car free riding, I was going anywhere from 16-17 mph, which is pretty much what I ride in races at this point (unless there are head winds and such then I do what I can!). It was like heaven to have all that wind in my hair and sun beating down on me. Sheer joy.

Tommorrow is a tempo run. I can't say I like tempo runs other than I know that they are intended to make me faster and help me burn fat. So, I'll pretend to like them as much as my regular runs. : ) I expect to sweat alot tomorrow!

Tonight we're going to try to make it to the bike shop so Mr. Darcy can ride the Fuji. Thanks for all your comments about Saturday's bike post. And while I'm not in the market for a new bike - I really love the one I have - I have to say it's really a lot of fun to look and help Mr. Darcy find the bike love of his life. I just wish I could get him to stop thinking about money while doing it. Sure, I don't want him to ride anything that's definitely not in the budget but $200 in either direction doesn't hurt. I completely agree that FIT is your friend. And I would love for Mr. Darcy to get in shape and to love cycling! He doesn't like running, and swimming isn't his thing either. So cycling is my last ditch effort at getting him into a cardio activity... plus it's one we can do with the girls. Which by the way, the girls LOVED finding bikes at the shops that fit them. All the shops had bikes with training wheels that fit the girls. They really loved the Fuji one that was hot pink and had hot pink and purple streamers from the handle bars. Oh yeah! We're going to wait a bit on that one though... but I'm thinking Christmas. : )

I'm super excited about the girls' birthday. Holland's Mom sent me an etsy link to a shop that makes personalized super hero capes and masks for kids.... http://www.etsy.com/listing/47927954/childrens-custom-superhero-kid-cape I may be spoiling my children for their birthday. But I cannot resist these. I'm getting one for Angelfish that is light pink with a heart shape in sparkle purple and her initial in sparkle white. (Her favorite colors are pink and purple.) Ladybug's is going to be a light pink cape with a flower in hot pink sparkle with her initial in sparkle white. And I'm getting them a super hero mask to go with it - hot pink for Ladybug and purple for Angelfish. I'm super excited! Mr. Darcy says he wants to buy them legos from him. So I'll probably get them a book each from me to keep up the tradition of a book on your birthday every year... or they'll get a book from both of us and I'll get them something super girly. I haven't decided.

I wish I had had birthdays like this!

No Bike Yet

2010-05-30T04:54:00.000-07:00

Ironically, when I put the title as No Bike Yet I originally meant that we haven't bought Mr. Darcy a bike yet and then I realized... I haven't gotten to ride my bike yet either.

Mr. Darcy had his 1st TNT training ride on Saturday morning. He did all 20 miles on his hybrid and said the group averaged about 13 mph, but that at one point they got up to 18 mph on a downhill. Then he laughed, and said that he felt like he could go faster but that the coach seemed to want to keep everyone together. To be honest, I was more worried about what his 'nads were feeling like since it looked like he was wearing basketball shorts. I asked him how he felt in general hoping he'd get the drift, right as he sat down on the chair and I saw peeking out from under the basketball shorts... tri shorts. The only pair of tri shorts he owns. And I breathed a sigh of relief as he told me he was tired but felt pretty good.

So after a shower and getting the lilliputians ready, we set off on a quest for a bike. We got to my LBS (Advanced Cycles) and Mr. Darcy and the shop owner chatted about bikes in our price range and their features. I had wanted to be in on the conversation but I had to keep the ladies busy. They found a children's bike that they loved and sat on and pretended to ride (it had training wheels), then they found the stools to spin on, and then Angelfish (I have no idea how she does this, but she does it every time) headed straight for the most expensive bike in the store. $11K. I told her she had to back away from the bike because with the state of the stock market I wasn't sure if her college fund could even cover the cost of the bike. Coach was in the store after a bike ride with her tri team and she thought that was pretty funny. Coach has 25 people on the TNT tri team this season, which is AWESOME! Of course, they had 3 bike crashes and 2 flats on their ride so it sounds like she has her hands full too.

Then we went to Orange Cycle to give them another try because we have heard people say good things about them. I have to say that knowing about bikes now makes me even more skeptical. Orange Cycle told Mr. Darcy (while I was lurking in the background with the girls who were sitting in the recumbent bikes on display and pretending they were sunken ships and submarines) that they recommended bikes that were $1500... specialized part carbon and part aluminum with 105 shifters or all carbon with tiagra shifters. The guy was pushing the all carbon because he said it would be better for long rides because it was more flexible. I just couldn't get past the notion of an all carbon bike with tiagra shifters. I mean yes, I get that you can upgrade that stuff, but I just can understand why you would do it to start with lower grade shifters. But then, I'm kind of that if you're going for the best why sully it up; but if you're in a certain price point get the best of everything within the price point. I told Mr. Darcy that I thought he should get more of a bike like my road bike...part aluminum and part carbon with better shifters and wheel cassette. Mr. Darcy says he can tell the difference between the Sora shifters and the Tiagra shifters but can't tell the difference between the Tiagra and the 105's. I find this shocking because, well, I can tell the difference. BUT, I've also been riding a bit more than Mr. Darcy. They did have a very sexy looking Cannondale tri, but it was more than twice what we were looking for and the wrong type of bike... On top of it they didn't have Mr. Darcy's size in either of the bikes and seemed only to want to order the size if we were already going to buy the bike. But how do you test the bike if you can't ride the right size? Mr. Darcy said that he didn't really like the look of the bikes at Orange Cycle, and I have to say that other than the Cannondale that I liked below, they weren't that sexy.

So then we hit David's Cycling World... the girls fell asleep in the car so I sat with them while Mr. Darcy checked out the Treks. He got to ride 3 on a trainer since it was raining on and off the entire time. He said the guy was really nice and took a lot of time to explain how the levels of things went for quality (Sora all the way up to Dura Ace), and really Mr. Darcy's only complaint was about the bike seat. But he thinks he likes the Fuji better... plus the LBS said that they would let him rent it for a day to test it out for $30. That way Mr. Darcy can do 20 miles on it and see if he likes it. Mr. Darcy is contemplating the one below. The next Model up has SRAM Rival... anyone know much about it? One of the guys at the LBS said that it's better than Shimano 105, but not as good as Shimano Ultegra but that it's nice because the wires are inside...

The bike Mr. Darcy is considering above...

The interesting thing I noticed in all of the bike shops is that the prices are higher for the same components that I got on my bike 2 years ago. I paid about $1200 for a partial carbon, mostly alumnium frame, ultegra shifters, and a good gear cassette on the back. Now it's around $1200 in most shops for tiagra shifters on the same sort of frame. But I guess it's a product of the economy. My LBS is offering a pretty good deal on essentially the bike I have but with Tiagra shifters that's a good bit lower than what I stated, but I'm tempted to ask them how much it would be to get them to upgrade to at least 105's.

We have one more shop to check out Felt bikes and hopefully will get to it today... but we're also hitting the splash pad today. I'll keep you in posted!

It's Friday!

2010-05-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

First, thank you all for your comments to yesterday's post. I really appreciate them! I realize that I am doing the best that I can, and really there is nothing more than you can do than your best. So I'm sticking to my combo zone-paleo eating, and while this week's workouts have not been up to par with what I normally I have told Mr. Darcy that no matter what time he drags himself out of bed, I will from now on be leaving for my workouts no later than 7:15 am each morning. I am not going to keep slacking on my workouts because he stays up too late playing Xbox to get up on time and thus get out of the house in time for me to get my workouts in. I've let it go for a couple of weeks now, but now I am putting my foot down.

Today they didn't leave until 7:45 on Mr. Darcy's car clock which turned out to be 7:50 am on the house clock. That meant that despite being all decked out in my cycling clothes and wanting to jump on the bike, I was going to have to skip the bike and do either a quick run or a yoga video. And since for whatever reason I woke up itchy all over (not sure if there was something in the wine or the new cheeses I tried last night), I decided not to take a chance on the run because I have food dependant exercise induced anaphylaxia.... (yet another wild and crazy thing) which means if I've eaten a food that I'm allergic too and then exercise within 24 hours of eating it, when I stop exercising (not during thank goodness, but as soon as you stop) I go into anaphylactic shock. The only thing new in my day yesterday was the cheeses and the wines. I've never been allergic to either before, but the overall body itching (including between fingers and toes) may be a hint that I shouldn't push things. I don't like visits to the ER, especially since if my reaction started I would probably have to run there because while driving I would potentially pass out and die, and take others out with me. And since I haven't had a reaction in a very long time (I don't eat onions or shrimp because they are my known reactors and I rarely eat shellfish as a just in case), I don't have an epi-pen because my last one expired and I don't have an allergist here to get a new one. I know I need to get one just in case.

But then I got a call from Mr. Darcy telling me that he invited 2 friends to go with us to Disney for the Girls' Birthday. I am really excited about it because it is Holland (Angelfish's almost husband it would seem) and Connor, who the girls love and their parents (and Holland's sister who is super cute) who Mr. Darcy and I really enjoy talking to. They're able to go! So I called Disney right away and asked if they could expand our lunch reservation at the Crystal Palace from 4 adults and 2 children, to 8 adults and 5 children. Amazingly, they were able to do it. AND the really nice Disney guy told me that somewhere the original reservation was done wrong and it didn't show the girls' birthday (or that they were children), so he set it up so that Pooh and his friends will do a birthday parade for the girls! He also I am so stinking excited about how happy this will make them that I almost cried. But that took up the time I had to do yoga.

So my morning isn't going quite as planned. But that's how it goes. My cousin is supposed to be arriving at some point today, but when he's arriving and how long he and his wife are staying appears to be a mystery at this point in time. Let's hope it's not while I'm at lunch with my Junior League Committee or during the performance review I'm doing for my paralegal this afternoon! Mr. Darcy has agreed that he needs to go bike shopping this weekend, so I'll be ogling bikes at some point this weekend too. And if we can find a sitter, we will go to dinner with our friends M&C at a Spanish tapas restaurant Saturday night. They just got back from Spain and still have a hankering for the food. : ) We may have a playdate with Holland's family this weekend too. But best of all, as the little ladies put it "we're staying all together" this weekend!

Enjoy the 3 Day weekend. I'm still plotting to get on my bike somehow!!

Random Thoughts

2010-05-27T06:10:00.000-07:00

My Mind is a little all over the place today, so I did some yoga after my pushups and situps that I decided to wait to do until today so I could at least stick with the Tuesday, THursday, Saturday pattern. Of course, I'm contemplating for this week only to do THursday, Saturday, Sunday to get back on track since I missed doing it on Tuesday.

Here are my random thoughts:
1. The differences between men and women can be annoying. For example, I argue that love is blind meaning that you can be just as attracted to someone you're in love with whether they need to lose 20 pounds or not. Mr. Darcy argues that your love for them makes you attracted to them but that you are more attracted to them when they have lost the 20 pounds. This frustrates me to no end, and quite frankly it makes me insecure about my physical appearance since I fall into the category of those who need to lose 20 pounds and despite my healthy eating and working out my health issues seem to preclude my losing 20 pounds.

2. I hate feeling powerless. As in the above, it's as though Mr. Darcy has the power to make me feel better about myself by saying he doesn't think I need to lose 20 pounds. But he won't say it because that would be "a lie." And therefore, I internalize it and make it all my fault even though I know I am doing everything I can. I'm working on trying to take the power back somehow. This is the only area of my life at this point that I feel insecure about and the only area where I don't feel like I have all the power. I've never been an insecure person until now. I always thought by 35 I would be like a duck and everything would just roll off my back. I turn 35 at the end of August, so I'll be working on it.

3. The best love is that of your children. It's the only truly unconditional love there is, in my opinion. No matter what you look like, job you have, etc. etc. they still love you because you're their Mommy.

4. Your true girlfriends in this life are better than family - they're the family you choose. I'm lucky to have a few of these who love me and check in on me. I love them more than the moon and back!

5. It's a blue sky day that has me wanting to ride my bike but at the same time I just want to do yoga to de-stress. I will get on the bike tomorrow. I'm determined... even if my closed road is no longer closed.

6. I never thought I would say this, but I think I love pushups. They're still hard for me but I feel so strong afterwards. Crunches I still could care less about. But then I've always been able to do crunches. In middle school I set the school record for situps when we did the President's Fitness Challenge (yep, shows my age for those of you who remember what it was). It took until I was graduating from high school for some little whipper snapper to break it. (My school was a magnet school combo from elementary through high school, so I still saw the PE teachers from middle school and they told me.)

7. I played basketball, ran track, and played tennis on the 8th grade team. I think I was born to name my bikes because I started back in the day by naming my basketball sneakers (made by Mac Gregor) - Mac and Greg. Luckily, I'm a bit more creative these days.

8. Mr. Darcy still hasn't gotten on his bike and has a 20 mile bike ride this Saturday with the Team. He'll be doing it on his hybrid because he also hasn't gone shopping despite my giving him a list of what to look for in a bike and gear he needs for the bike... and him admitting he doesn't understand half of what I'm talking about.

9. Before today I never really believed in the third eye concept, but after today's Third Eye Sequence I do. I swear I can feel it on my forehead... and I am in a much more peaceful and relaxed state of mind now that I've actually done my yoga this morning. (1-8 were before yoga)

10. Forgiveness is a funny thing. You can forgive an action of another and yet still have pain from it that can cause you to be angry again with a trigger that reminds you of the pain. Perhaps full forgiveness is not possible until the pain is fully alleviated.

11. The bad thing about doing both the pushup challenge and the sit up challenge at the same time is that you can confuse your numbers. Like today, when I thought the minumum max allowed for pushups was 48 and I made sure I did 50 (while falling to the ground as I hit 51). Turns out the minimum max was 40 for pushups. 48 for situps! Now I know I can do 50 pushups after several sets of them!

12. I apologize if my thoughts today are not only random but also somewhat unhappy. Sometimes the roads of life are not always paved with happiness, but as someone said recently it's not what happens to you, it is how you deal with it.

13. Life is a journey, a sometimes bumpy road. But as long as you avoid getting hit by a car, you can keep on cycling!

Until tomorrow with hopefully happier thoughts...

