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!

Running is more fun with friends!

Sometimes running is just more fun with friends!








It might just be a chick thing but I really like running with friends more than solo training runs. I have different friends to run with based on what my training plan calls for.
Hill repeats=Ed.
Long runs at a steady quick pace=Laura
Recovery fun runs=Diana and Jami
Hard tempo runs=Stephanie
Push myself on a track workout=Dave
Fartleck run=Christina (also my coach, she can somehow make me run a 7 minute mile. I don't run 7 minute miles.)
A soothing pep talk run and quality time run=Aric (my hubby)


Training for and staying on track for the Vancouver Marathon=RunOregon peeps and my Get Fit Live Fit peeps (also co-sponsors for the Vancouver Marathon and have excellent training programs: I'm biased because I started running with them 2 1/2 years ago when I first started running) I have even talked a few of the Get Fit Live Fit Pacers into running the Vancouver Marathon with me. We call this blackmail. ;)

So if you don't have your own Dave, Stephanie, Laura, or Jami. Come down to the next What? free run or sign up with Get Fit Live Fit or Foot Traffic University to get your own personal support group.

More stats and info about the What? runs and Vancouver Marathon:

The next free What? run in on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at The Rock Wood Fired Pizza in Vancouver.



The run starts at 6pm, however, get there early because the first 10 people get a free "I'm Training for the Vancouver Marathon shirt. I never seem to get there before you guys (may have something to do with four kids under 6 years old or something?) to get my shirt.







If you haven't been to one of these free fun runs you are missing out. They always have lots of free give aways. Cool prizes like race entries.







Oh and I just found out that Bart Yasso will be attending the Vancouver Marathon Expo and will be announcing the race. This is no small marathon production. They will have Alberto Salazar, Lynn Jennings, and Bart Yasso speaking the day before the marathon. Laugh and run on, my friends!

This is what I want for Christmas...

1. A fully healed IT Band so I can run farther than 4 miles.

2. To have a family run once a week with all kids.
3. A bag from BellaLise. This kind especially:

4. An aporn from BellaLise.

So go to http://bellalise.weebly.com/index.html and get me one. I guess you could get one for you, too.

Running is fun!

That's right I said running is fun. Oh and it makes me happy, too. I've been back running for two weeks now. My husband say's I'm so much nicer and the kids are happy to be running, too. Today while the hubby ran his 5 miles, I took the kids on a walk/run. Alexis, Avery, and Alexander ran 1 mile. Ayden ran at least 1.25 miles if not more. He would run ahead and then run back, run ahead and then run back. When we turned around at the 1/2 mile mark he said he was not done. He declared he wanted more miles. The other kids clamored that they wanted at least 3 miles. I smiled and had to break their little hearts with a, sorry we only have time for 1 mile. Whoever thought I would have to argue with my kids that they can only run a mile today? When we arrived back at the car, Ayden demanded that he needed more miles. I relented with you can do hill repeats on that .10 hill while we wait for dad. That kids never stopped. Then when dad came back he ran another one just to show dad how fast he was. Cute.

(If you look in the distance you will see my oldest three way ahead of the baby)

I'm spoiled. My mom plays with the kids while I run or get my workouts in. My husband and I have arranged our whole schedule so I can pace lead in Portland on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings. Vancouver on Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings. How spoiled am I? So when asked what I want for Christmas all I can say is... to run with my family. That's all I need and want. I'm very blessed. My kids beg me to have one more minute reading. Or they beg me to go workout with me. Or they beg hubby and I to run with us. Yep I have a rough life. NOT!

Crappy month!

This month has been hard. My Uncle Bill passed away. That has been hard to come to terms with. On top of that Saturday at 1am our dear friend Ken passed away. Aric just had band practice with him on Friday night. Training has been few this month. Because of my IT band, the girls school (I help out Monday's and Friday's on top of Teaching Art Adventure for two classes), kids getting sick, me getting sick, my uncle passing, and now our friend. I am more motivated to workout, to stay healthy for my husband and kids. Now to get healthy so I can workout. ")

This is what my husband wrote about our friend passing away. I think it's well put. He had a hard time writing it and was crying while writing. My hubby has a big heart.

Ken Giere was a fantastic musician. I met him in February of this year, when I replied to a Craigslist posting for a bass player. I was looking for a new band, and they were looking for a new bass player. I called the number listed in the ad, and the voice at the other end was friendly, honest, and knowledgeable. Ken and I spoke for the better part of an hour that first day, and I was really excited about the prospect of auditioning his band.




