50K - Week 3

This week was good. I got all my mileage and felt pretty good about it. I left my running shoes at school one evening so I had to run 7 in my minimalist shoes in the morning and that HURT my calves. I have decided those are just going to be for walking around, I can't wear them to run in. They destroy my legs and its not worth it for me.
All in all, I ran 40 miles this week. I need to work on my stretching and focus some energy on that every day if possible. This week coming up is going to be a challenge because we are taking a group of kids camping/canoeing all weekend (starting Friday night) so I need to fit a 14-miler in somewhere during the week as well as the other runs. I will probably be able to run on Sunday night when we get back (ugh) but I'll need to find the time to do the rest before we go. That part stresses me out a bit but I'll figure it out. We have about 5 weeks of school left and then it will be less stressful as far as finding the time to do it.
I am a bit concerned about not being able to run for the 9 days while I am in Costa Rica and then again while we are on the cruise but I'm just going to go for it. There is nothing I can do about it and I'm pretty sure that will not break my performance on race day, at least that is what I am hoping!!!

Molecules and Dinosaurs

I brought Cy some cool "toys" from San Antonio. The ones he likes the most is the molecule kit that is used to obviously make common 3-D representations of the easy molecules and compounds like Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, Methane, etc... He thought it was hilarious when I explained to him that the compound Methane is his "toot gas" the he produces on a monumental level :) He has started saying that he has "toot gas" now. Cute:) And, I brought him a little paleo kit home so he could simulate a "dig" for a dinosaur. It was fun, his attention span is obviously limited right now so B and I had to take over when he would get side tracked but he was psyched when he got the dinosaur out. There was a little card that explained a little about the critter (age, period, what it ate, size, etc...). Pretty cool.

Big Foot

I decided this morning that Cy needed some new shoes. I have been squeezing his chubby little feet into his size 8's and 9's when in reality, I just learned, that his foot is an 11! Holy smokes, my poor sweet boy! So, we got his first pair of Birkenstock sandals, a new pair of water shoes for our river adventures, and an actual pair of running sneaks since he literally runs everywhere, all the time.

Hanging with the boys...and Emma:)

Hobie, Rocco, Creighton, George, and Emma came over on Saturday afternoon for some play time for the kids and the adults. Alison and Melissa were both home doing other projects so they send the dads/kids for an afternoon of fun. The kids played and played in the yard while we sat around and enjoyed this glorious spring weather. It is hard to believe that it is the end of April and we are still only in the high-60s. Hallelujah! I think by time it gets hot here we will be heading out west for our adventure. We might just squeak by without dying of heat this year! Amazing.

Anyway, the boys enjoyed some cold beers while I sipped on my wine and we all had lots of yummy snacks. I fed the kids frozen pizza (mom of the year) and they played until the sun went down. Such a great night with friends. We don't get to do that often enough because of our crazy schedules and I relish it when we can.

Project Athena Richmond Marathon Relay

This is the 2nd year that Creighton and I have run the Athena trail relay and it was awesome again, to say the least. We had two new team mates this year, one of them (Andy) is a guy that we compete with regularly and he is hands down fast. Anne, I have not raced with before but she is an instructor for Seal Team so I knew she would be in great shape. Anne started us off with a blazing speed of 54.08 for 6.55miles of trail which is a great pace. She was the first woman back and then Andy took off. He has been nursing a hurt hamstring for awhile now and said he would know within the first mile how it was going to go. I honestly thought he would dominate regardless because he is a work horse but that did not happen. He was hurt pretty badly and came back in 1:03. Creighton took off for the 3rd leg and I knew he'd finish somewhere around :53, he has been putting in so much running time right now and he is in great shape. He and I both have put on a 40 mile running week this week though so I think we were feeling that a bit as well. I was the anchor on this relay and truthfully, just like in track, I don't like to be the anchor. I need to be able to chase someone and that doesn't necessarily happen on races like this. As predicted, C came back in 53:58 and I took off. There was a guy from the team right in front of us that left about 30 seconds before me so I took off on a dead sprint to try to catch him. I ran my first mile in 6:18 and he was NO WHERE in sight. He was blazing. So, I decided to settle into a normal pace and hoped that he would fall out somewhere along the trail and I could catch him then. The problem was, with this course, it's hard to find a rhythm. There is so much off pitch terrain and so much climbing and scrambling that it's hard to find the groove. Finally, at mile 5, I felt like I was settling in and just tried to dig in for the final 1.55. I finished in 54.11...not great and not what I should have gone but it was good enough to secure a 4th place finish for our team. We were 13 minutes behind the winning team and 3 minutes behind the 3rd place team. We actually finished better than we did last year which is good. We need to heal Andy up for next year so we can really go after the 1st place spot.
Literally, 10 minutes after I crossed the finish line, C looked at me and asked, "Are you ready?". Yep. I choked down 2 fig newtons and a bit of water and we set off for our second lap of the day. C is running the 50K with me this summer and our plan called for 12 today. So, we set off at 50K pace for our second lap. That quickly turned into our normal 8:00 pace which was not feeling so good to be honest. We made to the aid station about 4 miles in and luckily they had some bars and water. I was bonking big time. About this time, we got a call from our teammate Anne, who told us to "hurry" back because they were about to do awards. Ouch. So, we made it back just in time to jump on the podium for our trophies. It was a great race and an awesome afternoon. I am looking forward to this race again next year. The course is tough but I love it.

All things nature

Cy has become more and more interested in natural life lately. Spring has brought all kinds of new little critters to our yard, flowers are blooming, birds are out, and he's been talking about wanting to grow a garden. So, we went out and got a bird fewer to put in the kitchen window and this weekend we are going to plant his favorites, carrots, cucumbers, and broccoli. I love that he is showing so much curiosity and desire to connect to the world around him.

