National Running Day...

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.