Stomach Issues, A Morning Run, and Birthday Wishes

2010-05-26T07:11:00.000-07:00

Stomach Issues
I didn't end up working out yesterday. My stomach was still not in its happy place, I felt completely exhausted, and it was really, really hard to turn down taking my girls to daycare (despite being dressed for a run) when they were hugging on me and asking me to take them to school instead of Daddy. I hoped that by lunch time my stomach would be happier. It was better but it wasn't until about 4 pm that I started feeling more myself. And then I had to head out to the last Junior League General meeting for the "year." We officially start up again at the end of August, although I will be working on planning and such for my committee over the summer.

When I got home from the meeting, the girls were still awake in their room and they started chanting "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" So I went in there chanting "spanking!" and then said "JUST JOKING!" I think Mr. Darcy and I may have been the only ones who thought that was funny. But they loved on me and told me that they missed me so very much and loved me and then told me all about their evening at the pizza place where it was "Kids Night." They had their faces painted, made jewelry out of beads, got a bracelet made out of balloons, and of course ate pizza. It is definitely nice to feel loved...

A Morning Run
This morning after the chillin's and Mr. Darcy left for school and work, I headed out for a run. My intestines are still a little questionable, but I really just needed to run. I told myself that I'd only do 3 miles so I wouldn't go too far from the house, but really the entire time I knew I was going to run 4 miles. I did 5/1s and told myself that I was just going to take it easy. Time did not matter today, but going the distance did. So I ran a nice easy pace and did my 1 min walks a little slower than normal. I walked slower than usual because 1) I had this continuously feeling I had to go to the bathroom so I was doing a "do I think I'm going to poop" scan each time; and 2) there were no bathrooms around unless I cut the run short or made it to the CVS so I used it to contemplate possible routes to the bathroom.

But I felt good. I was running at a pace that felt comfortable, even if it was already 75 degrees and humid at 7:30 this morning. I got to the point where I could cut it short to go home for the bathroom, and decided to go on. I made it to the turn for the 3 mile route and told myself that really the 4 mile route was better. I could always stop at the end of mile 3 to use the bathroom at the CVS. I hit the corner with CVS and told myself that I could make it home. I made it home and I felt like I could have run farther at the end, although my gut was happy that it was near a bathroom "just in case."  The just in case came about 5 minutes later too.

All in all, it was a really nice run. After clearing out the early morning allergy crud, my lungs felt pretty good and my legs felt pretty strong the entire time. Running 5 minutes was easy enough and a few times I overran by several seconds and had to immediately walk. I was dripping with sweat, even up to about 1/2 an hour after the run was over. The heat has definitely been turned on for the summer. I wasn't a speed demon, but then I wasn't trying to be either.  46:42, an 11:40 pace. Not bad!

I still have to do my pushups and situps for the challenges. I'm a bit behind on them this week and can't decide if I should skip one day or just be "off" on days vs. weeks.  I'll figure it out and get that done before the day is over. And I'll be taking the liliputians to gymnastics today, which should be good.

Birthday Wishes
As promised... Monday I sat down with the girls and we made their Birthday Wish Lists. I told them that they might not get everything on their lists and that they might get things that weren't on their lists, but that this was so if people wanted to know what they might like they would have some ideas. I've given you the full lists so you could get a good laugh in too.

LADYBUG: The BIG princess birthday cake at the grocery store with all the princesses (not getting this it's $60! but I got a cool cake kit to make one that she and Amanda will like and I'm also going to make them individual cupcakes as their individual "cake"); a girl superhero; princess figurines with dresses; a princess book with a lot of princess stories in it; a princess car; a pink bear; new crayons; pink flowers; new paper; tape; Cinderella movie; a fancy dress up dress so I can dress like Cinderella when she's going to a party; new toy cookies; a paper heart; a candle to blow out; a birthday party at the beach with my family and to go to Disney (she doesn't know it yet but this is exactly what we're doing!); ice cream; candy; pink earrings, necklace and bracelet; a new gymnastics leotard that has the princesses on it; and a figurine or doll of Merriweather (the blue fairy from Sleeping Beauty); and fairy "stuff"

ANGELFISH: a birthday cake, ice cream, chicken nuggets and applesauce to eat; a dump truck; a super hero girl; a book; a race car; new crayons, paper and tape; pink, orange, yellow, purple and green flowers; a fancy dress up dress so I can dress up like Sleeping Beauty going to a party; a candle with fire so I can blow the fire out; to rest on my birthday (I laughed at this one... like we put her to work the other days of the year); to see Disney and go to the beach (I love that we're making birthday wishes come true!), candy, a necklace, bracelet and earrings; a new pink leotard for gymnastics; and "fairy stuff"

When I asked them if they could think of anything else, Ladybug said "I'll have to get back to you, Mommy." Angelfish told me, "Nope. That's it. Oh and I'll take anything that Ladybug wants too, but not hers one of the same thing that's mine, all mine." They make me smile : )

A Lovely Weekend

2010-05-24T19:06:00.000-07:00

Here it is, Monday evening and I am finally getting a chance to write about the weekend, which all in all was very lovely. I always have a wonderful time with my girls, and this weekend was no exception... even if it didn't quite end in a way that we had expected.

Friday afternoon, Adopted Little Sister arrived, used the potty and then we headed to the airport to pick up Little Sister. She only had to wait about 10 minutes for us... her flight actually arrived early. After hugs and piling the additional luggage into the car, we headed off toward Hutchinson Island. Talking and laughing and all sorts of fun, we finally arrived at our destination. I was proud of myself for resisting the Chik-fil-a stop and eating my Zone Bar and drinking a water instead. That may very well have been the last of my good eating for the weekend. There is one meal we're all quite convinced that we ate our full days worth of calories at ... and it was dinner. But I jump ahead.

The hotel was a Courtyard Marriott right on the beach. Literally. We had an ocean view room that had a door that opened and no screen so you could see, hear and almost feel the ocean from our room. Absolutely gorgeous. And as I said to the ladies, I am not the type to spit (other than during a run, but that's another story) but if I had been I could have probably hit the beach from our window. It was perfect.

We got ready for dinner and headed down stairs. Waited for 1 hour for our cab to actually arrive. The story was that there was an accident somewhere that blocked all lanes of traffic. Either way we had fun people watching in the lobby and chatting it up. Hutchinson Island/Jensen Beach is a very small town, with not a lot of options in way of food, but it was perfect for us all the same. Completely laid back and wonderful.

We ended up at Crawdaddy's. At first we weren't quite sure of it, but we had excellent food even though none of us are what you would call cajun food fans. Great drinks too. 3 pomegrante martinis later, scallops in lobster sauce and wrapped in bacon, some bread, and a piece of Key Lime Pie later, I was quite inebriated and having a great time. Adopted Little Sister had steak and potatoes along with 4 glasses of wine. Little sister had a chicken pasta dish of some sort and a strawberry daquiri and yet she seemed to be as intoxicated as the rest of us. The band they had was quite amusing to us because the singing was not the greatest thing I've ever heard (I hate to say it but I may have been able to do better) and the singer's body gyrations or dancing reminded us of something you'd see in a movie at an adult entertainment establishment, and evidently she didn't appreciate our laughter when she looked straight through the window at us and mouthed "I'm Michael Jackson, Bitches" which unfortunately caused us to laugh all the harder (several drinks will do that to normally nice mannered ladies like ourselves) but also told us we should pay and head out. Perhaps the best part of the evening was when Little Sister was in the elevator with us returning from dinner (along with one other guy who stopped on a different floor laughing his keister off at us) and she points to the words "No Fumar" and announces that it isn't Spanish because that can't be No in Spanish and I tell her... "actually, no means no even in Spanish." We even laughed about that while sober the rest of the weekend. Of course, we had eaten SOOO much at dinner that we all felt like we were going to explode and venture to guess that our calorie content for the meal was ridiculous, if not ludicrous.

The next morning we were moving slower than usual. I woke up at 7 am and thought I really should go for a run. I even sat up and then thought to myself, oh hell with it and fell back on the bed and crashed until 9 am. We finally hit breakfast about 10:30 or so. I had an egg white omlet with spinach, tomato, peppers and cheese, a cup of coffee (I needed it for my poor brain - I can't remember the last time I had 3 glasses of anything stronger than water, let alone martinis.), and an orange. It was awesome. Then we got set up on the beach and talked and sunbathed (after slathering ourselves and re-applying with 70+). At one point it was already 12:30 and Adopted Little Sister said she was going for water... and returned with Mango Margaritas (frozen) in addition to water for us all. All I have to say is yum. About an hour later and we were ready for lunch... a caesar salad with grilled chicken breast and I avoided almost all of the crutons. Then we hit the pool and the hot tub, and then headed up for a nap. I ended up reading for the 2 hours the girls slept - The Girl that Played with Fire is just too hard to put down. Then it was off to dinner at Conchy Joe's.

I think Conchy Joe's may be overrated based on all the reviews etc that we saw, but it was fine. I had 2 rum runners that tasted like they had no alcohol in them... until I stood up and discovered otherwise. Another piece of key lime pie that was supposedly their secret recipe from back in the 60's when they first opened. Not the greatest either. I'm a Key Lime Pie coinneseur and it didn't do it for me. I had a nice piece of fried haddock and good sweet potato fries, but again nothing to get overly excited about. But we did enjoy the reggae band and the overall atmosphere of casual fish house right on the water.

Sunday we slept until about 9 am again, packed up and headed on our way. We stopped at a place called "Captain Jacks" in Ft. Pierce for a noontime breakfast, which was awesome. Pancakes, scrambled eggs, a piece of ham, and potato fries (but I didn't really eat the potato fries and I ate only half of the pancakes). We all agreed it was exactly what we needed. Then a stop at the Vero Beach outlets. On the way to the outlets, Mr. Darcy called for advice. Angelfish had a rash that was originally on her back the night before and now had started spreading. Without hesitation, I told him to take her to the urgent care clinic. So I was now worried about my little lady and I started calling him on the hour and was having to leave voice messages. At the outlets, I found 2 awesome beach hats with the wide floppy brim, but refused to pay $30. I am cheap, I guess, but $30 for a hat is silly to me. I was annoyed at Banana Republic because there was a sign placed to insinuate the hat was 40% off and then it wasn't. I refused to buy it without a discount and they refused to give me the discount. So none of my money left my hands there.

I called Mr. Darcy again and then he called me a bit later. Turns out it was a delayed allergic reaction to the amoxicilin. So Angelfish was now on a steroid to help rid herself of the now all over her body rash. Mr. Darcy strongly assured me she was perfectly fine and there was no need to rush home. I told him we were leaving the outlets and on our way back to Orlando, but I wasn't sure when we'd get home because we hadn't really decided what we were doing next. We got to our neighborhood far faster than I expected we would and we were deliberating whether we wanted to try to go to a movie or not when Mr. Darcy called and started asking veiled questions. I couldn't tell if he was trying to tell me that I needed to come home, that he wanted me to do something, or what, so I asked him what was it taht he needed. Evidently that was the wrong answer because he started yelling at me about how all he wanted to know was when I was coming home because the house was a complete wreck (despite my cleaning it before I left) and he needed time to clean. He really lost it when I told him that I was on the main feeder road to our street (but I found out later he thought that I had passed right by the clinic where he was with Angelfish and I hadn't been that way at all). So right then and there I decided to go to the movies with the girls. He seemed not to want us to go to the house and again told me that other than having a rash, Angelfish was completely her usual self.

We saw "Letters to Juliet" which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm a hopeless romantic, and although the end of the movie was cheesier than the rest of the movie had been and a little over the top for me, I really loved it. Then we had dinner at our local Papa Gio's restaurant (and I called Mr. Darcy to see if I wanted to bring home dinner for him, which he declined). The food was great and we had a blast talking and laughing.

Then we got home and Mr. Darcy was in quite the mood. I told him that we had hoped to watch a movie that Adopted Little Sister had brought with her (and that she had been wanting us to see all weekend), and he said, "Sorry." At first I thought he was joking, but no. It turned out that he insisted that if we wanted to see the movie that we would have to watch it in our bedroom because he wanted to play XBox with his father and brother. I was a bit mortified as these were guests in our home and here he was not only being a bit rude to me in his response but he was rude to my friends in making them sit in our bedroom and watch while laying on our bed. He says that I had the whole weekend and had gotten to see a movie already so he did nothing wrong, but I completely beg to differ. But, lesson learned. We won't come home early from girls' weekend and will end our weekends at the hotel or leaving points for home in the future. Little Sister told us that her arm was hurting, but we didn't think much of it because she has carpal tunnel and had kind of wrenched her suitcase out of the car earlier.

About 30 minutes into the movie, Little Sister tells us that her arm is still hurting and is now going numb. She calls her Mom who is a nurse and evidently Mom thought she might be having a stroke or a heart attack. I made her roll her tongue (it's a tell tale sign of stroke) and she was fine. Her color was good, but now she was panicking a bit and started having shortness of breath. In the car we went - 1st to the Urgent Care, which closes at 5 pm on Sunday... which makes me wonder how urgent of an urgent care place is it... and then to the ER. 5 Hours, a chest x-ray, blood work to test for blood clot indicators, a CT scan (because one indicator was slightly elevated and she had just been on a plane a few days before and was about to get on another one), and a lot of waiting later... diagnosis: carpal tunnel and anxiety.

So at 4:30 am, we finally fell into bed. I was completely physically and emotionally exhausted. Little Sister is all apologies to which we keep telling her there is nothing to apologize for because we've always said we'd take care of each other as we got older (we've even joked about living together after our husbands have died off)... even if we don't want to admit that we are technically falling into the "older" category for medical issues like heart attack despite feeling like we're not old at all.

At 5:30 am, I woke and took my thyroid medicine. About 10 minutes later I felt sick. Tingly and nauseas. And so it was that I vomited. Alot. And had other gastrointestinal issues. And woke Mr. Darcy and told him that he was going to have to stay home for part of the morning because I just couldn't be up at 7 pm with the girls (Angelfish had to stay home to make sure the rash was going away with the medicine today). By noon I was feeling better at least (and eating more on the Zone again). So off he went to work.

