A Nice Stretch and Weekend Plans

Today my workout was stretching.  I LOVE this day of the week.  I stretched for a 1/2 an hour just stretching my muscles from head to toe.  It was lovely.  Especially since I have a few muscles that are tight and a little sore.  I'm not sure what has caused it (perhaps all this exercising after weeks of recovery gone complete couch potato?), but stretching was wonderful.

Even more wonderful was Ladybug this morning.  The child was an Angel (and yes, that's with a capital A).  Mr. Darcy said that they talked about getting up nicely this morning and that was just what she did.  Instead of grumping at me and yelling when I went in with my normal "Good morning, Ladies! It's a brand new day, let's greet the the day with a smile."  She asked me if we had gummie fruits (that's what she calls fruit snacks) in Seattle.  I said yes.  And then she said (and this made me laugh), "I guess our grocery stores here don't sell them.  That's a shame."  I told her that we only eat them on occassion as treats and they were treats while we were on vacation.  Then she started asking me about Nanna (my Mom) and cancer and how did she get cancer, etc.  So we chatted about it a little bit.  She said that she hoped we could go visit Nanna soon, and I told her we were hoping to see her in a couple of weeks.  Then she asked if she could have a few more minutes, so I said yes and left the room.

I found Angelfish with Mr. Darcy who was shaving, and Angelfish was sitting on our bathroom counter applying shaving cream to her face with a very serious look about her, raising her eyebrows like Mr. Darcy does when he's putting it under his chin.  Super cute.  Then back to check on Ladybug who was up and getting dressed!  She asked for "privacy please, Mommy."  I told her I needed clothes for Angelfish, so she handed me some clothing and off I went to get Angelfish dressed.  She was opposed to the jeans - she "likes soft pants, Mommy."  and went in search of her own pants (which did not match the shirt, but hey, they were soft and they were on).  Ladybug appeared in the bathroom to brush her hair and get some hair bows to bring to Ms. Ali at daycare so she could do her hair (she doesn't like the way I do it, only the way Ms. Ali does it), then nicely asked for breakfast bars and some milk for breakfast, put on her socks and shoes nicely and then headed off to the car, putting her seat belt on without trauma or fuss.  It was like a whole new child... and one who I hope stays for a long visit.  No wonder her teachers love her at school!  That's how she acts for them.

It was a lovely start to the day.  And then the nice stretching and a little bit of sorority work, and at some point I'll take a lunch break and get my race packet for tomorrow.

Tonight we have a bowling function with Mr. Darcy's work.  Two 3 1/2 year olds and us in a bowling alley.  Should be interesting.  Then tomorrow morning, bright and early is the Seasons 52 5.2K race.  I'm not looking to break any world records. 

Amazingly enough, this is my 1st 5K or 5.2 K.  That seems really strange in that I've done an Ironman 70.3, multiple Olympic distance and sprint distance triathlons, and I'm signed up for a 1/2 marathon yet this is my 1st 5K.  As I tend to say, I only like to run if I've swum and biked first.  I guess if I'm gonna go, I tend to go long.  The only other road race I've done was a 2 miler back in 2008.  I finished it in 22:21, and I was miserable once I hit about the 1st mile and had to just keep myself going.  I remember I started out really hard because I was running it with my friend Lauren who was really in good shape and there I was trying to keep up and she was running slow for me.  I pretty much felt like dying at the end of the race.  So, I guess my big goals for it are to finish and to finish in about 33:30.  I'd love to do sub-30 minutes, but with the shin splints starting and the reality of not being an overly fast runner to begin with, I'll just go with the flow.  I signed up for 3 other 5Ks before this in my life, and the 1st 2 were undoable because of major pain with shin splints for the 1st one, sick children and hubby for the 2nd one, and then the 3rd one was this past December and I can't remember if it was the weather or I just didn't make it out of bed.

So here's to the 5K and a nice weekend with the fam!