fruit market

Today I went to the Farmer's Market in downtown. Melyssa and I started a co-op with some friends so we could get fresh food for cheaper by getting it in bulk at the market. I LOVE having so much produce in my house. When I want a snack I have so many choices! After we get all the fruit we sort it into 8 piles for each family in our co-op. The first time we did it at my house and I was SO glad I live on a dead-end. There's another house in my neighborhood that is the token trashy-yard house. And to add insult to injury, for the last couple of years they would have pallets of produce piled prominently in their front yard (pardon my alliteration)--and not neatly piled, either. Watermelons, cantelopes, onions, various potted plants---all strewn throughout the already messy yard. Once a couple pallets of onions got dropped out on the road and several cars ran over them--so people entering our neighborhood were greeted with the attractive body-oder smell that onions emit. So we started to refer to this house affectionately as the "Fruit Market." Well, when I had piles of fruits and veggies all over my driveway, I felt like quite the hypocrite. Like most cases of criticism and judgment-passing, I guess I was just jealous.

Here's a recap of my workouts this week: Monday I ran to Marvin's and back to get some nuts and bolts we needed to hang the new t.v. I pushed Asher in the stroller; it took 1hr 1min. Tuesday I biked for 45 minutes and did a few weights. Wednesday I did speed-work on the treadmill: 17 minute warm-up, 18 minutes of intervals (40 secs at 6min/mile pace, 20 sec rest), then a 10 minute cool-down. Today I ran on the trails for 52 minutes and did push-ups (3x20), chair-dips (3x20) and ab-work. I watched National Treasure 2 while working out this week. It was a good distraction during those intervals--especially the car-chase scene in London.

Squeaker: bear fetus

Today my mom spoke in church on teaching your children about the Sabbath and told a story of finding me, Sarah, and Melyssa when we were small children in our loft playroom with all our dolls, stuffed animals, and Barbies lined up, teaching them Sunday school. Eli's face immediately brightened, and he leaned over and whispered, "Mom, can I do that when we get home?!?" Well, he did.

Asher is just about walking. He will take 4 or 5 steps at a time throughout the day, but crawling is still his main way to get somewhere quickly. Eric put him to bed tonight just as he does every night, the only difference was, Brandt was asleep in Asher's room on the spare bed. (Brandt and Eli share a room and Asher has his own). Eric came downstairs, and we kept hearing Asher on the monitor making all kinds of noise, which escalated until he became very upset. He usually just lays down and goes to sleep on his own. After Eric went up a couple of times to try to get him to settle down, we realized that he was trying to talk to sleeping Brandt and was getting frustrated at not getting a response. Well, he became loud enough that Brandt woke up (and will be awake very late now thanks to a nap from 5-7:30). Once Brandt was out of the room, he went right to sleep!

Brandt is the Professional Pretender of our family. We rarely go somewhere that he doesn't bring a pet along. His pets are all named and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are pretty typical, like his little red beanie baby chicken named "Fire-breathing Chicken." Others are several K-nex pieces made into a row and given a name like,"Pock." One that has really stuck around along time near the top of Brandt's Favorite Pets List is "Squeaker." We're not sure what Squeaker is exactly; Brandt thinks he's a squirrel. When Rick saw him he asked, "What's this supposed to be, a bear fetus?"

Yesterday was a successful day for me . I ran the 5.6 mile route from Trak Shak in just over 42 minutes--a new record for me running it without people faster to push me. Counting my warm-up and cool-down, I went 58 minutes. I think the temperature went up about 20 degrees during my run. Oh, and my new shoes felt great. The next success I had was finding a great deal on a new t.v. Brandt poked the on button with a stick on our old one and managed to disable the whole thing--not even the remote worked. We went without one for a week (other than our tv in the workout room that has to warm-up before the picture gets somewhat clear), and decided to start shopping around on Friday night when we went out on a date. Well, the one I bought Saturday morning cost 30-50% less than every other one we saw of the same size. We got a deal b/c it had been a floor model and didn't have a remote (we can get a universal). Plus, it has a dvd player built in, which we also had to replace b/c our old one died two weeks ago. Hopefully tomorrow Eric will get it hung on the wall and out of reach of little children!

seven years in the movie theater.

