Mellow as a Mushroom

Every day I sit down to catch up on blogs, and write my own, and something always gets in my way.  School has been out for over a week now, and I'm juggling several balls in the air.  But I must say, I'm not stressing, just going with the flow, and truly enjoying my summer.

I'm running the Boilermaker 15k next weekend.  Sure it's a hilly race, and there's a 98% chance that it will be hot and humid, but I know the course and how to prepare.  Last week we had a major heat wave, and I ran 6 miles one day, and five the other, trying to acclimate to the temps.  Luke had his last soccer game on Saturday, after it was over I ran home, it took exactly 9 miles, and I made sure to hit some long hills, and some steep hills.  My heel has been bugging me a bit, I've dealt with plantar fasciitis on and off throughout the years, but I've been stretching and icing, and swimming seems to help.  

I gave in and downloaded Instagram, which is highly entertaining.

This is one of the photos I took with it:

A roma tomato, sitting in a doll's chair.

Silly kids.

Wordless Wednesday: 6 miles during a heat advisory

I wonder how many miles I could swim?

Eliza has commandeered one of my iPods.  She walks around holding onto the headphones that are too big for her little ears singing "Oh ohhhhhh oh oh, Oh ohhhh oh oh.....can't touch this!"  It seems MC Hammer is on a continuous loop.

It is a good running tune though.

The days of it just being me and Eliza home in the mornings are slowly dwindling, with only five days of school left.  When she's in first grade in the fall, both kids will be gone all day, and the baby/toddler days will officially be over.  But the good thing is that I get to be my "full time job" self again.

I'm taking advantage of my afternoons while I still have them, mainly, by running and going to the pool.  The pool opens at two, and I pretty much have the lap lane to myself.  It really feels good to shake all the winter stiffness out of my body, and I haven't lost any swim fitness.  I don't think I've ever swam a mile in one shot, the longest has been 800 meters, so I told Mike I want to swim a mile this weekend.  Then I want to work up to two miles in July.  It's nice to have swim goals, as well as running goals.

Speaking of swimming, hot on the heels of racing in the Columbia Triathlon, my Dad took on the Great Chesapeake Bay 4.4 Mile Swim, with a time of 2:19:28.  He's 67, and beat his time from over 20 years ago.

Maybe he should start a blog.

Thursday Three

1. Yesterday the engine blew on my Jeep.

Eliza and I were barely a mile from our house, on a busy road, when all of a sudden it seized up, and we came to a complete stop. Cars kept whizzing by around us, luckily two people stopped to help push me into a nearby driveway so I could wait for the tow truck.  My Jeep is 12 years old, and I love it.  It was the first car I bought that I negotiated the price for on my own, and when I worked at the newspaper, I drove it all over the 5 boroughs of NYC. When Luke and Eliza were born, we brought them home from the hospital in my Jeep. We've taken it on countless road trips. Right now it's at a garage, they're looking for a used motor for it, but I think this might be it's last hurrah.

Bummer.


2. I'm in the middle of a great training cycle.  The past few months I've been in a real mental funk, but it's pretty much gone now, and I'm feeling like myself again.  Which means my motivation is back full force, and it's a great feeling.  I joined the Another Mother Runner Challenge for the month of June, you need to do something active at least five days a week, and take one rest day.   I'm finding it easy to do, which makes me happy.



3. I've mentioned it before, but Frank the dog is a great running partner.  As soon as he sees me grab my running shoes, he starts to lose it with excitement.  But now he's doing it when I grab my ipod. It's funny when we really are going for a run, but not when I'm just plugging it into my laptop to download some tunes.  I have to push him off me, and throw him a bone.

He also likes to swim.

Silly doggie.

Paige's Butterfly Run 5k....and a wet basement

Oh Home ownership.

A couple of years ago, Mike and I spent a weekend in Lake Placid to celebrate our anniversary. We came home to a flooded basement, because of a broken hot water tank. My first thought wasn't of the wet floor, it was of my treadmill! Fortunately it made it through intact. 

Fast forward to last fall, and the furnace broke. But that didn't cause water damage, just damage to our wallet.

Fast forward to last Tuesday, when we returned from several days in the Adirondack's to find.........a flooded basement. Our sump pump broke during a heavy rainstorm, and there were several inches of water in that room.  

But the treadmill is okay. 

Our weekend was a busy one, with Eliza's dance recital, a birthday BBQ, a visit to Taste of Syracuse, and a 5k! This was my first time running Paige's Butterfly, a race that raises funds for pediatric cancer research.  I like longer distance races, but I was happy to run this one, with my friend Alissa:

Last year Alissa told me she was going to run Paige's, I couldn't run it with her because of my foot, but she planned on doing the 1.5k distance.  I told her she could totally do the 5k, so she did!  She's gone on to run a few more 5k's, and she signed up for my favorite race, the Boilermaker 15k, so we'll get to run again together, in just 5 short weeks.  

The course was a loop along the streets of downtown Syracuse, I lost time two different times, the first was about a quarter mile in, and I had to stop because my shoelace came untied (what am I, an amateur??).  Then there was a stretch along the canal, where we ran on a path that could only fit three across.  We got stuck behind some slower runners, and had to wait for a spot to open up so we could pass.  All in all it was a good run, and we crossed the finish line together with a time of 28:49.

Tomorrow is National Running Day!!  

How far are you going to run to celebrate???