Elusive "Rest"

I'm sick.

I hate being sick. That being said, I find it horribly unfair that I catch bugs so easily and Bill never gets sick. And by never I mean only once every five years or so, just to prove that he is, in fact, human. We discussed the whys and wherefores of my weak constitution and his strong one. My pet theory is that I am surrounded by mini germ factories for 9 months of the year. His favorite theory is that he grew up in a 'less sterile' environment, and thus developed a stronger immune system over the course of his childhood. Maybe both are valid. Not that it helps. I'm still sick. Phooey.

I stayed home from church today to 'rest'. You ever wish on one of those busy work days that you could just take a nap? It seems like it would be so nice to just sleep the afternoon away. I just can't seem to do it. My brain refuses to shut off during daylight hours. So I sat around all day watching old episodes of Bones on Netflix.

Yesterday I did manage to force myself to the gym for a 5K workout, despite the fact that this cough is steadily working its way into my lungs. I am supposed to do a 9 mile run tomorrow. I hope my lungs will cooperate.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Bargain Hunting

I love a good bargain.  I will almost never pay full price for anything.  I say 'almost' because it isn't healthy to deal in absolutes.  Never say never, and all that.  Keep in mind, though, that it is only a bargain if it is something you have been seeking for a while and actually need.  95% off of something you will never use is really spending 100% too much.

I need a triathlon wet suit for my race coming up in August.

I swam the 600m sprint triathlon without one, but felt that 1.2 miles of open water swim in a half-Ironman calls for the added buoyancy and protection of a wet suit.  Unfortunately, triathlon wet suits are not cheap.  At least, not as cheap as a regular run of the mill water sports wet suit.  Those aren't really cheap, either.  Triathlon wet suits are designed for swimming, not playing.  They are thinner and more flexible in the shoulders for arm rotation and in the ankles for speedy exits from the suit during transitions.  They conform to the thickness ratings set forth by USA Triathlon, the governing body that oversees sanctioned races.  Some regular sport wet suits are too thick.  Triathlon is not a cheap sport, and the wet suit is the second most expensive piece of equipment, next to the bike.  So, I've had it in the back of my mind that I need to acquire one.  I haven't been looking, just mulling it over.

And then I got the e-mail.

There is a triathlon store in Lehi (one town over).  A store dedicated to one obscure sport is pretty rare.  I'm on their mailing list and received a notification that they are closing their brick and mortar stores and going online only.  As a result, all inventory in the store had to go and was being sold off at 60% off.  I just had to go and check it out.

I FOUND A WET SUIT!!!  It is a Zoot Fuzion, which means pretty much nothing to you, I am sure, but I am very satisfied that I got a $300 suit for only $128 (post tax)!  It isn't really in the budget for this month, even at that price, but it is highly unlikely that I will find a better price between now and the race.  The cheapest discount I can find for the same suit online puts it at the $150-$210 range (pre tax), so I really did find a deep bargain this time.

I snapped it up a week ago.  I am very happy, glad, excited, et cetera!   Bill suggested I take it out to the lake and try it out right away.  I think I'll wait for the lake to thaw out, thanks.  It's not a dry suit, after all.  It is rated for 50-80 degree water, not frozen arctic water!  I will make sure it gets plenty of use this summer, though!

When Life Gets Too Busy

When life gets too busy, what goes on the back burner for you?

For me, it is always exercise.

Always.

Exercise is something I do solely for me.  It is personal time.  It is 'me' time.

So, when the schedule gets overly full and I am needed by too many others, I sacrifice 'me' time.

I am sure I am not alone in this.  I know a lot of mothers who sacrifice 'me' time all the time.  That's why it is so hard to lose the baby fat and why it is so easy to pack on even more pounds as the years progress.

This is my way of confessing that I only got in my Monday and Saturday workouts this week.

I had my work evaluation this week.  Once every three years of my teaching career I am required to be evaluated by my principal on my teaching skills and techniques.  Once every three years is a long interval, so, when it crops up, my stress level shoots through the roof!  I had been dreading it and stressing about it for weeks.  The days leading up to it were consumed with worry and distraction.  I practically chewed my lip off I was so nervous.  I gave up exercise on Wednesday night (the night before the evaluation) in order to go over my lesson plan and design the worksheet to go with it.

