April Recap, which I don't normally do...

April Recap/Stats:

Today I dropped my kiddos w/ TMB and ran 3 miles... just so I could log my *ONE HUNDRED MILES for the month.  (*that's in the Austin Power's Dr. Evil voice, incase you wondered)

Miles Planned/Ran: planned???  Nope, no plan/ONE HUNDRED MILES.

Highest Mileage Week: 30 M

Current Book: "Anatomy & Physiology of the Human" Chapters 1 - 11.  Sexy, eh?  But also, the "J.R. Ward" Vampire Smut of the Brotherhood... omg... so naughty, and so nice all at the same time.

Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure: See above note, JR Ward... V... it's all bad.

Current Colors:  Pink.  Not that THAT is new, but since all my good running socks are pink, and I've been running a fair bit this month, I think, well, yea, PINK is the color.

Current Obsessions: See above note, JR Ward... V... it's all bad.

Current Drink: Iced Coffee or Water.

Current Song: ... I need some new music.

Current Wish-List: Have you ever visited the Runningskirts.com website?

Current Need: An extra 24 hours between today and Final Exam part 1 on Monday May 3.

Current Triumph: 100 miles in ONE MONTH!

Current Bane of my Existence: iTunes has decided that all my music is "bandit", and that I need to re-enter my password every time I want to play a song.  Really?  Why?

Current Goal: Run with Good Form.

Current Indulgence: There Cannot BE a current indulgence, since I used up all my Indulgence "credit" in March.

Current Blessing:  My BFF & her understanding that 3 kid free miles isn't JUST 3 miles, and D, who I feel blessed to just know, and my kids, of course, because if I leave them off I think lightening will strike the house.

Current Excitement: ALL the tools that have recently been bestowed upon me by the NEW Running Coach in my life!

Hope May is JUST as fun as April!!!  And honestly, I probably won't be back until Finals are OVER, on May 5th at 9:40pm... not that I'm counting the minutes, but that's when they officially end.

HIGH FIVE!!!

Fridays in Blog-land are the day we rejoice in other's fun!  So, HIGH FIVE goes out to MEL, who is running for MARATHON REDEMPTION!

And it's the last day of the month, and for the first time in a long running time, I'm excited about what I've done.  SO, what did I do?  A little back story will make it all clear.

In JANUARY I ran 5 miles total for the month.
In FEBRUARY I ran 27 miles total for the month.
In MARCH I ran 54 miles total for the month.
In APRIL I ran 97 miles total for the month.

Ninety Seven.  I. SO. KICK. A**.

So, just a thought here... if I can convince C to go out for a 3 mile training run with me before the close of business today, I'll have made it to 100 miles...

What's in store for me next month?  Well, I'm hoping for 110+ miles

Food Inc. Thoughts

Yesterday I watched the PBS POV program FOOD INC.  Wow.  I will NEVER look at food the same way again.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, this is just a tiny portion of what the PBS website had to say about the film:

Food, Inc. is a powerful, startling indictment of industrial food production, revealing truths about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

"Eric Schlosser and I had been wanting to do a documentary version of his book Fast Food Nation, says director Kenner, "and, for one reason or another, it didn't happen. By the time Food, Inc. started to come together, we realized that most of the food in the supermarket had become industrialized just like fast food. Then we realized there's something going on out there that supersedes foods. Our rights are being denied in ways that I had never imagined. And it was scary and shocking.

"But things can change in this country," he adds. "It changed against the big tobacco companies. We have to influence the government and readjust these scales back into the interests of the consumer. We did it before, and we can do it again."

Food, Inc. is a production of Participant Media and River Road Entertainment, distributed by Magnolia Pictures.

I don't have a tremendous amount of time to reflect on it, I just want to encourage anyone who has ever wondered where the meat in their (preferred grocery store) comes from, or what "those ingredients are in bread/ketchup/packaged muffins/processed foods made from", to watch it.

I can tell you it was an eye opening program for me, and I think it's time for THIS family to start buying local at the farmers market.  We have a great farmers market a mile from my home in the greater Richmond area.  And even though it will mean less meat for our family because we're going to be spending a bit more & getting a bit less, I think it's the right thing to do.

If you want more information, check the PBS.org website:
http://www.pbs.org/pov/foodinc/photo_gallery_watch.php

Running Slower to Run Faster

I finally get it.  After talking with TMB for all of 20 minutes, the light switched on and I know where I've been wrong with the math before.  I always tried to apply the Run Slower To Get Faster theory to my training, and my pace was right on track.  So why wasn't I getting faster, even though I was running an easy 25 miles every week?