Manchester Bridge

We took a group of kids climbing at Manchester Bridge today after school. The weather has been glorious and it was good to get the kids outside! Cy got to come as well, and as predicted, the kids plays and explored more with Cy than climbed which freed up time for me to climb a good bit. I even lead a bit which was awesome!!

Caterpillars and inch worms

We are being inundated with inch worms and caterpillars lately. It is crazy how many of these guys are in our yard. Cy loves them, and so do I. They are so cute:)

Potter?

I have started something new in the past few weeks. I asked one of our art teachers if I could try throwing some pottery. I took a basics ceramics class in college but it was 15 (gulp) years ago and I haven't done it since. Mary said yes so I have spent a couple of my free moments in there attempting to make things. Here is what I have so far.

I love it and hope to actually take a class next year to make some really cool things.

Little photographer

Cy has been very interested in taking photos lately. We went to Sweet Frogs the other night and Cy thought we needed so family shots.

Chasing Chicken Triathlon

I signed up for the Chasing Chicken triathlon a few months ago and haven't given it much thought since. Unfortunately, I never got on my bike, once. I was feeling very nervous this morning at how unprepared I was for the bike, and sort of for the swim. I've only swam a few times in the past few months but usually that's fine. This was a pool swim today however, and a snake one at that. I was seated 26th swimmer in the water, 7th woman. I was a bit nervous because I was up with all the college ladies and just wanted to make sure I had seeded myself correctly so that I didn't get in anyone's way or get stuck behind anyone. It ended up being fine. Each swimmer went every 15 seconds and I never got near the swimmer in front of behind of me, it was perfect.

The bike was better than I thought it would be but it was WINDY and hilly. It was a good course and I enjoyed it. I actually only got passed by one chick on the course which never happens. Generally I make it out of the swim fast and then get passed by lots of ladies on the bike and then have to make up that time/place on the run. So, I was happy with the biking outcome today.

The run was ok. My shins and feet were killing for the first mile or so. I actually thought I was going to have to walk because i can't afford to get shin splints right now. But, I just slowed it down a bit and tried to work it out. I'm not sure how I did on the run (the results haven't been posted yet) but it felt slow.

All in all, it was a good race. I finished 2nd in the 34-39 Age Group and 10th woman overall.

50K - Week 2

Another great training week. I am up to 37 miles the week PLUS a triathlon. Feeling good about the plan but not good about my eating. I am notorious for forgetting to focus on my nutrition when I'm training hard because I am generally hungrier (duh) and feel like I should be able to eat whatever I want. When I trained for the 1/2IM I actually gained TEN pounds...yes, total pain in the butt. So, next week I am going to focus on getting my mileage and eating normal portions of healthy food. Wish me luck:)

Edo's Squid

We went out to dinner at Edo's Squid for Peggy's birthday dinner. It was really fun. Edo's Squid is this super cool place for foodies. It's a different experience for sure. We had a table of 15 and because it's such a small restaurant we were only allowed to order 4 entrees for the table. So, we let Chris and Peggy choose since they had been there before. They ordered a flank steak which I heard was divine, a fish (which I can't remember what type) that came full....head/tail/scales. I have to admit, I passed on this dish. I am not into bones and scales and didn't want to give it a shot. We also got this amazing pasta dish that had garlic, EVOO, Broccoli rabi and shrimp. It was delicious! The final dish was a pasta dish with egg plant, also fabulous. The meal was superb.  The company was fabulous and the cake (Peril's) was out of this world. It was such a fun night!

Village Green Fair

This weekend was the Village Green Fair. It's this really fun family weekend fund raiser for the Parent's Association at Collegiate. We went with my mom and spent the morning riding rides with Cy, playing games, eating pizza, winning cakes, eating cookie cakes, playing with SPCA puppies, and seeing all of our students. It was a really fun way to spend a Saturday morning:)

50K - week 1

Week 1 for the 50K training plan was successful. I ran a total of 36 miles, all in 4 days. I was gone for work and needed to get it in so I ran 10 before heading to the airport on Wednesday and then just ran each day while in TX. I felt good all week, a little tired after the last run on Sunday but I guess that's to be expected. I did up my mileage quite a bit this week. My concern is the health of my feet and legs, they always seem to crap out on me during these big training missions so I'm going to approach this plan with more time on my feet and less focus on speed. Hopefully this plan will work out better for me than the longer training runs in the past.

APES Field Trip

Rebecca asked me to help her chaperone her AP Environmental students on their annual canoeing exploration of Bottoms Landing, down on the south James. It was so much fun. They, of course, have been talking about this ecosystem all year and to see them make those connections between their studies in the book to real life science was great. We were out all day. We had some lecture time, some benchwork for them, and some time using the seine net. I'm glad Rebecca asked me, I really enjoyed myself and my flash back to my Marine Biology days:) 

Camping Gear

We just ordered Cy his new camping gear for our summer expedition. He got his very own head lamp and sleeping bag that is just his size. It's so cute and, like me, he wanted to sleep in his bag forever:) This summer is going to be so much fun, we're all ready to hit the road already!

Land Ho!

The weather is finally taking a turn for the better. The sun has been shining and the temperature is warming up a little bit. We took advantage of this wonderful weekend weather and launched the canoe. It was a gorgeous day...albeit a bit chilly when the wind blew. We did a 12 mile paddle down the James from the Meadows put in to the ?? take out (I can't remember the name). It was so much fun. There are islands along the length of the whole paddle so we stopped and explored a lot. All told, it about about a 5 hour expedition and it was a wonderful way to soak in the sun. Cy did great too. We always get a bit concerned as to whether he's going to get bored half way through but he's pretty good about entertaining himself (only child syndrome) and can play for hours. Plus we had snacks, and Lord knows that helps:)