Saturday Stuff

I found this little blurb on the internet so interesting. Why? Well, a couple of reasons ....
1. Someone took the time to report that someone else put their clothes on backwards.
2. Angelina Jolie actually put her clothes on backwards.
3. Zak has been putting his clothes on backwards for weeks now and I keep yelling at him to put them on the right way and Scott keeps yelling at me that no one is going to notice. Well, I guess some people do :)



I've been worrying about this man ever since he landed the plane in the Hudson River. Why?

Our country has a habit of turning hero's into villains. The hero does something great. Over the weeks following the event, their life is picked apart until some human mishap turns them back to the mortal human that they are. THANKFULLY, Mr. Sullenberger has avoided all of that nonsense. At least I think he has.



Times must be tough up at the Wisconsin Dells. We go to there with Scott's football group every winter. It's a good time. We won't be going this year. In the 2007 we spent $109 a night and in 2008 it went down to $99 a night for a nice room and all the indoor water park action you can stand. Well, I'm not sure what The Glacier Canyon resort was thinking but they've upped the ante this year. $249 a night. Oh, that does include a nice greasy breakfast or dinner buffet on the morning or night of your choice. Just one morning or night tho. Needless to say we are passing on the trip this year. Instead of going we're going to take the money that was set aside and join one of the local community pools for the summer. I think I'm more disappointed than the kids about not going. I was really looking forward to running down those dark halls again.

I missed registration for the Shuffle. My tri-mate sent me a message letting me know the race closed this week. My procrastination helped me make up my mind. I've gotta find a local race me and the pre-school moms can do. Maybe I can talk them into doing the du. I love that race. I think they would too.

Well, I'm off to the last soccer game of the season. The kids keep calling it the "Championship Game" I don't have the heart to remind them they've only won 1 game this season. It's all good.

I Can Not Believe It ....

Ok, I can't believe it. Truly, I'm just so frustrated.

I have a cold!

This sucks! I usually feel something coming on but not this one. Oh no. This one side swiped the bageezes out of me yesterday. Aches, chills, sore throat. The kids are looking at me as if some strange entity has taken over my voice. I sound possessed. So, training has stalled. And quite honestly, I don't think over training brought this on. Why, cause I'm taking it so easy, what I'm doing really can't be called training. It's just plain fun. I'm hoping tomorrow things will start to feel better and I'll get on the trainer for a while.
H O P I N G.

In the mean time, I was up almost all of last night with coughing and burning in the throat. What's a girl to do when she can't sleep? Why channel surf of course. I stumbled across "Real House Wives of Orange County". I was shocked. Holy crap. Ok, if any poor mother working just to keep her family fed, living in a 3 room apartment wants to feel better about her life, she should watch this show. I turned this program off, after watching in disbelief for 2 hours, feeling so much better about what I have and who I am. Ok, might be sounding a little judgemental here but come on ladies, you're middle age, stop trying to look like your teenage daughters and cover up with a shirt or dress that fits! I guess I wasn't that disgusted by it cause I still couldn't sleep this morning and watched it again! Utto, I might be addicted. Deal or No Deal has just been replaced.

Habits

So I've read that it takes 42 days for a habit to form.

42 long days.

Let's see that is 1008 hours, if my math is corret that's 60480 minutes.

It's week 4 of my training. Only week 4. Geeze, I can't believe I'm only in week f o u r. Time is dragging. And this isn't even official training, this is get your butt in gear and get used to moving again training.

UGH!

Stop complaining. Keep moving. It's all good.

Now, I need to start working on my house cleaning habits. Now that would make my mom happy and probably me a little happier too. Heck, I would be happy with making my bed every morning.

Ok, one thing at a time. Get back on the training wagon first. :)

To Shuffle or Not to Shuffle

The Shamrock Shuffle in Chicago has grown to the point of absolute ridiculous proportions. I believe the race director now allows 35,000 people to participant in a 5 mile run. Well, it's not exactly 5 miles but it's pretty close.