Duh, because to do what I want to do AND run slower to get faster, you have to run MANY MORE miles a week than 25-28.  Knowing how undertrained I was for the Marathon, it makes me appreciate how much worse I could have been hurt.  I'm going to really struggle to add those miles, but I know I can do more than I'm doing.  By the time Nov rolls around I'm going to have some kick a** base under my feet.

So enough with the killing myself over 8 miles and dragging my sorry a** up the driveway every Tuesday, I'm now going to run a little slower, so I can finish more miles comfortably.  And to start, this week, I'm adding 10% to every run.  That makes my 8 an "8.8", my 5 a "5.5", my 3 a... well, 3 b/c it's C's run with me, and my 10.75 a "12".

Happy Easy Running!

Race-iversary 5K De Ja Vous

Every year I run the ASK 5K.

And for the most part, every year I am pleased with my race.

Except, this year, not as much.  It didn't suck.  I mean, it was a 5K, so it sucked in the way a 5K sucks to someone who prefers distances more than 6 miles.  Here's the run down of the run.

I set a few goals:

• Race a 26:21 or better.  
• Finish strong on the uphill by Dillards (the first half of the race is down, the second half of the race is back up.  It's not steep, just long).
• Don't go out too fast.

SO, the goals were set, I met up with Carla.  Life was good.  The race started and I looked at my watch, a 7:22...  NOPE, the goal is to not start too fast.  So I choked back on my speed.  

And UNDER ran the first mile by 9ish seconds.  Uh.  Oh.  THIS is a 5K.  It's going to be hard to make up 10 seconds Running. Up. Hill.  But I was going to do it.  (mile 1 8:29).

I caught up some of my lost seconds (3 to be specific) in mile 2.  (mile 2 8:22)

Then, I made a rookie mistake of not checking my watch on the longish up hill, which means when I did look at my watch at mile 3, I knew I was screwed.  I lost a lot of time.  A LOT.  (mile 3 8:47)  I had hoped for an 8:20, an 8:25 (b/c of the hill at mile 1.8), an 8:30 (b/c of the hill on mile 2.5 - 3).  I feel that I ran hard, but I know I could have squeaked a little more out of that hill if I'd pushed a little harder.

SPRINT a 6:50 pace with a "best pace of 5:08".  I'd like to THANK CARLA for the 5:08, because I know it was when we were racing at the end.

Finish time.  26:31.  Exactly what I raced this same 5K in last year.  To the second.

(and to be fair, Carla out-sprinted me by 1 second there at the end.  You GO girl).

Living the Dream

Find me a mom who runs, and I'll find you a mom who dreams of having runner kids.

To wake up and find that I'm living the dream has been an interesting and unexpected thing.  My C, at a whopping 10 years old, has decided to train for a 5K.

Last year she ran the last mile of a 5K, and whoa, that was harder than she thought, but she wanted to be a runner anyway.  So I made up a little mini-training plan and tried to get her to run with me all last summer.

Tried is the most important part of that sentence.

So this year, when she announced she was going to run the "whole 5K", I gave her the training plan, and then... I refused to do her "short runs" with her.  Instead I gave her my Garmin and told her to run around the culdesac until it read X miles.  Seriously, why waste the time on getting myself together to run, only to have her whine and complain for 10 minutes that it was too hard and she didn't want to run with me any more?  By doing it this way, I have given her all the control, so she feels each step of accomplishment as solely hers.  We do her "long run" together on Saturday mornings (because women run in groups on their long runs, for safety and I want her to know that), and she's become quite the little runner having built up to 2.5 miles.  I'm not saying they were easy 2.5 miles, but she's muscling through them.  Just like me, when she's in "race mode" she tends to bolt out going WAY to fast and die at the end, but ~sniff~ at least she gets something from me, as we look NOTHING alike.

Sometime very soon, she's going to race her 5K, and then her dream will be realized as well as mine.


(I might not post until after, because of security issues I have with tattooing my kids name on her shirt and sending her out alone in public after I've announced on the internet she'll be alone, call me crazy & narcissistic).

Wordless Wednesday

The problem with a blog as a diary, is that you can't always write what you want.... didn't we just discuss this?  SO today will be wordless Wednesday, but not because I don't have words, instead because I cannot share them.

A GLARING Ommission

So as I was sending my H off to work today, I opened my mouth to mention something to him about the gym and marathon training, and suddenly thought, "Oh SNAP, I'm not sure he even KNOWS I'm running RIC this November."  Uh oh.  I better start priming him now, because it would be a disaster if he doesn't have a little while to prep himself, and a double disaster if he finds out from someone else first.

