K'NEX

The boys all love K'nex. For that matter, I do too. They just the right mix of fun and challenging, and their ability to keep my children entertained doing something I don't feel guilty about letting them do for hours on end make this new-aged tinker-toy high on my list of excellent playthings.
We've built some pretty cool things from several-paged instruction books in the past (Ferris wheels, roller coaster, etc..), but lately Eli has made up some pretty cool creations himself. Here are some pics of Eli and Brandt's creations today. Brandt kept putting whatever he made right in front of his face when I tried to photograph him, so this nostril shot was the only one that actually showed his face, even though the k'nex creation isn't really showcased.
The picture of Asher is from this morning before church. We actually combed down his usually-wispy hair with some of my anti-frizz stuff, so he was looking nice and slick (and cute).

running sick--not the best idea

This morning I was awakened at about 6 by my throbbing head. I rolled over and could feel pressure build right over my eyes. I got up and took Sudafed (children's since we were out of adult), and a Zyrtec. I knew I needed to relieve some of my sinus pressure if I wanted to do anything. I went back to bed, but once the Sudafed kicked in, I gave up on sleeping any more and got up. I debated running, but decided it would either make me feel better, or I would feel bad from the get-go and just skip working out today. I went over to the Trak Shak and ran about 24 minutes, then met up with the running group and ran another 43. I actually felt better and better as the run went. I think all the coughing, spitting, and farmer-blowing I did was key (gross, but true...).
Then I went over to the track for the team's workout. A baseball parade was going on right next to the track, so we had several kids arrive late due to traffic. We ended up with 7 kids (including Brandt who didn't last long with the team).
After our warm-up , stretching, and dynamic moves, I had them do 6 minutes of interval training. They ran for 45 sec.- 1minute at a time, and their walking intervals were typically about 30 seconds. They did pretty well. Most of them made it around the track almost twice.
Then we practiced running in our lanes. Just a couple of them needed to work on this, but it didn't hurt the others. They did a 100 on the straightaway, a 100 on the curve, and a 200 to finish out the lap. I let them rest a good bit in between these. For the last 100, and 200, we played Foxes and Hounds. I assigned each hound their own fox in their lane to catch.
Then we went over to the throwing cage and they each practiced their shot-put twice. They all seem to be improving with that. Through everything, my voice was barely there. I felt like it was harder to keep the kids attention since it hurt so bad to speak loudly. But we got through it all eventually.
Adding it up, I think they went about a mile at practice today. Since most of them run or sprint, rather than jog, when they're not walking, that makes for a pretty good workout.

Eric took some pics today at practice. Some of the mid-air shot-putting ones turned out pretty well. We are still using a weighted softball for practicing. I haven't talked myself into investing $17 in an actual shot put, yet.

I've felt like a truck ran over me since I got home. My legs feel like I ran 3 hrs instead of 1. I think my body is fighting off a bad cold or sinus infection. I napped for about 3 hours after lunch. Hopefully I'll feel better in the morning.

yesterday and today...

Well, I found out the kids will be running the 800 at their first meet (April 12), so we've had to up the ante on the running portion of practice. They've been doing a lot of 50 and 100 meter sprints, but not too much longer at one time. Yesterday after our warmup and stretching, I told them we were setting a goal to be able to run for 6 minutes without stopping. Some of them can probably already do it--in fact, they ALL probably can, but they haven't developed the attention span for it yet. It's like me on the treadmill; I can run an hour outside without any entertainment except the scenery, but put me on a treadmill and I require a fast-paced, engaging show like "24" to watch just to get through 40 minutes. They easily run close to a mile at some practices, but it's broken up into segments so they don't realize it. So we started our 6 minutes as an interval workout. They ran for 1 minute, walked for 30 seconds--repeating this pattern for 6 minutes. They all did amazingly well. My two 6 year olds got bored with the length of the 1 minute intervals, so I had to push them along a bit.
After they finished, walked a bit and got water, I let them do a couple of relays--mostly because they were asking to, and I didn't want to discourage a good thing.
Then I asked them if they'd rather end by lining up and racing the length of the field or by playing foxes and hounds. "FOXES AND HOUNDS!!" All the younger ones immediately yelled. Lia, 11, the oldest one out there, was bent over catching her breath. She stood up looking slightly horrified and said, "What were our choices??!" She had really run hard for everything we had done so far, and was the only one old enough to value the easier choice over the funner one. I smiled and told her sorry, but she was already out-voted.
We did about 4 rounds of Foxes and Hounds and they all ran hard to the end.

