The Countdown Begins

As always, a lot has happened! Mostly good, but one little bad thing. But I'll get to that. So you know I have been extremely busy for a while now and have been quite stressed. Chasen has said over and over "You need a vacation." The problem is that as much as I like the idea of getting away from it all, the wife and mama in me doesn't like the idea of going to experience something new, exciting or beautiful without my boys. (I know... I'm surprised, too.) But then the perfect opportunity arose: Team Mojo Loco! I will be flying to Florida in December for this awesome relay race experience with so many awesome runners: Maddy, Steve Runner, Zen Runner, Marathon Chris, Ed Marathon, Samantha UF, Crazy Runner, Chris Russell, Nik & Dan and Jus' Norman.

I am pumped! This will be 9 weeks after I run the Chicago Marathon.

Speaking of Chicago... guess what. I am going to have a running partner! It is... drumroll please... MADDY! We knew we were both running and we were very excited to finally get to meet in person at the expo. I figured that'd be it as Maddy is quite a bit faster than me. But a few weeks ago she asked my goal pace, etc. and then asked if I'd like a running partner. Well, of course! With her at my side, I believe I will be pushed a bit (much needed) and I believe I can run MUCH faster than I have in training. That, plus at this point the projected high for the day is 55 degrees. Yessssss! I am very, very excited.

On Thursday night I only managed to get about 3 hours of sleep. Ouch. That really stank considering I had a continuing education class all day Friday. I managed to hold it together and stay awake. On the way home as I was stopped at a stop light, a woman decided to try to drive in front of me from beside me. Here's what happened:

Ruh-roh! My first accident in 11 years!

I am 100% fine and Isaac was not with me. Still, though, now I have to deal with insurance and a body shop. Ick.

Since I had so little sleep, I decided to postpone my FINAL pre-marathon longish run from Saturday until Sunday. I can run on little sleep if need be, but there's just no need to do so 2 nights in a row. So I caught up on some sleep on Friday night. On Saturday night I got all ready for Sunday morning.

Oh happy day - one more time to wake in the wee hours.

I set my alarm for 2:30 AM. [Shut it... it's just necessary as I needed to be home no later than 8 AM.] I was to do 14 mile repeats (yes, 14, thanks Galloway) and walk 5 minutes in between. As I walked out my back door I just thought "This is getting really, really old. Thank heavens this is the last time." I still use the 2:1 method, which means I have to really hustle when I am running the 2-minute portions. They looked like this: 12:04, 12:05, 12:04, 12:07, 12:10, 11:59 (downhill!), 12:07, 13:06, 12:28, 12:22, 13:13, fatigue. I walked the rest of the way. Oh well - it has been a difficult 21 weeks of Galloway.

As is my usual routine, an ice bath followed. Pure heaven! After church, a very long nap ensued. Also heaven!

Here my my two best guys after naptime. Aren't they cute?

Look at that happy 19-month-old!

So Chasen is training for the St. Jude Half, right? Well tonight he abandoned Teddy Tready and hit the neighborhood and ran - get this! - 8 miles! I am so proud of him. That is something he has not done in about 10 years. Go Chasen go! I will be the best cheering section Memphis has ever seen come December 4th. Par-tay!

I Met Jeff Galloway!

So there I was on Friday afternoon, about to head to pick up Isaac from Mother's Day Out when I decided to see what was going on in the world of Facebook. Out of the clear blue, with only one notification, it seemed that Jeff Galloway would be at my favorite running store in Memphis. OMG! I called Chasen and then Isaac and I made a beeline for the store. Oh how excited I was!

I arrived early, not knowing how traffic would be. I was in line at the register when in walked Mr. Galloway himself. Aaaaaaa! He spoke to the girl waiting to greet him and the proceeded to talk to everyone there like they were all old friends. Chasen soon arrived and so did my turn to talk with him. He was super nice, very friendly and personable. We talked about my training, the Extra Mile Podcast Experiment, Kevin... and he even asked if I had any questions for him. What a guy!

Jeff, Isaac, Susan... old friends! I made sure to get a photo for Kevin to see.

So this weekend, as a followup to last week's 24-miler, I was to do a mere 6 miles. What a vacation! I slept until 5:40 AM and was back home before 8 AM. Easy as pie! Next weekend I have 14 mile repeats with 5 minutes of walking in between. Yikes! Two weeks after that... it's game time.

Mother's Day Out

Yesterday was Isaac's first day at Mother's Day Out. I had been looking forward to this day for over 26 weeks per my Baby Blues post written in March. Time alone is a much, much desired thing these days!

When we arrived (with swarms of others kiddos and moms) we went straight to his classroom where his sweet teacher was waiting, and he immediately went to the play kitchen area. He was already occupied!

Hey, tall girl, let me show you how to cook. I watch my mommy do it ALL THE TIME.