That was after spending the first half of the evening over at the high school for parent/teacher conferences, of course.  Fortunately, Bill was able to come with me and we did manage to see most of the kids' teachers.  My kids both had some missing assignments/papers, so, Thursday evening (and night) was spent helping them catch up.  More specifically, in helping my son get a literary analysis paper done for his English class.  That was fun, especially since I had never read the book he was writing it on.  It's a good thing he did otherwise that paper would have been doomed.

Just a side note to all you parents out there.  If you feel like there was some part of high school that you did not learn thoroughly enough back in the day, never fear.  You will get a second chance to re-learn all of it when your kids go through.  I ROCK at Algebra 2, now.

So, how did the evaluation go, you ask?

FANTASTIC!!!  I got a perfect score.  I was giggling like a demented school girl in the car on the way home yesterday afternoon after finishing up the post evaluation debriefing.  Be glad you missed it, because I am sure I sounded disturbed.  It felt like floating on air to have all that stress and worry lifted off my shoulders.  I had known all along that it would be fine.  I would have had to do something majorly idiotic to be fired, but I wanted that perfect score.  Goofy, I know.

And, there is the fact that my principal had never done a formal evaluation on me before.  He asked me 6 years ago to leave my old school and come start up the art program when this school first opened.  When it was time for my eval 3 years ago, we had an assistant principal who stepped in and did the evaluation (and I wasn't happy with that.  He was new at the job and felt like he couldn't give a perfect score to anybody, so he fabricated reasons to mark a couple of things down to prevent it), so this was the first time since hiring me that my boss actually sat down and watched me teach with the purpose of evaluating how good I am as a teacher.  I'm glad I measured up.

I saw the cycle class instructor at the gym this morning and he mentioned that he missed me in the class this past week.  It is nice to be missed.  I promised him I'd be back at it this coming week.  I can't let myself give up 'me' time too often.  I have a date to keep.  Two in fact.  June 9th and August 25th!

7 Miles

I am back into marathon training mode.

Most of the time, I am in "maintenance" mode.  That means that I do a 5K each time I run, trying to improve my time on that distance.  But when a long race is looming, I have to change what I do to get ready for it.

You can't simply run 26.2 miles out of the blue.  You will damage something.  The body can't withstand that kind of abuse, not cold turkey.  Endurance runners have to build up tolerance and resilience for that kind of sustained pounding on the joints and bones.  It takes at least 18 weeks of slow build up of miles to be able to pull it off.

And so, I have begun.

Last year, I ran 4 days a week to get ready.  This time, I am doing something different.

I am only running 3 days a week, but I am throwing cross training in on two more days for a total of 5 days of training per week.  My week of training looks something like this:

• Monday - Long Run 
• Tuesday - Swim
• Wednesday - Cycle Class + 5K (3.1 mi.) tempo run
• Thursday - Swim (+ occasional Cycle Class)
• Friday - Off
• Saturday - 3-5 mi. intervals run
• Sunday - Off

The 'Long Run' started out as a 6 mile run last week.  This week it was 7 miles.  Each week it will increase by 1 mile, until I hit the 20 mile mark in late May.  Then I will taper off for a couple of weeks before the race to allow complete recovery of the muscles for the big day.  The slow increase is critical for avoiding injury.  I think the cross training with swimming and cycling will also aid in injury prevention.  Not to mention I have to keep up with those disciplines in order to train for the triathlon happening in late summer!

A 'tempo' run means running at your normal pace.  Not pushing it.  Since it is right after a cycle class, it is a good way to work on that tough transition between the bike and run portions of the triathlon.  That is, by far, the hardest part of the triathlon for me!

An 'intervals' run is what it sounds like.  You break your running into intervals that are varied in some way.  It may be a speed interval (med/fast/ recovery/repeat) to increase your overall speed, or a ramped interval (low/med/high incline) to improve your running abilities on a hilly course.

