A lovely few days...

This weekend was quite lovely. Saturday started early with a 15 mile bike and 1 mile run (I did not walk for one second), followed by a nutrition talk about fueling while training and doing the triathlon. Then I rushed home to go to Disney, only to discover that everyone else in the house was in the need of a nap... which I secretly was happy about because I too really wanted a nap. Evidently, we all needed our sleep because the liliputians, their parents and their Grammie all ended up taking a nice 3 hour nap... completely unheard of for around these parts! Then Grammie was very sweet and let Mr. Darcy and I go on a date. We had a wonderful time talking without interruptions over sushi and a glass of Bonzai (plum wine with a shot of warm sake - very yummy!), and then attempted to go see Slumdog Millionaire. But, we were too late to see the movie, couldn't find anything else that looked appealing enough to spend the $20 on, and wandered over to a bike shop and the Best Buy... leaving without purchases. So we headed to the rental store and rented "Righteous Kill" (which was rather good, but I was able to guess the ending - but worth it because I really like Al Pacino and Robert DiNero) and a western that I keep forgetting the nameof. When we got home around 9 pm, Grammie was still singing the girls to sleep. Spoiled rotten they were! Just like Grammie's are supposed to do.

Sunday started with a visit to the ER - Ladybug's loop is officially removed and she is almost 100% healed up. Then we hit Disney. Not sure who was more excited - Grammie or the girls. But a good time was had by all! Afterwards, I went to a friend's house to watch the Oscars and had a lovely time... although I forgot how late they last and was half asleep by the time I got home.

Monday I spent in my pajamas while getting munchkins ready (with Mr. Darcy) for school, working, and saying goodbye to my MIL (aka Grammie) before she left to go back home. Grammie was a god-send for us this past week and we are forever indebted to her for her kindness not only to our dear Ladybug while she was at home, but also to us for helping around the house (the straightening every night was heavenly, as was the dishwashing and laundry) and for letting us spend a little bit of alone time together (which is not something we get to do on a regular basis). The pajamas must have been the key to my day yesterday because I only changed out of them when Mr. Darcy arrived home with the girls and I realized I needed to put on my swim suit for practice. After some fun with the little ladybugs, I was out the door and ready to swim. And swim I did! Our practice was a little longer than 1 mile, and I loved getting into the rhythm of it all and just swimming and swimming... which was good because I had to do the week's grocery shopping afterwards, but was regaled by a friend's stories about his police beat as of late. If only we could get our dear Bryan to move to Florida - the girls miss their buddy!

This evening, we run at Lake Eola, and it is Mardi Gras. Thus, I've added some thin mints to my diet for the day (the fuel for true triathlon training), along with some diet coke, and I'll be sure to have an alcoholic beverage at the end of the day. I'm giving up sweets, diet coke and alcohol for the next 40 days of lent. Always a reminder that these little things are so difficult to give up... so I'm taking a little stock of them today so I will not be missing them so terribly, which I guess is not the way it is supposed to work, but it is my plan.

(The Food of Champions.... the Thin Mint!)

Monday, it is!

Today is definitely a Monday. Not just any Monday but the Monday return to work after a long weekend off for the New Year. And despite waking with an upset stomach (most likely due to the junk food I ate at Disney yesterday, which to my shame includes fried chicken nuggets and french fries - I told Mr. Darcy to surprise me with lunch while I saved us a table... not the smartest move on my part - ice cream and yes, even a funnel cake), I didn't let it keep me down. I didn't go to the gym though (I figure it's probably stuff full of extra people today anyway), but instead I did the interval training that I would have done on the treadmill in the park just up the street from our house (nice, spongy grass) and added another 20 minute walk onto it to try to make up a little bit for not swimming at the gym in addition to the interval training. Perhaps if the morning goes well tomorrow, I'll get the pool in then.

I kind of like interval training. I did 7 minutes alternating 1 minute run and 1 minute walk and then 6 sets of a 20 second sprint and then walking back to where I started the sprint. It's kind of nice to see how far I've come from the last time I did these intervals. I may not be a lot smaller yet in size (although I've dropped one size), but I am definitely in better shape than I was!

Yesterday we had a lot of fun at Disney. We went with the girls and our friend Bryan who was visiting. The girls had fun with Mr. Bryan who is 6'5" and a rather muscular 280. So, as you can tell he is a big guy. On the tea cups, he spun them so fast with just one hand that poor Ladybug(who has the beginnings of a headcold coming on I think) did not want to ride them again. Angelfish on the other hand LOVED it. In fact, she wanted to ride them again and go faster. So they did, except Ladybug and I played while the boys and Angelfish went on the ride. At one point, Bryan thought that Angelfish was crying and took one of his hands off the wheel and Angelfish grabbed his hand and put it back on... it turned out she was laughing and screaming in glee. Later in the day she asked if she and Mr. Bryan could "ride cups and go faster." : ) Ladybug liked watching the fire works with Mr. Bryan - he was nice and tall so she had a great view. We all had a good time and got a bit of sun... of course, since we stayed for the fireworks, that made getting up this morning all the harder.