Yesterday I biked on the stationary for 70 minutes. I went 23 miles. I did some pull-ups out on the playground with Brandt. I can only do one at a time--pull-ups have never been my forte'. Today I ran 43 minutes. My legs were feeling tired so I took it pretty easy. My left hip was feeling a little off when I got back, so I took some ibuprofen.

hounds and foxes

Today was a cool spring day. In the sun, I felt like wearing short-sleeves, but when the clouds overtook and the wind blew, I wanted a parka.
I postponed my workout till the afternoon and pushed Asher and Brandt in double jogger through the sports complex and back to meet Eli getting off the bus. Running with that thing up and down the steep hills of the sports complex is not for sissies. I saw a bunch of high school soccer players walking to a field, and they were looking at me with awe ( ha, ha...more like pity!!!).

The kids did a great job today at track practice. We met at the mall field. After our warm-up and stretching, I had them do some deep-knee squats and then explode from that into an in-place high-jump. We did about 8 of those. Then we did our dynamic movement exercises.
I bought a couple of batons last week, and the kids were very excited to use "the real thing" instead of PVC pipes. We did a couple of relays. Each child ran about 50 meters/leg. I love the relays because it gets the kids cheering for each other.
Then we did a game called hounds and foxes. I had the three oldest kids be the hounds. The rest were foxes. The foxes had to take off and run the approximately 100 yards around a tree and back. The hounds took off about 10 seconds after the foxes and had to try and pass them. Every fox they passed stayed a fox in the next round. Every fox they didn't pass could become a hound in the next round. They loved it. I had to adjust the rules a little (the hounds tried turning around early to catch up the first time, so their passes the first time didn't count), but I think all in all I think the game was a winner.
I ran the kids the most I have so far, and they held up pretty well. They seem to be getting in better running shape.
Oh yeah.. one bummer. Our meet this Sat. was canceled. I'm not sure why. I think a lot of teams just haven't practiced much because of cool weather and spring break, so it is postponed till April. We haven't been on the track much, so it won't hurt us to have more practice time before out first competition.

What Does the Easter Bunny Say?

Sorry, but Eric's cutting in here:
A quick funny quote from Brandt this morning. He came downstairs early and excited for Easter. He bypassed his full Easter basket and came straight to our room to chat. Brandt enlightened us on something we were not aware of.

Apparently, if we were to speak to the Easter Bunny, he would say to us "Ho, Ho, Ho. Easter, Easter, Easter." Direct quote from Brandt. How did he know this? Does the Easter Bunny come from up North, also?

my run and track team's workout

First--to answer yesterday's riddle: Neither; the capital of Kentucky is Frankfurt.

Today I ran 1hr 18 minutes. for the first 35 minutes I ran from home through the sports complex and one set of trails, then on to Trak Shak. I stretched a bit and waited for runners to show up for the group run. We got started, but no one ran my pace (I couldn't keep up with the speedy highschool guys, and I lost track of the gals behind me pretty early on--they may have done their own route), so I just did the 5.6 mile loop but ended it at the track instead of the store. It took me about 43 minutes.

For the team's workout: After warmup, stretching, and dynamic exercises, we did some timed races so they'll have a goal time to beat for the meet next week. The four 5-and-under runners did the 50yd and the 100m. They did pretty well, but Brandt doesn't quite have the concept of running forward in a lane yet. He was all over the track and even went into the field for part of the 100.
The four 6-and-over runners raced a 400, 100, and 200 (in that order). They all did great staying in their lanes. When their foot hit the finish line they all would abruptly STOP. They weren't going to run any more than they absolutely had to! Matt helped by taking the older ones to do their 400 while I got the younger ones doing their 50. All the parents that were there helped with the timing.
I think the kids all felt good about themselves, whether or not they "won" today. That's what's great about running. When you complete something that was hard for you, regardless of how you fared in comparison to those around you, you know you have accomplished something worthwhile.