Adopted Little Sister and Little Sister left around 10:30, so they got to play with the little ladies a bit. Our girls love their "Aunties" and Angelfish even made artwork them. Lots of hugs and kisses later, it was just Angelfish and Ladybug and I. We had some lunch, took a nap, did some puzzles and artwork, did their Birthday Lists (I'll share those with you tomorrow), had dinner and watched "Kung Fu Panda." Then it was bedtime and after stories, songs and prayers, the day is done. Mr. Darcy still is at work. He has to go to Richmond on Wednesday and Thursday for work, and I have Junior League tomorrow evening. So it will be a bit of a week without seeing each other. Thank goodness for the long weekend during which we may have visitors in the form of my Cousin Allen and his new wife. I hope they take us up on staying with us, but at the very least we will see them for a bit at some point which will be nice.

Tomorrow I will either go for a run, jump on the bike, or swim. I haven't quite decided. In part because I am hoping to avoid a repeat of this morning and in part because I've been too busy and too tired to think about it today.

All in all though, it's been a nice long weekend. I'm glad to say I'll have a 3 day weekend this weekend too. Let's hope Mr. Darcy gets on his bike (hybrid still at the moment, but better than nothing) before Saturday's TNT practice. He didn't get on the bike last week (or this weekend, but then that was probably because I was out of town), and with his traveling this week I'll be thrilled if he gets on a stationary bike at the very least. Hopefully we'll get to do some bike shopping this weekend for fit, and then I'll hunt ebay, craigslist, and the other wonderful websites people have suggested. No rest for the wicked, as they say. : )

The Morning Swim

2010-05-21T06:58:00.000-07:00

Mr. Darcy gave me a wonderful surprise last night. He came home with a pizza (and yes, I let myself succumb to it's non-paleo, non-zone goodness... resisting cake is one thing. pizza another all together) and told me that he doesn't have to go to Boca tomorrow after all. YAY! Of course, he has to see the dentist because either part of his tooth or part of a filling came out while flossing (I'm really hoping it's part of a filling). But he's not in pain, so I figure it's a win situation all the same.

So we had pizza, watched "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse," "Little Einsteins" and "Word World" (the girls learned how to spell duck and ball last night... it remains to be seen if they'll remember in the next few days though), got the Little Ladies into bed, and finished up putting the new bedding and curtains in the guest bedroom and did some straightening. Mr. Darcy still isn't sure about the brown or the curtains we have in the living room, but for the weekend they'll do (and he read my blog and said I was funny complaining about painting with him). He seems to be getting used to the brown and thinks that maybe its the cream color that we painted the side walls (which I had tried to dissuade him from). I am fearful this will turn into painting the side walls, him still not liking the brown and then we paint a different color. But Mr. Darcy is right about one thing, when we go through all of these painting forays we tend to end up with something that looks extremely good in the end. It's just the process of it all that exhausts me!

The best part about Mr. Darcy not going to Boca was that I got to do my 2,000m swim. Whoo hoo! It was a swim that was to be done "however I wanted." So I did a 200 for warm up, a 200, 600, 800, and then a 200 cool down. I just focused on my form and enjoyed the swim. I didn't worry about how long it took me to do, or negative splitting, or any of the usual worries. Just a nice, relaxing swim. The sloshing of the water in my ears, realizing my triceps are a little sore but only while I swim and that my abs are tight too (thank you push up and sit up challenges) and that it feels good. A very nice swim.

Unfortunately, I discovered in the locker room that I lost one of my earrings. Yes, I realize I probably shouldn't have been swimming with earrings on to begin with. But I pretty much have never taken these earrings out (except on occasion to wear another pair), since Mr. Darcy gave them to me as a surprise on New Years Eve about 7 years ago. I want to kick myself in the head about it right about now because they weren't inexpensive earrings and I'm certain that I will not be getting a replacement pair anytime soon. Diamonds don't grow on trees. I have one lone pearl earring too. And lucky me, I'm allergic to metals other than gold for earring posts. I can wear sterling silver for the day, but not more than 1 or 2 days in a row or my ears start to itch. So now, I am an earring free zone. Sigh. I really like earrings. Deep down I'm a girlie girl at heart. I just don't let myself buy things because the kids, the house, and my triathlon addiction seem to be expensive enough. So I will be bare eared until further notice. Luckily my hair is long enough that people probably never realized I was wearing earrings anyway.

As for girls weekend, I am all nice and packed. I talked to both Little Sister and Adopted Little Sister yesterday, and we all can't wait for a fun weekend. Now to count down the minutes until Adopted Little Sister arrives so we can get Little Sister from the airport!

Run, TriMommy, Run!

2010-05-20T06:21:00.000-07:00

I realized after seeing all of your comments yesterday that I forgot to say we're looking for a bike in the $1000 range. The LBS has my same road bike in that range, but since Mr. Darcy is built differently from me I wanted to find him several bikes to try out. I'm a firm believer in a test ride, test ride, test ride approach to bike purchases. I know I had a Felt I really liked but that somewhere it didn't 100% feel right (although it felt a ton better than the others) and then I tried my Fuji and it was like I was one with the bike. Plus, since his keister will be on the bike for training and then the 100 miles itself, I figure the best bike fit with the best bike components we can afford is the way to go.

Gymnastics was great last night. The girls were well behaved and they did so great with all their tumbles, jumps, balance beams, etc. And they had a blast! Angelfish had to have her attention redirected a few times because she was watching the older kids do routines, but who could blame her? Afterwards, Ladybug asked if we could go to dinner at "a restaurant because I am STARVING!" I took them to our neighborhood Italian place and passed by the group that was going to ride in memory of cyclists hit by cars. I wish I could have ridden in it, but Mommy duties were on tap! Of course, they ate a lot of bread and only a few bites of their meals. Ladybug finally pushed her plate across the table and said "Can I eat my macanoni (that's how she says it) and cheese for breakfast?" So we boxed everything up. I, on the other hand, ate a salad, veggies, and chicken. Go me!

Mr. Darcy finished up our painting project last night while I straightened a bit. He thinks he wants to change the colors. He says the brown is too brown. I should have known not to go with a saturated color with him... this is the same man that sees a green shirt and tells me its "too green." We're leaving the color for the weekend, but I have a feeling that we will be back in Lowe's looking at paint samples again in the very near future. Mr. Darcy claims to "like the idea of brown" but whether that means brown in practice is out, remains to be seen. We have this problem often. We had a 2 story foyer in Atlanta that took 3 paintings to finally satisfy both of us. And the paint color was a mix of the 2 previous colors that we made up ourselves as a compromise. Painting houses with Mr. Darcy makes me a little crazy.

This morning the girls were in the same bed when I woke them up, which means one thing. They were up really late playing in their room. Ladybug kept her underpants dry thank goodness. The poor thing is definitely potty trained during the day, but when she's asleep all bets are off. We have to get her to go pee right before she goes to sleep or we end up doing a lot of laundry - it happens during naps and during the night. Once she is out, she has no clue about whether she has to go pee. I'm sure it will come with time, though. Anyway. Ladybug was WHINY all morning, which is never fun. I got her to laugh a few times by doing little imitations in a way that wasn't mean but funny. Angelfish told me that I was "super silly." Angelfish was in a wonderful mood and chatted about her ducky and how she loves muffins. Seriously, this child loves muffins. I've never seen anything like it. Yesterday she walked up to Mr. Darcy after just waking up, looked up at him with this serious little look and said, "MUFFINS, Daddy. Muffins." You can't help but laugh at our little carb queen (she gets it from her Daddy).

Finally the girls were in the car, had gotten their kisses and hugs (as did Ducky and Mr. Darcy), and were off. Poor Mr. Darcy though, Ladybug was screaming and crying and reaching out for me and yelling "Mommy! I want Mommy!" Always a fun morning. But then I went for my run and things seemed better. Lately I haven't felt like running, but today I just got out there and did it and I really enjoyed it. As Training Buddy once said to me, all you have to do is make it through the 1st 2 minutes. I opted for the run that was the harder of the two. 40 minutes. Doesn't sound like much, but I am not a sprinter. No siree. Never claimed to be one. BUT, I was today and it felt great. I warmed up for 10 minutes in Zone 2, doing 4/1s. Then I had a 20 minute run where I was to incorporate 4x1 minute sprints with a 2 minute recovery. I couldn't quite figure out how to make 20 minutes of that, so instead I ran 1 minute, sprinted 1 minute, and then did a 2 minute recovery (walking to bring my heart rate down again). I did it 5 times and it was perfect. By the 5th one, I was really, really tired. But, unlike the last time I tried something like this, I was able to run at least a little bit during my 10 minute cool down, which was supposed to be in Zones 1 and 2. Sure it was a 1.5/1... run 1.5 minutes and walk 1 minute, but I couldn't even do that last time... I had to run.

It was super hot out too... and it's still morning. So I was drenched in sweat (I'm a heavy sweater to start with) by the end of the 40 minutes. I moved my swim to tomorrow because I figured I needed to get a run in more than I did a swim. My plan is to get the girls up and to day care and then hit the pool before work. I'm still hot from the run so that pool sounds awesome right about now...

Captain Jack Sparrow and I

2010-05-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

Last night, I did not get to my bike ride. I went straight from work to volunteer. It was our last session with the girls at the Callahan Center, and I was bringing cake. Notice I said I brought cake. Hell must have frozen over last night because I didn't have one piece, nary a lick of frosting either. I was will power personified. Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that we had a dentist speak to the girls and she talked about how plaque is essentially the "poop" from the germs that lives in our mouth. Okay, no, that wasn't it either. It really was because I knew we were going for a drink afterwards AND that I know this weekend is my girls' weekend with Little Sister and Adopted Little Sister and while I plan to stay in the Zone as much as possible, girls' weekend usually = margaritas. And we're going to a beach that is an Old Florida, laid back margaritaville type of a beach. So I resisted. And afterwards I had cheese and fruit and a little bit of bread with my glass of wine.

This morning my stomach was not my friend though. I'm not sure why, but it wasn't conducive to a run or a bike before my 8 an conference call because I needed to be close by the rest room. By lunch time, my stomach was settled so I did my 60 minute bike with a 10 min w/u, 2x10 minutes in aero while maintaining a cadence of 90 with 5 minutes recovery after each, another 10 minutes hard, and then 10 minutes recovery... all while watching "The Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl." Captain Jack Sparrow and I were pirating it up! I love that movie so it makes it easier to deal with the trainer. Why not hit the road for the 60 minute bike? A few reasons: 1) it was lunch time and around here it's just like it's rush hour for some reason; and 2) it's muggy and hot; 3) I didn't know yet that my 1:30 conference call would be cancelled and sometimes I set out on a ride and despite following the plan end up somewhere farther from the house than I thought I would be and bike longer... I sometimes think it's subconscious; and 4) I was a little fearful of needing the bathroom when I least expected it. But I ended up being fine. Tired and sweating like a mad thing, but fine.

I keep thinking that tomorrow is Friday. I think this is a bit of wishful thinking because I'm ready to sail off like Captain Jack and Will Turner when they steal the Interceptor. Little Sister and Adopted Little Sister are two of my closest friends in the world (along with Belle and Artsy Girl and my much missed Angela). To the point that it's like being with family who you picked. I can be completely myself and they love me all the same. There's never an awkward silence, always a lot of laughter and talking, and just all together fun. And we're going to the beach with no plans but to be on the beach or near the pool with a drink in hand and lots of sunscreen. So I'm wishing I was already there.

Adopted Little Sister is trying to get back into shape (she just started last week, she tells me) and wants to run with me this weekend so I'm hoping that will be a make up for my missed run today since I have a swim on the calendar for tomorrow and another run on tap for Friday (if I can squeeze it in between taking the girls to daycare ... Mr. Darcy is off to South Florida again for work... and starting work that day). The irony is that when I first started all this madness it was because Adopted Little Sister did a triathlon several months before and I figured that if she could do it, I could too. And we did a 5K together and I was falling apart it was so hard for me, and she was so sweet and didn't run ahead of me even when I told her too. She gave me a good piece of advice that I use when my brain isn't in it on the run to this day, "pick another point up ahead and run to it... when you're almost there, pick another one." We're going to look for a 5K to do together this year, and then we are planning on doing a triathlon together next year. I'm excited and totally game, so I hope she decides to stick with it!

Tonight is gymnastics night and the girls are excited! They even picked out their leotards to wear this morning and promised to be good listeners so they can have a good class. I have to admit, it's a lot of fun to watch them in class... at least if they're paying attention.

I also love how they tell on themselves. Evidently, Mr. Darcy took them to Family Night at the Chik-fil-a where they had their faces painted - Ladybug had flowers painted on her and Angelfish had a purple and black butterfly... I'm guessing Mr. Darcy had fun washing that off before bedtime - and played. Ladybug told me that she didn't get to have ice cream though because she was whining and crying and not eating her food. I didn't even know they had gone to Chik-fil-a at that point!

Oh and Angelfish and Ladybug got into an argument over toots (aka passing gas). This literally was their conversation this morning.
Ladybug: I tooted! Tooty tooty fresh and fruity!
Angelfish: I tooted too!
Ladybug: Nah uh. I did!
Angelfish (with her hands on her hips and a grumpy little look): I did! I tooted!
Ladybug: No! I did! Didn't you see the gas come out of my bottom?? (Forgot to mention, she's naked at this point because she's getting dressed for the day... and she turned and pointed to her bottom at this point)
Me: You can't see that type of gas... it's invisible.
Ladybug: Oh.
Angelfish: I tooted, Ladybug. I mean it!
Ladybug (stomping her feet): I tooted twice. You didn't toot.
Me (trying to add humor to the situation so they'd stop arguing): Oh, is that what that smell is??
Angelfish: Ladybug, you don't know. I made that stinky!
Me: Okay girls. Enough is enough. If you're going to fight like this maybe we shouldn't go to gymnastics today.
And they stopped. Angelfish wandered off to find Mr. Darcy because she had finished dressing, and Ladybug cried about Angelfish saying she had tooted and then got dressed and wandered off. I think they were really arguing about who was going to get attention, but it was hard not to laugh that this was their topic for the argument.

