Tag: Running

Run stats and updates

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The races are over!

Last Saturday was my final race of this running season, the Brewers Mini-Marathon and 10k. Thank heavens I chose correctly for once and did the 10k, because there’s no way I could have done another half marathon.

It started and ended at Miller Park, and the course was surprisingly much harder than I anticipated. Since when does Milwaukee, and specifically the Miller Valley, have hills? There were spots where I honestly thought I was going to have to walk or just give up the race all together.

But I pushed on, just slowing down when I felt the urge to stop. I refused to look at either the mile marker signs or my watch, because I didn’t want to know how much misery I had left. Somewhere in the last mile I actually grabbed a cup at the water station to rinse out my mouth, and of course it was Gatorade, not water. Talk about a terrible surprise! I about choked on it, which only added to the full-body pain I was feeling by that time.

I have no idea why that run was so hard, either. 6.2 miles is not a long distance for me anymore, especially after the 12-mile training runs I had to do earlier this spring. I don’t know if it’s the additional 4 miles I walk daily taking Della to and from school now or what. But from somewhere in the very first mile until the end, every single step was a nightmare.

The only time my spirits lifted was when we ran around the warning track inside the stadium. There were 2 reasons for this – I saw friends cheering for me who I had no idea were going to be in there (in all fairness they were there cheering for someone else, but they rooted me on as i ran by. still felt good to hear my name, though), and I knew those ending flags were almost in sight.

After practically limping across the finish line, I finally checked my watch. And I about fainted.

From shock, not pain.

49:33! (my official time ended up being 49:32)

I absolutely could not believe it. I had kind of a tiered goal time going into this race – I definitely wanted to break 54:00, which would be roughly 9:00/mile pace; I really, really wanted to break 52:00; and in my deepest heart of hearts I would be ecstatic to break 50:00.

So to see 49-anything as my finishing time just blew me away. I killed it.

I was so happy! And I was done! And I needed to get some water immediately before I died! And I needed to keep walking so my distressed legs didn’t completely cramp up on me and render me a giant heap in the finishers’ chute! And I needed to get to the beer tent!

I ran this race with a group of friends, and that part was so much fun. Actually having others to watch for, cheer on, and meet up with was a blast. All the racers got a couple free Miller Lites afterwards, and I said that beer has never tasted so good.

Thankfully I was smart enough to bring a full change of clothes this time, so I was able to enjoy my beverages relatively sweat free. The forecast that morning had called for rain and thunderstorms, so I was anticipating being totally drenched with water, not just sweat. Either way, the spare clothes I had in my gear bag added to my post-race glee.

So, my friends, my D&L stroller training team paid off in spades this summer. I was beyond thrilled with all 3 of my race times, and all for varying distances, too, which was a first for me – a 23:00 5k, a 1:57 half marathon, and a 49:00 10k. Success!

Now I can just kick back and run for pure enjoyment and exercise. I took this whole week off from running, and it felt wonderful. Like I said, I walk so much now to school and back twice, I almost feel like that’s enough. But I should definitely get a little more pavement pounding in before the frigid air traps me inside this winter. At least I can just stick to my preferred 5k route now, not worrying about getting any specific distances in.

And here is what it looks like to happily close out a very productive running season:

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Oh, my legs

This past Saturday I ran my first half marathon. And my last.

I’d been toying with the idea of trying one for a couple years, but I’ve never had the time to dedicate to training for one until now. So a few months ago I signed up and started running.

And running and running and running.

I did almost all of my runs with the girls in the stroller, which I think really helped. It toned my arms, anyway. I didn’t follow any set training program, I just kind of made up my own – 1 long, 1 medium, and 1 short run per week.

People kept asking what my goal time was, and I was like, dudes, I never run this far. I just want to finish the thing. Double digit running isn’t quite my specialty. Or that enjoyable.

I finally got a secret goal time in my head of 1:57, because that was right about 9-minute-mile pace, something I never thought would be possible for me for 13.1 miles. I did my long runs with the full stroller at around a 10-minute-mile pace, so 9 minute miles sounded way faster than what I could do. But that was the number that kept popping into my head anyway.

So Saturday morning I got up with the birds, filled up my Camelbak, put my headphones on, lined up in Corral J, and took off with the herd. The first 8ish miles felt pretty good, and I could honestly tell that I was pushing myself harder than normal.

Then we went down a huge hill and started heading toward the finish area, which I thought would be a good thing, but miles 9 and 10 were miserable. I truly felt that I wasn’t going to make it to the end, then that made me mad because I thought oh great, I wasted all that time training for this and now I’m not even going to finish without walking.

