Race report and Weekly Training Log

Well I don't know if you could actually call it racing at the speed we were going, but we had a good run.  Liam and I met my friend Traci at the St. Peter Halloween 5K Fun Run Saturday.  I was worried about it being too cold for Liam but it ended up being in the upper 40's to lower 50's by race time and I had him bundled up pretty good.  I had made him this hat and mitties the night before.  He only wore the hat, my mitties still need perfecting.  

We started the race way too far in the back.  It's so hard to tell if people are runners or walkers.  Also, you never know if they are starting too far forward or back!  We dodged through the walkers for about the first 5 minutes and then hit a nice mid-ten-minute pace.  Pretty good for me with the stroller.  And then we came to the hills. I did not, however, feel any guilt about the slow pace up the hills as there were 3 other ladies with strollers running up every hill right next to me.  I looked down at the Garmin at one point to find that we were "running" at 13:34 pace.  Okay, so technically that pace may not be called running.  But uphill with a stroller, it sure felt like it!  We went up a couple big hills toward campus (Gustavus Adolphus) and turned back in the direction of the finish.  We were sure it had to be all downhill from there!  What?!? We turn the corner and there's another hill?  and another?  and another?  (Okay, so a couple of these were just small rises but when you're tired, pushing a stroller, AND you thought you were all done with hills, if it looks like a hill and feels like a hill, then it IS a hill!)  Finally with about 3 blocks to go, we hit the downhill.  Boy, that felt good on my tired legs!  And although I didn't have enough energy to take on anyone trying to outsprint us at the finish, we finished steady and I'm proud to say we ran the whole way.  Oh, and we beat a girl from high school that we never really liked much.  Sixteen years later you would think that wouldn't matter much.  It does.  Girls are petty.  I know this to be true because, to my dismay, sometimes I can be very petty.
Liam managed to stay awake for about half the race.  He was very good and just took it all in until the point where he fell asleep.  Traci said he was just looking around and watching the people that passed us and the people we passed.  He's a good little running partner!

(Okay, this is sideways, it keeps flipping it when I add it to the page!  Sorry, but you'll just have to turn your head.)

Weekly Training Log:
Monday:  Off
Tuesday:Ran 3 miles on treadmill, easy 30:00
Wednesday:  Ran hill repeats on the treadmill.  4x 0.25miles at 4% incline with 0.25 mile rest at 0% incline.  Warmup and cooldown.  Total= 3 miles
Thursday:  Was supposed to be yoga, but Liam was too fussy to drop off with mom, so rest day it is.
Friday:  2 miles easy on treadmill to stretch out legs for tomorrow.
Saturday:  5K Fun Run in St. Peter.  Time was 35:08.
Sunday:  Was supposed to be long run, but I'm wiped and I think I'm getting an inner ear infection.  I've been dizzy the last day-and-a-half.  Skipped run.  Started taking antihistamine for ear, hope to feel better and get back on track tomorrow. 
Weekly mileage: 11.1 miles
Monthly mileage: 49.3 miles

Ready To Race

I should be packing for the race tomorrow instead of messing around on the computer.  Liam and I are going to St. Peter for the Halloween 5K Fun Run.  It's promising to be quite cold in the morning.  Hopefully it will warm up a little before the race starts.  Poor Liam is going to be all bundled up like a little Eskimo!  I did make him a new fleece hat and mitts for the occasion.  I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow to post. 
The Garmin Forerunner 205 arrived this morning!  I'm all set to use that tomorrow for the first time.  I'm excited to see just how it works.  Also, I've joined a new social media site for athletes, Strands.  It allows for training tracking in great detail (think heart rate, weight before and after a workout) and is compatible with my new toy, the Garmin.  I don't know how social I will be, but the tracking aspects of the site seem to be something that will work well for me. 
Other new stuff that arrived this week:  a Mountain Hardwear running top (purchased with Moosejaw points), Strength Training For Triathletes, Triathlon Swimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Anyone to Master Open Water Swimming, a Nike Shortini (I'm not sure I'm comfortable in a regular swimsuit with my current post-baby body shape), and TYR Technoflex 4.0 goggles.    Time to stop spending money for a while! 