Oh and it's official! Mr. Darcy turned in his application for the TNT Century Ride this morning. Now to get him a bike (other than his hybrid... yikes. can you imagine a Century Ride on a hybrid?). He says he's going to get a road bike and put a cushy beach cruiser type seat on it. It cracks me up. I told him he'd probably give my LBS guys a heart attack if he tried to do that. He'll also need gloves, a few jerseys and bike shorts, and bike shoes, bike socks (he's still wearing those squishy cotton socks) and clip in pedals. He already has a helmet... and I'll just pull the front visor thing off it so it doesn't look like a trail helmet. Knowing Mr. Darcy, he'll probably try to convince me that he can just ride in his cotton t-shirts and squishy socks at first.

Anyone have suggestions for a road bike for him? He's 6'1" and pretty thin, and he used to ride a Walmart special all around campus when we were in college. He even got a ticket on his old college bike once. I told him to go to a bunch of shops and ride different brands. That's what I did and when I found the one that was right, it was like putting on a glove. But I always like suggestions. : )

The Tuesday That's My Monday

2010-05-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

I have to say, I have it pretty good this week. I had a nice weekend with Mr. Darcy and then we took yesterday off to do projects around the house, and Friday I leave work a little early to go on a girls' weekend to the beach. Of course that also speeds up the pace of this week in wierd and wooly ways.

First, the weekend. Mr. Darcy and I took the ladies up to his parents' house Friday night. After a rough night with Angelfish who was coughing like she swallowed a barking dog, I took her to the Emergency Clinic. Turns out Mr. Darcy's doctor from childhood phased himself out of his old practice so he could work part time without having to worry about paying his malpractice insurance (because the clinic pays it for him), and that's who we ended up seeing. I recognized the name from conversations in the past and introduced myself as Mr. Darcy's wife and Angelfish as one of his daughters. So that was kind of fun. Not fun was the fact that Angelfish had bronchitis and was put on amoxicilin. Whatever that bug was that caused it was quick moving - 3 days from start to bronchitis. But other than the coughing the kid was fine. She even sang to me in the waiting room as we left. After getting home and getting everyone settled, Mr. Darcy and I set out for Fernandina Beach.

It was wonderfully peaceful. We stayed at a beautiful B&B named "The Williams House." I would definitely return. In fact, it was difficult to leave! We got checked in and then walked to have lunch, wandered around the shops and back to the B&B where we took a 2 hour nap - to be awoken by "At Last" (one of my favorite songs) the bride and groom's 1st dance as a married couple from the wedding being held at the B&B. Just in time to get ready for dinner!

We walked to dinner at Le Clos, which was really enjoyable and in a cute little house, then watched the sunset and headed to a movie. Mr. Darcy was all about seeing a movie because "we never get to see movies anymore." I let him pick... Iron Man 2. If it had been the triathlon version of IronMan it would have been awesome. But this wasn't the greatest $20 spent. I didn't get in any running, but we walked over 4 miles. : )

The next morning we walked around a Civil War fort for a bit, had lunch and then headed on back to The Senior Darcy's. The girls were thrilled to see us and other than getting peed on while Ladybug was sleeping in my lap (just in time for Mr. Darcy's brother and his wife and children to come in), we had a lovely time!

Yesterday (our official anniversary) we took the girls to daycare and spent the day painting, and plotting future house projects. Mr. Darcy has convinced me to build a 2nd arch in our hall/kitchen/bar area so that he can live with the fact that there is no "end" to the room for paint. Something about paint being required to be from an inside corner to an inside corner and if it's one color on one side of the arch it has to be the same on the other. I'm only 90% in favor of the 2nd arch... and that was only after he mocked it up by taping bumwad (cheap sketch paper) to the ceiling, floor, etc. in the shape and form of what he was proposing. I like the openness of how our house is, and while the arch won't completely impede it, it still breaks things up... which is Mr. Darcy's point exactly. I just don't get worked up about stuff like that and decorate the way I want to. Who needs rules for these things? If you like it, do it!

We still have to finish one of the painting projects tonight, but we'll have painted our entire family room and part of the breakfast nook (we finished the job that had to wait until Mr. Darcy had built out another divider that wasn't sufficient enough and had "no inside corner" to stop the paint - marrying an architect makes decorating a bit troublesome. Most women do what they want and their husbands keep brushing their teeth. We have to negotiate from cutting edge metal works to comfy modern yet classic style...). I won the accent wall of a nice chocolate color only being on one wall. We also picked out drapes for the living room, bedroom, and guest bedroom too (although we have to exchange one set for a longer variety since our windows are huge.) Ladybug declared that "Now our house looks just like a princess castle!" and Angelfish said "the color is GOOD!" So we're pretty sure they like it.

This morning we discovered that Mr. Darcy accidentally left my car door and the interior light on ALL WEEKEND long. The battery was so dead that it took 20 minutes of being attached to Mr. Darcy's battery before we could get it to turn over. And then it was so late that dressed in my running attire, I took the Little Ladies to daycare and had to skip the run. But I did get in my pushup challenge and sit up challenge before work, at least! I had a 60 minute bike ride on tap anyway, so now it looks like I will do my 4 mile run tomorrow morning (if I can get out the door early enough to be home and ready for an 8 am conference call) and I will do my best to get on the trainer for 60 minutes tonight. I'm going to see if I can get Mr. Darcy to put my aero bike on the trainer tonight since I'm supposed to stay in aero for 2x10 minutes while at a 90 cadence. I don't have aero bars on the road bike.

Speaking of cycling, Mr. Darcy has told me that he's going to do the Intercoastal Century Ride with Team in Training! I'm pretty excited about it. In fact, I might be more excited than he is. I wanted to do the ride, but he had said that he wanted his wife back for a little bit. And keeping in mind that he has survived 2 Team in Training seasons and 1 HIM training in 2 years, I figured I would let it go. So I was a little surprised that he said he wanted to do it but he says that he is having a hard time getting himself to work out and that this will force him to do it. So, I'm all for it. Now to get him to eat healthier... and my "diabolical" plan will have come together. He says he eats healthy when he eats at home (which is mostly true but the man is a carb fiend), but it's all those times he's not eating at home!

So that's what's going on in our neck of the woods. Congrats to all the great racers this weekend. I loved all the race reports!!

Friday Plans Slightly Foibled!

2010-05-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

It's Friday! YAY!! I am so glad that it is Friday. This week has seemed to go by so slowly and yet so quickly at the same time. In so many ways, these little faces have kept me happy this week. Of course, they've also given me some sources of frustration, but I think that's because I forget that they are not even 4 some days. I have no idea how the school photographer got them to smile like this (or why Angelfish's hair is pulled back for that matter), but I'm thrilled with the results.

When I look at these pictures, I have to say that they caught the Little Ladies personalities. Ladybug (on the left) has that straight forward and yet happy air about her, and Angelfish has that happy yet impish look like she knows something really funny that you don't or like she's about to tell you a joke. Priceless.

What wasn't priceless was walking in my kitchen when the floors were wet, carrying my lunch on 2 plates (I didn't want my salad to get chili on it... I'm not that big of a glutton), slipping, falling and landing on my left hip. Let's just say I'm glad I ingest a good bit of dairy bcause I went down hard. So hard it brought memories to mind of my bike crash last summer. I don't have a bruise that you can see on my leg/hip, but if you touch it or if I lay on my side, it hurts and I'm a little stiff walking around. I do have a pretty nasty bruise on my arm. As Mr. Darcy said this morning, "You've got a knot on your arm!"

So last night I only did 3 loads of laundry instead of 5, cooked dinner while watching Harry Potter with the little ladies, and got the girls to bed with the help of Mr. Darcy. Although I fell asleep during their bedtime story on Angelfish's bed... and she woke me up so she could get in bed too. We packed for our trip this morning instead of last night because Mr. Darcy and I were both sleepy heads.

I woke up this with the full intent to do my 10 mile bike and 3 mile brick today. But life had slightly other plans as Angelfish has a funky cough that this morning was really raspy and I had to put my head to her chest to tell if it was in her throat (it is) or her chest. After much deliberation as to whether we should let her go to school or stay home (she was complaining that she didn't feel well but only could specify her cough and her tummy hurting), we decided to keep her home for the day. So I started working early - while entertaining Angelfish and working it so I could work while squeezing in at least part of my workout in. I did Day 3 of Week 3 of the Pushup Challenge. Angelfish decided to climb under me during the max set, so I only did 33 because I didn't want to end up falling on her. Then I got the 10 mile bike ride in on the trainer while working and watching "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse." I'm going to pack my running gear in the hope I'll get the 3 miles in this evening at my in-laws. Or maybe on Saturday morning... My leg/hip was a little stiff at first on the bike, but about 10 minutes in it was fine. Nothing like slipping on your own floor to make you feel silly.

I am pretty sure that Angelfish has allergies and this isn't a cold, although her teacher was out for almost a week with a cold. She seems to be her usual spunky self (who ate her chili for dinner last night and was thrilled to have muffins for breakfast), but with a cough that is much looser now. Life's little adventures always keep us hopping!

Mr. Darcy wants us to go see the last launch liftoff today, especially because it's the last one for Atlantis. Luckily, (knock on wood) things have been slow this week at work so I can take advantage of it and leave work a little early today. Mr. Darcy plans to get us this afternoon around 1:30, we'll go to the launch and then head to his parents. It's the start of the weekend adventure... a little early.

I hope all of you have a wonderful adventure in store for your weekend too!

Afternoon Funnies and Mother's Day Pictures

2010-05-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

So I've got a few other funny things that have been said around the house that I thought would make a nice afternoon post.

The first one requires a little background. Mr. Darcy was doing pushups the other day. The girls like to "do pushups" with me when I do mine, but they don't quite grasp that you push with your arms. They push with their legs and it makes their little bodies jack knife so their bottoms are in the air, thus we call them "booty pushups." Well, Mr. Darcy was doing his pushups and Ladybug looks over and says, "Daddy, those are booty pushups!" Even Mr. Darcy was laughing.

Last night we were straightening up the girls' playroom and bedroom, and Angelfish wasn't really doing her job that well. I told her she needed to do her job and she said, "But Mommy, I don't just want to work, work, work all the time!"

And as they say, a picture says a thousand words...

Speaking of pictures, said I'd post some pictures from our Mother's Day fun, so here goes

We started the day by goofing around the house...

Ladybug showing us some dance moves and Angelfish coveting my road bike (while it's on the trainer)

The girls begging for us to leave at the front door

Then we headed out to the beach where we....

Ran on the beach......and in the water

and jumped waves (but couldn't quite get a picture of us in the air)

and built sandcastles

Eventually, we went home and ...

Cooked dinner (notice they changed bathingsuits - they wanted to be ready to swim again)

And ate on the porch because it was such a beautiful day!

The Remains of the Day and a Lovely Start to a Thursday

2010-05-13T07:17:00.000-07:00

The Remains of the Day (Wednesday, that is)
As it turns out, Angelfish didn't eat her meat for breakfast either. Mr. Darcy reported that she only drank her milk and refused her dinner as breakfast. So we conspired that we would feed it to her for dinner again. To truly get the point across. Meanwhile, I got a call from daycare because Ladybug bumped her face against the corner of a shelf. I talked to her on the phone because she was sitting right next to the woman who called at the time. She didn't have much to say other than to tell me what happened. Turns out she was nodding her head in response to my questions and even to "I love you." That'll teach me to ask yes or no questions!

Then it was back to work. I have to say that I love the crockpot - all that cooking and simmering and making dinner while I work. Of course the smells in the house made me hungry... I took a little bit of time as my lunch to do a 1/2 hour yoga video, and it dawned me that the reason the pushups were so hard yesterday was because I had just done Day 1 of Week 3 the day before. Sigh.

Once the work day ended, it was off to gymnastics. Angelfish and Ladybug are completely in love with gymnastics. Unfortunately, Angelfish also was in love with rolling all over the floor (and the gym equipment) and completely ignoring the teacher while waiting for her turn to do the next tumble, etc. Ladybug was attempting to pay attention but would get distracted by Angelfish and act up a little too, but not nearly to the level of her sister. SO, we got someone from the front desk (we're not allowed on to the gymnastics floor) to go and retrieve Angelfish. We made her sit out the rest of the class and then tell the Coach that next week she would be a better listener. She cried alot. But I hope we got our point across.

Ladybug on the other hand had a ball once sissy wasn't in class anymore. She became a great listener and had lots of fun with the jumps and stuff they were doing. Amazing what splitting them up can do.

And then we had dinner. Angelfish ate the meat from the night before after dousing it in ketchup. And then asked for chili like we were eating... and then refused to eat it. So she was served it for breakfast and refused to eat it. She'll be having chili tonight while the rest of us are having chicken! You have to admire the child's tenacity, but little does she know that I'm probably where she got that stubborness and I'm old enough that I'm more stubborn than she is. I can play this game for months! As I've told Mr. Darcy before, it's a battle of the wills and as parents we have to be the victors.

A Lovely Start to A Thursday
This morning I woke at 5 am and left the house a little later than I meant to, but I got to Lucky's Lake in time to meet Kelly (My Life as a TriMommy). She is very sweet and we chatted away until we got started. I already knew that she is speedy from her race reports and such, so I didn't expect to keep up with her. Add to it that when I started swimming (and pretty much all the way until 1500m in to the swim) I realized that my arms are rather sore. Especially my tricepts. To the point that I realized I wasn't following through all the way on my stroke because when I did it hurt. So, I forced myself to slow my pace a little and focus on my stroke. And for some reason while my sighting was spot on, I was swimming straight for 3/4 of the way across the lake and then crazy swim. I'm not sure if it was because my mind was much less of a whirlygig than it was the other day or if I was overcompensating for sore arms.