Chicago, Milwaukee, and Home again

We are home from a great trip!
Our travels started last Friday afternoon. We made it to this side of Louisville (which reminds me of a classic Dad joke I'll share later) and after a good night's rest, we arrived in the Windy City Saturday afternoon. Chicago is a beautiful, clean, cool, and COLD city.
After a fortuitous visit to the Shedd Aquarium (our visit was FREE, aside from $15 parking, for taking 30 minutes to give our opinion on a proposed addition/renovation to the aquarium. Saved us about 100 bucks!), we went to a yummy pizza place called Lou Malnatto's for dinner. Then on to Kate and Chad's in Milwaukee.
Milwaukee is also a remarkable city. We went to church on Sunday at the Milwaukee City Branch. They met in a lovely old church. I wish we had taken our camera with us. It was built in the early 1900's and had lots of Arts and Crafts details and a ginger-bread-house look to it's facade. We were welcomed by many members and it was very spiritual service.
I toured a good bit of Milwaukee on foot during my runs Mon, Tues, and Wed. I ran 53 minutes each day. Monday I ran down to the lake and then to the Basilica of St. Josaphat. On Tuesday I ran up 6th street toward the city center. I was pretty much in the slum--but paralleled the freeway most the time, so I felt safe. On Wed. I headed to the city center via 1st Street. This was the way of choice. I got to the arts district called The Third Ward; I felt my coolness-0-meter moving up more and more the deeper into the district I ran.
We took the boys to the Betty Brinn museum on Tues. This museum was designed EXACTLY for our boys. We were there for a solid 4 hours, and they had fun the entire time. It had all kinds of hands-on activities for them.
We walked from the backyard of the Betty Brinn to the Milwaukee Art Museum--an incredible work of architecture--and took lots of pics.
On Wed. we drove down to Lakeshore drive to a park that overlooks Lake Michigan. That whole area is gorgeous. We took stairs down to the beach and stayed as long as we could endure the winds. Then we met Kate and drove to Cedarburg, a cute little town north of Milwaukee. We bummed around the fun shops there and enjoyed yummy treats from the candy store. I told Kate she needed to open a boutique there. Her style is modern, refined, and infectious. I came home with all kinds of ideas for projects just from visiting their house!
We were already making plans for our next trip up there on our drive home. Kate and Chad were awesome hosts as we enjoyed relaxing eating yummy food, and touring beautiful cities!

Oh yeah--here's the joke: "How do you pronounce the capitol of Kentucky, 'Looweeville' or 'Loowisville' ? Look for the answer tomorrow...

friday's workout and travels

We're in Milwaukee with Kate and Chad havin a great time. We were in Chicago yesterday and visited the Shedd Aquarium, walked downtown and got pizza!! Pics will follow..

Friday I ran 5 miles on the Treadmill; I started slow and gradually increased the speed. I ended up going about 8.3 mph for the last few minutes, but averaged 7.5 overall.

I'm excited to run this week! Kate and Chad live a few blocks from Lake Michigan, so there should be some beautiful sightseeing amidst the bitter cold winds.

stationary bike shenanigans

Today I rode the stationary bike for an hour. I went just over 20 miles. Brandt, who is still sick but acts like he's completely well when under the influence of Tylenol, came down and played in the workout room while I ran. He walked on the treadmill (with the safety attached and me 1 foot away) for a few minutes. After he grew bored of moving the incline up and down, he moved to the workout bench and did acrobatics on the lat-pull bar for a while. All this time I was engrossed in "Becoming Jane, " a very good movie for Jane Austen fans--which I am and Brandt isn't.
Soon his boredom drove him to invent a fun new pastime for when Mommy is on the bike. He found that he could throw objects at my rapidly turning feet, and the objects would fly across the room. He gave his own commentary along the way. "Cool!", or "See that??" He tried light objects, like his slippers and small stuffed dinosaur. He tried heavy objects, like 5 lb disk weights, which he didn't throw but quickly and methodically placed just behind my foot so that I would come to an abrupt stop. He thought that was hilarious. Then he found a pillow just big enough that when I kicked it, it bounced against the wall behind the bike and back to my foot in time to be hit again. When he saw this outcome he said, "That's totally awesome!!" And I pretty much let him experiment. The heavy objects only got one try, though.
I remember as a child when we had a triple bunk bed, that top bunk was the perfect launch pad to test out how things would react to being thrown into the turning ceiling fan. I specifically remember placing a Barbie on each fan blade then turning on the fan and quickly taking cover in the Earthquake Drill Position. Screams ensued. My parents were, of course, not in the vicinity of these experiments. Those are fond memories; and so, thanks to a good movie that kept his mommy's interest away from dealing with his shenanigans, he got to conduct his own experiments in centrifugal force.

today's workouts

For my workout, I did a quick but intense 43 minutes on the treadmill. I ran a 15 min warm-up, gradually getting faster as I went. Then I did 20 minutes of 1, 2 and 3 minute intervals with 30 second and 1 minute rests between. For the first 10 minutes, I averaged about 9.2 mph for the speed intervals, the second half I upped it to 10mph. Then I cooled down for 8 minutes at about a 7mph pace. I watched Transformers during this, which helped considerably.