Obviously, he doesn't read the blog.

on other notes:  Word from the Half Iron Woman is that "I'm over thinking this" and to "just run my usual run schedule" only add "2 days of real biking in on the sides" along with "one swim... got that?"


Thanks SpeeDee, I will treasure your wisdom.  Because as much as I'm excited about doing a Sprint Tri & want to do well, the Tri Training over laps with a 17.75K race AND with my Marathon Training... which means that 12 - 30 minutes of running twice a week is NOT going to cut it.

Tri to Love

It isn't L.O.V.E.  OR even love.  Heckfireandshoot, this isn't even, "like you enough to get your phone number".  I'm not even sure we can be FACEBOOK FRIENDS.  Yea, Begining Tri Training Plan, I'm just not feelin' it, you know?  It's not me, it's you.

Sorry, but no matter how much I browse, I am NOT in love with any of the tri-training plans that I am shopping for my tri in August.  Why is that?  Well, mostly because they call for things like "biking every week"... more than once.  I know, it's hard to love something you don't love, and I need to suck it up.  I just don't know if it's the bike (sorry PINK) or something else, but it's hard to love biking for 42 minutes every Thursday- because I don't.  

And if I bike for 42 minutes on a Thursday, when did I have time to run?  I could move the bike to Wednesday, but that would eat into my swim time.  And Tuesday eats up another run day.  What about Monday?, you ask.  Well, don't be silly, that's a rest day because I was running for 2 hours on Sunday....


These training plans are so odd.  The ones I'm "shopping" assume you've been doing something physical, but I guess these people are bike lovers because they seem to assume that you would like to just be doing the cycling every Saturday for hours, when, let's be honest, that's so NOT something a runner will do.  For example one of the plans I'm looking at calls for 42 minutes of biking on Wednesday and (brace yourselves here runners) 15 minutes of running on Thursday.  


Hello, why would anyone worth their salt lace up their Brooks for a 15 minute run?  
That's, well, to be blunt, effin' crAzy.

A thought that is tingling around in my head is that I might just do the TRI plan with 3 days a week running, ignore the "prescribed run amounts" and do whatever I like to do.  That way I would at least have enough running in each week to keep me off of any kind of D.T. symptoms.  Do I worry about doing too much?  Maybe, yea, a little.  But, at least I would be doing too much of the thing I love.

(yea, I'm an addict, & they say that admitting it's the first step.  but don't ask me to quit running, my marriage can't take it).

Why Despair?... Why?

Once upon a time there was a curvy woman who lived in fear of Failure.  She wasn't beautiful, but she wasn't plain, falling instead into the category of women who are simply acceptable looking.  She usually wore her long hair pinned into submission, and on most occasions she considered that she was probably doing OK with herself in life.  The one thing she hated about herself though, despised without any pretense, was that she was cursed with an exceptionally tuned sense of smell.  And not matter what she did, she could not rid herself of the curse.

Failure, a big hairy monster lived so near by that she could smell his foul odor ever day, and the odor of his brother, Despair.  Now, to say Despair and Failure were never apart, would be a lie, but so often they were together that the curvy woman knew without a doubt that if she encountered Failure, Despair would be riding on his heels.  Failure was invisible, she could never see It, but she knew, It was right there, because she could smell It.

Failure ruled her life.  She never attempted anything she could not finish.

Then she met Running.

And as she grew to love Running, her fear of Failure was diminished.  Running put Failure to bed, so to speak, because she really could never encounter Failure, even if she had a rotten time out with Running. With her fears behind her, one could imagine that she lived happily ever after.

Unfortunately, that is really not the case.

Despair continues to haunt her.  She doesn't know why, but it follows her some days like a black cloud of putrid scent.  It settles over her bed at night and if she falls asleep, it cloaks itself in the dark, waiting for her to dream.  It sneaks into her mind during class, causing lack of focus.  Despair hovers on the edge of her vision, even when she is doing normal things, like checking the apples for soft spots under competent fingers that know how much pressure the produce should yield, and she can sometimes see it in her blind spot when she is changing lanes in the beige mini-van.

In her valiant attempts to fortify her defenses, she has learned only one thing that keeps Despair away for any length of time, and thank God, it's not OREO cookies.  (though she did try that for a bit)

She knows is that when she is with Running, Despair cannot keep pace, and within a few minutes she is able to escape his choking hold on her life.  So the question is, how can she keep Running with her all the time, even when she is sitting in class or driving to pre-school?

The B-Ridge & Why I'm going to die young

Let me introduce you to my B-Ridge.  She is a small person, with a HUGE personality trapped inside.  She cannot stand still.  Need proof?  

Here is the concentration she exerts when trying to remain still for a photograph.

painful to look at, eh?