The 3rd leg of my journey my sighting got off so badly I ended up swimming almost another 250 meters in the wrong direction... at the end of the leg. And I wondered why that crossing was feeling so long! But I laughed it off with an older guy that was sitting where I was supposed to be. I felt badly for Kelly though because I knew she had to get back and was waiting on me. In fact, as I was trying to cut off the conversation with the older guy for the 1st time, I saw her exit the swim. A few minutes later I got him to stop talking to me. (I'm not great at that. I feel rude, unless it's someone that you get that feeling you don't want to talk to this person at all in the pit of your stomach, then I'm great at ending the conversation and memorizing what they look like and what they are wearing. I guess I'm good at self-preservation.) And I swam as fast as I could across the lake, and had my best and straightest swim leg of the day. 2500 m done and done!

Kelly got to sign the wall during her wait for me, so luckily it wasn't too big of a wait on me. And then we had someone take our picture. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera on the kitchen counter when I left so the picture is on her camera. She promises to post it on her blog and email me a copy. I have to admit that I'm fearful of the idea of a picture of me in a bathing suit being in blogland, but it was such fun meeting Kelly that I'm going to get over it. She was super sweet and hopefully if she's in town again another time we can meet up for another swim at Lucky's!

Let's hope the rest of my day is as good as the start!

A Busy Morning

2010-05-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

Ever have one of those mornings that seems stockpiled with stuff? That was me today. I woke up with very sore abs from the initial test for the "Sit-up Challenge." So I stretched out and put on my swim suit since I had a 2000m swim on tap. Packed the bag for the gym, got the girls up and gave them kisses and hugs and headed out the door.

I got the the gym and was at the pool by 7:25am and started my swim. I did a 100m warm up and realized that I completely forgot what my swim was supposed to be like today: drills? timed? I could not remember for the life of me. So I did the next 2000m straight swim. I meant to only do 1800m but when I got to the 7th set of 8's (I count lengths in groups of 8. For some reason I don't miscount that way.) I decided to do one more. When I stopped I realized I had just done a total of 2100m, so I rested a bit and then got out of the pool.

In history of swims, this was a great swim in my book. I did 2100m in 41 minutes and some change. I'm not sure what the change was because I never wear my swim watch (unless I know I have to time myself and report to Coach) and just use the pool clock. I started the swim kind of tight in my shoulders and chest (Hello Push Up Challenge!), but somewhere after the 1st 500m that eased up. My abs hurt, but that eased up after the 1st 300m. By the 1,000m mark I was deep in the zone but my brain was still going a million miles an hour.

Primarily about Angelfish and how she attempted to (and nearly won) outwill me last night over dinner. She wouldn't eat her meat. She was popping chickpeas in her mouth like they were candy and eating her apple, but the turkey burger sat. I cut it into pieces for her. I gave her ketchup. I told her she couldn't go play with Ladybug (who after eating all her food, except the chick peas... which she at least tried asked nicely if she could play in the playroom) until after she finished her meat. She refused to eat. She wouldn't talk to me either, said she wanted some quiet time to herself. I gave her 15 minutes. I counted down the last 10 of it for her. Then I took her food, put her in time out and told her that she'd see the food again at breakfast and sent her on her way. I'm not big about forcing kids to eat, but the thing is that she's been pulling this "I'm not going to eat my meat" and then will ask for cheese later because she's hungry and then throws a crying fit when we won't give it to her. I have to admire her tenacity, but it also pushes my buttons the way she does it.

Then I thought about all I had to get done today, and how I wanted to go to yoga today during my lunch hour, and how I hoped I'd be able to swim at Lucky's tomorrow with Kelly the other TriMommy who will be in town, and how I should go to Target if I finished my swim early enough to get a food scale, a harness for Annie and a new blender and a new measuring tape. (Imagine my surprise this morning when I went to make my whey protein shake when there's the top to the blender and the bottom of it but the glass carafe is gone... and then I remembered I broke it on accident about 4 months ago.) And I thought about having to get Annie a refill on her anti-inflammatory.

And then it happened. My brain stopped thinking. All I heard was my counting in my head as I did my laps. When I got to the 5th set of 8, I thought. Let's do 2 more and then do the rest as a cool down. And then nothing but counting and the sound of the water. I got to the 7th set of 8 and thought, just 1 more set of 8 and then we'll do a 100 cool down. That should make 2000m. (Evidently my math skills had fallen by the wayside since my mind had quieted.) I finished the 8th 8, and realized something wasn't adding up. 8x8=1600m, and I already did another 2x8 before that so that was another 400m, and then 100 warm up. So that was 2100m. OOPS. I felt really good and relaxed, looked at the clock and realized I'd only been in the pool 41 minutes. Cool.

So then I showered, dressed and headed out to Target (which is in the same shopping complex as the gym). Got exactly what was on my list (and for under $50!), hit the CVS for Annie's medicine, and arrived home.

Poor Annie was in pain. Really bad pain. So I gave her medicine and petted her a bit. Had my little breakfast and put dinner into the crock pot. A Zone receipe... Three Bean Chili with salad and guacamole is on deck for dinner after the girls' gymnastics class.

I did my pushups and my muscles hurt (including my abs). Of course, that might be because I usually do my pushups before my workouts and I was doing it after a pretty good swim. Got Mr. Darcy's email saying that I can meet Kelly at Lucky's tomorrow with no problem, so I'm moving my Friday swim to tomorrow and while that means I again won't be doing the descending sets (sorry Coach), I will be getting a nice swim in. I'm excited to get to meet a fellow Blogger! I'm going to do my best to remember my camera so we can try to get a photo before the swim. Since Friday's swim was supposed to be almost 2500m, I'll do 2 crossings and then swim to the middle of the lake and back. YAY!

That pushes my 10 mile bike and 3 mile run block to Friday morning. I'm also going to do Day 1 of the situp Challenge and Day 3 of Week 3 of the push up challenge on Friday too.

Oh and a little funny before I sign off for more work and some yoga... this morning I kissed Mr. Darcy goodbye before I left for the gym and this was the dialogue that ensued.

Angelfish: OOOHHH. No kissing on the lips!
Me: I can kiss Daddy on the lips. He's my husband.
Angelfish: No. Only I can kiss on the lips!
Mr. Darcy: You can't kiss me on the lips! On the cheek only!
Ladybug: Angelfish, you are silly. You didn't grow up and graduate college. No kissing on the lips until then!

If only I can keep that in their heads when their 16...

Did you know...

2010-05-11T13:10:00.000-07:00

that there is a 200 sit-up (well, crunch) challenge? Mr. Darcy said to me last night as he was finishing Day 1 of Week 1 of the push up challenge that he wondered if there was a 100 sit-up challenge because he could use one. So, I left a comment asking that very question on Jeff's blog (Dangle a Carrot).

Jeff kindly responded to me that there is no 100 Sit-Up Challenge, but there is a 200 Sit-Up Challenge. It's 6 weeks. As I will be wearing a bathing suit on a beach for an entire week in a hair less than 6 weeks from today, I am on the case! (Too bad situps can't remove twin skin at the same time, but it sure is better than nothing!)

If you're interested in doing the 200 Sit-Up Challenge with me (which includes the proper instructions for how to do crunches), please feel free to visit the challenge's website: http://www.twohundredsitups.com/

I'm off to do the initial crunch test!

PS. I scored 61 crunches, although I'm not sure how far off the ground I actually got for the the last 3 and now my abs are burning like mad, but either way I am in the "Very Good" category. Let's hope that doesn't come to bite me later!

Spring and Zone Fever

2010-05-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

I have Spring Fever pretty badly today. I woke up and it was cloudy out... and I overslept because I stayed up late reading the Zone books that came yesterday. And the closed road is now open. Before I go riding the bike on it, I want to drive the car on it to see what it is like. It has bike lanes but with it open, I'm guessing that I can't just turn around like I used to. By the time we got the girls ready for school and they were heading out the door with Mr. Darcy, it was already 7:40 and I had just finished Day 1 of Week 3 of the Pushup Challenge.

I have to confess that the pushups were hard today. I did Day 3 of Week 2 with the max out on Sunday, so I think that my arms may be a little tired still from Sunday. Or it could be that I was 325 calories shy of 1515 yesterday. I lost all track of time yesterday and my eating suffered a bit. Then I jumped on the trainer and watched part of the movie "Sabrina" while I did my 1 1/2 hour bike ride at 85-90 cadence. When I got off the bike, I noticed that the sun had come out, the clouds had moved away and it was a gorgeous day. I wished I had ridden outside, but at the same time it felt good to have those tight muscles from pedaling for 90 minutes on the trainer in the big ring, medium gears.

I love the Zone books that I read (all 3 of them - granted one of them was a cook book and one was a short book)! There were things said in the books that made it like Dr. Sears (the author) was talking directly to me. Lightbulbs were going off in my head. For example, the book said "If you're eating too much carbohydrate, you can expect the following, even if you're on a judicious program of aerobic exercise: constant hunger, decreased mental alertness, difficulty in losing body fat (if not out-right fat gain), decreased oxygen transfer to the muscle cells and decreased endurance." I've always felt like something was wrong with me because I GAINED weight while training for my HIM. And "So if you've been eating a high carbohydrate diet and you find yourself getting more fatigued with less physical energy and more and more body fat, you know why." It also talks about how some people are insulin resistant and eating higher levels of carbohydrate makes you fat instead of fueling your exercise. This style of eating (he is quick to point out that it is meant to be a lifestyle change NOT a diet) also takes into account the paleo style of eating to a certain extent but does not go as far as telling you not to eat beans or dairy, although it encourages you to strongly limit your intake of cereals and grains too. And the irony was that the calculation that determined my lean body mass, was the exact amount I weighed my junior and senior year of high school.. I'm not saying that my goal is to get down to what I weighed back then, I'm just pointing it out. As I said to Mr. Darcy last night, I had this feeling that I've been eating too much carbohydrate all this time (during the HIM, it was 60% of my diet and in recent months I'd lowered that to 50% of my diet) and he even said that I was eating alot of carbs - not only was I eating fruits and veggies, but I also was eating pasta, bread, rice and potatoes.

And when I talked to my close friend Belle last week (she called, worried about me after reading my post about gaining weight) she and I talked about when my weight gain started and I told her it wasn't until I was doing triathlons. She said to me that it had to be the exercise then. And I thought then as I do now that it couldn't be the exercise because that makes you stronger. But if it wasn't the quantity I was eating, at the time I thought it must just be my body. And in a way, after reading the Zone, I was right. It is how my body reacts to the quantity of carbohydrate that I was eating.

So I am switching to the proportions for eating of the Zone diet. I started with dinner and my snack before bed (which ironically I have to have one of those to take my Niaspan). The percentage of calories can be a little misleading, but it's 40% carbohydrate, 30% protein and 30% fat. Now that fat, is good stuff like avocado, nuts, olive or canola oil. And the system to use is pretty easy although I'm still having to look at a cheat sheet that I've made for myself to help. 7 grams of protein = 1 block of protein. 9 grams of carbohydrate = 1 block of carbohydrate. and 1 1/2 grams of fat = 1 block of fat. You use a formula that uses your lean body mass and activity level will determine the blocks of protein you need in a day. Based on that, you allocate your blocks throughout your day at the very least among 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. So, for example, I have 13.5 blocks of protein each day. Since I train 1st thing in the morning, I have 2 blocks of protein, carb and fat before I work out. Then I have 2 after. I have 3 at lunch and dinner, 2 as an afternoon snack and 1.5 as an evening snack. And you don't have to cut dairy out of your diet.

The dairy thing was the part about the Paleo Diet that really bothered me. My entire life I have been a big dairy person. In high school (when I was my thinnest... 118 was my "highest" weight before leaving for college and you could see my ribs and hips when I was standing up despite eating like a mad woman), I drank skim milk and ate low fat cheese (including cottage cheese) like I couldn't get enough of it. I LOVE it. It counts as a carb and a protein in some forms (i.e. yogurt), but it's still doable.

Anyway, my plan is to paleo eat (so no beans or peas and as few processed foods as possible outside of dairy, although I'm making an exception for black beans on occasion and hummus/chickpeas) but in the Zone system. And not to worry, I've eaten more this morning. I made 2 slight miscalculations that I'll fix at lunch or in my afternoon snack, but so far I've eaten an orange and 1/2 a cup of yogurt, 2 cheese sticks, 3 almonds, 3 oz of chicken, and an apple! That's 6 protein, 4 carb, and 1 fat block. So I have to lessen my protein blocks by 2 and add an extra fat (so 3 more almonds). OOPS. I know where I made the mistake though, and they tell you that you'll mess up at first until you get used to it but that as long as you work it out and get yourself "in the Zone" you'll be fine! Oh and a 4 oz glass of wine with 1 oz of cheese can be a bed time snack! Happy Day!

I think the real reason why I'm so excited about this is that for the first time in a long time I feel like I have hope. Like what I knew in the back of my mind despite the tons of articles about how athletes should eat LOTS of carbs and in the traditional sense of carbs (bread, rice, potato, etc.) instead of from fruits and veggies that something about this didn't work well for my body was right. The science behind it is interesting too... that food is like a medicine and should be used that way in addition to enjoying eating. And that this is healthy for the entire family (they even give examples of kids meals in the cook book I bought) so I don't have to try to eat differently from everyone else. Of course, Mr. Darcy will take some re-programming as he is a traditional carbohydrate boy at heart (his favorite snack - cheezeits) and is one of those lucky ones who doesn't really gain weight no matter what he eats. I still have the worry that this might not work either. But at the very least, I'll be able to say I have truly tried everything I could think of (because I can always drop the dairy part out too to be a truly Paleo and Zone eater).

I'm hoping to hit the grocery store during my lunch hour (especially since we are low on food) and stock up on fruits, veggies, lean proteins! I haven't been excited about eating in a long time. But I feel excited now!

And I'm looking out the window at this gorgeous day and wishing I didn't have to sit behind a desk. But sitting behind the desk is worth the paycheck so I'll just have to eat dinner out on the porch again!

PS. My friend Doug is having a tough time with it at the moment with graft vs host disease. His body appears to be trying to reject the bone marrow transplant. Please send positive thoughts and/or prayers his way. You can read about his journey and what he and his family is going through at: http://dougstransplantjourney.webs.com/apps/blog/.