I used to run this race in the 90's. Back when the run was on the closest week-end to St. Patrick's Day. It was much smaller back then. Maybe 3,000 people. Maybe. A lot of runners would be up the night before celebrating the Irish holiday. They would re-celebrate during the 1st mile or 2 of the run. Reliving all that they had taken in the night before only during the run it was coming back up in just a matter of seconds. It was never a pretty site. You could be guaranteed to see at least 10 participants hurling on the side of the road. After seeing this several years in a row and having the race grow each year, I stopped running it.

Well, it's 2009 a couple of the pre-school moms asked me to run it with them. I love these guys. They're funny and very down to earth. So, I guess I have a 2 ways to look at this,

1. Run in a race that is so over crowded that I will probably walk the 1st mile and then elbow my way thru the rest of the miles.

or

2. Go into the city, laugh on the drive down, hang out with 3 people I like being around, and then drive home probably laughing all the way home.

Hmmmm, I still don't know what to do ....

Stuff ...

I seem to be finding a lot to write about lately.

I got a pair of Ugg knock offs for Christmas from my mom. In general, I get cold. Really, really cold, really fast. I've seen girls wearing these boots for a while now but always thought 2 things, 1. They are the ugliest boots ever. 2. I wouldn't never pay that much money for those boots. (Well, now that I'm a mom and not working I wouldn't pay that much money) But I always wondered, are they as warm as they look? Well, the knock offs are. If I could sleep in them I would, but they're pretty dirty now, so I won't. If you seem walking around in my boots, remember, I'm not trying to be hip and cool, yes I know they don't have the little UGG tag on the back and yes, my feet are warm and toasty. Oh, the negative to them - they have no traction what so ever. I guess that's what happens when you only pay $34.99.

We switched cable/internet service a couple of weeks back. The TV package included a dvr. Holy smokes. This little thing is my new best friend. I love this thing. I've been recording everything and anything I can think of and then deleting it cause I really don't want to watch it. I am keeping the yoga stuff though. After getting this I've realized I need to write USA Network a letter asking them to stop playing the same 20 episodes of House over and over. I guess they don't realize House is in it's 6th season, if there are 24 episodes in a season, then they have 120 episodes to pick from (I'm not inculding the current season which isn't finished with the year yet.)

I'm trying not to buy bottled water. SI suggested that I consider buying filters. So Scott and I were in Costco last week. We find the Brita water pitcher and I'm thinking this would be a good start. We take it home and follow the directions. I'm excited cause I know this is the answer to my problem. About 3 hours after refrigerating the water I drink a glass. Hmmm, not to bad, I guess. Well, by Sunday night I wasn't being nice. It was AWEFUL!!! We have some hard water where I live. Our water softner is set as high as it can go. Not because we like setting it that high but because if we don't we'll be replacing our shower heads, dish washer and washing machine every other year. Yes, it's that hard. So, I'm gonna have to find something a little more industrial if I want to go "green" and save our landfills.

Thankfully we had 1 more 2.5 gallon jug of "good" water left. I'm drinking that now. I'm thinking I'm gonna run the water thru the pitcher twice for a while. You know, fill the pitcher from the tap, pour the water out of the pitcher into another pitcher and then pour it back into the Brita. UGH! I'll let you know if it works.

French Onion Soup

I tried bowling on Saturday afternoon. I guess I more tried, I did. Scott came with and we met a group from the club. What a blast. There were probably about 20 of us. As the afternoon went on it became obvious why we are triathletes and not bowlers. :)

As usual Scott and I turned on the competitive switch. He beat me the first game but I came back and beat him the second :) Combined score I beat him by almost 20 pins. :) :) I couldn't let him beat me, I would never hear the end of it if he did.

My mom had the kids for the night so we went to dinner afterwards. The streets were snowy and icy but that didn't stop people from going out. All the restaurants were packed. After trying several we ended up at Houlihans. We sat at the bar, something we never do and talked. Scott tried this lemonade cherry vodka drink that was soooo good. I stuck with my Coca Cola. I had my one beer for the day. Dinner was good. I had a chill so I order French Onion Soup with my burger and mashed potatoes. I wanted some extra carbs for Sunday's run.

