Fundraiser Race for Children's Hospital

I'm "Racing to Wrigley" on May 11! Fundraising supports the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital (formerly Children's Memorial), where my littlest munchkin was a hematology patient his first year of life. I'm so thankful for the doctors and nurses who supported us that year. If you'd like to make a donation the link is

http://www.race-cubs.com/racetowrigley2013/katsma. Thank you!

I am so thankful for the doctors and nurses that cared for KD when he was struggling with a rare (albeit) survivable diagnosis. KD was a patient for most of his first year of life. I am forever blessed with his health.

Insomniac Mom

I need to learn how to sleep. The years of night feedings/wakings have turned me into an insomniac.

Obviously, 8 miles of biking followed by 400 meters swimming followed by an 8 hours work day followed by a huge glass of wine isn't enough to wear me out. I'm still wide awake.

[In case you're curious, I got up at 7:45 am with the kids, did mom/wife/gym stuff, worked 3-11:30 pm, and its now 12:40 am. And I'll be up at 7:45 am to make breakfast, lunches, and get 3 kids off to school.] Just thinking about it should exhaust me!

I can't run right now, thanks to stress fractures in my right foot, so tomorrow will be swimming, and possibly a little biking. Today's swim was cut short by a snowstorm, so tomorrow I've got at least 1200 meters to do. :) I can't wait!

I'm an official member!

I joined the Super Gym today, for real! After two weeks of free passes (Thank you, Emily!), I signed on the dotted line. I would have joined earlier, but I had to make sure the littlest munchkin was going to get into the Early Childhood preschool first. EC is free (public school) and he'll get speech therapy too! If he hadn't qualified I'd be paying for both privately, and a gym membership would have had to wait. So it was a good day. :-)

Double bonus, the "signup fee" I'd been quoted two weeks ago was waived due to a "end of the month" special. :-) Yay!!!

It's funny when I think of how much my perspective has changed. When we joined the Old Gym in 2006, I was leery of the cost. It was cheap per month, but had high joining fees. I figured we had to stay 2 years to make it worth it. We stayed until they closed their door a few months ago. I even got a personal trainer 2.5 years ago!

Six years later, I'm joining a place that costs 7 times as much per month, and not blinking. Six years ago I didn't exercise, I was younger, and didn't value my health as much. Now I work out 6 times a week because, aside from racing, I want to be healthy, and sharing that with my kids is very important. Super Gym has so many opportunities for the kids to be active and learn a healthy lifestyle.

Exercise is a family thing now. :-)

I'm Addicted

To the pool.

That's what it must be. On my rest day all I could think about was how much I wanted to swim. Technically, my next swim workout is Monday, but I think a few laps will be my daily reward for running and biking.

Tomorrow is a 20 minute run, and I get 2 hours of childcare.... :-)

A surprise call!

I got a phone call from the Super Gym, earlier today, offering to extend my guest pass another week! She actually dated it to the 28th, so I'll have gotten nearly two and a half weeks free. :-) I am definitely signing up!

We started our day at Chuck E Cheese, where the kids spent 4 hours and 250 tokens having tons of fun! My sister joined us for lunch too.

After coming home for my gym bag, the kids and I headed to the Super Gym for a swim.

45 minutes and 1200 meters later (3/4 mile), I'm feeling great! I won't swim laps in a tankini again though- it gets all floaty and rides up. You laugh, but by 20 laps it was getting very annoying. ;-)

Google tells me that a mile is 1,600 meters... that is my next swimming goal.

I already miss the pool!

I wanted to swim this morning, but due to time constraints and kid tennis lessons, I only managed a 25-minute bike ride. I found myself saying to my husband, "I'll just do my swim tomorrow." Which is something I never even imagined I'd say. Then it dawned on me...

Today was my last day of my 7-day pass to the Super Gym! No pool until I officially join February 25! Noooooooo!

The Super Gym and 1000 Meters

I am trying out the Super Gym this week with a free 7-day pass. I like it so far. The littlest guy likes it A LOT. I had to finally pick him up and carry him out of the Kids Center. It has a two level jungle gym and computers with video games! If I was 3 I wouldn't want to leave either!

It's a little overwhelming. My former longterm gym had a 15 treadmills, a handful of elliptical machines, and 6 stationary bikes. This gym has like 100. Rows and rows and rows. Half have personal TVs on them! I'm pretty sure the cardio AREA of Super Gym is bigger than my entire old gym.

The place I'm training at right now has 3 treadmills. :)

The pools are the best part! I swam 1000 meters today. A thousand! That's 0.63 miles. That's almost triple what I had to do six months ago. That's more than the regular Sprint triathlon. And I have 6 months to go to train!