He would hardly pause his investigation of the new toys long enough to come take a picture with me, but I got one (minus his cute smile).

Hmm... I wonder if Mommy will start crying when she leaves here in a minute.

Next he went on to be his typical self and start getting into stuff. I told his teacher "He is a handful!"

Bad, bad iRoy Brown, baddest toddler in the whole dang town... (I crack myself up.)

I tried to "sneak out" but he caught me and we made eye contact just as I was closing the door. I skeedaddled out of there as quickly as I could without breaking into a run. I just hoped he wasn't throwing a fit.

I really should have gone home and went for a run, but I had some necessary errands to run. Then I proceeded to spend nearly every minute of my "time off" in front of the computer getting stuff done. I would have rather been relaxing, but this stuff had to be done. At least I could do it in peace!

In some ways, the 5 hours I spent away from Isaac went by rather slowly (a good thing) but on the other hand, it was approaching 2 PM before I knew it. I headed back to MDO and the parking lot was again packed. I sort of invented my own parking spot... I just HAD to get in there and scoop up my little guy! He saw me and came right to me. Awwww!

His teacher said that he did GREAT. She said he did not fuss one bit when I left and he acted like he had been coming there for ages. And she said he was no more of a handful than any of the other kids. Yay! He had a bit of trouble going down for his nap, but I anticipated that. And he had one accident in the play area, but hey - not a day goes by that I am not kissing boo-boo's!

He colored for the first time. Here is his masterpiece (which will stay on my fridge until our house has another showing):

My sweet baby boy, who is 19 months old today, did this. I love it!

So, Mother's Day Out is so far a big success. I hope Friday will be just as easy on him. It probably will be. And no, I did not cry. I was too giddy and proud. All I could do was smile.

Going For Broke

This has been a week of gearing up for big things and/or big changes to be made. A whopper of a change for Isaac is the impending start of Mother's Day Out (2 days per week, 5 hours each). On Thursday evening we went to the open house and saw his classroom and met his sweet teacher, Ms. Jennifer. I am very excited about this! I think he will learn so much and really enjoy his time at "school." They do actually teach the kiddos... it's not just babysitting. There is indeed a curriculum. And I will enjoy some much-desired "me time." Whoo hoo!

We also made the change to letting Isaac bathe in the "big boy tub," i.e. regular bathtub. He has been ready for this for months, but I just didn't want to see him leave behind the inflatable ducky tub.

I "doctored" a photo of him taken back in January. Here is the ducky I have so loved.

Here is my boy giving the look I often give while he enjoys the big boy tub.

Oh the fun he had splashing around! Check out all those teeth!

The next day things went south. Isaac started having fever with a vengeance, which I thought was teething-related. Now he has full-on congestion and it not eating hardly at all and is sleeping very sporadically. Thus, we are not getting good sleep around here. Aargh!

Never the less, I had a final pre-Chicago longrun to accomplish, and it HAD to be Saturday as I was booked on Sunday. I aimed to go at least 20 miles but preferably more. I really had to "go for broke" out there. Given the heat (which has returned in full force, lucky me) I really, really needed to have as much of the 20+ miler done by 8 AM as possible. Crazy, I know, but necessary. So I set my alarm for - brace yourselves - 1 AM. Yep - 1 AM. Given that I had not been getting good sleep, it is no surprise that I turned it off and overslept. I woke at 2:40 (late!!!) and sprang to action. I was at my church parking lot and hitting the start button at 3:31 AM. I parked there because it is basically my eastern-most safe-running out-and-back starting point. Our new house holds that honor on the west side of my course.

Given that my left big toe has always been very, very prone to massive blisters during 20+ milers, and my new toe cap had slid off due to sweat during a mid-week run, I opted to - brace yourselves again! - wrap it with gorilla tape. I have to say that worked wonderfully. Except... the seam I created on the inside of the big toe caused some rubbing and eventually some broken skin. So I think I will place the seam on top of my toe. I think that would be the lesser of all evils.

I used the Galloway 30:30 method that he recommends for running in the heat (walk 30 seconds, run 30 seconds). I simply just wanted to accomplish the miles and build up my endurance. It was not about speed! Here's how it went.

1) 14:13
2) 14:07

3) 14:19

4) 14:51

5) 14:42

6) 14:39

7) 15:23

8) 15:33

9) 15:44

10) 15:26

11) 15:33

12) 15:59

13) 15:43

14) 15:25

15) 15:56

16) 16:12

17) 16:52

18) 16:04

19) 16:14

20) 16:58

At this point I was back over by our new (still empty) house and thought "This is plenty. I've had it." I called Chasen and Isaac had woken with a fever yet again, so he was back asleep. Uh oh. I wasn't about to have him wake up my sick baby, so I said I'd just start walking. Every mile helps my endurance, by golly!