For the kids' workout, after their warmups and stretching, we did some field relays. I lined them up in 2 lines. On each end of the field were 2 baskets. The far end baskets had tennis balls. They raced to see which team could move the balls, one at a time, from the far basket to the ones they started at. They seemed to enjoy it--and they got a good workout without realizing it. Then we worked on shot-put technique with a weighted softball. I hope I'm not screwing them up. I've never shot-putted, so I'm teaching them from what I've read. I'm trying to keep it really basic. At Saturday's practice a former All-American shot-putter may be coming to help out, which would be awesome. We ended practice with a 50 yard dash and popsicles.

(PS-While writing this, the last of the yummy cookies I made for Family Home Evening were devoured by Eric and the boys. I was REALLY looking forward to having one once I got to relax tonight, but now they're gone. I need to start hiding food I want, living with 4 males [then I'd qualify for some kind of psychiatric care, though...] There were about 15 cookies this morning and I haven't had 1!! :( poor me..!)

my workout today + most recent painting

First, an addendum to yesterday's workout: after posting I lifted weights, upper body only, last night with Eric. Today, I ran, pushing Asher in the double jogger, for 51 minutes. I ran around the flat area near my parent's neighborhood, but added in the Charnwood hill since I haven't done many hills lately.

This picture is of the painting I did for Kate and Chad. We're taking it to Wisconsin in a few days. If I was from cow country like they are, I'd want it in my living room. But alas, I'm from the south. I guess I'd need whatever animal I painted to already be breaded and fried up in bacon grease before it floated through the clouds in my living room!
Here's a link to my online photo gallery of paintings: http://picasaweb.google.com/kellyanderic/KellySArtPortfolio

kiddos

I know God made kids cute so their parents wouldn't hurt them. Especially in the middle of the night when one after another, they wake you up. Little Brandt got what Eli had last week. It is some form of strep that has super high fevers that come on as soon as Tylenol wears off--be it at 2 a.m. or 6 p.m. We are just hoping Asher doesn't get it. It really weakened Eli, mostly because the first antibiotic they put him on didn't work, and by the time we tried another one, it had been almost a week. Here are pictures of the boys over the weekend. We had about a 24 hr spell of wellness--just enough to enjoy the little snowfall we received.

workout and practice

Today I biked on the stationary for 52 minutes. I went a little over 17 miles. Tried to keep my rpms around 90.

For the kids' workout: First a short warm-up, stretching, high-knees, bum-kicks, and bounding. Then I attempted to play a Simon-says-style game where they counted their steps running. This was a pretty futile effort for all the 5 and 6 year-olds. The 8-11-year-olds did alright, but I don't think I do that activity again. I had read it helps their coordination by making them kind of exaggerate the running motion.
Next, we did some whistle-intervals in which I have 1 whistle blow mean to jog, 2 blows is run, and 3 is sprint. This is easy, but they get worn out pretty quick b/c most kids don't really every jog; they are constantly looking around to make sure no ones passing them. By the last few, they were tired and walking during the jog intervals.

Then we practiced baton passing. This activity was also much more successful with the older half of the team. They stood in a line to do what I have always called "indian relays," where the last one in the jogging line surges to the front, leaving a different kid in the last place. That child then runs to the front, etc. We added a baton to the activity by having the person in the first position in line say, "Stick!" as soon as they are passed by the runner moving up from the back. The new first position runner, turns with her hand out and takes the baton. Then they will pass it to the next runner to move up from last to first position in line.
After a water break, the kids all practiced their standing broad jump 3-4 times each. Then I lined them up for about a 75 meter sprint race. Some groaned about having to run MORE, but I told them everyone who finished out strong would get popsicles on Wed.
They found the energy.:)

finally bloggin' my joggin....

I had the not so original idea to record my workouts online a while back when I saw my brother-in-law, Stuart's blog of his getting-in-shape progress. Eric had been encouraging me to blog since I'm SO bad at record/journal keeping. I have three kids and I don't scrapbook and rarely get their pictures printed out. Our main photo albums are only in our "My Pictures" folder.

SO....this will be a two-fold blog...I'll record my exciting momma-time activities each day AND I'll post my workouts and the workouts of the youth track club I coach. Nothin' better than using the masses of cyberspace looking on to scare me into making sure my days spent in worthwhile pursuits.