But I never walked, and miles 11 to the end actually felt much better. I just started making myself go as fast as I could, because I knew I’d never be doing this again. I literally had the phrase “I never have to do this again!” running through my head, forcing me to sprint to the end.

So, how did my final time compare to that goal time that I thought was completely unattainable?

1:57:12

Boom.

Nailed it.

And now I never have to run that far ever again. Whew.

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my training partners extraordinaire. we’ll keep running together for sure, just not for hours at a time, thankfully.

 

 

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Late-night mind wanderings

It never fails. I lie down in bed, often completely exhausted and just waiting for the first of Lana’s mid-night wake-ups, and my mind decides it’s time to think. And think and think and think. And why is it that so often, it always turns to the worst possible scenario of whatever it is about which I’m thinking? Stupid mind.

But there’s always something about the girls in there. To whichever higher power might be listening, I pray for so many things for them.

That they’re watched over every single second of every single day, being protected and kept safe from harm.

That nothing bad ever happens to them.

That they always know how much they are loved, cherished, adored, and wanted.

That they never feel unwanted or know neglect from anyone or for any reason in their entire lives.

That they always find the happiness in life, no matter the situation.

That they always have each other.

Then there are also the more earthly, everyday things.

That they have fun in school and make good friends.

That they’re never bullied.

That they’re never the bully.

That they learn to treat everyone fairly and how they would want to be treated.

That they are never quick to judge and always remember that everyone has their own story, even when they don’t want to hear it. Especially when they don’t want to hear it.

That they learn to recognize right from wrong and choose right, even when wrong seems like the better option at the time.

I pray that I have the strength to help make these things true. These 2 little girls mean the absolute world to me, and I honestly don’t think I could make it if anything ever happened to them. They are my life, and they make life itself so much more enjoyable just by being in it.

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getting ready for a princess tea party. della and her little friend josie about died when the princesses started singing songs from Frozen!

Here’s a perfect example of them making my life fun just by being them. Friday morning we were on a run – thankfully it was a mid-length run at a little over 6 miles instead of the killer 10+ milers we do. And when I say “we were on a run,” I mean I was running while pushing the 2 of them in the jogging stroller. Naturally.

The path on which we run passes under a number of city streets, so there are plenty of places for them to shout out and hear their echos. This particular run only contained 1 echo bridge, so I told Della to get a good one ready since we’d only have 2 shots to make nice big, loud ones.

As we approached the bridge, she said, “I’ve got a really good one in my head.” And when we ran under it she shouted, “Apple!” Of course Lana instantly followed suit, shouting “Apple!” as well. Usually they do little wolf howls, which I love. They did start shouting “No!” a couple times last week, which I didn’t really appreciate, so at least it wasn’t that this time. Although Lana did start saying “no” when I told Della to get her echo ready. She’s stinky, that little one.

On the way back I told them they had 1 more time to make an echo since we were going under the bridge again, and this time Della said, “Ok, I have the best one in my head you’ve ever heard.” I could only imagine what was coming, since the best one before that was “apple.” But when we ran under the bridge on our return leg, she shouted, “I love Mama!”

They are the best.

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my training partners cheering me on in a 5k a few weeks ago that goes right by our house. they worked – i got my best time by almost 2 minutes (23:17) and 3rd in my age group!

 

 

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Friday Funk

2 Friday Funks in a row?? Crazy. I must be on a roll over here. I’ll call this one the “No More Moo” edition, because I’ve been given the green light by Lana’s pediatrician to start weaning her from breast milk. Time to start shutting down the milk factory.

The reason for doing this is kind of a need mixed with a want. She NEEDS to start sleeping through the night again, and her doctor said weaning will absolutely help with that. I took her in the other night for her first sick check because she’s had this congestion and cough for months now, and I was afraid she might have an ear infection since she tugs on her left one all the time. Ears look perfect, the doctor said, but she said she still sounds a little croupy. Something in her upper respiratory system is definitely still bugging her, so she’s currently on a 5-day antibiotic just to try and kick whatever keeps running around in there.

But anyway, I was telling her how terrible Lana’s sleeping at night has gotten, and she was pretty surprised to hear that she almost always wakes up 2-3 times per night now. A complete sleep through is essentially nonexistent these days, which is really shitty for a 7 month old.

So after we discussed the decline in night sleeping and I asked about maybe stopping breastfeeding soon, her doctor said yes, let’s definitely start to wean her. That’s where the want part comes in.