It was several weeks before an audition time was available, and I drove to the location with the map he sent me. It was thorough and accurate, by the way, which was a good thing because the house was well out of town in the hills. I grabbed my gear and headed into the practice room to find a big, affable fellow parked behind the keyboard. That’s probably how I’ll always remember him. He always sat in the same spot, the same way, every rehearsal. Like a tired St. Bernard on his favorite warm rug, he looked very comfortable there. That’s where he wanted to be. He belonged there.



When we began playing, I was hooked by his style and his taste. He and I spent the better part of that evening, and so many evenings since, testing each other’s musical chops. He would play the intro to a song, looking slyly at me with his eyebrow raised. Without a hitch, I’d sing the first line of “I’ve seen that Movie, Too.” A smile would spread across his face and we’d jam through most of the song, exuberant that someone else shared our obscure musical predilections.

It wasn’t just music. There was a real kinship in the band, and with our families and friends. He was loved for who he was, his personality, his wise-cracks, his kindness. And his cooking! That man could whip up a mean Mexican food feast. I’ve never been in a band that had such a family feel, and so much of that was his presence.



And so it was for the rest of our time together in Hot Audio. Every rehearsal, he’d say “what about…” and the next several minutes would be a trip through musical nostalgia where we’d get to impress each other. It made him happy. It made me happy. In fact, just this past Friday night, that’s how things went. It was a happy evening, and I waved goodbye to Ken Giere for the last time.



Sometime that night, around 1:00AM I’m told, Ken suffered a massive heart attack in his sleep and died. That great smile, that whip-smart sense of humor, all that kindness and talent; all of it ended there that night. At least, in the corporeal sense it ended. The memory of those things is so fresh in so many of his friends and his family, in me, that I can’t really say it will ever truly end. Nor will the loss that we feel ever truly end.



Goodbye, Ken. Making music without you will be bitter in your absence, but sweet in your memory.

Aric's Grandma who left us to be in heaven this year.

 

My Uncle Bill.



Sleeping is hard to do... but not eating

Aric is gone this weekend in Tulsa, teaching. Which means I don't cook (read we eat like crap) and I don't sleep (less than usual)
Tonight to keep myself awake I went on a reading rampage. What made me say, 'what the ??' is when people write about how to eat healthy for inexpensive. Really? Can you feed six very active people for less than $1000 a month? Not with the crazy recipes I see them display for 'cheap' healthy foods. Salmon and asparagus. For six would cost me a weeks worth of dinners. I on the other hand make things like:

Black eye peas and rice with turkey bacon. Green peas for veggies.
Bag of black eye peas $1.19
Rice $1.54 (for whole bag we use about .42 worth)
Turkey bacon $1.89
Onion $.35
Peas $.50

A dinner and two lunches worth for $4.35

Now that's a low fat, high fiber, healthy inexpensive meal!

(I love to eat salads and throw whatever is in the fridge into it)

Homemade cheesy broccoli soup

Extra Sharp cheddar $2.99
Ramono cheese $.50
Onion $.45
Veggie stock $1.25
Broccoli $2.69
Butter $.35
Flour $.02

Price $8.25. Whole broccoli used. Healthy inexpensive meal! Again one dinner and two lunches. It makes a large amount, but the kids eat so much of it I have to make such a big batch.

I have so many recipes that I like to make to keep the prices down. They might not be fancy but they taste good and are good for you. I feed my whole family for about $800 a month. We do not eat out but maybe a lunch a month. It's usually a treat like taco bell, junkie and a cheap treat. Every once in a blue moon we eat at Izzy's, because the kids like it for some reason.


So what do you cook? What's your favorite meal?

Last night's fun

21 -60lb lat pulls
21-push ups
21-8lbs flies
21-15lb upright rows each arm
21-Thurster squats with 15lbs each hand
15 -70lb lat pulls
15-push ups
15-8lbs flies
15-20lb upright rows each arm
15-Thurster squats with 20lbs each hand\
9 -80lb lat pulls
9-push ups
9-8lbs flies
9-25lb upright rows each arm
9-Thurster squats with 25lbs each hand
9 -80lb lat pulls
9-push ups
9-8lbs flies
9-25lb upright rows each arm
9-Thurster squats with 25lbs each hand\
15 -70lb lat pulls
15-push ups
15-8lbs flies
15-20lb upright rows each arm
15-Thurster squats with 20lbs each hand\
21 -60lb lat pulls
21-push ups
21-8lbs flies
21-15lb upright rows each arm
21-Thurster squats with 15lbs each hand

Then we did plank for 1 min followed by 1 min of sit-ups (25 for me)
then plank 1 min and 1 min sit-ups (20 for me)
then plank 1 min and 1 min sit-ups (20 for me)
then plank 1 min and 1 min sit-ups (19 for me)
then plank 1 min and 1 min sit-ups (20 for me)