The soup was a mistake. That's all I'm gonna say. I won't go into detail. Almost didn't go to the run. Probably shouldn't have gone to the run. But I must say. It's the 1st time I've run 7 miles in a long, long time and I felt good. Even with the hills and the snow and the stomach issues. I felt really good out there. I even had the courage to check my splits on the Garmin when it was all done and I managed to kick out a couple 9:40 miles. I did have to break away from the group at about 5.5. My stomach was out of control. Like I said above, I won't go into detail but let's just say what I had to do is something I would NEVER even consider unless I had to do it. I'm just hoping I don't end up on U tube tomorrow.

No one has sent me anything so I think I'm safe. I'm never eating French Onion Soup again. UGH! Week 3 of training is starting now. Well, base training. I wrote last week official training starts today. Well, I don't which Ironman I thought I was doing cause official training for Louisville doesn't start until March 1st. :) I was never good at guessing. So, I will continue to ride the trainer 3 times a week, run 3 times a week and swim once a week. The swimming will increase. Slow and steady. Hmmm. I've heard that before. It'll all be good.

Friday, January 14, 1994

It was cold that day. Really, really cold. A lot like today.

What do I remember most about that day ....

Scott kissing me goodbye when he left for work, it wasn't like his usual kiss.

I was leaving for Disney world, my first marathon. It was difficult to go because I knew that when I came home my life wasn't going to be the same life I had.

Picking my mom, Patty, Keri and all the kids up and heading to the airport.

Jessica, in her little tiny high pitched 6 year old voice saying, "there's uncle Scott." and me laughing to myself because Scott was at work. 12 feet underground, preparing for a new parking garage to go up. I was wrong, there he was, standing there at the security check point, Carharts on, just standing there. The cold cancelled work. I choked up. I kissed him again, it still didn't feel the same. It's wasn't like it is now, he was able to walk me to the terminal. It was a quiet walk.

Me, Jessica and Timothy watching the plane crew defrost the wings of the plane. Wondering if I was going to get to Orlando. There was no way I could stay in Chicago, I had to get to Orlando. I was wondering if O'Hare had any luck with the planes.

Finally boarding the plane but not moving, while the crew defrosted the wings again. Was this safe? Were we ok doing this?

Getting in the air and knowing that yes, we were going to be ok. That I was going to be ok if I just took everything one step at a time. Just like the marathon.

Life will throw things at you, just to see if you are paying attention. Whether it be illness, financial crisis or the countless other things that can happen to a mundane ordinary life.

When I signed up for my first marathon I had no idea I would be leaving to complete my new journey, only to start an unexpected one when I returned home.

Being Green

So, like many I've made some new year resolutions. I'm not like some, in the sense that I will not hold them to a high standard and punish myself mentally if I don't adhere to them.

With that said, I'm attempting to workout regularly, to prepare for my training schedule that is suppose to start in just one week. We all know that if you workout, water is an important piece of the workout equipment that you need. How simple right? Water comes from a facet, right in your kitchen. Everyone has a kitchen.

Well, unless you want to completely turn yourself off to drinking water, you would know not to ever drink anything that comes out of the pipes at my house. ICK! is an understatement.

So, in the past I would stock up on bottled waters. By the case. Once the cases in my garage reached 8, I would panic and build it up to at least 12. At least. I would be teased by neighbors and friends. Why so much water? Cause I need it - duh (well that and a fear of the bird flu but that's another story and my insecurities would be showing even more :)) Well, last year I saw that commercial, I'm sure many of you have seen it, the one about the landfill and the plastic bottles. I made a decision not to buy the cases of water anymore. No problem buying the 2.5 gallon jugs and filling up the insulated bottles. Yeah, well it's been a little harder than I thought it would be. How could something so simple and a basic need to humans be so hard. Am I lazy. No, I don't think so, it's just grabbing the pre-filled bottles were so much easier.

I'm ready to break down and just buy the cases again. But I would like to think I don't give up that easily. So, I'm going to keep at it. Last week, it was good. For some reason yesterday was hard. Go figure. Filling a water bottle is harder than training for an Ironman - UGH! I'll get it eventually. I hope.