I'm gettin' a Garmin!

I tried SOOOO hard all morning to not purchase said Garmin.  Amazon.com had the Garmin Forerunner 205 on sale for $99.  A heck of a deal, and I'm a sucker for a good deal.  By 1PM I had myself convinced that "Santa" will bring me $100 like he has every year for the past 20-some years and that this would be my Santa present.  So I bought it.  And then I got free 2-day shipping! It should be here on Friday, I'm so excited!  Sure hope "Santa" brings me that $100!

This morning I was worried that I wouldn't be able to run.  I was getting down on the floor to play with Liam and something in my left SI joint popped.  It's been painful on and off all day when I've shifted my weight wrong and especially going down stairs. It's the same side that bothered me when I was pregnant so I wasn't surprised, I guess.  My sister (a PT) says that since I'm still breastfeeding, I'm still hypermobile and that I should get a massage, having them concentrate on the gluteus med.  Oh shucks, a massage!  Ultimately, I had no pain while running tonight.  I'll be crossing my fingers that it doesn't decide to cause a problem. 

Resisting Couch-potato-ness

The only run you regret is the one you didn't do.  I heard a saying similar to that on a podcast today.  I had to keep repeating it to get myself off the couch and to the treadmill tonight.  The wind is blowing so hard outside that it makes me just want to curl up with a blanket and a cup of tea.  And now that I'm done with my run, I think I will!

Monday Stuff

Not much happened during my posting hiatus.  Just basic training and day-to-day stuff.  We were gone for a wedding this weekend.  I did my best to work my training around it, but ended up just not having a good run Sunday night.  I hadn't felt good for much of the day (dizzy) so I wasn't too surprised.  Hopefully getting my eating and my schedule back on track will help.  I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to run the route that I had mapped out in White Bear.  Oh well, there's always next time. 

I called the Y about swim lessons on Friday.  They were going to have the swim coach call me as she is usually the one who helps people with technique.  I'm anxiously awaiting her call!  I'm trying to figure out how to schedule the greenhouse hours for the next 6 weeks around my swim schedule.  I may have to go really early one morning out of the week.  Or only  go twice a week.  We'll see. 

We have decided to close the greenhouse the week after Thanksgiving.  I just can't feasibly go through a holiday season by myself with no daytime help.  Hannah is good help, but she doesn't get here until 3:30.  We've also decided to close at 5PM instead of 6PM starting today.  It makes me sad to see it close after all our hard work but I'm trying to be very practical about it. 

Looking forward to a good week!

Belated Weekly Training Log

I was supposed to do this yesterday.  Oops!  Here's the summary of last week's training:
Monday: Rest
Tuesday:  Ran 3.1 miles on treadmill, 30:15
Wednesday: Brick: Bike 40 min on trainer, Ran 2 miles on treadmill
Thursday:  Yoga
Friday: Ran 3miles on treadmill, easy
Saturday:  Bike 30 minutes on trainer (was supposed to be 40, but we were running late for a wedding)
Sunday:  Ran 2 miles on treadmill.  Was supposed to be 6 miles, but I started out not feeling that good and stsill didn't feel good by the 2 mile mark so I stopped. 
Weekly Totals: Run 10.1 miles, Bike 70 minutes
Monthly Totals:  Run 38.2 miles, Bike 90 minutes  Yearly totals are the same as I didn't start keeping track until October. 

More Motivation

The swim goggles and cap showed up today.  Now I have one less reason to avoid going to the pool.  I may as well give in and go, I can't exactly do a triathlon without swimming!  I hate going place that I'm not familiar with and, even more, I hate people seeing that I don't know what I'm doing.  I'm just going to have to put on my big girl panties and go.  Can't go tomorrow morning, I have floral arrangements to do.  Maybe Thursday.  The problem is I no longer have part-time help during the day at the greenhouse.  I may have to close down the shop for a morning "appointment" so I can go get a membership set up, tour the place and inquire about swim coaches. I wish I could go tomorrow and just get it over with.  We'll see how early Liam gets up.  If we can leave by 8AM, we could be back by 10AM for Dave to take him for the morning.  Hmmm.......