My legs felt pretty tired Monday from the race, so I took it easy on a 50 minute run through the sports complex and partially on the trails. Tuesday I biked for 50 minutes--about 16 miles--going nowhere on the stationary. I also did upper body weights that night with Eric. Wednesday I randomly woke up at 5:20, so I got out the door in time to run about 8 miles (1:06). I felt pretty stiff for the first part, but felt better as I went. Yesterday I did some treadmill speed work. It took me a while to feel warmed up--I had to start with a s l o w jog and gradually build. Once I got going I was able to do two 1-mile intervals at a 9.1-9.3 mph pace (around a 6: 30 pace). Then I went outside and sprinted up our hill 10 times. Today I biked downstairs for 40 minutes and did weights. Eli and Brandt came down and took turns on the bike and the treadmill. Brandt learned his incline and speed limitations today--he likes to push those "up" arrows. It was a bit scary, and his knee got a small abrasion, but, hey, he learned a valuable lesson that many 4- year-olds won't learn for years!
I have watched the movie "Seven Years in Tibet" now for about 3 workouts, finally finishing it today. I love the movie, but I can see why my bro-in-law Matt called it what I titled this post.
I went by the Trak Shak to get some new shoes this week, but they didn't have any big enough for me in stock (I wear a 10.5-11!!), so hopefully the ones they ordered in from the other store will be in today so I can wear them for my run tomorrow. I have loved my Air Pegasus, so I am getting another pair (and they'll be free w/ the gift certificate I won--woohoo!).

Creek Crossin' at the Ramble

Thanks to Steve for taking these pics at the race. That 5th step was a doozie.

Cahaba River Ramblin'!

Yesterday I ran the Cahaba River Ramble 10 mile trail race. It was a GREAT race!! Although the Cahaba River Lillies were covered by the high river water, the scenery during the race was still magnificent. The weather was perfect--not too hot, and thankfully not too cold since two of the creek crossings the water came to my armpits!! (If you look closely at the pic of me finishing, you can see my soaked clothes.) I really do love this race. The terrain is varied; you run on gravel, sand, leaves, pine needles, muddy clay, and good-ol' dirt and roots. The race has two very significant hills, plus several smaller, rolling ones. The first hill is probably about a mile long and is pretty steep. The last hill is near the end and is called "The Great Equalizer." A pick-ax would come in handy on this one. You basically can't run up the whole thing. I finished in 1:23:04, a 7:30 improvement over my time last year!! I came in third place among the women.
Another bonus of this race is the great prizes. I think I mentioned the sweet jacket I got last year. Well, this year I won a Northface backpack, an Outdoor Research fleece jacket, a frisbee, and a bag of coffee (which I don't drink, but it does smell good :)).

My lil' sis Hannah came down to the race and did the 5k. She said she really enjoyed it. Most everyone at this race had a cool, granola look to them, which made us feel extra-hip just to be there. She pointed out that the lighting in the picture of the two of us makes our chins look a little Lady Elaine Fairchild-ish.

I haven't recorded my workouts since early last week, so here is a re-cap. On Tuesday I ran 6 miles in 45 minutes. This was a tempo day, so that middle 3-4 miles I must have been doing around a 7-minute pace, b/c I definitely started and ended a little slower. Wednesday I biked for 45 minutes. Thursday I ran 35 minutes at an easy pace. Friday I did nuttin'.
I canceled our meet Thursday because of rain. As it turned out, the rain actually mostly quit by 5, but I had to make a call, and at 2pm the forecast was still calling for thunderstorms through 8pm. I wasn't too disappointed--I was pretty tired that day.

9 days

The title of this post is what I drew (wrote) on Eli's snack sack today, because that is how many days of school he has left until summer. Throughout this school year, I have drawn pictures on his snack bag each morning. I've tried to have them themed with what is going on. For instance, in October he had sacks with bats, pumpkins, etc. Some are just cartoon characters he likes, and some are just designs using his name. What has pulled at my heartstrings to keep me drawing, is that he won't throw the bag away because it has a picture I drew on it. What a sweetie...

I haven't recorded workouts since last Wed, so here is a quick account:
Thursday: Biked 20 minutes, did weights; Friday: Ran 11 miles in 1:32. Saturday: Ran 50 minutes on trails. Sunday: enjoyed a beautiful, restful Mother's Day. Today: Biked 45 minutes, did upper body weights.

Today was our last regular practice. We were going to have another meet on Thursday with a team of about 25-30 kids, but their coach just found out only 3 kids from his team committed to come, so we decided to cancel. Then ,today another coach called me who had heard about the meet and asked if we were still on. I told him we'd love to still meet. His team is small, so it will really just be like having time-trials at a practice with a few extra kids. Still, it will be nice for our last workout to be a little different.

