I'm in full training mode. How about you?

I am in full training mode for the Vancouver Marathon. I'm also getting started on my training for an Ironman, crazy I know. I'm not sure I'm in my right mind to think that I can train for a Marathon let alone an Ironman with four small kids. Really do I have time to train? Here is what my last week looked like:

Monday-Rest day, also called clean the house because you let a lot slide during the week. Laundry is an all day event and I do at least one load a day during the rest of the week. Two parents who run and one who is obsessed with working out = a lot of laundry.

Tuesday- Get up at 5:00am drive to pool. Swim at 5:30 with my friend Brian (he's the one to blame for the Ironman idea) Get out of pool at 6:00am rush home to shower before hubby leaves for work at 6:18am. Tuesday Night pace lead Vancouver group in cold wet dark while the family is home eating a hot dinner I made for them. Typically I get 2-4 miles pacing. I do try to throw a few in for me at the end if I can.

My friend Brian who is to blame and thank for the Ironman support.

Wednesday-Pool again 5:30-6:00am. At night pace lead for Portland group with hubby (my mom is kind enough to come watch play with kids while we do this together) This means he arrives home at 4:50 we jump into his car and I drive while he eats dinner. Meet our coach and good friend to car pool to Duniway track. Get at least a mile warm up (if we don't hit traffic) and then pace lead and get another 2-4 miles of running in.

Thursday-Yep, pool again 5:30-6:00am. Thursday evening when all kids are in bed I jump on bike trainer for 30 mins (right now only 30 in Feb I will bump it up to one hour) while hubby does his school assignments.

Friday- Pool from 5:30-6:30am (hubby has Friday's off) Work in school for an hour. Rush home so hubby can run while I get boys ready to go to Ayden's speech class (it's working so well ) Then go get girls from school and if I'm luck a run or bike ride on trainer.

Saturday-Up at 5:30am (sometimes I get to sleep this late) Take kids to my mom's so hubby and I can pace lead in Portland. Right now I get 6 miles in.

Sunday-The relaxed slow day. I don't have to leave the house until 7:30am to pace lead in Vancouver. Another 4-6 miles right now. When weather is a little nicer I will bike to pace lead and back, hence killing two birds with one stone. Today I didn't get to pace lead because my mom has been very sick. So I pace lead yesterday and Aric did today. I did a solo run of 7 miles and feel really out of shape. It sucked. Didn't help that it was all hills, so at least I know I put some good hard miles in the bank. Aric was kind enough to make dinner so I could ride my trainer for 30mins tonight. What a good man!

My IT Band seems to be holding up just fine. I still take the butter knife to it and stretch it like crazy. I don't want to go back to no running. I want to add so much more to my training but I know I tend to do 'too' much. I would love to do CrossFit 4 times a week or even get back to House of Pain again. However, HofP is in evenings I can't take another night away from Aric. He is going to school full time while working full time. He only has limited time to do homework. So in 1 1/2 years I can be greedy again on evening workouts. Until then I make do with what I have and I'm happy with what I do have. Laugh and run on, my friends!