Dang Genetics

2010-05-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and realized that I had a cardiology appointment this morning. Just a 6 month check of the blood lipids to make sure my little dose of Crestor was still fighting the good fight against the familial hypercholeterolemia..

The doctor, it seems, was running behind at the hospital on the really bad patients. So I was sitting and waiting. It's frustrating because it seems like every time I go to his office I wait. 1st appointment of the day, mid-afternoon, whenever, I wait. But luckily I like him and he's a good doctor, so I put up with it. Evidently it was time for another EKG - mine looked good. Even my blood pressure hadn't soared too terribly high even though I was in the doctor's office. (It only goes up in the doctor's office.) When they weighed me, I was 3.5 pounds lighter than at the endocrinologists office. YAY!

So I thought, bring the doctor in so I can get out of here! Not so lucky. My genetics it seems decided to pull a fast one. My cholesterol is still nice and normal at 150. (Thanks to crestor of course.) But my LDL particles are hanging out as small and dense particles instead of the happy large and buoyant particles. This means they are "sticky" and can easily attach to the walls of my arteries... which we do not want at all. So now I have to take something called niaspan before bed along with an aspirin 1/2 an hour before that so I am not uncomfortable from the "flush" that will occur.

It could be a lot worse news, and this I realize. But, I wish that for once I could go into a doctor's office for a check up and be told NO bad news. I sort of came close to that with the endocrinologist last week - except for the weight GAIN. I dream of going to the doctor and being told everything is working, you've lost weight, and all is well. But, what's another medicine to add to the counter top, right?

The other good news is that this morning Mom had her "temporary" implant replaced with the permanent one in her breast reconstruction. The surgery went extremely well and took all of 30 minutes. She's home already and sleeping, per doctors orders. I'll take having to take niaspan over any bad news on that front any day and twice on Sundays!

Unfortunately, the doctor running late at the hospital means that I didn't get to my morning run AND I can't get to it this evening because I have to work a little late to make up the time. Plus, I need to get the grocery shopping done since I played all weekend. But the UPS man brought me some more reading materials - my Zone books arrived and I'm already rivited by the preface where he's talking about his genetic heart issues that kill off family members in their 50's. So you may just get a review of that book this week as well.

This coming weekend, Mr. Darcy and I are taking the ladies to his parents house where they will be sufficiently spoiled while we go to Amelia Island for Saturday and part of the day Sunday to celebrate our 13th Anniversary. It's hard to believe that 13 years ago, I was finishing up the details for the wedding right about now. Time has flown! What's even more frightening is that I met Mr. Darcy the month I turned 18, and as of August we'll have been together for 17 years. One more year and I'll have known Mr. Darcy for as long as I didn't know him. Good thing we still like each other!

Anyway, I've got a 1 1/2 hour bike, Day 1 of week 3 of the Push Up Challenge, and some TriPower strength moves on tap for tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it!

The Best Mother's Day Weekend EVER

2010-05-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

Mr. Darcy arrived home on Friday evening from his business trip and informed me that this weekend he wanted to pamper me for Mother's Day. So Friday evening, we went to dinner at Outback where I was easily able to Paleo eat (when telling them no butter and spices of course on my food). Afterwards we weren't the smartest of people and decided to let the girls stay up late and watch "Harry Potter" with us... except we fell asleep and the girls kept waking us with questions or shouting something out about the movie.

Saturday I got up with the girls because I was on the verge of waking when Angelfish came in looking for someone to feed her and play with her. After eating a bit of breakfast, she and I decided to watch "Night at the Museum: The Smithsonian" so I hopped on the trainer and did my 20 miles during the movie. Somehow that is easier when there aren't small people about. Ladybug got up part way through. Later, Mr. Darcy. We had a grand plan to go to the beach, but we had to take Annie to the vet to follow up about her UTI. Annie gave me her own little present by acting completely normal all day yesterday and today. She is doing a million times better, and I'm thinking that perhaps she just needed to get a build up of the medicine in her system or something.

Her UTI looks like it is gone, so we just have to finish out the medicine for Annie and continue the other medicines until 2 weeks are up. Then we headed home, where we had lunch - lots of veggies and fruit and some very lean pork for me. And then we napped. Except we all napped quite a long time and didn't get up until about 4:30 or 5 (depending on who you were in the family). So we opted for the pool over the beach and then went out for Teppan - or as the girls refer to it "the restaurant where they cook in front of you on the table." Afterwards, we were bad and had ice cream. So that was meal one of the week outside of the strict Paleo Diet (I had 2 and they are all gone by the end of this weekend... but I will have no problem with sticking to it the rest of this week.) Then we put the little ladies down to bed and watched "Sunshine Cleaning" which is a sad and yet somewhat hopeful movie all at once.

This morning, Mr. Darcy got up with the girls and they played until I got out of bed at 8 am. I slept until 7:30 which is like most people sleeping until 11 am. Then I layed there and enjoyed just being able to lay in bed. Mr. Darcy made us all eggs and fruit for breakfast while I did Day 3 of the Pushup Challenge since I forgot to do them yesterday (and maxed out at 41 pushups... well, probably that should count as 40 because I made it down on 41 but couldn't quite push myself back up and collapsed), and then it was time for presents. I was really curious about presents because the girls and Mr. Darcy had all commented that they did a project with items from JoAnn Fabrics... and it involved flowers and glitter but it was a "uprise" as Angelfish said it (aka surprise).

I am now the proud owner of 2 picture frames that the girls decordated with glitter letters and glittery flower and butterfly stickers, and they contain some goofy pictures of the girls (I'll try to put some pictures on the blog of our activities either later today or tomorrow.) Mr. Darcy and the girls also got me 3 stacking rings that are for Mother's with a big pearl and 2 small pearls, one for each of the little ladies. I've been wanting it for a few years now, so it was a wonderful surprise! I also got some super sweet cards. The one from Mr. Darcy actually brought tears to my eyes.

Then to the BEACH! We got our swim suits on, packed up the car with snacks and gear and out we went. An hour later we arrived in New Smyrna Beach, where the only place we really could find for a lunch was a French Bakery that made subsandwiches on some truly amazing baguettes, and we had some goodies too (Key Lime Tart for me, an eclair for Mr. Darcy, and a snowball - chocolate cake with raspberry filling topped with a light chocolate frosting and coconuts - that was for the girls but that Mr. Darcy and I assisted with as well... and that would make non-Paleo diet meal #2). We took it all to the beach and had a picnic once we found a spot. You drive on the beach and park on it in New Smyrna. Our 1st attempt at a spot was ill fated as the sand was too deep to handle the weight of our car and 3 very nice men pushed as Mr. Darcy backed up in order to get us out. Our 2nd parking spot was on much tighter packed sand and was without incident.

The girls helped us work off our tasty treats by having me sprint with them into the water and then out of the water and back again. We did that about 10 times... I wonder if that could count as speed work? We played in the water jumping over the waves and built a sand castle. Due to a lack of bathroom space, we also introduced the girls to the joys of peeing during an open water swim. : ) Of course, we had to explain to Ladybug that you don't take off your bathing suit to do it when she started to disrobe... When we were ready to leave, we all changed in the back of the minivan (doors closed of course) and Mr. Darcy and I decided that if we were ever in a jam on a road trip we could easily all camp out in our van. Then we drove a little through the boardwalk area and headed on home.

Poor Mr. Darcy was the only one awake until we got home - the little ladies and I all fell asleep. Angelfish continued her nap when we got home, but Ladybug and I were now awake. Ladybug asked me, "What Princess movie would you like to watch, Mommy?" (The stinker was trying to stack the deck.) I told her, "I'd like to watch Ratatouille - it's my favorite." She agreed that we could watch it, "even if it isn't a princess movie." And now Mr. Darcy is grilling chicken and making dinner (he's even making extra grilled chicken for me for the next day or so). I'm secretly hoping to spend the rest of the evening with them, and (after we put the girls down to bed) a bubble bath, a glass of wine and to talk Mr. Darcy into painting my toenails.

But even without the bubble bath, wine and toenails, I've had the BEST Mother's Day EVER!

I hope everyone else had a great Mother's Day too - either as a Mom or as the one taking care of Mom today!

2 Thursday Test Drives on a Friday

2010-05-07T07:31:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for your sweet comments about the woman asking me if I was pregnant. It made me feel better. Of course, it helped even more when pants I put on 2 weeks ago and were tight fit much better today. And the shorts that I had on yesterday were baggy and I only bought them about 2 weeks ago. Who knows what this body of mine is doing?

Thursday Test Drive #1: The Paleo Diet

Yesterday afternoon the lovely UPS man brought me The Paleo Diet and The Paleo Diet for Athletes. The girls were deeply entrenched in "The Princess and the Swan" so I got to read both books cover to cover. Okay, so I skipped the receipes and the bibliographies and in The Paleo Diet for Athletes, I skipped some of the repeat information from The Paleo Diet. I like that they tell you point blank that this isn't intended to be a diet but a healthy way of eating for life and that there's a lot of studies and science behind it (even if in The Paleo Diet for Athletes that was part of the really boring stuff - and I like science - because they went into it way more than in the other book). And the irony is that it makes a ton of sense to me. I've always thought of human beings as animals with a more developed cerebral cortex... which is why we have to train children and sometimes adults how to manage "civilized behavior."

Anyway. The ideas are pretty simple, straightforward and make sense. Although I'm not 100% sure about completely eliminating dairy all together from your diet. I understand their scientific basis is that a cup of skim milk can make your blood sugar spike in the same way a piece of white bread does, but there are other health benefits to dairy. The kids will definitely continue with the dairy (we use all skim or for cheese at least 2% or less fat), and I'll still have a glass of glorious milk (I LOVE milk) from time to time. The version for Athletes is a little different because they talk about how the modern person does not have the activity level of the cave man and those who are athletes (whether weekend warrior, amateur, or professional) have slightly different needs than our paleolithic brethren. So it combines the "best of both worlds."

I can't do my standard review on The Paleo Diet because I've only just started it today. But I figured I could give you the synopsis of what I took away from the two books.

There are a few main ideas:
1. Eat all the LEAN meat, fish and seafood you can.
2. Eat all the fruit (not dried) and non-starchy vegetables you can. For athletes, during 1st the 30 minutes after a workout and during the 60-90 minutes after a workout, you can have starchy vegetables (sweet potatoes, potatoes) and rice, dried fruit; you can have a bagel or cereal but it's not as good as the vegetable option; and you need to keep a 4 carb to 1 protein ratio during these times. (I instantly thought: recoverite! accelerade!)
3. NO cereal or grains (except during those 2 recovery periods I mentioned a moment ago, or during exercise), including legumes.
4. NO dairy.
5. NO processed foods.

You can have eggs that are enriched with Omega 3, but you need to limit them to 6 per week. (I can't imagine eating 6 eggs in a week personally, but maybe I'm not as big of an egg fan as I thought I was.) NO peas, green beans or peanuts because they are legumes that act like grains.

For weight loss, it's suggested to limit nuts and seed to 4 oz. per day (which is more than I typically eat but then I tend to eat a good bit of dairy). They say to only use flaxseed oil or canola or olive oil mixed with one of these, but to limit it to 4 Tablespoons a day (again much more oil than I use).

Strictly limit salt intake during non-recovery or exercise periods. Limit diet soda, coffee, tea, and alcohol. But for snacks, you can have fruit, homemade jerky without salt, raw veggies, chicken or beef, nuts, and hard boiled eggs.

AVOID: dairy, cereal grains (including oat, rice, rye, wheat, quinoa) unless during the recovery or exercise periods; legumes (all beans, any food that has "pea" as part of the word... i.e., chickpea, all soybeans or soy products); starchy veggies (except potatoes, yams or sweet potatoes during recovery); salty foods; fatty meats; soft drinks; juices (except during recovery from exercise); candy, honey and sugar; and yeast; and anything processed (including deli meat).

LOOK FOR: range fed, grass fed, or free range meat because it's leaner and higher in protein content; small, non predatory fish that are fresh and not farmed.

For Athletes they break your eating day into stages... Note that during Stages II-IV, they say you should eat the number of calories burned during your workout.

Stage I: Pre-workout or race
Unless your workout or race will last more than 4 hours, stick to the paleo diet food selections and try to eat 2 hours beforehand if possible.

Stage II: During workout or Race
Try to Stick to 4:1 carb to protein ratio the best you can. They give suggestions of gels and water, fruit, juice, turkey sandwiches, or a sport bar with protein.

Stage III: 1st 30 minutes after workout or race
Try to keep things liquid. Recovery drink, juice, smoothies from fruit that have a protein powder (either whey or egg protein is preferred), a glucose and water. Again, trying to keep to a 4:1 carb to protein ratio.

Stage IV: 60-90 minutes after a workout or race
Move to solid food, still following the 4:1 ratio. You can eat potatoes, yams, and sweet potatoes or dried fruits in this period. A "2nd best" option would be bagels, rice or cereal. For protein, they say that egg whites, turkey breast or fish make especially good proteins during this stage.

Stage V: the rest of the day
Stick to the paleo diet without the additions in Stages II - IV of starches or grains. They suggest that overall 55% of your food for the entire day (Stages I-V) come from carbohydrate, but that for Stage V, 35% to 45% come from vegetable and fruit carbs, and to split the rest between protein and fat. (Which sounds a bit like the Zone to me, but those books have not yet arrived. I anxiously await the UPS delivery!) The other thing they say is to make sure that during Stage V, you need to take at least 1/2 of the calories burned during your workout in as carbohydrate.

The fats that they refer to are good fats: from nuts (other than peanuts), lean proteins, avocado, or good oils.

They also say that it's okay if 1 or 2 meals PER WEEK are not fully paleo diet as long as the rest are and as long as you're not gorging yourself in those other meals.

The Bottom Line appears to be to keep food simple, fresh and as minimally processed as possible, and free from grains, dairy, salt, sugars, legumes and yeast. And they suggest making extra meat at dinner one or two nights so you can have the left over meat for your other meals without having to cook it again to make life easier.