But tomorrow is Tuesday so it will be a little easier and a little closer to the National Championship Game! And as the girls said when they saw the alligators at Sea World this past Friday "Go Gators!"

Attempt at Swimming, Lots of walking & biking

Friday there was no workout and thus no blog. I woke up Friday feeling almost as though my head was going to pop off because it was rather stuffy and I was coughing to the point it probably wasn't going to be a good idea. But, as it was, Mr. Darcy had a business meeting in South Florida at FAU so I needed to take the girls to daycare that morning (aka "school") as it was. So, the plan was to workout during lunch. Except when lunch rolled around, it was all I could do to keep my eyes open so I straightened and swept a little (since we had our friends Jen, Steve and Audrey in town this weekend) and then after work went to get the girls and ended up falling asleep on their bedroom floor after we put them down to bed. But, I must have needed the sleep because I did a good bit better the next day.

In fact, I felt so much better that before we headed off to Disney for the day with Audrey, Jen & Steve, that I woke up around 5 am and biked for 45 minutes. 2 things I learned: 1) I REALLY need to buy those long biking pants and 2) they do not leave the giant lights at the high school football stadium up the road from our house on all night like we thought they did. There was a bit of a stretch on the road there that I was super glad I bought the more expensive bike lights with more power because it was pitch black. Just me, in the bike lane with a little bit of reflective gear and bike lights hoping to God that there would be no drunk driver around. But overall, the ride was a good one and I returned rejuvenated... just in time for the sun to come up.

After getting the kiddos dressed, fed and in the car we headed for a marathon day at Disney. It was a blast!!! Ladybug even did a good job telling us when she had to go to the potty and most of the time we made it in time, as did little Audrey (who did even better than Ladybug with it). Angelfish even joined in and went pee on the potty a few times too! We wandered around somewhat aimlessly and hit a bunch of different things, saw Mickey, Minnie & Donald Duck, and even had dinner at the Liberty Tavern where we had pictures with Minnie, Goofy, & Chip and Dale while eating. Angelfish took a header down the stairs after trying to jump on Chip (who didn't see her coming), but she was perfectly fine. I knew she was ok when I got her up and she didn't cry but shouted "my bread!" (She dropped it while going head over feet.) We even stayed late for the electric light parade (or whatever they call it these days). Ladybug rather liked it and Angelfish said she liked it but Mr. Darcy said she was afraid because some dry ice mist got on her and then Captain Hook shot of a cannon of mist and it hit her straight on (Mr. Darcy too - he said it didn't hurt just startled her and him.). When I told her that Daddy said she was scared she said "no like cloud." They were both out by the time we got on 417 to go home.

We were all tuckered out though, because even my internal clock (the one that wakes me up to work out around 5:30 or 6 am on the weekends) didn't wake me up until 6:45ish - just in time for Ladybug to run in the room and climb in bed with us. And we pretty much dragged all day. We had a fun morning with our friends - chatting and the girls playing, and then when we put the girls down for their nap, we slept too! So, I switched my off day for this week from today to Sunday.

This morning I went for a 20 minute walk. Unfortunately, after my walk/run deal last Thursday I woke up in the middle of the night in a lot of pain in my shin, so it's back to ONLY walking for now. The idea was to walk for 20 minutes, swim for 20 minutes and then walk about 5 minutes home. (In case you're wondering, I found a pair of old goggles that I forgot I owned this weekend.) Well, the 20 minute walk went just fine. I got to the pool, took off the clothes that were over my swimsuit, put on my swim cap and googles, noticed that I could see my breath in the air, stretched a little more, and then put my foot in the pool. You know a pool is cold when you put your foot in the pool and involuntarily your leg jerks it back out of the water. So, I tried again, this time being conscious of not wanting to yank my leg out of the water and tried to put both feet in the water quickly and my right foot involuntarily jerked out (it was the 2nd foot I put in). And at that point, my mind told me that this is exactly what it would feel like if I were going to swim in a tall glass of cold water that had ice in it. I am sorry to say that I did not brave it out and get all the way in and swim. I wanted to swim, but I also didn't want to either suffer from a heart attack because the water was so cold it shocked my system and I want my cold to continue to leave my body. I will be emailing the Teams in Training folks to see if they know of a heated public pool nearby so I can try to find a way to still swim, but until then the swimming may have to go on hiatus (and it's my favorite so I am not thrilled about this notion). Instead of swimming I walked another 28 minutes, and part way through realized that it is not likely that I will be running in the Turkey Trot on Thursday. I will definitely walk the 3.1 miles, but I'm not sure that my shin splints are at the point that my leg can take running it. We will see on Thursday morning, but it is most likely that I will walk (quickly of course) the Turkey Trot and still try to run the Reindeer Run in Maitland on December 13th. All in all the end goal being that I will be able to run in my triathlon on February 1st! So for today, the walk ended up being just under 50 minutes instead of the original plan, but I'm still out there... it will take more than shin splints and an icy pool to stop me!

The saga continues...