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!!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Friday Plans Slightly Foibled!
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!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Afternoon Funnies and Mother's Day Pictures
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
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!
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!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
A Busy Morning
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...
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...
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Did you know...
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!
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
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/.
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/.
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