Other than the dairy and the grains/cereal, which is a big difference, this isn't all that much different. I figure I'll give it a try... at least until I read the zone diet and see what I want to incorporate from that. : ) I'll have to let you know how it goes. I figure if Joe Friel and the PhD guy say it's great, it can't be all that terrible.

Thursday Test Drive #2: Cheribundi!
Okay, so Cheribundi contacted me and provided me with these free smaples of their Tru Cherry, Skinny Cherry, and Whey Cherry. They did not pay me to review them, unless you count the free sample as the payment.

First, I have to say that I normally like cherries. Of pie choices, cherry pie ranks 2nd with Key Lime being the only thing above it. If I buy cherries in the store, I have to pace myself or I'll eat the whole bag in a day and spend the next day wishing for more cherries. So when they said would you like some, I jumped on it.

Here's what they say:
Tru Cherry: Our original juice is packed with 50 cherries. Drink it daily to get 2 servings of fruit and powerful benefits that no other fruit has. You'll feel better and live life to the fullest.

Skinny Cherry: Choose this juice to drink daily if you're looking to limit your calories and sugar without sacrificing all those cherry nutrients and benefits. It's sweetened with all-natural Stevia, giving you the same great cherry pie tast as Tru Cherry.

Whey Cherry: We've packed protein into this version of our cherry juice to speed recovery and make you feel better. It has all the powerful nutrients and benefits of our original juice but with the extra advantage of protien for those who want to stay competitive.

The Tri-Mommy Truth:
Tru Cherry: Tart and delicious! I drank it room temperature once and liked it better than drinking the cold sample. The cold one made it seem a little more tart to me. Like cherry pie without the sugar, mess or a fork. Awesome! You could even use this as part of the Paleo Diet for Athletes in recovery.

Skinny Cherry: I liked it but not nearly as much as the Tru Cherry. I guess where they take out the cherries (only 40 in this bottle), they replace it with water... at least that's what it tasted like to me. I still liked it though. Not as much punch as the tart Tru Cherry.

Whey Cherry:
I waited to drink this one until after I had a little bit of a longer workout... a 20 mile bike ride. I was hot and sweaty, and I drank it and seemed to recover pretty well. It definitely was better tasting than my usual Recoverite, which I love, but this was like cherry juice. Yum. And it comes pretty close to a 4:1 ratio of carb to protein... 30 g carb to 8 g protein. Of course, you have 27 g coming from sugars because it's juice. But definitely yum!

There really was no Good or Bad other than what I've said above. If you don't like things that are tangy and tart, these products might not be for you. But if you like cherries and/or tart things. It's great!

In other News...
I did not work out this morning as I had solo Mommy duty and it's not looking likely because I forgot I have lunch on the calendar with a friend. BUT there's always this weekend! Tomorrow I definitely plan to do Day 3 of Week 2 of the Push Up Challenge and to hit the closed loop for a lovely 20 mile bike ride in the morning. : )

Annie seemed to be responding well to the medicine yesterday. She even tried to play with us for a little bit after stealing one of the girls' socks. But after about 3 minutes, she had decided it was too much and stopped. Unfortunately this morning she started off seeming to be feeling good - even trotted around the yard some but afterwards she started slumping her head and such and looking painful... despite having had the tylenol with codeine, valium, and prednisone about 1/2 an hour earlier. At the moment she is asleep on my office floor, but I have to say I am worried. I've gotten some people on Facebook who recommended that I try accupuncture, so we may give it a whirl if the medicine isn't working.

To Add Insult to Injury...

2010-05-06T12:03:00.000-07:00

I was asked today if I was pregnant. Got to love having to answer, "No, I just have a big stomach." And then laugh at the person when they tell you "No, you look great!" Yeah, I look great if I'm pregnant. I don't look great if I'm not pregnant and you're asking me if I am.

Anyone know a good plastic surgeon?

Dog Days

2010-05-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

First thank you all for your comments to my last post. They really mean a lot to me and helped a good bit (along with 3 calls from friends who covertly read my blog).

I did not run yesterday. I did not do pushups. Instead, yesterday morning I dressed for my 3 mile run in my lovely Brooks running skirt and my "run happy" shirt, my socks and my running shoes. I had all the intentions of coming home and doing my run before starting work for the day. You'll note I said, "coming home."

The girls left with Mr. Darcy for school, and Annie dog and I set out for the vet's office. The night before I found a terrible bruise on her sternum, one that looks like a giant raspberry stain and was very dark red in the middle. I cried. I thought that with everything else that was going wrong with her that it must be internal bleeding. So that morning when I woke and it still looked just as bad, if not worse to me, I called the vet's office before they opened to let them know that Annie and I would be doing our best to get there when the office opened.

About 5 minutes after I left the house, I got a call on the cell. The veternarians would not be in until 9 am but that I could have the 1st appointment of the day with Dr. Hobbs, who happens to be a friend of mine. I snatched it up because not only is Kim a friend but she's a really good vet and I trust that she will tell me the truth without too much sugar coating. So Annie got to go to get a cup of coffee with me, and then we went to the post office and used their fancy computerized system in the lobby to mail my Mom's mother's day present. Then we took "the long way" to the vet's office and walked around to let Annie do her business, and then in we went.

Little did I know that I would not be getting home until about 7 pm last night. We had x-rays and blood work and conversations about how Annie has been acting and feeling and what the x-rays and test results were. We had to wait for some of it, and then it sort of became clear that there were a few things that could be going on, but it was hard to know what was causing the problem.

So around noon we headed to the veterinary specialists office. When we did, Annie was acting like a spry little thing but something in the back of my head said that she was faking being spry just for me. I waited a bit while they did vitals, etc. on Annie who they kept in the back. It turned out that when they took her in the back, she stopped acting for me and she was in a lot of pain.

After 2 conversations with the specialists (one of whom even talked to Mr. Darcy on the phone because things were rather costly and my head was spinning from everything), we decided to go with the anti-coagulant test to make sure she wasn't having internal bleeding issues, an abdominal ultrasound to make sure that there was no tumor in the abdominal cavity and to make sure that the UTI she had wasn't actually a kidney infection, and a consult with the neurology department. That was the short list out of the big list of all the tests that they would have liked to do. The others were things that they would have liked but that wouldn't necessarily tell us exactly what was wrong. The short list was what would tell us the problem and give us where to go from there. The full list was $1375, and the short list was $875.

Then they told me to leave and be back by 5 pm. It was 2:30 and I didn't even know what time it was, where I was in relation to the house, and my emotional state was pretty much wrecked. Not knowing what else to do with myself, I drove home thanks to the GPS. On the ride home, my cellphone battery died mid conversation and the GPS froze up. But I was at least on a road that I knew would cut back down from Maitland (where the specialists are) to Orlando. The GPS finally listened to me to turn off and then I turned it back on, and it worked fine.

I got home and answered a couple of work emails, changed out of my running clothes into regular clothes and then headed back to get Annie. The rain poured down as I drove and it made me 15 minutes late because of traffic and rain. But that worked out because they had only just finished up with her a few moments before I walked in the door.

Her abdominal ultrasound was fine. Nothing to worry about there. Her anti-coagulant study turned out fine as did her blood platelets. But the neuro consult. The neurologist determined that he was 95% certain that Annie has one, if not several, herniated discs in her neck that are most likely from degenerative disc disease in that area of her spine. The strong recommendation was that we have an appointment with the neurologist and that we do an MRI of her neck and surgery to scrape out the gunk that's in there to provide her with a very good chance of a return to a good quality of life. The price tag? Well, first they'd have to do another ultrasound to make sure her heart murmur was the kind that would let her undergo general anesthesia and survive which would be around $400. Then the MRI and surgery is $4500 to $5500. Not to mention what we've spent so far. Unfortunately, we cannot afford surgery, so we are hoping that the new set of pain medication will help her.

Right now she is taking Tylenol with codeine, valium (well, she will once CVS gets it in – supposedly by 1 pm today), and prednisone. We’re going to give it about 2 weeks and if she’s not out of pain (because she’s in an extreme amount of pain, we will most likely have to put her down. I talked to her vet, my friend Kim, last night. She was really sweet to call us last night to check on Annie. I only got home with her around 7 pm right before she called. She told me that if she’s not out of pain in 2 weeks that we need to “make the next decision” to give her comfort. I talked to her about what putting her down would mean and she said to me that if Annie was 2 and had no heart murmur, she would say “let’s try to find someone to adopt her out to someone who would pay for the surgery.” If she was 15 or 16, she would say, “I don’t care how much money you have, don’t do surgery because she’s toward the end of her life span.” And with Annie at 10 right now, the fact that she has a serious heart murmur plus the surgery not being affordable, then if the medicine can’t get her comfortable she thought it was a very sad but understandable decision. She is really in a ton of pain, although she tries to hide it sometimes. When we got home last night, she was so happy and wanted to see Bill and the kids so much that when we pulled in the driveway she started crying this little cry she does when she really wants you and missed you. Once I put her down on the ground, she ran into the house and found Bill then the girls and then after giving everyone kisses and being loved on, she went into the other room and fell back into her painful posture.

The irony is that the raspberry stain turned out to be a bruise from bloodwork that they did but it lead us to all this. It is breaking my heart right now that if this medicine doesn’t work for her that we’ll have to put her down. It’s like we’re putting a price on her life, and it’s killing me. Mr. Darcy doesn't seem to get that, but then he was at work instead of the vet's office and the specialist's office and didn't have to go through the waves of emotion like I did and then he went to play poker once I got home from the pharmacy with Annie's medicine. And now he's on his way to Boca Raton for work and won't be back until late Friday.

For me, Annie is not "just a dog" but a part of our family. Almost like a person. I've never been able to look at animals as "just animals." I don't even like killing ants, unless they're inside the house. Annie deserves love and respect and for us to treat her just like another member of the family. I guess that's why saying no to surgery is so hard for me. The logical side of my brain says that is money we can't spend, but the love side says that if it was one of the human members of the family, I'd do it. Mr. Darcy says he loves Annie and that we should love and respect her but we need to realize she is a dog. He is certainly not as upset about things as I am. Sad yes, but I don't think he can even understand what I went through or why I was so emotionally spent by the end of the day.

So this morning I did my pushups (Day 2 week 2) and went for a 3 mile run. I could have swum instead, but I really felt like I needed to RUN, plus I didn't want to be too far afield from Annie. I wore the same running attire as I had on yesterday. Ladybug told me I "stinked" even before I left for the run. I smelled the shirt and realized it was the scent that Annie gives off when she's scared. And most of the day yesterday, I'm pretty sure she was scared. She fears the vet's office even though she likes Kim. And then going to the specialists office and not being with me for most of that couldn't have been that soothing for her. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a scared scent from me on those clothes too. But I wore them anyway.

I realized as I ran that I wore them because I wanted to run away from yesterday and all that went on (including giving the tylenol with codeine liquid to Annie with a medical syringe in her mouth while she cried because it hurt her to turn her head that way just to get the syringe in the right spot), even though I can't really run away from it.

I did 3/1's like Coach said and I didn't push myself. I resisted running harder when I felt like I wanted to. I just ran as I felt comfortable. I had a little nerve pain here and there, but it wasn't anything I couldn't work through and by the 2.25 mile mark it really was negligble. It was a good run. I felt like I could have gone longer, which is always good. And even with doing the 3/1's I finished in 34:24 - just under a 11:30 pace per mile. So it was a good run. I won't do weights today because I have a hair appointment on tap for lunch time plus getting Annie's valium from the pharmacy, and then I have solo parent duty tonight.
But I'm hoping to swim tomorrow... and bike 20 miles on the closed road Saturday morning. The closed road will no longer be closed as of May 10th at 10am. So I've got to use it before then!

I hope all of you had a better day yesterday than I did. Happy Training~

A Bright New Day

2010-05-04T07:58:00.000-07:00

It is Tuesday and I'm done feeling sorry for myself. So I have some issues with my thyroid/metabolism/ whatever. I decided that this morning I would get up and start the day anew. I ordered a couple of books on the Paleo Diet (The Paleo Diet and The Paleo Diet for Athletes) from Barnes and Noble this morning and plan to head over to the actual store (they didn't have those books in stock) to see about The Zone Diet as well.

As I said to my friend yesterday, I almost feel like giving up and eating whatever I want and just not caring. Except that I can't. I'm not wired that way. Perhaps it's because I saw my Mom struggle in exactly the same way and frighteningly was at one point the same weight I am now, but she's almost 2 inches shorter. I saw how much she hated how she looked and was constantly worried about how she looked and I'm pretty sure that she, like me, never liked what she saw in the mirror. She also would comment how after having me, her body was never the same. Sound familiar?

I have a feeling I learned a lot of my behaviors and attitudes regarding my body image from watching my Mom. Even when I was 118 back in high school and early college before the PCOS kicked in, I thought myself fat and could tell you that my arms were flabby and my stomach was not as flat as it should be. I ran cross-country (although we know how loosely "ran" was), although I did run mile after mile (with some walking thrown in) at practices and I never liked what I looked like.

And truly, I abhor how I look now. But today I endeavor to start to like how I look. I am going to do my best to say something nice about my body every day. I may even make myself write it down. I may have to work my way up, but for today I can say that I think I have pretty eyes. I like the way they are shaped and their blue color, and the way that if I wear blue they look bluer and if I wear green they take on a greenish hue even though I have blue eyes, not blue-green hazel. (Don't worry. I won't do my daily affirmations on the blog.)

The nice bit was that when I told Mr. Darcy that I gained weight, he told me that he had thought I had actually lost weight. I am chosing to believe him and not let myself think that he was just being nice. I have a tendency to not believe compliments. I always say thank you, but somehow never believe that person actually means it. It really is rather strange because why would people say things "just to be nice." It's much easier not to say anything at all.

So today, I am going to just do my best. I have this fear that doing my best is not going to be good enough. But perhaps that's why I like triathlon and strange little challenges in life because they show me that my best is not going to be "good enough" to win, but yet I survive and am happy all the same. I am starting to realize that I've always worried about letting everyone else down in some way or another no matter how hard I try. And yet I try and am always worrying.