I’m ready to be done nursing this time around. I don’t know if it’s the novelty wearing off earlier the second time around or maybe the fact that me having been home basically all of Lana’s life so far with her she’s just spent more time actually nursing than Della did since she was in daycare so much or what, but I’m pretty much over it. That “magical bond” between mother and nursing babe just isn’t that magical anymore.

As when Della was stopping breastfeeding, I would love to not have to worry about it over the summer. Taking my stupid hand pump to all-day events gets so old, and enduring the pain of engorgement when I’d rather just not have to think about it is getting annoying right now. Plus we need to get Lana to know that boobs are no longer an option in the middle of the night. That’s the worst part – as long as she continues to wake up inconsolable save for nursing, we’ll keep taking steps backward instead of forward in this process.

So enter Enfamil, the formula I’ve always dreaded due to its price tag. The act of giving my baby formula doesn’t bother me in the least; it’s paying for the crap when I know I can provide plenty of breast milk for free. But like I said, I’m willing to sacrifice the dollars for a few months this time to get my body freedom back. Selfish? Probably. But Mama needs her sanity too, thank you very much, and Lana will thrive just fine on formula for only a couple months. For when she turns 11 months, we’ll put her on whole milk anyway.

Day 1 of the weaning saga was yesterday, and it was an utter failure. The doctor said to begin by replacing the least important breast milk meals with formula until there is no more nursing, so we’re starting with the one she usually has between her now solid lunches and dinners. Yesterday I whipped up a 6 oz. bottle containing 4 oz. of breast milk and 2 oz. of formula, thinking that would be more than enough breast milk to mask whatever the foreign taste of formula is in there. Nope. She drank a couple good gulps, then refused the rest of it. Well shit. I even made a separate 1 oz. bottle of strictly formula, thinking maybe the breast milk was bad. Still refused. Double shit.

I was afraid of that. Della did the same thing when she stopped nursing, refusing formula. She was about a month and a half older than Lana is now, though, so I just pumped another month or 2 until she started whole milk. I’m not pumping for 4 more months this time, though, so we have to get this to work with Lana. Fortunately round 2 this afternoon went better. I made another 6 oz. bottle for her, but this time I used only 1 oz. of formula and 5 oz. of breast milk, and she drank the whole thing without hesitation. Much better.

My hope is that I can just keep upping the formula ratio in this afternoon bottle and her mid-morning one over the next week or so until those 2 are strictly formula. Then we’ll work on switching the morning wake-up feeding to formula, then lastly the bedtime feeding. The doctor said that’s the order of importance for the feedings to be breast milk. I may start transitioning the bedtime feeding to a mixed bottle sooner, though, so I can make it bigger. When she nurses I obviously have no idea how many ounces she’s taking, but her doctor said to give her a bigger bedtime bottle (at least 6 oz.) to help her stay satisfied through the night better. Makes sense to me. Let’s get this pony rolling.

I would love more than anything to have her nearly fully weaned in the next 3 weeks before we go to Colorado, but I won’t push it. I’ll try, but if I have to take the damn pump, I’ll take it. So wish us luck on this journey! Any and all easy weaning juju you can send our way will be much appreciated.

Speaking of Colorado, my sister had her baby today!!!! I could just poop I’m so excited for them. His name is Roan, and from what I’ve seen so far he is absolutely perfect. I simply cannot wait to hold this newest little Goonie nugget, and Della already knows she has a new baby cousin. She can even say Roan pretty well. I’m so happy we’ll get to meet him when he’s still so little. I just hope my sister and brother-in-law truly know what they’re signing up for when they invite us all to stay with them with a newborn in the house. Heh.

What else? Oh yeah – my race last weekend. Dudes, I kicked its ass!! I was hoping for under 27:00, secretly wishing for under 26:00, and I blew that thing out of the water. 25:11 was my time. BOOM to the OOM! 8:06 pace. I was floored. No way was I expecting a time like that, which is one of my fastest 5k times ever. Let alone after having 2 kids and just getting back to running a few weeks ago. It felt like a terrible run, too, because I started off way too fast trying to keep pace with a group of grade schoolers. Note – never EVER try to keep up with 7 year olds in a race. They’ll destroy you every time. So when I saw sub-25:00 on the score clock as I approached the finish line I was ecstatic.

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Then it was off to Miller Park that afternoon with great friends for the Kenny Chesney concert. Yahoo!! That was an absolute blast. We skipped the first couple opening acts and went in for Eric Church and Kenny, and we had so much fun. It turned out to be a gorgeous day, and we had a wonderful afternoon and night.

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I think that about wraps everything up for this week. Just another batch of random I wanted to write down before I forgot it all. We’re off to Madison on Sunday for my cousin’s wedding, which will be awesome. So you all have a great long weekend, thank you to those whom we remember in the name of this holiday, and I’ll talk to you later.