21) 20:01

22) 20:10

At this point I was sooooo tired and sore and my feet felt like they could burst info flames. I was 2 miles from home (forget the car parked at the church!) and was just dying for someone I know to drive by so I could wave them down to pick me up. No luck. And Isaac was still asleep. I contemplated calling a friend who lived near there to come get me, but I decided against it (because I am insane, apparently). The most I have EVER done in a training run is 22 miles, and that was 3 years ago.

23) 20:37

24) 20:46

By now I was in my neighborhood and was making literally the final turn before home and there came Chasen. "NOW?" I mouthed as he drove up. Jeez - you saved me all of a tenth of a mile, man! Ha.

Total - 6:32:00 for 24.02 miles

Average - 16:19 per mile

Man oh man - 24 miles. That is a long way. Mind you, my training plan actually called for 29. Eek! I was sooooo ready for an ice bath. I was hurting from the ears down (even my neck was sore). It's not every day that one runs 24 miles on less than 4 hours of sleep. Having to wake at 5 or 6 AM on marathon day will really seem like a vacation. Ha!

That night the most odd thing happened. I am usually hungry after such epic runs, as you can imagine, but this time it wasn't so much hunger as a craving. I craved salt for the first time ever. Past 9 PM I sent Chasen to the store. He brought back Rotel, pickles and olives. (No, I am NOT preggers.) I ate it like it was going out of style. Even today, the day after, I needed extra sodium (pickles) with my lunch.

The good news is that, thanks to the lovely ice bath, I was 100% recovered in less than 24 hours. No joke!

Now it's a downhill slide into Chicago. I still have a 14-mile speedwork session to accomplish 2 weeks from now (yes, 14, that is not a typo) but I feel I am as ready as I will be.

In other news, I have made the executive decision, based on several factors, to put off moving to our new house until a) after Chicago and b) after Chasen returns from his 10-day business trip overseas and "recovers" (whatever that may involve). Some "normal" would probably be best for Isaac and I as we face 10 days alone, 2 of which involve Isaac being "all alone" with a sitter as I travel to Chicago. So long as we have the "luxury" of owning our current home, we might as well make use of it!

What a journey... thanks for taking it with me.

Laboring on Labor Day

Man oh man - I am tired. You can expect to hear that repeated over and over until we get moved into our new house (possibly 20 days from now), I run the Chicago Marathon (33 days from now), and Chasen returns from his 10-day trip to India and China (37 days from now). Yikes - could I be any busier?

It's fairly impossible to get anything accomplished at the new house with Isaac in tow. He doesn't like being stuck in the pack-n-play, and I don't blame him. However, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, and this long weekend was no exception. We were there doing work Friday night (pulling up carpet and tack strips) and, due to Isaac's bedtime, we got in about 1.5 hours before we had to come home.

I'd much rather be playing in the water than watching Mommy and Daddy work.

On Saturday we decided to divide and conquer. I went over in the morning and removed some hardwood flooring and made a noble attempt at removing a wallpaper border in Isaac's soon-to-be new room. It was so difficult! Eventually I just gave up (which I do not usually do) so Chasen finished up that day. Thank heavens!

Isaac vs. pasta... the floor lost that battle.

On Sunday morning at 2:38 AM my little teething monster decided to wake up and not go back to sleep until 4 AM. Holy cow! Needless to say I missed my 5 AM wakeup call for speedwork. *sigh* That's life with a toddler. Chasen went to work on the house that day after church. He started to tackle the wallpaper border in the spare room. I have cursed those people and their wallpaper borders!

My little gentleman helps hand groceries to the cashier. Awww!

I finally got to my speedwork this morning before 6 AM. It was - brace yourselves - 60 degrees outside!!! I was able to run so much faster! Still using the 2:1 method, i.e. walking one third of the time, I pulled 11:57, 11:48, 11:44 and 11:34. After that I was spent and could not do two more. Oh well - it's not like I haven't been busy or anything...

By 9:10 AM the three of us were at the new house. No rest for the weary! With Isaac unhappily in the pack-n-play we tacked the remaining border as a team. After a while I went to spackle some nail holes, and then it was naptime, so Isaac and I headed home. Chasen only came home for about an hour. When Isaac woke we went to Lowe's and bought some chair rail for Isaac's new room, plus a new saw. Aye aye aye! With unhappy Isaac looking on we installed chair rail like nobody's business. Dare say, Chasen and I are EXPERT chair rail installers. Once that was done Isaac and I high-tailed it home. He was cranky, tired and hungry. Poor little guy - he was a major trooper today. Chasen stayed for about two more hours.

There is still a bit of work to do (just a bit!) before the painters can come, but we're basically in good shape. And I found someone to come clean our carpet for a very, very good price once the painters are done. We're making progress! Running, needless to say, is my only means of sanity at this time. Thank goodness for that!