Weekly Training Log

I've decided that Sunday's post should be a recap of my training for the week.  It helps keep me accountable. 

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Ran 3 miles on treadmill: tempo run, tempo mile was 9:18
Wednesday: Ran 3 miles on treadmill, easy day
Thursday:  Ran 3 miles outside with stroller.  Very windy!!!  Second half against the wind was very slow!
Friday: Rest
Saturday:  Put bike on trainer.  20 minute easy ride
Sunday:  Long run, 6 miles.  They were slow but I did all 6 without walking!

Of course since I ran long today, I get to eat a few more calories.  Supper was delicious; spinach salad with homemade dijon vinaigrette, Outrageous Garlic Soup (a new recipe), and gruyere toasts.  Add a glass of Reisling and I had the perfect supper.

I have had some conflicting thoughts on whether or not to track my weight loss in this blog.  I have decided that there will be no disclosure of weight but I will document my progress.  Weight will be tracked as W minus X (like a time countdown, you know, i.e. T minus 10).  My weight after losing the pregnancy weight (sometime in August) was W minus 42.  This morning's weigh in put me at W minus 36.  My weight loss progress will be logged with my weekly training log. 

Looking forward to another great week of training, eating, and hanging out with my boys!

Biking In The Basement

I finally gave up and put my bike on the trainer.  There's no way I'm going to get outside with it more than a couple times yet this year.  It's just so BORING to ride my bike in the basement!  Maybe I need to repaint down there and hang up some motivational something.  I also think I need to tape (yes, tape, we don't have a DVR) some triathlons, bike races, adventure races, etc to watch while I'm down there. 

I am encouraged by my first ride.  It's been over a year since I was on the bike.  I read on one of the triathlon websites (can't remember which) that bike cadence during the race should be 90-95 rpm.  I thought I was never going to get anywhere near that.  Turns out that's about what I do on an easy ride.  So basically I just have to work on keeping that cadence in the harder rides, up hills, etc... 

I was going to do my long run today.   The weather looked beautiful but unfortunately it was really windy (25-35mph).  I didn't want to buck that with the stroller or subject Liam to it.  The wind is only supposed to be 5-10mph tomorrow so I held off.  I'm scheduled to run 5 but I'm aching to run 6.  We'll see what I feel like tomorrow.  Now I must tend to the dishes, diapers and getting a good night's sleep!

It's Friday!

Hooray for Friday!  I've decided that the greenhouse will now be closed on Saturdays.  I've lost some of my weekday help which makes my week less flexible.  By Friday I'm pretty much shot.  I also don't have that many customers on Saturdays.  Might as well take the time off to spend with family, exercising, and cleaning the house.  Maybe I'll even be able to find time to work on the thank-you notes for all the stuff we got after Liam was born!

The breakfast cookies were yummy!  I will definitely be making those again.   Although next time I may follow the recipe.  I used butter instead of margarine and used a half cup of canola oil in place of a half cup of applesauce (I ran out of applesauce).  They were definitely tasty but a little calorie heavy with the extra oil.  I am usually a butter girl, but the margarine would eliminate all the saturated fat and cholesterol so I'll try them that way next time and see how they taste.   I can't wait to play with different fruit and nut combinations!

Happy Friday!

Run + Stroller + Wind =

Success!

I was sure I was going to be writing about my running failure tonight as I ran out with the wind.  It was only a three-mile run but that first mile-and-a-half felt way too easy and the wind was still whipping by.  I turned around to return home with a sense of impending doom.  Surprisingly, the next half-mile wasn't so bad!  It was the half-mile after that that just about brought me to a standstill.  And when I say standstill, I'm only exaggerating a little bit.  I ran with both hands on the stroller (I normally only run with one), leaned into it and pushed as hard as I could, all the while trying to maintain a pace that could be considered running.  Thank goodness it was only half a mile!  I managed to run the entire three miles, pausing only briefly to put on my brightly colored windbreaker as the sun started to sink below the horizon.  Hooray for me!  That's three runs this week.  I'm on track to make my goal of four runs with days to spare.