But yesterday, while I was multitasking (aka - managing homework w/ 2 older kids, reading a trashy smut novel, talking with my mother on the phone while making dinner) my youngest walked silently out the back door, put on her bike helmet and rode her princess bike to her "breast frens" house.  Fortunately her friends house is 3 houses away, and the mom saw the whole thing go down... as well as me shooting out my back door like a rocket about 2 minutes later.

So we know a cat has 9 lives, right?  How many lives does a Mom get?  Because I have used 3 up on the B-Ridge already, and I just want to know about how many I have left.

Three Things Thursday

1)  My youngest child will be the death of me.

2)  I am the kind of person who, no matter how many times you tell her how, will never remember exactly what steps will unlock my home voicemail box.

3)  I had probably the best "just because I love to run" run today of my life.  Just went out for 4 miles, stayed out for 5, and probably could have run 1 more if time had allowed.  All negative splits.  Just because I can, not because I had to for training purposes.  Ah, ~bliss.

An Open Letter to Sleep

Dear Sleep,

I miss you, please come home.

When we're apart, I feel groggy, disoriented, and slow.  I struggle to think of words that would normally come zinging off the tip of my tongue, and I know it's because we are apart.  My spelling and grammar suffer, and my creativity fades into nothingness.  Further more, my attention span, already teetering on the edge of becomes... what was I saying?


Oh right:  Please, just reconsider your relocation to, well, wherever it is you've gone, and return to me.  I promise never to take you for granted again.

With love,
Neurotic Mom of 3

"6" Things Saturday

I missed wordless Wednesday.  And Then I missed 3 Things Thursday AND Five Things Friday.  How is this possible?  Have I become a BLOG LOSER?  Maybe.... but maybe, I have a good enough reason, so we'll just go about our business so you can decide.

6 THINGS Saturday, my week in review:
1) FAIL
2) COUGAR BAIT
3) Wanna Smoke some POT?
4) BOOTY KICKIN!
5) Awesome early RUN!
6) ALGEBRA & imaginary numbers

To be clear, family home, traveling, or not, Monday was without a doubt, the weirdest day in my life since 1999.  No, truly.

For starters I (slight throat clearning), um, failed a test. Yea, uh, it was a computer competence exam and now I have to retake it.  And if I fail it again, I have to take another college class to get out of school.  It kinda sucks, on many many levels.

Then, I was kinda pissed off/shocked to the core when I walked out of the building in my khaki shorts and pink v-neck t-shirt... so when the 18 ish looking wanna be rap star gave me the ole' head nod, I did not give him the "go to he**" look I normally reserve for smoking teenagers who give me the once over.  Maybe I didn't respond because, frankly, it's been a while since someone that age even looked in my direction.  I just sort of ignored it.  Which he apparently took as an invitation into my personal space because as I approached the door to enter the science building, he stepped in front of me and said, "So... are you a teacher here?"  "No." and THEN I gave him the, get out of my way look.  And his response was, "Yea, you- uh- want to teach me somethin'?"  What!  Really Dude?  I have been out of highschool as long as you've been alive.  Should I take it as a compliment that the piece of cougar bait thought I would make a good "teacher"?  Or, should I feel a little ill?

Then, as if Things weren't weird enough, I got invited back to (a person's) house to smoke some really great pot.

I've never smoked pot.  I'm asthmatic.  I'm a marathoner.  But, it was a really nice offer, so, Thanks again... but, no thanks.

After a late night studying, I got up first thing Tuesday, went for a run with T, and then I took my Nursing School Entrance Exams... and kicked BOOTY.  Did I mention, BOOTY KICKING???  Booty has been kicked.  I needed a 45 on reading & a 45 on math, I got an 86 on reading and an 86 on math.  ((And I was awarded a stiletto award - that's going to have to be dealt with tomorrow or Monday)).  And at some point that day I got a call from H.  The Beige Mini-Van was in the shop in MA.  They were staying an extra day.

 By Wednesday morning I had successfully read 2 books for pleasure, and studied Algebra for 6 hours.  And I felt prepared so I took my Math Exit Exam, and while I didn't KICK BOOTY by definition, I did successfully execute the exit of Math.  So, yay for that.  Math is done.  But, just a little gripe here, I would have scored higher on that test if I had reviewed imaginary numbers.  Just sayin'.