 

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Friday Funk

Haven’t seen one of these posts in a long time, eh? In fact, the last one was the one I wrote right after Lana was born; my 39 weeks pregnancy update.

But I wanted to get something posted since I haven’t for a while, yet all my thoughts are just kind of random right now. So let’s see… We’ll call this one the “Start of Summer Edition”.

Tomorrow is going to be a spectacular day. Bold prediction, no? But listen to the itinerary – in the morning I have Run the Bay, the 5k for which I’ve been training this past month or so. It’s the first one I’ve run in 2 years, the first and last time I did this same race. I’ve been pushing the girls in our new jogging stroller along the race route for my training runs, so hopefully when I do it alone tomorrow I’ll go faster. The other day I pushed them at a 9:07 pace, which made me pretty happy. If I can get in the lower 8 minutes range somewhere for my race pace that’d be awesome. I think my fastest race pace is just over an 8:00 mile, so I’ll consider anywhere close to that a success, 2 babies later.

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Then tomorrow afternoon we’re going to the Kenny Chesney/Eric Church concert at Miller Park. Let the summer of music begin! It’s Kenny’s “No Shoes Nation” tour, and the next stop is Milwaukee. We’re going with friends, and this will be I think the 3rd Kenny show my girlfriend and I will have been to together. I can already hear the Coronas opening and the limes being squeezed…

What else? Oh, Lana has officially sprouted her first tooth. Excellent. Just what we need – something else to make her scream. However, she did sleep completely through the night last night for the first time in at least a month, so I’ll take that. If teeth = sleep for her, I’ll even spring for some dentures to fill her mouth.

Look who my bed partners are this morning – how could it not start well? Sorry the quality is so terrible. It was taken on my phone, which has a ridiculously bright flash, so I kept capturing their recoils instead of their cute little faces, but oh well. You can still tell who it is. Lana has switched positions, though, and is currently trying to squirm her way over to eat the computer. Attention diverting is in full effect right now.

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Della has started swim lessons at the gym, so we’re off to those later this morning. This will be her 3rd out of 7 sessions, and she said today she wants to jump in with the teacher and put her head all the way under the water. So far she’s been very hesitant to do so, but the other little girl in her class is a whirling dervish in the pool, which I think has prodded D on a little. I hope she does dunk under today, because I just want her totally comfortable with being in and around the water before we’re near any lakes this summer.

Oh yeah – there’s going to be a baby any day now too! No, not in this household, but in my sister’s. She and my brother-in-law are expecting their first, a little boy, sometime in the next week or so. She’s due next Saturday, but I have the feeling of tomorrow in my head. We shall see – I can’t wait to hear the news!

I think those were the main things running around upstairs this morning. Have a great weekend, everyone, and I’ll let you know how the race goes. Fingers crossed for a respectable finish!

 

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Status qu…it being so lazy!

I’ve been meaning to do a fitness update post for awhile now, but honestly, I’ve just been really lazy. Both with the post and with the fitness. Ugh. I haven’t worked out consistently for over a month now, and as such, I kind of feel like a total slug. I was doing so well, too, working up to week 4 in my Jillian Michaels workouts and really feeling great.

Then I got sick the week before Christmas, which meant I got approximately zero workouts in. Things were a little better in Hawaii, though, as I walked a solid 3 hilly miles (if not more) almost every single day. I even threw a little jogging in on some of those too. So that made for a good exercise week.

But since we’ve been back, my level of activity has dropped back to the nothing range. I think I’ve gotten 1, maybe 2, workouts in with my trainer, which are excellent, but when they come so infrequently I can’t believe they’re doing a whole lot of good. I was pretty proud of myself at my workout last week, though – I tested my pull-up endurance at the start of the session and was still able to do 5 full pull-ups. Not bad.

Outside of that, though, nada. Gone are the twice-weekly 5am workouts with Jillian I was sticking with so well to bump my weekly workouts up to 3. I felt like another cold was coming on this past week so was super tired, and in the weeks before this I’ve just been busy, tired, busy and tired, or just plain didn’t feel like it. And no matter how geared up I can be to exercise, if I just don’t feel like it by the time that workout rolls around, more often than not it doesn’t happen.

Fortunately the number on the scale hasn’t been screaming in my face and has remained pretty static, even somehow going down a pound after Hawaii. But I just hate knowing my overall fitness level is deteriorating even if my weight isn’t creeping up.