I tried a new breakfast cookie recipe tonight (with a couple modifications).  I'll let you know how they taste tomorrow.  I'm done eating for the day.

I'm also done being awake for the day.  Off to bed for me...

We Have A Plan!

Talked to my sister last night.  She is game for all the crazy ideas on the bucket list as well.  First goal?  Ironman!  This will be a two-year training commitment.  We are looking at doing a half-ironman distance tri next summer and I think we're aiming for Coeur d'Alene in 2012.  Of course Kona would be the ideal but with three of us trying to get into the same race (her friend Caroline has also joined the craziness), we're being realistic and thinking Idaho is the place to go.  Even then, we're all going to have to camp out by our computers when registration opens.  Registration for most Ironman events closes within hours. 

I had a great treadmill run last night while Liam was napping.  After a slow warm-up mile I felt pretty good and decided to do a tempo run to push my pace a little.  My tempo mile was 9:18!  I know this seems slow, but I haven't been able to run that fast since I was 25 pounds lighter than I am now.  If I can shed some of this weight in the course of my training, I should be able to increase my pace even more.  This is a small victory, but very encouraging to me, nonetheless.  (Especially considering I just started running regularly last week.)

My biggest battle is going to be swimming.  There are three pools within 30 miles all with varying levels of coaching (from none to a master's swim club) and varying times for lap swim.  Once I'm done at the greenhouse I'll be able to swim in Worthington in the late morning.  This would work the best for me since I'm not a morning person and the best for Dave because he will probably be awake by then to take care of Liam.  The two closer pools only have lap swim in the wee hours of the morning but are significantly closer and cheaper.  I'm going to try to go to Mountain Lake twice next week and see how that works out for all of us.  This means I have to wake up at 5:30.  Wish me luck!

The Bucket List

This is not a "before I kick the bucket" list.  This is a "what do I want to fill my bucket with" list.  These are some of the drops I would like in my bucket.  Let me preface it by saying I was watching a triathlon on Universal Sports at the time I wrote this.  I get overly ambitious while watching triathlons. 

The Bucket List
Alaska
Summit Mt. Rainier
Windom Peak
Yukon River Quest
50-miler
100-miler
Badwater
Through-hike the Superior Trail
Rim-to-rim-to-rim of the Grand Canyon
Ironman
More backpacking in Glacier

Now some of these are obviously way beyond my abilities right now.  OK, most of them.  A girl can dream, can't she?  Isn't that what a bucket list is for?   Sure, there are many other things I would like to do.  This short list are the ones that have been in the back of my mind for years.  The ones that when brought up I say to myself, "Boy, wouldn't that be awesome." 

Here's to filling all our buckets with something awesome!

My very first blog post

It occurred to me the other day that blogging may be a good way to keep myself accountable to all the crazy ideas I keep coming up with.  If I write them down and someone reads them then I have to follow through, right?  Not that anyone will over read my blog.  I may not even tell anyone about it for a while.  It's scary to think that I may suddenly have to follow through with all my crazy plans! 

About the name:  Coming up with a name for a blog isn't as easy as one may think.  You want it to sound catchy, smart (but not too smart), and want it to reflect on you personally so that when people see it, they think, "Oh, yeah, I can see why she picked that."   And trying to focus on just one area of my life?  No way could I narrow this down to just a cooking blog or just a mommy blog or just a fitness (or lack thereof) blog.  Therefore we have "Another Drop In The Bucket".  All the pieces and experiences of my life coming together in one bucket. 

My next dilemma:  How do I structure my posts?  Do I post as something "important" happens? as whimsy strikes? once a day?  This is yet to be determined and may vary from day-to-day. 

Anyone reading this:  Welcome!  I hope you enjoy reading my blog.  If you don't, stop reading, silly.  Yes, it's that simple.  I have no expectations for readers, followers, or groupies.  This blog is mostly for me to have a place to sort out and document my hare-brained ideas.  If you enjoy it, please let me know.  If not, please sit quietly and don't ever tell me.

Thanks for taking the time to get this far!