By Thursday - I realized that I was really lonely for my family.  As therapy I took another early morning run with T.  And then I took stock of what my life would be like without a family and here's where things stand:

• there is no place in the "single" world for a crock pot the size of mine.
• I'm a pretty clean person, except not about my laundry.  I like a clean house, but don't care if the hampers is piled 4 miles high.  I did do all my running laundry though, and did you know I have 10 running skirts?  Really.  10.  When did THAT happen?
• I don't have a problem sticking to my diet when living in a completely non-stress environment. (I often wonder that, I am the freak who has no problem losing weight on vacation)
• Ah, reading for pleasure, I remember you!  How I've missed you & our time together!
• I don't know how to make coffee for ONE. Do you need some coffee? C'mon over, the pot is probably half full...
• I love to cook, normally. However, I apparently only love to cook for an audience, as demonstrated by my lack of cooking in the past 5 days. Most of the time I can only be bothered to toss fruit and veggies into my blender with some ice for consumption through a straw.
• Apparently my meat aversion is genuine, and I really don't care for meat.  The entire time my family was gone I had 2 servings of meat and 1 serving of fish.  And never felt deprived.
• On the drive to the grocery store I discovered that playing the punch-buggy game in the car is not any fun when you're alone.
• I cannot sleep past 6:10am and enjoyed the luxury of getting up to run in the mornings without the stress of worrying about getting everybody up, ready, and out the door.

All things said, my family is home safe now, and I'm glad to have them back.  Hope everyone had a great week, and I'll be back with some random humor soon enough.  

Really though, how am I going to top cougar bait and pot smoking?

lookin' for love

SPB* seeks SF for companionship, possibly more. Enjoys long hilly bike rides and hanging out with friends on weekends. Call me so we can see if we're a match!  (*single pink bike) 

Today, after a very LONG 7 mile run with TMB *and by long, I mean closer to 8 miles, I decided to toss PINK in the JEEP and go for a ride.  A bike ride, not a car ride.  

Pink and I met friends for a double date (SpeeDee & Trina)/"blind date" (Arty & petunia). They're both IRON WOMEN in training... I started to call them Half IRON WOMEN, but they pointed out that they're in training. And sometimes the goal toward the future is more important than the accomplishments of the past. So we'll call them IronWomen.

and to be clear

THEY CAN RIDE CIRCLES AROUND ME AND MY PINK SCHWINN

But, also to be clear, here I am riding circles on my Pink Schwinn. Pink and I had a great ride. Albeit, a slow a** ride where I was pushing for all I had just to keep them in my sights... but a ride, none the less.

 Imagine, for an analogy, that you've run about 5 times, and a BQ runner invites you to join them on a training run... and you're dumb enough to say yes. SpeeDee as such a good sport about riding back or slowing down so she could still shout instructions aaaaaaaaaall the way back where I would hear here. "Stay to the Left here, we're turning"... but the whole time I'm riding, I'm watching her make it look SOOOOOOO easy.  And. It. Was. Not. Easy.

Every now and then my struggles were punctuated by Arty & Petunia searing by us at what appeared to be light speed. Really, she looked super strong, and I felt super weak.  And here's a little amusing tidbit.  I've been reading this really hilarious blog called The Reluctant Triathlete for, well, I don't know.... a year?  Yea, probably a year.  And I JUST REALIZED NOW that THAT is why Arty looked SO FAMILIAR.  So, I've gone back a changed her name to Arty, to reflect her Blogness Identity.  (RT = Reluctant Triathlete = Arty).  Be Flattered Arty, not everyone gets a "cool bloggy name" here at NofSahm.

 But enough rambings about me & Pink... Thanks to the ladies & their wicked cool road bikes for letting me tag along! And now that I know where the super secret meeting spot is, I know how to stalk you join you in the future!

Easter Sunday

Because the Catholics & Episcopals have invented the most awesome thing called Saturday Church, I ... have the day off today.

so, i slept in. till 6am. because, i am apparently hard-wired to wake up at 6am. UHG! Then I came downstairs and realized that the house is exactly the way I left it yesterday. There are no new dishes in the sink, on the coffee table, and no clothes/toys/books strewn about the floor.

And now, I'm going for a run with TMB. (who wrote the most beautiful post up about her wedding, you should go look at it on racingwithbabes)

AND then, after my 7 miles, I'm going for a ride. With PINK. And EVEN BETTER than attempting a ride with PINK alone, we have a DOUBLE DATE with BitsNpiecesofme & her bike, Trina, AS well as her training partner & her bike, Petunia.

I think it's hilarious that everyone names their bikes. I had no idea when I assigned the name PINK to my bike that it would stick. If I'd known PINK was going to end up with a name, I might have named her something better. I always hated it when I knew someone growing up who was given a brown puppy and they named the puppy Brownie.

It's going to be an AWESOME DAY!!! Because when I get home from my ride... the house is STILL GOING TO BE in the same condition!!!