Sundays are off for the obvious reason that it is a day of rest.  Fridays are off because it is Date Night!

Finding time for all of this is not easy, and it would have been impossible when my kids were little.  Any of you reading this and feeling like you could never find the time for such a crazy workout schedule, don't despair.  There are times and seasons for all things!  It may not be your time for crazy exercise schedules... but you should DEFINITELY find at least 30 minutes 3-5 days a week to dedicate to your own health!  A healthy Mommy is a happy Mommy.  And a happy Mommy has a happy, healthy family.  I just wish I had taken my own advice all of those years!

I did my 7 miles on the indoor track, today.  I know I am a wuss when it comes to cold.  It was almost warm enough outside for me to run out there.  Almost, but not quite.  The treadmills were all taken, so I had to run on the track.  Bill thinks I am nuts for liking to run on either one.  He sees the monotony of both as mind numbingly dull.  I see the monotony as mind freeing.  You have no idea just how far and wide my mind wanders while my body remains in place!

Even the track was packed with people, although most of them were walkers.  At any given time, there were only about 3 joggers making the circuit.  I will admit, it gives my a rush to be one of the few instead of one of the many.

My gym is city owned.  That makes it more affordable than the local Golds Gym.  And, admittedly, more run down, too.  That's okay, though.  I'm all about affordable.  Because it is city owned, the local fire department comes to my gym to keep in shape.  A complimentary pass is one of the perks of the job.  I often see the guys there.  The developmental center also uses the gym.  The developmental center is a residential facility for people with severe mental handicaps.  They are brought to the gym with their assigned helpers (I mentally think of them as 'handlers'.  I hope that isn't too offensive.  I don't feel it is when I think it.  Rockstars have handlers, too.)

Today, I was about half way through my run when both the firemen and developmental center residents showed up.  It increased the amount of dodging and weaving I had to do, as I worked my way around the handicapped, who would stop in the middle of the lane, or even walk the wrong direction.  I didn't mind.  How can you mind?  They may have adult bodies, but they have the mind of a little child.  They are certainly not doing it on purpose.

There was one woman in particular who would stop in the middle of the lanes and watch people pass by.  She seemed very happy to be there.  I noticed she was giving high fives to the firemen as they passed.  That made me smile!  I started wishing she'd give ME a high five, too!  But every time I passed... no high five.  And I passed her a lot.  I was done with my 7 miles and was in my cool down walking laps when it happened!  I got a high five!  Ah, that just made my day!

There you have it.  7 miles today.  Next Monday it will be 8.  I will be hoping for a treadmill or warm weather.  It is something of a pain to count out all those laps.  13 laps/mile.  It is not a big track.  Oi.

Winter Swimming

It takes extra effort to convince myself to remove all the layers of clothing keeping me warm

and to slink into my bathing suit.

Then I shiver as I put back on layer after layer

for the trip to the pool.

It is 20 degrees as I boldly step out of my front door

and begin the freezing trek up the hill.

The bitter wind flays me as it whips the exposed skin on my face.

I am miserable and grim as I plod up the hill,

still shivering and huddled in my parka.

I wonder why in the world I am doing this.

At the pool, I quickly strip down and stand in a hot shower

to warm up.

(And to protect my hair from the chlorine.

Fact: wet hair will absorb less chlorine and take less damage from pool water...

especially if you coat it in conditioner and stuff it in a cap)

On the pool deck I am shivering again.

The air inside the bubble seems chilly after the hot shower.

However...

Once I am in the water

slicing through the lane,

buoyed up by the warmth

and the steady cadence of a swim stroke;

I feel winter melt away

and it is summer once more!

I am happy

and I am free.

On the walk back home,

wrapped in nothing but a towel, some sandals, and my parka,

I stroll back down the hill

enjoying the gentle caress of the playful breeze

as it wraps around my bare legs.

The night seems mild and friendly.

As I pass by ice along the side of the road,

no grim thoughts of cold enter my mind

because I am my own furnace...

the after burn of exercise.