Swim and Teaching a Moderately Youngish Dog New Tricks

Today was a swim day. I love swim days... and today's workout was a good one. Not necessarily the hardest I've done, but still good. While I was swimming though, this thought kept popping in my head... am I doing my stroke right? You see, on Monday at our first swim practice the coach told someone that you reach out like you're reaching for something inside a mailbox and as you pull back and bend your arm you go straight down the side of your body. It didn't hit me at first, but it did when I was in the water... that's not how I do it. That's not how my swim coach taught me as a kid either. But, then they also allow flip turns for back stroke and do flip turns differently now too. So, it was nagging me. I had a great swim, but yet, this thing was sitting out there staring at me.

I emailed the coach. Yes, times have changed after all. It has been discovered it is more efficient NOT to come in under your chest but to go straight down the side of the body. And for open water swimming, this will keep you swimming straighter (which is extra important because you want to swim the required distance not wander all over the place adding distance and time and making you more tired). So this Moderately Youngish Dog will have to learn a new trick. I've tried it sitting here in my office, and it feels wierd. I'm sure it will be even stranger when I try it in the pool. But, I will do it.... it might just take awhile, but I will do it! I want to be fast and I definitely want to be efficient!

And the word of the day is cookies. The girls are having Valentines' Day parties at school and we are signed up to bring cookies. Unfortunately, they heard me say to Holland's Mom that we were bringing cookies. They wanted cookies for dinner, and Angelfish wanted cookies for breakfast. Explaining that we do not have any cookies in the house and that the party is not until next Friday did not exactly go well, but finally a bit of distraction in the form of their kitchen and helping Mommy cook dinner last night worked. The mention of pullups since Angelfish was not wanting to go potty this morning was enough to win out this morning. The problem is that now I'm thinking about cookies and could really go for some. But, I don't quite think that's the idea behind "carb loading" and with my current workouts I don't really need to "carb load" just yet anyway. But, cookies especially the thought of warm chocolate chip or even a sugar cookie in the shape of a heart with red sugar sprinkles on it really is sitting on my mind today. Yogurt with strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries mixed in didn't make the thoughts any further from my mind, either. (Who makes up these silly suggestions anyway... eat something healthy but sweet like berries to cut your cravings? Or an orange instead of chocolate? They must have more willpower or brain control than I...)

On the potty training front, Ladybug had only 1 sort of accident at school yesterday and went through the night with a dry pullup (she woke up around 10:30 pm and went potty too), and was a super potty user this morning! I say that she had a sort of accident because she started to go and stopped herself and went the rest of the way in the potty... but underpants needed to be changed without requiring a change of wardrobe all together. Of course, she did refuse to go to the bathroom yesterday evening and then peed on me while we were working on cooking dinner, but I think that was a product of her stubborness last night not her inability. All in all, it is progress and that is what matters most!

Ladybug fought the playground and the playground won...

Hi, all. Sorry for the lack of an entry yesterday, but I never quite was able to work out and we had a little trauma in our household. It was cold enough yesterday morning that Mr. Darcy told me he didn't want me to swim until it warmed up a little because he didn't want me getting sick (it was 46 out), so I decided to workout on my lunch break. Well, fate it would seem had other plans. I got a call around 10:30 am yesterday from daycare and Ladybug had slipped while playing with Angelfish on the jungle gym thing (which is made of plastic) and hit her head a little bit on the way down. She hit it just right and somehow had a gash on her face below her eyebrow (right where her brow bone is). So, in a panic I went to get her and take her to the emergency clinic the pediatrician's office suggested since none of the doctors who do stitches were in the office at that time. When I got there it didn't look all that bad but it was open (although it wasn't gushing blood like I thought it would be) so I took her to the clinic. They were great with her, but it was a bit traumatic (probably more so for me in the long term than for her) because they had to strap her arms and legs down on to a board (it looked like a blue papoose) and her head had to be strapped a certain way so that they could get the liquid stitches where they needed to be without getting in her eye or her touching it. But Mighty Ladybug is strong enough that she could bust out, so I had to hold her hands down too while blowing on her face while they were putting the liquid stitches on. The whole time she was crying and yelling "I don't like it Mommy." When they cleaned out the area before doing the stitches, I saw how deep the gash was and I almost started crying but didn't want to scare her. Other than a huge black eye (it's not swollen shut but it's pretty bad) and the steristrips on her face, it's ok now and she was in a good mood today and went to school in her Daisy Duck costume. A different type of cardio work out.

Today was a run day, so after we got the girls in the car finally (poor Mr. Darcy was rather late to work today) I went for a 20 minute session. I walked 5 minutes, ran 10 and walked another 5. It's a slow build up but it's a good one all the same. Eventually I'll be able to go longer. We know I can run 22 minutes if I need to, but they say the slow build is better for building the longer distances. I have the day off today, so in a few minutes I'm heading to daycare for the Halloween parade and the girls' Halloween parties, then I'm going to do a little shopping, have lunch and go to the bike shop to get some things (like a tire change kit, lights, etc.) that I need/want to make riding a bit easier and enjoyable. Tommorrow is scheduled to be a 45 minute ride and I may do an hour to make up for missing yesterday... we shall see.

Happy Halloween everybody!