Best Valentine's Day ever. :-)

Expedition: Swimming Pool

ex·pe·di·tion

1 a: a journey or excursion undertaken for a specific purpose

2: efficient promptness : speed

3: a sending or setting forth

 

I like swimming. I grew up with a pool in the backyard. I hate swimming in front of people. I don't know if I'm a "pretty swimmer" or if I look like a drowning cat struggling against death. Swim caps, goggles, and utilitarian one piece swimsuits are not attractive or becoming on anyone bigger than a supermodel. If I had to pick between public speaking and public swimming, I'd rather give a speech.

 

However, one third of a triathlon is swimming, so practicing is a necessary evil. Not swimming just isn't an option if I want to do better this year. Last year's 375 meter swim was terrifying, challenging, and utterly exhausting, AND I still had to bike and run afterwards! I'm pretty sure the only reason I didn't drown last year was because the water was only chest deep.

 

With only 6 months to go to this year's triathlon, it was time to make an expedition to the pool. I had to get past my fear. I stopped at the sporting good store for a new swimming cap in normal BLACK, since mine are neon green and dayglo yellow. The bright ones are good for open water swimming when I want to be seen, but way too bright for the pool.

 

Then I dropped the little munchkin off at the Kids Center and told them I'd be at the pool. I was committed!

 

The Super Gym has two indoor pools. One is 25 m long and 80°F; the other is 20 m and 87°. I stuck my foot in the first pool, and went straight to the second. 87° is my style. Plus, less people in it! Bonus! My goal was 350 meters.

 

 

I swam 800 meters. That's a half a mile! I took my time, resting a few seconds after each lap. I didn't check the clock, but I guess it took about 40 minutes. I'm very pleased with myself. :D

New Running Shoes

I've been running for, what, a year and a half now? In the beginning I went a running store, walked, ran, tried on shoes, and was "fitted" for the Brook Adrenaline GTS. Loved them! Used the first pair for a year, then bought another pair after I wore my first in a Mud Run in June. I've been in pair #2 since.

Lately I've been trying to improve my running form by following the diagram. *Running* has gotten better, but now I get a low backache afterwards. I suspect it's the shoes.

I went to a new triathlon/running store, and talked to a nice young man. Tried on a few pairs, ran, he critiqued me and gave me MORE pointers, and I picked up Newton running shoes. They're shaped differently, like the part under the ball of foot is elevated, so my toes point up higher than in my Brooks.

I went for my first run in the Newtons today. The first mile was nice, very comfey. The second mile started to hurt. I quit around 1.9 miles with a painful right arch. I biked afterwards to continue my workout without the impact of the running.

Cupid's Dash Race Report

I didn't run. It wasn't worth an injury.

I went to packet pickup yesterday, and that was uncrowded and well organized. However, it was so icy and slippery that I had a hard time walking to the store! We just had over a feet of snow over a sheet of ice, and last night's email from the race organizers warned of icy conditions along one road we'd be running on.

Then to top it off, it's raining.

With 9 more races planned for the year, I decided my ankles were worth more than than the $20 entry fee, and went back to bed. :)

Next up, St Paddy's 5k on March 9, assuming the weather is better....

Hi!

Just a quick shout out to my little sister [who got me into this mess] and her husband [who will be running a bunch with me, keeping me accountable].

I have the BEST family ever!

Another mention.

We just got 2 feet of snow on top of an inch of ice. I plan to go to packet pick-up tomorrow or Saturday, but I'm wary of race conditions. I'm not hardcore [yet]. I can't risk injury at this point. So snow, ice, freezing rain = skip. :( I hope it doesn't come to that, but I have 9 more races, two of which are very important to me, and I won't risk an injury.

FX for good weather!!

Facebook vacation

I'm on a voluntary furlough from Facebook. I spend too much time there with my 250 "friends." I love being able to share our lives with friends and family, and seeing how they are.

But sometimes it seems like I'm ALWAYS checking Facebook. Anyone updated in the last 5 minutes?!?!

Since we're having 20 people for a party on Saturday, and I'm not the most dedicated of housekeepers, I figured if I took all my FB time and pit it towards cleaning and tidying, my house will sparkle on Saturday. :-) In reality I've just read more, played with the kids more, and worked more.

I still have "status update" thoughts pop into my head, but I'm glad I took this week off. Maybe once I re-activate my account I'll delete my iPhone app, which means I'll have to find our laptop when I want to see how all my Friends and doing.

FYI. I actually have a Mom2Triathlon FB page!! I haven't done anything to it yet, so wait and see.