I'm excited for summertime! I was planning to have Eli and Brandt swim at the Y, but the price to be on their swim team went up so much, we decided to go elsewhere. The city of Birmingham has very well-done swim program that is VERY inexpensive (practically free). It isn't as close as the Y, but even with the high gas prices, it is a MUCH more economical choice. We also have a couple friends with pools who are very generous with sharing. Around here, you pretty much have to be immersed, or recently immersed in water to enjoy the great outdoors in the summer!

Two kinds of trail runners...

....those who have fallen, and those who will fall. I would be classified in the former group (a few times over). Monday I fell pretty hard while running on the trails. I am getting too complacent running my route there--I need to pay more attention. My hands suffered the most from my fall. I have a couple of pretty good gashes in them.

My workouts this week: Monday, I ran 50 minutes on the trails. Tuesday, I biked inside for 45 minutes. Wednesday I ran three 1 mile intervals and then about 6 minutes of shorter,faster intervals. I did the miles in 6:40 each (9-9.1 mph). I upped the speed to 10mph and ran 1 minute on, 30 off for the last 6 minutes. Including my warmup and cool-down, I went about 6.7 miles. I haven't fit in a good weight workout this week, but I plan to do some in the morning.

Team workouts: Monday, after a 1-lap warm-up, stretching, and dynamic movement exercises, I had the kids run 3 laps of striding the straights and jogging/walking the curves (or vice-versa). Then they practiced jumping a little. Today we played several rounds of foxes and hounds on the field. They really ran hard. I am really happy with the endurance they have built. Eli and Madylin had Boosterthon Runs at school today, yet they still did all of practice.

May 3rd Home Meet Pics

aaaahhhh....

The title of this post is how I felt at about 1:30 yesterday. I had made it through hosting my first track meet--and it was a success. But it didn't come without some anxiety. We awoke Saturday morning to thunder pounding outside and heavy downpours. I immediately went to accuweather.com and checked the hourly forecast. It didn't look good, but it was too early to call. I went down to workout and take my mind off what I couldn't control. I rode the bike for 45 minutes. When I came up I checked the radar and watched the forecast on our local NBC station. It looked like we may have some clearing by 10am, just in time for the meet! After talking to one of the other coaches coming (the one with the biggest team), we decided to go for it--possibly delaying the start by 30 minutes.
Well, I felt the Heavens were truly smiling down on us. The storm stopped at about 9:50. People had arrived at the track and were warming up when I got there at 10. (I had come to make sure no one was there waiting at 9:30, and no one was, so I went home to help Eric with the boys). We had 35 kids participate. Each age group at 3-7 competitors, so it made for an exciting meet. We had the shot-put and broad-jump going on simultaneously with the track events, so we were able to complete 27 track races, 7 age-groups doing broad-jump, and 6 doing shot-put in 3 hours. It COULD NOT have happened without very willing parents and coaches helping out. I was a bit of a nervous wreck for the first 20 minutes or so. Eventually I looked down at the schedule and saw that everyone was where they needed to be and we were on track time-wise, and I was able to breathe a little easier ("little" being operative word).
Oh yes, and the megaphone was a big help. Also, the other team's coach brought walkie-talkies, which were life-savers for the 200 (which can be tricky since the start is on the opposite side of the track from the timers at the finish line).
Our team performed GREAT. We had several first-place finishes. We had a few athletes participate in EVERY EVENT, which I believe deserves recognition in and of itself. And I think they all had a great time, regardless of how they finished.
I am still waiting on pictures from our "meet photographer," a.k.a my bro-in-law Mark who is a pro-photographer (www.brookviewphotography.com). I'll post some when I get some.
We had perfect weather. It was overcast and about 60 degrees for most of the meet. It warmed up a little toward the end, but we had no rain. AND the sun didn't actually come out until just after the meet ended. I felt it was a real blessing. Several of the parents asked me at the end when we planned to host another meet--which I felt was the ultimate compliment. The parents on my team and the visiting team were so helpful, I think I may be up for having one more meet to close out the season!

On another note--I biked 50 minutes on Thursday, and ran my 6 mile route on Friday in 48:30. This week I'll be back to my normal hard day Wed. and long day Saturday. I did weights Wed and Friday. I worked it out to do the trail race on the 17th, so I am pretty stoked about that!!!