So that brings us to tonight. I got more stressing news at work today, and I’d finally had it. I needed a release. Maybe that’s been part of the problem lately, why everything has seemed so much more overwhelming than usual – I haven’t had my regular heart-pounding outlet to release my inner tension. Which could also, in turn, be why I’ve been feeling more sluggish and blah than normal.

Now get ready for this… I actually got off my lazy butt and went for a run after work. OUTSIDE again! It was even pretty much dark out, since I didn’t get started until 5:30! Here, I’ll help you up from the floor since I know you just passed out from shock. Sorry about that.

Remember my no-running-outdoors-unless-it’s-above-50-degrees rule? Totally broke it tonight. It was 38 on the temperature tower on my way home from work (and still light out! that definitely helped my motivation), but for some reason it didn’t even phase me. The run felt great. I just did my shortest route, since it’s been almost 2 months since my last jog, and I didn’t even take music. Just me and my breath, hitting the pavement.

Does that ever happen to you? You take a decent hiatus between runs and that first one back feels awesome? Now I know if I continued running outside I’d have to slow down a bit again before getting back up to speed without injury, but still. Tonight felt fantastic.

Here are the run stats – I ran 1.44 miles in 12:56, for a 9:00/mile pace. I’ll take it. Especially since for the first time in a long time I looked in the mirror after my shower tonight and saw a glimmer of the abs I was so happy to show off on my Mom Sexy day instead of a 2-pack with some mush underneath it. Maybe it was the post-workout endorphins finally coming back, or maybe it was because my little abs/push-ups routine I have been diligent about keeping up at least 4-5 times per week might actually be doing something, even with my lack of cardio exercise. But it was good to see nonetheless.

And I felt a little stress melt away with each step of the run, too. My mouth stung from the cold air, but my head was thanking me with each block. Ahh… Now if I can just get back to an exercise routine with which I can stick. I’m planning on cleaning up my road bike on the trainer in the basement and getting back on that next week after work 2 nights. Because although I love my dates with Jillian, I really hate getting up early.

How about you guys? Anyone else already giving up on their New Year’s exercise resolution, or is it just me? Well, actually I didn’t really give up on a resolution, since I don’t make them, but I just fell off the exercise wagon period. Hopefully I’ll get back on a little more permanently this time.

Hello, abs, nice to see you again

 

 

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16 month stats

Happy 16 month birthday, Squeaker! And Happy December to the rest of you. December, though? Wow, how did that happen? This whole year up until the fall seemed to go by at just the right pace – neither too fast nor too slow – but these past couple months, man. They’ve FLOWN by. And I still can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that Christmas will be here in just weeks, since this year I’ll be focused more on getting us all packed and ready to fly across a good chunk of the planet before Santa makes his rounds. It feels kind of weird.

 

But anyway, back to the star of the show, D. Fortunately we haven’t had to go to the doctor since last month’s well-baby visit, so I would estimate her stats as about 33″ tall and weighing between 23-24 lbs. I read back through her 15 months stats, and honestly, not much has changed at all. These are really about the only 2 things different for this month:

 

  • She now has 16 teeth. The top left cuspid is in (it was just starting to poke through in last month’s entry), and the top left first molar is now poking through as well. Fortunately the main symptom of teething for these 2 was just a lot of chewing on her fingers. Totally manageable.
  • The little booty is growing. She now wears size 4 diapers during the days and size 5s overnight. Thank heavens people told me about the 1-size-bigger-at-night trick, for the morning pee lakes in her crib are now much fewer and farther between than they were for awhile there this summer.

 

It’s so fun watching D grow into this awesome little kid. For there isn’t much baby left to her anymore – she really is a little girl. Aww…

 

 

 

p.s. I ran again last night for the 1st time in a month. OUTSIDE. I decided to break my no-running-outside-unless-it’s-above-50-degrees rule, because I’ve been feeling like my twice weekly early morning workouts just aren’t cutting it. Plus I figured I’d take advantage of what may have been the last “mild” day of the year (it was 42 degrees when i drove home from work). I ran 2.86 miles in 26:45, for a 9:21 pace. Not very fast, but I knew it wouldn’t be after taking such a long break. It felt pretty good though overall – comfortable pace, my abs didn’t feel as jiggly as they usually do when I run, my lungs didn’t burn from the cold too much (although my hands were pretty cold), and I felt like I could’ve even gone further. Let’s not get crazy, though. It was getting darker and colder by the minute, and I much prefer running in the sunlight than in the moonlight.

 

p.p.s. I’m taking D down to Peoria to visit my dad and his side of the family tomorrow for a long weekend, so I’ll see you in a few days. Have a great weekend!