Maybe it's because I'm turning 35 this year, but I'm realizing that I've been living an awful lot for other people. Not to get fat for Mr. Darcy. Not to spend too much time away for the kids. Not to drop out of law school for my parents. Etc. etc. I'm not saying that all of these are necessarily bad for me either. But I need to do things for me. As my friend Sheryl told me today, "You need to just accept and be the state of the art you and tell everyone else to kiss your @ss." Meaning, just do your best for yourself, accept that you are who you are and you need to be happy with who you are, and if other people aren't, then too bad.

And that is what I am going to do. I will read the books about the zone diet and the paleo diet, do what I think is the best (because I'm already not so sure that getting rid of all dairy is really the way to go, although I am concerned that low fat shredded cheese has potato starch in it for thickening), do my best to eat healthy and exercise, and that is the best me I can be.

So this morning, after sending the liliputians to school with Mr. Darcy (while Ladybug was putting up a fight about everything - she's pushing envelopes this week and we're having to make sure those envelopes get returned to sender so she's following our instructions instead of the other way around), I got up and rode the trainer for a full hour while watching part of "Julie and Julia." It was really quite good, and made the hour go by pretty easily. Then I had a cheribundi plus protein - it's cherry juice with whey protein in it - (I'll be reviewing Cheribundi on Thursday so stay tuned!), an egg with about 1/4 c. of low fat shredded cheese, and an orange for breakfast.

I re-read part of the Tri-Power book and realized that I mis-read something before, so I'm going to do the TriPower assessment today during my lunch break instead of the yoga. Then I'm going to start the TriPower program tomorrow, which means the stretching and yoga can be MWF (hopefully at the YMCA) after all and the core and weight stuff can be TR during lunch. I'm not 100% sure if I should start with the Maintenance Phase since I'm already in my season, or whether I should go ahead and do the stages in order and then attempt to do them lined up with my season next year. But I'm sure I'll muddle through.

So by having my eating in line and my workouts going, I'm doing my best ... and my best is going to be good enough because it's all I've got. No more feeling sorry for myself, here's to a new day!

Today is another new start to an old problem

2010-05-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

I went to the endocrinologist today. I was hoping the scale would show I maybe lost a pound or 2, although I should have known it had not. In being honest with myself, the past few weeks have not been the greatest of my eating habits. We've been busy so we've eaten out a lot. A. Lot. As we know, eating out is not good for fat content, sodium content, and because even a salad can be a tricky devil with calories galore. Not to mention that we've been eating sweets too. I don't generally eat them, but the past few weeks we've eaten much more than we normally do. I gained 4 pounds in 6 weeks. So, instead of going by the deli on the way home, I came straight home and had my whole grain bread and deli meat, v-8 (I wasn't feeling a salad), an orange, a glass of milk, and 8 pieces of dark chocolate (that would be 2 oz, instead of 1 but . I'm now out of the dark chocolate and will not be replacing it.

The good news is my thyroid is in a much happier place as is my B12, so I stick to what I am doing. The endocrinologist is going to see me in 3 months and will have me see the dietician in her office who runs marathons. I could have seen her today but would have had to take 1/2 a day off from work to do it, instead of using my lunch hour. So, it will be next time.

I literally am miserable about my weight and talked to the endocrinologist about it. She told me that I may have a "slow metabolism" and that some people who have more than one endocrinology problem like I do end up with an unexplained "slow metabolism." Thus, the chat with the dietician. The doctor's idea was to possibly put me on a 1100 calorie diet that I then added calories expended during workouts on top of that since the other dietician said I was doing what she would suggest for me. But, she wanted me to talk to the dietician in her office before doing anything like that. The doctor said that I should focus on eating healthy, continuing to exercise like I do, and try not to worry about the weight. Of course, the doctor is also about a size 2, so it's easier for her to say when it's not her body.

I am going to keep a record of my eating every day for the next 3 months, to the best of my ability. I'm always honest so that's at least one good thing. And then, the poor dietician will not know what hit her because I'll be bringing her printouts of what I'm eating for those 3 months.

I'm thinking that after reading Racing Weight, and the fact that eating 50% carb in my diet and 25% fat doesn't seem to be doing it for me, that I'm going to try to eat my largest meal in the mornings and lower my carb intake as the day goes on so I end up with 50% carb primarily in the morning since that's when I do my training, 30% protein, and 20% fat. I'm tempted to go 40% carb, 40% protein, 20% fat or try the "zone diet" plan of 40% carb, 30% protein and 30% fat. All good fats of course. I'm just worried that won't give me enough energy source for my training and too much fat if I do the zone method. Of course, I seem to have an ample supply of fat to burn and I just have to train my body to burn it.

So, I am hoping to add in the Tri Power strength and core exercises during lunch break 3 days a week and Yoga the other two. Of course, I really liked the yoga class at the Y on Friday but that's 3 days a week MWF, so I may stick to my Yoga with the Namaste series that I'm taping off Fit TV, which is pretty good. That way I can do it on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Plus, I'm still doing the push up challenge and trying to get Mr. Darcy to do it too. I did Day 1 of week 2 this morning and 30 minutes of yoga because I didn't have much time because of having to go to the doctor. I plan to do some cycling tomorrow, I hope.

Oh and in some good news, I had to run after Ladybug who was riding her trike like a mad thing and refusing to stop this weekend. I ran after her in sandals, down hill and had no pain. Granted it was at most 3 minutes, but still. No pain. And I had done a 30 minute walk without pain and my pushups. Yes in deed.

On the Annie front, she's not all that much better. We took her back to the vet on Saturday because she seemed worse. They did x-rays and found the poor thing was seriously constipated. So we added laxatives to the mix, and the poor thing (I'm pretty sure) is still constipated despite pooping some large piles (well for a 12 pound dog anyway) this weekend. The doctor assures us that by the end of this week she should be better. Let's hope.

And that is all I have for today. I have errands with the girls after work today. I'm hoping to get to the post office with my Mom's Mother's Day present before they close. Maybe I'll go straight there after work and get the girls on the way home... I'll figure it out.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get a 20 miler in on the closed road and Yoga at lunch time. We'll see how it goes!

Oh and a PS to whoever broke into Mr. Darcy's car to make a bigger mess than was already in there and steal his 1st generation iPOD. 1. Thank you very much for not causing damage to the car. It was the only reason why I think Mr. Darcy didn't completely melt down about the car being rummaged through like that. 2. You must really be hard up if you wanted that giant 1st generation iPOD that I'm pretty sure you can't sell on ebay for more than $40. For that reason, I am glad we no longer have it. 3. You can darn well be sure that our house alarm is armed every night and each day. It was before and now we triple check it.

The best laid plans...

2010-04-30T10:37:00.000-07:00

sometimes actually work out! Last night worked rather nicely. I picked the girls up from daycare (and when we got to the car, Ladybug asked if we could go to gymnastics!) and went home. They wanted to color and play together, so I hopped on the trainer and watched "What Not to Wear" while doing my 45 minutes of spin on the bike. The girls showed me their pictures while I was riding, and Ladybug decided to pick last night to act like a 14 year old girl who knew everything and no matter what her Mommy said, Mommy was wrong. Two time outs (for her) and a talking to later, my bike ride was over and Mr. Darcy returned from Boca Raton.

I tried to convince Mr. Darcy to do push ups with me - Day 2 complete! I almost got to 20 pushups - I called it 19 1/2 on the last set, which was pretty good I though. 3 1/2 more than the initial test. But Mr. Darcy wasn't in to it. I think he did maybe 2 sets from Day 1. But he did go for a 1 1/2 mile run, so I was happy. Mr. Darcy is starting to move! YAY!

Then it was dinner and a nice chat with my friend L on the phone. We can't wait for our girls weekend to be here, and we're already planning a vacation to Las Vegas for next year with the husbands too. I'm really excited about it! Mr. Darcy cracked us all up by responding that he was interested by saying "I'm all in (poker reference)!" The girls and I thought this was a hoot - that he thought we needed him to point out the poker reference... we're only married to men who think that the World Series of Poker should be aired year long, in order above all other shows.

Then bathtime for the little ladies, who decided to pretend they were mermaid princesses and fought off the evil pirate alligator (who is a windup alligator that swims when you wind him off) to save their fair kingdom. I LOVE their imaginations!

This morning everyone was in a good mood and got ready pretty nicely, although Ladybug did have some words for me about my needing to wait for her to eat her cereal (that had been sitting there for 10 minutes while she did everything except eat). I informed her that she needed to get into the car now because Daddy could not be late to work. Hugs, Kisses, and more hugs and Kisses and then off they went.

I took some time to snuggle with the dog because the poor thing was hurting again. All I have to say is thank goodness the medicine kicks in and gives her relief. Even if she is sleeping more because of the pain medication. It breaks my heart to see her that way. If it doesn't stop soon, I think we're going to break down and have the x-rays taken to see what the cause of the pain is and whether it's "fixable." I honestly do not know what I will do if we have to "send her back to heaven" as the girls asked the other day. She is my constant companion while working from home. In fact, she's sleeping next to my desk as we speak. She was my first "child" and my first dog (I had a parakeet growing up - my Dad claimed he was allergic to fleas... ironically, Annie has never suffered from fleas... knock on wood). I remember bringing her home from the breeder and she was the length of my hand from wrist to the tip of my middle finger. I think her ears were the biggest part of her - and we refused to have them clipped because that was just not nice. Mr. Darcy would get offended on her behalf if people made fun of her ears. She's really been the best dog in the entire world. So I keep hoping that all will be well and that it's just like my back pain, which is seeming to go away. Of course, I haven't attempted to run again since the race yet.

Work, work, work. And then I went to yoga today and it was heavenly. I decided that instead of doing yoga by myself, I would go to class at the Y as my lunch break. It was taught by my next door neighbor's sister, which was pretty cool. And even better was that she was focusing on stretches for the lower back, sciatica, hamstrings and hips... all those places that I've been tight since the race. So it was perfection... not to mention super relaxing!

Some more work, work work. I'm looking forward to this weekend. I hope to sleep until the girls get up around 7 am and play with them and do errands and just relax. I have a 30 minute walk on tap... I'm sure I'll get it in somehow. : )

And then back to work

Day in Reverse

2010-04-29T09:39:00.000-07:00

Today seems to be shaping up to be the reverse of a normal day for me. Normally, I wake, get Mr. Darcy out of bed, dress, get the kids ready, hit the road or water for my run/bike/swim, go to work, get children, etc. This morning didn't quite work out that way and it makes me feel like things are "off."

Mr. Darcy had to go to Boca Raton for work this morning. I still woke, got Mr. Darcy out of bed, dressed, got the kids ready... and then I had breakfast. A full bowl of cereal while wearing a shirt and a skirt and shoes. (Usually this is where I'd be wearing gym attire and just grabbing a quick mini-breakfast before the workout.) Then I got the kids in the mini-van and took them to school and came home and started working. After a bit I went to do the blood work for the bone marrow registry - 3 big vials and 3 small vials. Grabbed a sandwich from my favorite deli on the way back. Ate and worked at my desk.

Do you see the missing piece? I sure do. It's called my workout. And I'm actually sitting around fantacizing about when I'm going to do it. I have Day 2 of the pushup challenge, which I cannot miss because I will have to wear a bathing suit at the end of June... (not to mention in a few weeks on my girls' weekend) and not the tri stuff. I'm actually too busy on race day to worry about what I look like, I'm in the busy of getting it done. But sitting on the beach in a bathing suit with the kiddies and the hubs? Pushup challenge will be adhered to... and I am actually concerned about myself with this part. I am actually looking forward to the bike trainer for a 45 minute stint. The only way I'll get it in is when the girls are home, so that means while dinner is cooking for part of it and probably after dinner for the rest. The trainer. In front of most likely a princess movie. I am so tired of princess movies. Why is it that I got such girlie girls? I liked matchbox cars and climbing trees and reading books as a kid. Not dress up and princesses. There is photographic evidence that I liked to play with a tea set, but I'm pretty sure that was before I discovered that there were bugs to play with. Anyway. I am looking forward to it.

Granted, I'd much rather be on the open road on this beautiful sunny, blue sky day. But it's better than not getting it done. And the way I'm feeling today, I've got to get on the bike somehow. So that's the plan.

I think Annie may be doing a bit better. The poor thing still turns into a U every morning when she's gone the whole night without a muscle relaxant, but she's actually up on the extra chair in my office - her usual nap spot during the work week. She hasn't jumped up there in days. We'll just have to see how it goes.

The girls LOVED gymnastics yesterday. Ladybug at one point spotted me and stood up, waved and said "Mommy! I'm learning how to flip over this bar!!" She was so excited. Angelfish took to the balance beam as though it was nothing. Granted, it's only a few inches off the floor at this point, but she walked it backwards, forwards, and sideways and only fell off once. Of course, she also got a reprimand from the teacher for trying to knock her sister off of the balance beam, but that's probably something I would have done at her age... okay or at mine if it was Mr. Darcy on the beam and not a child... they did some short sprints, hopping like frogs and stretching as warm up. They did an obstacle course where they ran and used a spring form to jump onto a soft platform, run across it and jump down, jump on one leg, then sort of do a cartwheel type thing to get over a rope, do a somersault down an incline and then walk across the balance beam. Then it was on to another little course where they were on the lower bar of the uneven bars and they pushed and pulled them selves so they had themselves with their belly on the bar and arms long and straight and would swing their legs 3 times and then flip over the bar; then to the parallel bars which they walked on their arms (with a block under them for support), then to the next bar where they jumped up onto it and then swung and jumped down. My kids also saw the rings hanging down and swung on those while pulling themselves up. They're strong little monkeys. The next set of fun was to climb up and then slide down a slide into a pit of foam. Then from the pit they climbed up an easy (and short) mountain climbing wall, then bounced on a springy floor (that Angelfish kept trying to figure out what made the floor springy) and jumped doing hurdle jumps and legs together jumps and then repeating.

When I asked the Little Ladies if they wanted to come back next week, Ladybug asked if they could come back tomorrow. : ) Angelfish said she definitely wants to do it again next week, so we're all signed up. They loved it, and it keeps them active, so I'm all for it. Watch out Nadia Comaneci!!