Trail Blazer

So the group met at the trails this morning. There were 5 of us. It was SNOWY! There was no sign of a trail, only snow.


Yikes, this was going to be tough. I told Caroline I was going to keep my pace, please go with the group and don't wait for me. I would get there eventually. Just a little after 7:30 we headed off.


I was only a few blocks from where we started and breathing heavy, this sucks I thought, we have gone all of 2 blocks and I'm tired already. SI and Gerry broke away, they made it look so easy. I was hoping they would kick the snow into some type of runnable trail but nope, we weren't that lucky.


I started singing a song that I learned in Brownies, in my head, not out loud. That would really freak out Dennis and Caroline. Yes, for some reason I still have that song in my head. Fortunately it was the mindless thought I needed and helped me fall into a trotting pattern. Unfortunately with a mindless song that 8 year olds sing, you want it out of your head almost as quickly as you put it in. So, I decided to pray. The Lords Prayer and Hail Mary. I would say each one about 10 times and then move to the next. It's amazing when your mind is taken away from the task at hand how quickly time passes. I was feeling good. The trail looked beautiful with all the snow. It was cold enough to have the branches frozen white. Nothing looked too disturbed. Holy smokes I was starting to enjoy this miserable run. My meditation run was interrupted by the occasional shout from Dennis - "Yo Pam". I couldn't see him but I could him :) I gave him a thumbs up one of the time. I found out after the run he tought I gave him the finger. Ok, nope, that's pretty funny when you think about it.


We got to the slides, SI and Gerry were there. We took a short break. SI says he's going slow. Caroline and I look at each other and crack up. Ok, if you're going slow what are we going? I announce I'm going 5.25 and no more. I'm feeling good but it's tough. I don't want to fall into the same mistakes I made last year. Doing more than I should because I'm feeling good in the moment.


When it was all done, we went 5.78 miles. I'm laughing right now because I usually won't settle for that. I have to round it up and go 6 but not today. Today I was happy to be done and couldn't wait to get out of my wet clothes.

Oh, I went to church after the run and guess what - come on guess.....

The church still has their Christmas stuff up! The tree, the nativity - all of it! I'm gonna tell my neighbor that if she asks me about my stuff this week. :)

One Day at a Time

It's Saturday. In the morning. I've almost made it thru the week. I took one day off of training. Wednesday.

I'm feeling good. Changed the diet. Eating healthy again. It's funny how the Ironman made me think I could do anything and EAT anything. :)

I have a neighbor. She's a nice lady. She's perfect. We all know people like this. Perfect hair, makeup, clothing always ironed. In the summer her lawn is manicured, bushes trimmed, windows washed. In the winter the snow is shoveled from her drive and sidewalk just after it's done falling.

I don't live like that. Sometimes I wish I did. Honestly though, it just doesn't feel natural to me. That's not a cop out excuse either, it just doesn't feel right. Ok, I'm getting off track, again.....

So me and the perfect neighbor are standing together on my snow covered driveway, waiting for the kids to come home on the bus. She turns to me and asks, "So you haven't taken down your Christmas decorations yet huh?" I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. I know it was a rather rude response but it was obvious I hadn't, they're still up - you can see them in the window. I gave her some lame excuse why I haven't. I think I'll keep em up for 2 more weeks just to see if she says something again :)

So today I will run home from soccer and do some yoga. Then we will go sledding. Tomorrow, the group is meeting at Swallow Cliff. It will either be a trail run, if the ice isn't bad or a street run. Thankfully we will have an option. I have to remember to keep my own pace. If I just remind myself of that it should be a great run.

It Was Good :)

Yesterday - the run went well. Good. Really good. Was able to just run at my pace as the others trotted in front of me.

The pace picked up towards the end thanks to Mr. Randich and I hung with him for about a 1/2 mile. 2 blocks from finishing I dropped back but it was all good. It's been a while since I felt so good during and after a run.

I'm thinking I might shame myself into writing on this blog everyday. An attempt to try and keep myself accountable (publicly)to my workout program. I'm still thinking about it.

Happy New Year!